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The Roly

Containing

THE OLD TESTAMENT

IN BASIC ENGLISH
THE APOCRYPHA

IN COMMON ENGLISH

THE NEW TESTAMENT
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Newly translated out of the Original
Hebrew and Greek Languages and with
the former translations diligently
compared, revised and published
by Samuel Henry Hooke in 1949

(ie
SC Sameliggandnter seen A)
_ ele

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In the Lord Henfield Edition, each and every
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The Appendices contain an
Exploration on History, historical texts,
230 detailed maps and large illustrations.
Additional materials are in The Grand Bible.

Full Title:
THE HOLY BIBLE
In Basic English

Translation by Samuel Henry Hooke
(better known as S.H. Hooke), 1949

with Apocrypha (Deuterocanon)

Restoration, scientific research, design
illustrations and the introductions
by Lord Henfield, 2024

THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS:
approximately 1,788,700 WORDS
with over 9,315,000 CHARACTERS
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Latest Update: 2024-12-26

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FIRST EDITION
Copyright © 2024 by Lord Henfield
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MADE IN ENGLAND

ETRE OV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE BIBLE CANON
INTRODUCTIONS, DETAILS
APPENDICES

pyr CLs TOMB OT SAO eres

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Book Title, Original or alternative Name Page
Table of Contents .............cccecscessecessecsseeesseeees 9
FOreWOrd secivctsetiis setdssd. bdeelaceeec Suse Qecestontosss 19
Introduction 1: Origin, Languages and Versions ... 23
Introduction 2: Jewish and Christian Laws; Creed 59
NAMES AND ORDER OF ALL BOOKS
OLD TESTAMENT — The Hebrew Bible 143
Pentateuch (The Torah, Teaching of the Law) ..... 145
Genesis, Bereshit, In the Beginning; Creation ....... 151
Exodus, Shemot, Names of the Sons; Migration .... 188
Leviticus, Vayikra, And He Called; Basic Law ...... 219
Numbers, Bemidbar, In the Desert; Arrival .......... 243
Deuteronomy, Devarim, Moses' Words; Law ........ 275
Historical Books 304
Joshua, Yehoshua (Greek: Iesous / Jesus) .............. 304
Judges, Shofetim ...........cccecccsessceesseseeseeseeeees 325
RUths Rites eetctvevadde oad Ginuts dies deedenesotee 344
1 Samuel, Shemuel, 1 Reigns .............:c:ccccceeseeees 348
2 Samuel, Shemuel, 2 Reigns .............:cccccecceeeeeees 373
1 Kings, Melakhim, 3 Reigns .............ccccceeceeees 393
2 Kings, Melakhim, 4 Reigns ..............ccccesceeees 418
1 Chronicles, Divrei Hayamim, Paralipomenon .... 440
2 Chronicles, Divrei Hayamim, Paralipomenon .... 463
| YA el i SY A: eee ee 489
Nehemiah, 2 Ezra ...........cccccccescsccesssssceesscseeeees 499
Esther; Bstet od sscdsce coeds ccecundsessegcsuedecccousaededeet 511
Books of Wisdom (or Poetry) 518
JOD; TVODS1VOV. fives. se eh daestheci eesti Genss 518
Psalms (& 151-155), Tehillim, (sacred songs) ....... 540
Proverbs, Mishlei Shlomo ...............ccccccccseceeeeees 594
Ecclesiastes, Qohelet, Kohelet (Preacher), *.......... 613
Song of Solomon, Shir Hashirim, *.................06. 619
Major Prophets 623
Isaiah, Yeshayahu ............::cecceceeseeseeceeseeseeeeeneees 623
Jeremiah, Yirmeyahu ...........:ccsccscceseeseeeteeeeeeees 662
Lamentations, Eikhah Yirmeyahu, *................... 705
Ezekiel, Yekhezkel, Hesekiel ..................ccccccceeee 709
Daniel, Dantyel ..............cccccccccseseceeeeeeseeeeeeeeeees 748
The Twelve Minor Prophets, The Trei Asar 762
18 (0-7: EARP 762
Af eye] ap 0),3) epee ee re 768
ATMOS iirc teeceats, Bieta eesti castiel abies ae teeliatts 770
Obadiah, Obadya .........c ccc cececeseesseeeeeseeeeeeeeeees 775
JOMAN SY ON sc cecocteteceeesenterceetsae tect acteret tose 777
Micah, Mika ...........cccccesccccssssccessssccessscesseeseess 780
Nahin. 6c0h 9. sorisgst abil Sire eR tse 784
Habakkuk, Habaqqug ...........:..:scceseeceeseeseeeeeeees 786
Zephaniah, Sefanya ...........:cccsccesseeseeeesseeseeseees 789
Ha gear. Ha @ ay... ectrecceetereecetcaereet caepeantvaeen els 791
Zechariah, Zekarya ..........c.ccccsccsssceceeseeseeeseeeeees 793
Malachi, Malaka ...........00 cc ccceeesceessccesssseeeeeee 800

[* Part of the Hamesh Megillot, 5 Lectionary Scrolls]

APOCRYPHA (Hidden Books) being the
Hebrew Deuterocanon (The 2nd Jewish Canon)

3 Ezra (1 Esdras) from Greek .............:ceceeeeeeeees
4 Ezra (2 Esdras): ch. 1-2 from Latin; ch. 3-14

from Hebrew; ch. 15—16 from Latin ...................
Book of Tobit, Tobias, Tobi .................ceeeeeeee
Book of Judith .......0 cc ceccscecssecsseesseseeeseeeteeesees
Additions to Esther (The Rest of Esther) ..............
Wisdom of Solomon or Book of Wisdom ..............
Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach ........
Prayer of Solomon (Sirach 52) ............ccccsseeseees
1 Baruch (Extant original: Greek) ........0..0....
Epistle of Jeremiah (Addition to 1 Baruch) ..........
The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy
Children... sccetceacntuetsioerecersaee. cut ter ebeeeaes te
Susanna and the Elders (Addition to Daniel) .......
Bel and the Dragon (Second addition to Daniel) ...
Prayer of Manasseh ............::ccsccsscsssessseesseeseeseees
1 Maccabees (Hebrew), Sefer Makabi ...................
2 Maccabees (Greek), Vivlio ton Makkavaion .......

NEW TESTAMENT — The Christian Bible

The Four Gospels

Gospel According to Matthew, Matityahu ...........
Gospel According to Mark, Marcus ................004
Gospel According to Luke, Lucius ..............::006
Gospel According to John, Yohanan...................

History
Acts of the Apostles ..........:ceceeceseeeeeeseeeeereeeeees

Pauline Epistles — The Epistles of Paul

Epistle of Paul to the Romans .............::eeceeceeeees
1 Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians .................0..
2 Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians .................0...
Epistle of Paul to the Galatians .........0. eee
Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians .................:eee
Epistle of Paul to the Philippians ..................06
Epistle of Paul to the Colossians ...............:0e
1 Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians ..................
2 Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians ..................
1 Epistle of Paul to Timothy, Timotheus ..............
2 Epistle of Paul to Timothy, Timotheus ..............
Epistle of Paul to Titus ..0...... cee eeeeseeseeseeeeeeeees
Epistle of Paul to Philemon .............:.::seeceeeees
Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews ..............:.:ececeeeee

General Epistles

Epistle of James, Yakob ............:ccceeceeceeseeseeeeeees
1 Epistle of Peter, Shimon Petros ............::eecee
2 Epistle of Peter, Shimon Petros ..............::eee
1 Epistle of John, Yohanan «0.0.00... ceeeeeeereeeees
2 Epistle of John, Yohanan .............cccceeeseeneees
3 Epistle of John, Yohanan .............ccceceeseeseeees
Epistle of Jude, Yehuda (Judas Thomas) ...............

Apocalypses
Revelation (The Apocalypse of John) ..................

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— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

DETAILS OF THE TWO INTRODUCTIONS

INTRODUCTION | (details)
The Canon Of The Bible

Chapters And Verses Of The Bible

¢ History of the Chapter Division ................0
* History of the Verse Division ............::.::csceeee
* Bible Statistics 2.0.0... ceeeseeseeseeseeceeseeteeeeeees

Bible English

* Bible English? e.cchaes ctcaetancatatentes
¢ On Early Modern English Grammar .................
« A List of Abbreviations of the Books of the Bible

Genres In The Bible
¢ Genres in the Bible and Examples .....................

Of Originals, Translations And Versions

The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament ....................
¢ The Masoretic Text ............cc::ccccescccssssssssseseees
¢ The New Testament .............::cccccccsssecessecesseeees

History Of Translations

¢ Translation into Greek - The Septuagint (LXX)

¢ The Peshita - Translation into Syriac-Aramaic ...
* Coptic (Egyptian) Scripture ............ccceeeeeeeees
¢ The Constantine Bible ...........cceeceesseeseeteeeteees
¢ The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible .....................
¢ The Vetus Latina 0.0... ecesesceeeeceeteeeeeeeeeees
¢ The Bible Canon in Ethiopia and Eritrea ...........
¢ Translation into Armenian ............ccccccceeseeseeees
¢ Translation into Georgian ...........:ccscesceeseeteees

Middle Ages

¢ Translation into Arabic «00.00... eceeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
¢ High Middle Ages ............e:cesceseceeseeseceeeeeeeeeees
© Late Middle Ages .........c.cccccssessessseesseeseeseeesees
¢ The Gutenberg Bibles ...............eceseeseeseeeeeeeeees

Approaches To Translation

¢ Single source translations .............c:cccecceseeeees
© Deliberate changes ............cccccccccssesssesseeeeeeeeeees
* Textual criticism: scholarly problems ................
¢ Names of Persons ...........:cceseseesceeseeceeseeeeeneeees

¢ Semitic patronym (bar, ben, etc.) ..........cceeeeee
« Name Corruptions and Misleadings ..................
¢ Modern Translation Efforts .............:eseseeseeeee
¢ Differences in Bible translations ...............cc006

¢ Dynamic or formal translation policy ...............

¢ Other translation approaches ..............c:cccceeees
* Doctrinal differences and translation policy .......

Translations triggered by the Reformation

*S1AVIC- VerS1ONS : cscseavssseccezesscestvshtaseedesteseecstueete
¢ Hungarian Versions ...........:ceceeesseeseeceeseeseeeeees
* Non-European Versions ............s:ccscssceseeeseeeees

Translations Into Romance Languages

© Ttalian Versions ...........ccccscccsscesseseeesseeseeeeeneees
© Spanish Versions .........:.ccscccscesseesseeseeeteeseeeseees
+ Portuguese VersiOns .............:escecceceeseeteeeeeeeees
* French Versions .......:..:ccscsesssesescseesestentsensenees

Translations Into Germanic Languages
¢ Translation into German ............:.ccccecseeseeeeees

Translations Into English

¢ Humble Beginnings ..............eceeceeseeseeseeeeeeeees
¢ Modest Renderings into Anglo-Saxon ...............
¢ Translation into Old English 0.00.0... eee
¢ Translation into Anglo-Norman (French) .........
¢ Translation into Middle English .................006
¢ The translation by Wycliffe .............ccceeeeeseeees
¢ Translation into Early Modern English .............
¢ Translation into Modern English ..................05

English translations after the Reformation

¢ The translation of William Tyndale ...................
¢ The translation of Miles Coverdale ...................
¢ The Thomas Matthew version ..............::cccecceees
¢ The Great Bible (Henry VIII) ........... cece
The Geneva Bible ...........cccccccssesseesteeceeeeeeees
¢ The Bishops! Bible .............ececesceeseeeeteeseeeeeees
© Catholic Versions ...........cccccsesseeseesseeseeteeeeees

The King James and Subsequent Versions

¢ The King James (Authorised) Version ...............
¢ The English Revised Version ..............:::seceeceee
¢ The American Standard Version ...........::.::eee
« The Revised Standard Version .............::.seseeee
¢ Jewish Translation into English ..............:cc00
* Jewish Versions ..........:..:cescecceseesseereeseeeeeeeeeeees
¢ The New English Bible «0.0.0.0... :cceceseeseeeeeees
* Individual translations (List) ..........cceeeeeeees

INTRODUCTION 2 (details)

JEWISH LAW

© The Holiness Code ..............::cccssesssecesseeeseeseees
« The Large and the Small Covenant Codes ...........
« The Ritual Decalogue, The Ethical Decalogue ....
¢ Commandments of the Parashah .......................
« The Priestly Code / Torat Kohanim ..................
¢ The 613 Mitzvoh or The 613 Jewish Precepts .....
¢ Rabbinical Mitzvot & The Six Constant Mitzvot

* Noahidism or The Laws Of Noah ....................
¢ The Halakha / Jewish Law ..............::cccccceceseees
¢ The Sanhedrin Court of Law, and explanations to
Jewish haw: i ss3.svsetsects. stay deve iaei dove oeielee

CHRISTIAN LAW
The Didache or Teaching (of the twelve Apostles)
* The Didascalia Apostolorum ............c:ccccseeeees

* Creed, Nicene, Roman, Apostolic, other Creeds ..

PAGE 10

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

APPENDICES

NAMES AND ORDER OF THE APPENDICES
Appendix A: Photo Documentation ...................
Appendix B: Map Documentation ..................06
Appendix C: Exploration on History .................4
Biblical Studies ...........eceeeeeeeeee
Historical Events (Science, Debate) ...
Appendix D: Supplements .............:..::ecceseeeeeeeee

Appendix A: PHOTO DOCUMENTATION

1. Ancient Documents:

A.) Early Christian codices were found at Nag
Hammadi, Egypt, 1945 oo... cceseesseeseeseenees
B.) The Dead Sea Scrolls were found at Qumran,
Usrael 1947 eM eves atesenctesdsidce ceethsveceeesthteccbueke
C.) Hebrew and Aramaic documents were found at
Dunhuang, China, 1907 .........cceccesceesceeseeseeeees
D.) Collection of Christian codices from Nag
Hammadi opened .............:ceceeseeseeseeseeseeeeneeeeens

2. Locations of Discovery:

A.) Letters of Bar Kokhba were found in this cave
near the Dead Sea, Israel ............0..cccecscceeesseeeeees
B.) The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in these caves
at Qumran, Israel ..........ccceeseesscesseeseeeseeeseeeseees
C.) Tonnes of texts were found in the Mogao Caves
at Dunhuang, China ............cccccccceessessesseeeeeeees
D.) Sir Aurel Stein found more documents in such
A WAtChtO Wer... ésasc0s. ssscundisesivedsstecsetiseetadenhiecess

Instructions of Shuruppak (c. 2600 B.C.), the
origin of the Ten Commandments .................006+

Maxims of Ptah-Hotep (c. 2600 B.C.), another
origin of the Laws of MOSe ..........c:ccccsccesceesenees

Gilgamesh Epic", c. 2000 B.C., Sulymaniyah
Museum, Iraq; origin of Noah's Flood Story ........
Hyksos-Canaanites in a wall painting, tomb of
Khnumhotep II (died in c.1950 BC) «0.0... eee
1. The Canal of the Pharaos, built inc. 1850 BC,
SEEN FFOM SPACE ..........esccesseesseeseeseeeseeeseceseeseeesees

2. The Blue Nile in northern Ethiopia connected
Hebrew Elephantine with Hebrew Ethiopia ..........

The 282 laws of the Code Hammurabi (c. 1790-
1750 B.C.); origin of Jewish and Islamic Law .......

Amarna Letter written by Pharao Akhenaten in c.
1350 BC. Akhenaten established monotheism first

1. This is the oldest known alphabet. Cuneiform
tablet from Ugarit, Syria, dated: 1360 BC...........

2. The Tel Dan Stele, earliest reference to the name
David-c:830 BC vices ccc. testsecstsedscagvattccesatsvvencdes

1. The Siloam Inscription (KAI 189), found in the
Siloam tunnel; 8th century BC ..........e cece

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2. The Temple Warning inscription ( c. 23 BC - 70
AD). One of two tablets, found in 1871..........

Edict of Restoration on the Cylinder of Kurush II
the Messiah (Cyrus the Great), 6th century BC ......

The Behistun Inscription, Persia, confirms the
monotheistic character of Zoroastrianism ............

Petition to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Egypt;
Elephantine papyrus, Document 1, 407 BC...........

The Story of Ahikar. Elephantine papyrus
P13446F, 525-404 BC oo. eseteeteeeeeeeteees

Draft letter in Aramaic,353 BC. Hebrews came to
Bactria, northwest India in the 6th century BC......

The Great Isaiah Scroll (1 Qalsa), 3rd century BC,
is the oldest known Old Testament text ................

The Temple Scroll (11Q20) from Qumran was
written by one of the Messianic Movements ..........

The Messianic Rule (1Q28a) talks about a messiah
who will bring military victory to the Hebrews .....

1. The War Scroll talks about apocalyptic warfare
2. A letter of Simon bar Kokhba found in 1960 .....

The Dead Sea Scrolls were kept in such massive
jars, so they survived for 2,000 years ..............664

The Gospel of Thomas, found in Egypt, 1945,
quotes from the Buddhist Lotus Sutra .................

End of Ephesians and the start of Galatians, by
Saul of Tarsos, Paul the Apostle, c. 55-65 AD).....

The Gospel of Matthew, here a copy from the 200s
AD. Possible author: Yosef bar Matityahu ...........

The Gospel of Peter. The Church deemed it as
heretical for telling "the wrong" narrative ...........

Luke 13:29-35 and 14:10. Chester Beatty Lib 1 f
15r. Possible author: Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ..

"Jesus with his mother Mary and the (three) Wise
Men from the East ... celebrating a Eucharist" ......

1. Mithraeum of the Baths of Mithras in Ostia.
2. Mithraeum in Carrawburgh, England ..............

‘Codex Sinaiticus,' from Egypt, dating from 325
AD was commissioned by Flavius Constantinus 1 ...

‘Codex Vaticanus.' One of 50 complete Bibles that
were commissioned by Flavius Constantinus I .......

Manichaean psalm, 3rd century AD. The Mani
Faith became the first world religion ...................

In about 405 AD, the Vulgate, the standard Latin
Bible. Codex Sangallensis, 8th century AD ...........
Codex Sassoon 507, 8th century AD. In the 500s,
Masoretic scholars improved the Old Testament ....

Selihah leaf written in Hebrew Aramaic. 8th or 9th
century, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu, China ..

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— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Uncial 0177. Luke 1:59-73, Coptic translation
from-¢. 950:AD vices. easieteindin sedate tts

The Christian 'Sayings of the Elders,’ Sogdian in
Syriac script, Turfan, China; 9th century AD ........

Page of Ruth from the 'Peshita' the Syriac standard
Bible of the Nestorian Church of the East .............

Page from Leviticus, Samaritan Bible, Pentateuch,
(Ms 201) from Ascalon, Israel; 1189 AD ..............

Illuminated page with Lollard text from the 14th
century AD. British Museum, London .................

Page of The Jewish War by Titus Flavius Josephus,
his works were part of the first Bibles, 75 AD .......

Illuminated page of'a Bible made by Johannes
Gutenberg, 1455. His printing changed the World

9 portraits of Greek men whose philosophy and
deeds founded Western Civilisation .................065

9 portraits of the Flavian Dynasty who first
promoted Roman Judaism and Roman Christianity

9 portraits of Roman rulers and their family
members who were already Christians ..................

9 portraits of people were engulfed in religious
conflicts after huge losses of the Black Death ........

1. The so-called Kalabsha Temple of Elephantine
in Egypt might have been a Jewish temple ............

2. Reconstruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusa-
lem as described in the Greek Septuagint Bible ......

1. The Kaba-ye Zartosht (the Cube of Zoroaster)
located at the Imperial Necropolis near Persepolis
2. The Kaaba of Mecca without its black cover, a
cube-shaped emulation of the Temple of Jerusalem

1. The Great Temple of Yeha, Ethiopia emulates
the Temple of Jerusalem; 2. Stone inscriptions ....

1. Interior of the Temple of Yeha, direction: east
2. Interior of the Temple of Yeha, direction: west

1. The Temple of Yeha had 2 floors like Solomon's
temple, reconstruction; 2. Hidden room ...............

1. The Barran Temple at Marib by the Queen of
Sheba, copy of Solomon's Temple; 2. Aerial photo

The temple built by the Queen of Sheba (Saba):
1. Plan; 2. Reconstruction; 3. Appearance..........

Maps of the Sabaean Kingdom and its sites. 1. 900
BC; 2. 700 BC; 3. 200 AD; 4. Sites in Yemen .....

Appendix B: MAP & TABLE DOCUMENTATION
Eleven History Maps - The Holy Land

1. Abraham's Journey, Part 1: From Ur to Harran.
"abraham" means "many people." c. 1990s BC.....
2. Abraham's Journey, Part 2: From Harran to
Egypt, c. 1960s BC... seeeeseseeseeeeeeeeeseeseeeeeees
3. The Travels of Jacob. His other name, "Israel,"
means "he rules with God." c. 2nd millenium BC ...

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4. The Territories of the legendary 12 Tribes; their
existence 1s still debated. c. 2nd millenium BC .......
5. The Exodus of the Isrealites is a story confirmed
by Egyptian documents, c. 15th century BC...........
6. Joshua the Conqueror, his name Yeshua (Jesus)
means "saviour;" c. 14th centuries BC .................
7. The Kingdoms of Saul, David, and Solomon;

c. [1th and 10th centuries BC 0.0.0... ceeeeteeeee
8. The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the rule of
King Hezekiah, c. 8th century BC ...........e eee
9. Kingdom of Judah in the Days of Josiah, c. 7th
century BE Mic dita eee ili:
10. Division of the Kingdom of the foreign (Arab)
king Herod the Great, Ist century BC..................
11. The Road to Jerusalem, Jesus' ministry bears
similarities to the conquests of Titus; c. 36 AD.....

The Beta Israel (the House of Israel in Ethiopia),
Hebrew Territories in (ancient) Ethiopia .............

1. Paul's First Missionary Journey; c. 50 AD.........
2. Paul's Second Missionary Journey; c. 55 AD......
3. Paul's Third Missionary; c. 55-60 AD..............
4. Paul's Journey to Rome; c. 61-62 AD...............

1. Metal Production in Ancient Middle East (from
Egypt to India) , from c. 3000 BC to 500 AD .......
2. The Middle East between the 16th - 14th

centuries BC; Akenaten introduced monotheism ...

1. The Persian Empire, Achaemenid Dynasty, c.
500, BOs. ceste.ie tied sternite palin cs Nee tatalies

DLS: BU sissageies otecctstassee cues otatiebedea gl neatsrialebese’s

AD is isscSd ccabicediivusstadiesssovesestoasseds codstioxenstenbteaieeas

Indian Ocean Trade Routes, c. 400 BC - 1225 AD
(showing material trade) .............ceceeseseeeeeeeees

Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, first half of the Ist
century AD (with detailed explanations) ..............

Coins - Description (2 pages and 5 charts)

1. Cyprus, Phoenicia, Commagene, Hasmonians ...
2. Herods, Shekels, Ist Jewish War, the Flavians ..

3. Christian symbolism on Coins of Flavian victors
4. 3rd Jewish War of bar Kokhba, Ethiopia, Persia
5. Second Flavian Dynasty of Constantinus I.........

1. Family Tree of Jesus;
2. Family Tree of the Flavian Dynasty .................

Map of Semitic Languages ............ccccssescceseeseees
Map of Languages, Scripts, Belief Systems, Laws

Important Writing Systems, Abjads & Alphabets

1. Ugaritic, Phoenician (early, middle), Punic ......
2) Greek, Ttalitesiesfisientnctadenienies
3. Aramaic, Palmyrene Syriac, Hebrew, Indic.......
4. Nabataean Aramaic, Syriac Aramaic, Sabaean ..
Comparative Charts, Bible Canons, Introduction
1. Books of the Old Testament, The Tanakh .........
2. & 3. Apocrypha, Deuterocanonical Books ........
4. Books of the New Testament .................:cc0000

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1307
1308

1309
1310
1311
1313

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Appendix C: EXPLORATION ON HISTORY
(Historical discoveries presented in small chapters)

The Quest for the Origin of Holy Books ...............
Deviterocanon ssee0hs spasc cee ieesicen gation tives
The 613 Mitzvot (Precepts) ..........c::cccccesseeereeees
The two Parts of the Ten Commandments ............

The Koranic Commandment of Abrogation ..........
The chronological sequence of the Koran .............
The Five Precepts In Buddhism ................::0:e00
The Five Jain VOWS ........::cscceceeseeseeseeeeeeeteeseeeees
The Five Yamas And The Five Niyamas (10

Commandments) In Hinduism ...............:::eeeee
The Instructions Of huruppak ............. cece
Final Remarks ..0.........:e:cecceeseeseeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeenes

BIBLICAL STUDIES, Some Known Facts

The Original Languages of the Bible ...................
Biblical criticism ............ccceseeseeseeseeeeeeseeeeeeeees
Biblical exegesis .........ccccccscesscssscessecseeeseeeseeeees
Textual Criticism ...........:ceceeceeseeseeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeees
Biblical histOry ..........cccccesseessceseeesecseeeseeeseeeees
Biblical Archaeology .............:cessceeseeceeseeeeeeeeees
History of Biblical Archaeology .............c:cccce
Archaeological and Textual Forgeries .................
Biblical Archaeology and Doctrines ..................

KEY EVENTS IN HISTORY

Catastrophes And Paradigm Shifts .................006
A.) The Great Flood (2500 - 2100 BC) ................
B.) The Bronze Age Volcano Eruptions (2000 -
[400 BG \esoesiec pe ee i ea ele ee
The Avellino eruption of Mount Vesuvius
(10:01995 BO \isassce, Sateen nciiede dienes
The Thera Volcano Eruption (in 1627 BC.)..........
C.) The 4 Volcano Eruptions And Climate Change

D.) The 5 Volcano Eruptions And Climate Change
(The Little Ice Age) of 1228-1284 AD...
Direct and Indirect Consequences ..............::0000
Gutenberg, Luther, the 30-Years War .................
E.) The 3 Volcano Eruptions And Climate Change

Of 1783 (1708-1812) AD wo... eee cceececeeeeeeseees

The Second Thirty Years' War (1914-1945) .........
Overview On The War Between

Semitic And Western Civilisations ..............:c000
The Line Of Wars From Alexander

To Mohammed In Detail, The 10 Jewish Wars.......

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Analyses, Archaeology, Debate

Abrahams Journey ............:cccccccseeseessessseeeeeeeees
How Jacob changed into Israel ..............:.cceseees
Jacob (Israel) and his 12 Tribes .............c:ceceseeees
MOS6s.ssesitee ive devon teed aiditainnetn

1315

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1317
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1349

1353

1362
1362
1363
1363
1363
1365

First Kingdoms ............ccccccccsceesceeseesessceseeecees
David cose, teas Sotlovs ccdocatuse ae lvacsctustes cisiseteadele

INTERLUDE, Comparative Archaeology
Description of the Temple in the Bible .................
Architectutesscsc3:2.dvec.coisvige ccarvatdecdseapacescsnsoah exes
Relationship with the Queen of Sheba ..................
Theodore Bent Discovers a Solomonic Temple ......
Modern Archaeology Analyses Finds .................-+
The Temple of Yeha, Province Tigray, Ethiopia ....
The "Solomonic" Temples In Yemen .................64
The Temple | at as-Sawda, Yemen ...............:006
The Temple | in Baraqish (Nakrah / Yathill),
YOMOMi cesses cusidoveetsacshveatevredecestec orveseeeseucstasveaves
The "Throne of the Queen of Sheba" in Marib .......
Description of Walls, Entries and other
Installations: wcscvei ive ieei nea
The Divine Purification Spring ..............c0cccee
The Temple Building itself «2.0... ee eeeeeeeereeee
Wall Inscriptions ..........cccceccesceseeseeesserseeseesaeens
Analysed Range of Dating ..............ccccccesseereeees
Sabaean - Linguistic-Geographical Assessment .....

King Hezekiah 20.0.0... cccceeceseeseeeceeceeseeeeeeeeeeees
Kine JOS .: wcvseveetveectersusterecetes wectertetstectenes
Captivity of the Hebrews in Babylon ...................
Emperor Kurush the Messiah ...............:::ceceesee
Ezra, Nehemia and the Papyri of Elephantine .......

THE ELEPHANTINE PAPYRUS FIND

The Emergence of Judaism and the Elephantine
Papyi iz, efyevesletec Aavedee tie ete ete tater aie
The Discovery of the Papyri ...........::ccscccsceeseeeees
The City of Elephantine and its Remains ..............
External Shape of the Papyri. The Language ........
The Jewish Military Colony in Elephantine ..........
The Introduction of Jewish Law ............:::eecee
The Destruction of the Jewish Temple at
Elephatitine®, sccscyecvtocecuteetcaecevts cestecereteteesee ves
The Petition to rebuild the Temple ...................0.

Alexander the Great and the Greeks ....................
Yehuda Makabi's Fight for Freedom ...................
Into the Roman Empire ..............:eseceeceeseeeeeeeees
Jesus, James, Paul, and Christianity ...............0.

16 POINTS ON JESUS AND HIS TIMES

A.) The Pilate-Inscription of Caesarea Maritima ...
B.) Ameria Inscription ............:cecceceeseeseeseeeeeeeees
C.) Inscribed Fingerring of Pilate .........0..... ee
Census Edict Of Gaius Vibius Maximus ................

The Real Jesus, reconstruction of the events after
Jesus’ death, Channel 4, 1999, Transcript .............

Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy To
Invent Jesus, Joseph Atwill, 2012 oc eeeeeeeeee

The James Ossuary Interview, Simcha Yacobovici
in an interview with Prof. Robert Eisenman 2004

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1418

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Appendix D: SUPPLEMENTS

Supplements from the Septuagint

* The Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates .
#13; Maccabees :v.cssissiei testis asivsedechegun aleeeeees
© A Maccabees .............cccscccsssscsssccseccsssccsseeeessees

Supplement from the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible
* Book of Jubilees / Lesser Genesis ..............0..0006

Supplements from the the Constantine Bible
The Letter of Barnabas ..............cccccsceesseeseenees

Supplements From the Apostolic Fathers
9A Clemen tiene ccck ss iiretiecca bess din sage beled,
oD Clement cescs ss cevstisddtcvnlevshecncttieeacesietths

Supplements According to the Muratorian Canon
« The (Greek) Apocalypse of Peter ..............:::00
« The (Coptic) Apocalypse of Peter ...............

Supplements from the Gnostic Library

¢ The Gospel of Didymus Judas Thomas ...............
¢ The Gospel of Mary Magdalene ...................664
¢ The Gospel of Philip (the brother of Mary
Magdalene)... .c..ccce ane laniek
¢ The Gospel of Judas (Iscariot) .............:cccseceeee
¢ The Apocryphon (Secret Book) of James (the
Just, the brother of Jesus) .........ccccsecseeseeseeeteees
¢ The Apocryphon (Secret Book) of John .............
+ The Sentence of Sextus ...........:esseeseeseeeeeeeeeees
¢ The Gospel of Truth ..0..0... ce eeceeeseeseeseeeeeeeeees

Texts on Christianity as State Religion

« Life of Flavius Josephus, Titus Flavius Josephus
¢ Muratorian Canon; The New Testament Canon

« The Edict of Toleration / Edict of Serdica ..........
¢ The Edict of Milan by Constantine and Licinius

¢ The Imperial Decrees of Flavius Constantinus;
Eusebius of Caesarea: Ecclesiastical History ..........
¢ The Life of Flavius Constantinus (Constantine I)

Texts on Reformation and Religious Conflicts

¢ Martin Luther: The 95 Theses, 31 Oct. 1517......
¢ Letter to the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, 31

0 [6 ial Woy Wl Rene serene taror een ere
¢ A Sermon on Indulgences and Grace by M.
Luther, the 95 Theses in 20 snappy points trig-
gering the Protestant Revolution, March, 1518 ....
* Letter to John Staupitz , 1518 wo... eee
* Letter to Pope Leo X, 1518 oo... eceeereeees
¢ Another Letter of Martin Luther to Pope Leo X,
6th September, 1520 oo... ees eeseseeseeseeeteeteeees
¢ Martin Luther on Islam and the Koran, Fore-
words to two Koran translations, 1530 and 1543 ..
¢ An Open Letter on Translating, 8th of Sep. 1530
« The (39) Articles of Religion / The39 Articles .....

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Mesopotamian Precepts And Laws

¢ The Instructions of Shuruppak; Sumer; c. 2600-
2990 BiOx st iets Rach ae eas
¢ The Law Code of Ur-Nammu; Sumer; c. 2100-
2000 Bi Cs ccsite te sieiei a aieee eligi
¢ The Laws of Eshnunna (in Mesopotamia);
Canaanite-Amorite state; c. 2000-1900 B.C. ........
¢ The Law Code of Lipit-Ishtar; Akkadian; c.
1870-1860 B.C. .oeceececccccccsccsccsseessccseesseesseenes
¢ The Law Code of King Hammurabi; Amorite-
Babylonian; ¢. 1760 B.C. wo... cee eeeseesceeseeteeeees
* The Code of the Nesilim (in Anatolia); Hittite; c.
1650=1500:B. Gene cured tetas

Egyptian Precepts And Laws

« The Teaching of Kagemna c. 2613-2589 BC.......
« The Teachings (or Commandments) of Ptah-
Hotep c. 2500-2345 BC. ......ccecceessceseesseeseeseeeees
¢ The Commandments Of Maat c. 2500-2345 BC.

« The Teaching of Tuauf, to the son of Khattai c.
D349-218 1 BC ie iesckce keto Rei tarsacn hese
¢ The Teaching of King Khati for his son Merikara
C. 2025-1700 BC. oo. eeescescteeeeeeeeeeeeseseeeeeeeees
« The Philosophy of Antef (Intef), the son of Sent c.
2120-2070 BC. oo. eeeeeeeeeessseeseesceecteeetseesceeeeeens
« The Teaching of the Scribe Ani, for his son
Khensu-Hotep c. 2120-2070 BC. ..........seeeeeeees
« The Instructions of Apa Pachomius, The
Archimandrite, Coptic Apocrypha, Brit. Mus. MS.
Oriental, No. 7024 oe. ceecccceecscceeseeeeeeeees

Supplements from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran
¢ The War Scroll / The War Rule (IQM, 1Q33, etc.
* The Book of War - (4Q285, 11Q14) oo...
¢ The Temple Scroll (1 1QT=11Q19-21, etc. .........
¢ Commentary on Habakkuk (IQpHab) ................

Biblical Geography and its Significance
Glossary
Bibliography

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1763

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1835
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1848

THE HOLY BIBLE IN BASIC ENGLISH
tr. by S.H. Hooke, 1941-1949

This is the Bible in Basic English translated by orientalist S. H. (Samuel Henry)
Hooke out of the original languages Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT). The New
Testament was released in 1941 and the Old Testament in 1949. From 1913 to
1926 S. H. Hooke was Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of
Toronto, where he was a founder of and contributor to Canadian Forum. In
1930 he was appointed Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies at
the University of London. In 1951, Hooke was president of the Society for Old
Testament Study.

Basic English is a controlled language based on standard English, but with an
extremely limited vocabulary of 850 words (plus extra lists of technical terms)
selected and greatly simplified grammar with which almost everything can be
paraphrased. It was created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden
to give learners the chance to learn English in only a few weeks. In "Lord
Henfield’s Book of Practical English" (2010) and in its short extraction "Lord
Hentield’s Guide to English Verbs" (2018) are detailed explanations how Basic
English works. (Available at Internet Archive)

NOTICE ON COLOUR CODE

The beautiful trim strips over the book titles are not only
decoration:

Black: Explanatory text

Red: Old Testament, Hebrew Bible (1st canon)

Green: Deuterocanon, Apocrypha (2nd canon)

Blue: New Testament, Christian Bible or canon

No Strip: The Book belongs to the previous book

NOTICE ON TIMING AND DATING

With language, we define what we stand for. As a matter of principle, in our
books we only use the terms BC (before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini, the year
of the Lord). These are not only religious terms but also reveal a person's
cultural conscienceness and allegiance.

Terms like B.C.E. or BCE = Before Common Era; C.E. or CE = Common Era
are politically correct nonsense (since "common" also means "ordinary" and
thus ideologically refers to an "era of insignificance") and are used by all those
who do not wish to refer to God or Christ or the achievements of the Western
world in general.

GUILDFORD SCIENTIFIC PRESS

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PRELIMINARY

FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION 1
INTRODUCTION 2

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

FOREWORD

"We live in an age of religious extremism, an age of terror
and violent slaughter. We are locked in a bewildering
ideological battle with religious fundamentalism. It 1s a
battle that has taken most of us by surprise because religious
fundamentalism seems so odd, so alien, to our own easy-
going way of life. But you know, it 1s not! We have been here
before, here at home, here at the very heart of our own
civilisation.

About 500 years ago, a breach within Christianity, tore
Europe, England, and the Church apart. It was the same
literalism, the same passionate intensity, the same
apocalyptic violence as now. It is our very own Jihad. It 1s
called: 'the Reformation.'

The Protestant Reformation was also a political and
cultural revolution. It unleashed bloodshed, terror, and the
destruction of religious art —a combination we recognise all
too well. It began with a provincial German monk and it
threatened the most powerful institution in the Western
World, the Catholic Church, with destruction.

In England it led to a hard Brexit, 16th century style, as
King Henry VIII broke with Rome and declared himself
"Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England." It was a
tale of espionage, enhanced interrogation, and horrific death.
There was a handful of brave and inspired souls fought to
introduce the new ideas and the authorities fought back
savagely to stamp out the infection. So, how did one man's
simple act of protest in the backwards of Germany spark a
violent revolution that would transform England, Europe,
and the Western World?

In the early 1500s the Catholic Church shaped every aspect
of human life. And in Rome, its head, the Pope, ruled a
spiritual empire bigger than that of the Caesars. It 1s hard to
overestimate the power of the Catholic Church in the late
Middle Ages. It was a vastly wealthy, bureaucratic machine,
the very heart of Europe. It controlled education, media,
family law. It had its own private language in Latin. The
clergy, whatever their nationality, swore obedience to the
Pope, whose toe even kings knelt on the ground to kiss. But
hus greatest power was over men's minds.

Churches were dominated by a huge painting of the last
Judgement. When Jesus' judge sentenced each soul to the joys
of heaven, or the eternal torments of hell, it was a terrifying
vision. The Church mitigated its stark horror by the
"Doctrine of Purgatory." This was an intermediate state
between heaven and hell where the not too sinful soul was
purged of its offenses and made fit to enter paradise. You
could reduce the amount of time you spent in purgatory by
doing good works, saying prayers, going on pilgrimages,
giving to the poor. Or you could draw on the good works of

others: Jesus, the Saints, the Virgin Mary, whose
transcendent goodness had endowed the church with the
treasury of merit.

The pope dispensed, in return for consideration of course,
this treasury in the form of spiritual IOUs, known as
"Indulgences." (An IOU [abbreviated from the phrase "T owe
you] is a document acknowledging debt.) These were
printed bits of paper that, in return for cold hard cash,
absorbed the soul of its offenses and acted as its passport to
paradise. Indulgences were often sold to finance Church
schemes and in 1517 the popes pet project was the
rebuilding of Saint Peter's on a magnificent scale.
Indulgences were sold across Europe. There was even a
catchy advertising jingle: "As soon as the coin in the coffer
rings, the soul from purgatory springs!" It was, as though
the church had forgotten Christ and become fixated on
wealth. And for one German monk this was an abomination.

On the 31st of October, 1517, Martin Luther very publicly
denounced this scandal. According to legend, he strode
through the town to the great doors of All Saints Church,
and hammered up a document for all to see. It was his 95
Theses, a mere 95 points of contention with the Church's
teachings on sin and penance. Were these the brave hammer
blows of fate against the old order, as the traditional story
goes, or was it the equivalent of pinning an agenda on a
university notice board as revisionists suggest? Actually, it
doesn't much matter since nobody disputes the magnitude of
the results. Luther's protest would plunge Europe into two
centuries of religious war, unleashing bloodshed and
brutality across the continent - all in the name of God!

Martin Luther was an unltkely revolutionary. In 1517, he
was a 33 year old monk and professor of Biblical theology at
the University of Wittenberg in Saxony. Saxony was just a
small one of the German-speaking states that comprised
present-day Germany. Each had its own ruler but all fell
under the overlordship of an elected monarch, the Holy
Roman Emperor who was crowned by the Pope, and all was
subject to Papal authority and taxation.

In the introduction to his Theses, Luther wrote of his wish
to stir up debate. A new invention allowed him to succeed
beyond lus wildest dreams. Just over 70 years earlier,
Johannes Gutenberg had developed his printing press. This
piece of technology would transform Luther from a Iittle-
known monk and academic into Europe's most published
author, and a wanted man!

Luther originally wrote the 95 Theses in Latin, the
language of academic and theological discourse. But even
within the Latin of the Theses, Luther showed himself aware
of that wider audience outside the universities. And nine of
the Theses list the sharp arguments that the laity were using
against indulgences. And how Luther asks "are we going to
answer those arguments if the Church does not reform
itself?" - Well, of course, the Church showed no sign of
reforming itself So, what Luther did was to write a tract. He
called it 'A Sermon on Indulgences and Grace' - and he wrote
itin German, AND he had it printed!"

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

What you have read up to this point here, are the spoken
words of Dr David Starkey, one of the very few historians
living today who understand the magnitude of religious
propaganda in detail. Starkey is fully aware that language is
the main key if we want to fully grasp what religion is all
about and how it works. He is one of the most outspoken
historians of our time who is able to assemble historical facts
in a logical way and presents them as eloquent narrative with
a cohesion that everyone can follow with ease.

In 2017, he published a BBC documentary called
"Reformation: Europe's Holy War," in which he compares
Luther's Reformation with our modern upheavals of Woke
and Jihad. With elan, he describes what went on in the 16th
century revolution. Experts still marvel at the extraordinary
impact of Luther's 'Sermon on Indulgences and Grace.’ This
was the work which propelled Luther to the front ranks of
European thought and theology. Until that point he had
been writing in Latin for the scholars. But when he published
these 20 short propositions in German, he brought his
thoughts not only to the mind of scholars but to each and
every ordinary person. The form in German very closely
echoes the 95 theses written in Latin, a language that the
man in the street could not understand. The short German
version of the 95 theses are a work of instinctive brilliance.
Luther calls it "a Sermon" but it is nothing like a sermon.
Sermons are meant to be endurance tests of repetition and re-
iteration. But this little paper can be read aloud in 10
minutes. It is 20 short snappy points but unlike the 95 Theses,
which circulated only in the intellectual community, this
spread immediately like wildfire across Central Europe. Who
was this Luther?

Short standard answer: Martin Luther was a German
theologian, religious reformer and monk who was the
catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation.
Through his words and actions, Luther precipitated a
movement that reformulated certain basic tenets of Christian
belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom
between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant
traditions, mainly Lutheranism, Calvinism, the Anglican
Communion, the Anabaptists, and the Antitrinitarians. He is
one of the most influential figures in the history of
Christianity; and rightfully so.

Now, let us take a look at some details: Martin Luther was
born on 10 November, 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony, Germany.
His father, Hans Luther, who prospered in the local copper-
refining business of the town of Mansfeld, could finance Mar-
tin's long education. Luther began his education at a Latin
school in Mansfeld in the spring of 1488 where he studied,
among other subjects, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and he was
awarded the master's degree in 1505. In accordance with the
wishes of his father, he commenced the study of law. Proudly
he purchased a copy of the Corpus Juris Canonici (“Corpus
of Canon Law”), the collection of ecclesiastical law texts, and
other important legal textbooks. Less than six weeks later,
however, on July 17, 1505, Luther abandoned the study of
law and entered the monastery in Erfurt of the Order of the

Hermits of St. Augustine. His studies gave him a thorough
exposure to Scholasticism by studying the works of Aristotle
(384-322 BC, the teacher of Alexander the Great and his
generals), and William of Ockham (1285-1349). Ockham,
like Aristotle, focussed on the subject of logic, because he
regarded the science of terms as fundamental and
indispensable for practicing all the sciences of things,
including God, the world, and ecclesiastical or civil
institutions; in all his disputes, logic was destined to serve as
his chief weapon against adversaries. Luther received his
doctorate in the fall of 1512 and assumed the professorship
in biblical studies, which was supplied by the Augustinian
order. At the same time, his administrative responsibilities in
the Wittenberg monastery and the Augustinian order grew,
and he began to publish theological writings, such as the 97
theses against Scholastic theology. Dr Martin Luther was by
no means just a simple monk as always depicted, 24 years of
hard schooling made him one of the highest educated
ideologists, strategists and orators of his time.

We have many capable historians and other authorities.
However, as long they only use their sophisticated speech and
gentlemanly manners, they just earn benevolent nodings in
academia but they will move nothing else because they do not
reach the masses. It was not the 95 theses that woke up the
public, it was the 20 points of Luther's sermons that erupted
into a revolution of thinking for the simple reason that it
was written in the language of the common people.

Luther did protest against immoral practices of the Church
not because he was born a revolutionary, he was not. He felt
he needed to do something against the filth. Today, people
think that Church, or religion, has nothing to do with poli-
tics. But they are wrong! The word "politics" comes from the
Greek word polites, meaning citizen, and also from polis,
meaning city and community. So when Church is is not
about community and its members, what then is it all about?

Religion is in least cases just about God. It is about
precepts, morals and their subsequent laws, it is about power
struggle and often violent ways on the road to salvation, and
it is about doctrines and ideologies connected to a divinity,
and therefore it is also about administrative positions of the
clergy and taxation with which the members of that clergy
can stay in power and can control the masses. There has never
been religion for personal use only. Religion as a private
belief is a new thing - and this only in the Western World!
Our limitless individualism has not yet reached the other
belief systems. These are facts that we always must keep in
mind when we think and talk about other religions.

Today we live on the brink of an immense paradigm shift
and this modern time is very parallel to the era in which
Christianity emerged but also very similar to the times of
Luther. The so-called ‘western societies’ seem to crumble
under their own weight. This includes all those we call
Protestant Christians, but more and more, it includes also
Jewish people, Roman Catholic (western Roman) Christians,
Orthodox (eastern Roman) Christians, and in particular the
so-called secularists, atheists, agnostics, progressives, etc.,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

etc. It is like in the 1930s and 1940s: Enemies are marching
through our streets screaming the filthy slogans "Allahu
Akbar" and "from the river to the sea" (from the River
Jordan to the Mediterranean, meaning ‘annihilate all Jews!'
as prescribed in the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith) in place
of "Sieg Heil" and "Heil Hitler." Thousands of Christians,
Jews, Buddhists and others, are systematically murdered in
Islamic countries and other totalitarian entities; the
Churches however, the clergy in our vicinity, stay silent and
do nothing—just like in the 1930s and 1940s. There has
been no religious community that actively organised
repeated marches towards embassies or consulates of the
perpetrator countries, none of the churches promoted
boycotts of the killer states. Yazidis and Syriac Christians
have been raped, robbed and murdered in Iraq and Syria.
Nobody seem to feel shame! The Churches contemplate navel-
gazing instead. The Russian Christians are ruled by Kyril, an
ex-KGB man, and our people do not know a thing. The
clerics are busy with all sorts of scandals and wonder why
their members vanish into thin air while the pretty churches
stay empty on Sundays or other times. Hardly ever do we see
the clergy caring in person for the fallen of our society. Our
kids are poisoned by lethal drugs, our families fall apart,
many are even not able or willing to build families, our
population is in terminal decline, socialist politicians disarm
the law-abiding citizens, render them defenceless, while
robbers and thugs raid their homes and kill the residents so
that they cannot describe them. The police is busy with
political correctness and "hate crime" on the internet while
victims of real crime and violence are forgotten and the
perpetrators are showered with humane sympathies—while
their name, language, religion and place of cultural origin is
being kept silent about. Politicians, as so-called "law
givers," create one new law after another, strangulating the
entire legal system to death, insted of just obeying the ones
already in existence. Courts of law are so overwrought that
they become courts of ridicule and our state and its
communities are in total decay. Our schools have

degenerated into filthy debate clubs of socialism and activism.

Well-educated scholars know all this and yes they talk about
it, but only to their academic fellows, hardly ever do they
talk to the ordinary people in ordinary language; and hardly
ever take these gentlemen anyone to the streets and organise
actions. It is so nice to sit in the warm parlour while our
nations desintegrate all around our ears. So, every good idea
that may solve one or the other of our problems could not be
heard. They could move something, turn things to the better.
Words like "action, responsibility, courage" seem to be a
thought of the past. Where are our Martin Luthers? While
our elites are obviously clueless, Luther knew exactly how to
advance. Let us read what Dr Starkey found out:

"In Wittenberg, Luther's attack on Indulgences was
evolving into fundamental doctrines. The key one, raising
the power of personal faith above the remedies offered by the
hierarchy of the Church, mankind was saved not by prayer or
fasting or Indulgences but only by faith, by faith in Christ, as

told in the New Testament. Anything else was a corruption,
an obstacle. And that included Rome." Just like Sayyid Qutb
or his brother Muhammad Qutb, the teacher of Bin Laden,
the so-called Islamists of our time, Luther wanted to go back
to the roots of his religion. And he only could achieve that by
using the language of the people.

Starkey: "On the 15th of June 1520, after four all-day
meetings, the Pope and his council issued the formal decree
known as a bull. ..... Luther was given 60 days to recount or
be excommunicated, which meant expulsion from the Church
and ‘condemnation to the eternal fires of hell.' His works
were ordered to be burned. Far from backing down, Luther
seemed energised, liberated even, and in a matter of a few
mere weeks produced three crucial works that between them
amounted to a manifesto for a political and religious
revolution. The most important of them was addressed to the
Christian nobility of the German nation, writing in German,
Luther called on the German princes unilaterally to reform
the German Church and rescue it from the clutches of Rome
that was bleeding Germany dry."

"On the 10th of December 1520, he publicly burned the
papal bull. There could be no going back. In January 1521,
Martin Luther was formally excommunicated from the
Catholic Church. Two months later he was charged with
heresy and summoned to a hearing in front of the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V and representatives of the Church.
The Impertal Diet, as it was known, was to be held in the
German city of Worms."

"... Luther's survival had to date been ensured by
Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Frederick now
secured a promuse of safe passage and Luther set out. If the
Catholic Church was hoping to destroy Luther at Worms, it
had badly miscalculated the popular mood. Everywhere he
went he was hailed as a hero. A hundred horsemen rode
through the city gates to escort him inside and as he
descended his carriage a monk reached out to touch the hem
of his robe by taking on the power of the Church. Luther had
become a local legend, a figurehead for a populist anti-
establishment movement that was spreading across the
German-speaking states. As resentment about taxes and
foreign interference grew, the Pope's ambassador in Worms
was horrified as he reported back to Rome. "The whole of
Germany 1s in full revolt," he wrote, "nine tenths raised the
war cry 'Luther!' whilst the watch word of the other tenth
who are indifferent to Luther is ‘Death to the Roman
Curia'." Summoned before the Diet, Luther was ordered to
renounce his heretical writings. He refused. ‘Here I stand,' he
Is supposed to have declared, 'I can do no other!' Whilst the
emperor Charles V and the Diet were debating Luther's fate,
Luther's safe conduct was honoured and he was allowed to
leave Worms."

Agents of Luther's protector, the Elector Frederick the
Wise, charged with bringing him to a place of safety,
brought Luther to Wartburg Castle in Saxony where he went
undercover. He grew his hair and beard and became Junker
Joerg or Squire George. Up to now, the Bible was not only a

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

‘sacred text' but also a ‘secret text' which was not available to
laymen who could not speak and read Latin. And a main
doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church was, to keep it like
that. Priests of the Church were in charge to interprete the
contents of the Bible to the ordinary people, and by doing so,
they kept control over the contents that had been delivered
to the audience in church. Luther was aware that his
reformation would not succeed if the people could not read
the Bible for themselves. He was an accomplished linguist
fluent in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, as well as many German
dialects of the north and the south. Right from the start,
Luther was determined to employ all his expertise and
abilities to push the Reformation forwards, and above all, he
was about to use the most frightening invention of his days:
the unstoppable printing press of Johannes Gutenberg.

Dr Starkey: "Confined to his room, Luther embarked on
the next stage of his religious revolution. The medieval
church used Saint Jerome's 4th century Latin translation of
the Greek New Testament. Known as the Vulgate, it was
treated as the sole, authoritative text, and crucial Catholic
doctrines depended on its particular choice of words. All
Luther's religion was rooted in the Bible. He believed in Sola
Scriptura, that the Bible was the sole infallible guide to faith
and practice. So, Luther decided to use his time in the
Wartburg to start afresh and to make his own new
translation of the Bible from the original Greek into German.
But it was to be his German, pungent, pithy, and
comprehensible by all Germans, north and south, and above
all, it was to be his, Luther's reading of the Bible."

"Published in September 1522 Luther's Bible began to fix a
standardised modern German language. It forged a growing
sense of nationhood and national identity amongst the
German states. And that helped turn Luther's religious
revolution into a political revolution as well.

Luther's revolution now threatened to carry all before it.
The princes were attracted by the political and economic
pride gave them of the common people by the freedom and
the autonomy that it seemed to promise them. The term
"Protestant" was coined in 1529, and in 1531, the Lutheran
cities and principalities united themselves into a defensive
alliance known as the Schmalkaldic League (German:
Schmalkaldischer Bund; from the town of Schmalkalden in
Thuringia). In little more than a decade, half of Germany
had gone Protestant, gone Lutheran. As Europe began to
fracture along religious lines, it would be engulfed by
apocalyptic violence, waves of holy war, terror, and
iconoclasm, of the kind we are all too familiar with today."

One may ask "What has all this to do with this Bible or my
faith?" —"Everything!" could be the answer. The Bible is a
book about faith, about morals, about precepts and laws, yes,
but it 1s also a guide of wisdom that can show ones right way.
When Marcion in the middle of the 2nd century wanted to
get rid of the Old Testament due to its sometimes violent
attitudes, the Church Fathers disagreed and were determined
to keep this Jewish document collection as scripture as well.

Were they not right? Perhaps, they found it nesessary to
keep the Old Testament because it represented traditional
authority, it breathed resolute fighting spirit, and it
contained precepts and wisdom that the New Testament
lacked. Had the early Christians followed Marcion, who
knows, Christianity might have died long ago from its
peacefulness. There is not always just one way but other ways
too from which we can choose. The Bible in its entirety has
accumulated the wisdom from several millenia. It is not the
only wise book in the World. In fact, there are many more.
And most of them have something in common.

The ‘Western communities' need headstrong individuals,
like Jan Hus, like John Wycliffe, like William Tyndale and
Martin Luther, who are willingly take responsibility and do
not hide behind a smokescreen of 'team ethics’ and coward
‘political correctness’ which automatically leads to the wrong
believe that appeasement ensures eternal peace. It does not -
it never did - and it never will. The old proverb "weakness
provokes" has a Darwinistic truth in itself that no-one can
escape. Good behaviour has been replaced by despicable
egalitarian ideologies. Those ones who propagate diversity,
boundless socialism and leniency, limitless individualism and
fuzzy immorality, let the 'devil' take over and they bring not
only their own society to crumble but they cause suffering on
an unprecedentd scale in this very minute. Jesus said, "Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and
every city or house divided against itself shall not stand!"
(Matthew 12:25) Anybody who does not like Jesus could also
be directed to any other authority and philosopher in
antiquity because many of them said the very same thing.

The Bible is not out of date, and it is still a mighty
authority on wisdom today. The Bible is a valuable source to
learn from. And here it does not matter to what religious
denomination the reader feels aligned to, or even feels
religious at all. Therefore, it is a sensible thing, not to talk
about religion, faith or piety here. I rather should like to
steer the readers attention to historical or other scientific
facts of interest. To bring the Bible to the reader in a new
light, I shall present it in a very old way: Several hundred
years ago, some Bibles gave extra information to the reader.
We shall do the same and display a detailed Table of
Contents. This foreword is followed by details on origin,
version, and translation of the Bible. Each book in the Bible
begins with its name as title in bold Capital Letters and all
alternative titles that are known. Then we mention the
source, provenance, authorship and the Range of Dating (the
time the text's creation). In the Appendices, we show a photo
documentation and a map documentation. After that, you
will find legal, non-canonical and other texts of historical
value, because it is best to let history speak for itself.

If you wish to find more related texts, please download the
8,000-page volume of The Grand Bible, Sth edition. Thank
you kindly!

Lord Henfield, 2024.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION 1

THE CANON OF THE BIBLE
(The Choice and Order of the Books in the Bible)

The Hebrew Canon

The term 'canon,' from the Greek word "kanon," meaning a
cane or measuring rod, passed into Christian usage as a norm
or a rule of faith. The Church Fathers of the 4th century AD
first employed it in reference to the definitive, authoritative
nature of the body of sacred Scripture. The Hebrew Bible is
often known among Jews as TaNaKh, an acronym derived
from the names of its official three divisions: Torah
(Instruction, or Law, also called the Pentateuch), Nevi’im
(Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).

The earliest and most explicit evidence of a Hebrew
canonical list comes from the Roman-Jewish historian Titus
Flavius Josephus (37 AD — c. 96 AD) who wrote about the
Hebrew canon used in the first century AD. In "Against
Apion" (Book 1, Paragraph 8), Josephus divided the Hebrew
Bible into three parts: 5 books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), 13 books of the
prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel; 12 Minor Prophets; Job, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra
& Nehemiah, Chronicles), and 4 books of hymns (Psalms,
Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Proverbs):

"For we have not an innumerable multitude of books
among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another,
but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all
the past times; which are justly believed to be divine; and of
them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the
traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This
interval of time was little short of three thousand years, but
as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of
Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the
prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down [in Babylonian
captivity] what was done in their times in thirteen books.
The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and
precepts for the conduct of human life." (The Books of the
women Ruth and Esther were not part of his choice. In
antiquity, politics, military, and religion were men's toys).

As Josephus (as propaganda minister of the Flavian
Dynasty) had all Roman publishing ativities under his
control, it is not clear whether he only reported here about
the canon or told us about his decision on the canon officially
approved by him. The answer to this question would tell us
to what extent he might have been responsible for the
destruction of the violent messianic literature and their
authors, and also about the approval of the first 3 canonical
gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke).

Josephus mentions Ezra and Nehemiah in Antiquities of the
Jews (Book XI, Chapter 5) and Esther (during the rule of
Artaxerxes) in Chapter 6. The canon is until the reign of
Artaxerxes [Babylonian captivity] as mentioned by Josephus
in Against Apion (Book 1, Paragraph 8). For a long time,

following this date, the divine inspiration of Esther, the
Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes was often under scrutiny.
According to Gerald A. Larue, Josephus’ listing represents
what came to be the Jewish canon, although scholars were
still wrestling with problems of the authority of certain
writings at the time that he was writing. Josephus’ choice of
22 books were not universally accepted, since most Jewish
communities used these 24 books:

TORAH (Teaching of the Law) [5 books]

* Genesis (Bereshit = In the Beginning); Creation

* Exodus (Shemot = Names of the Sons); Migration

* Leviticus (Vayikra = And 'He' Called); Basic Law

* Numbers (Bemidbar = In the Desert); Arrival

¢ Deuteronomy (Devarim = Moses! Words); Civil Law

NEVI'IM (The Prophets) [8 books]

The Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim)
¢ Joshua (Yehoshua)

* Judges (Shofetim)

¢ Samuel (Shemuel)

¢ Kings (Melakhim)

The Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim)
* Isaiah, Isaias (Yeshayahu)

* Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu)

* Ezekiel (Yekhezkel, Yacheskel), Hesekiel

¢ Trei Asar (The 12 Minor Prophets [as | book].)

- Hosea, Osee, Hosee

- Joel, Ioel, Yoel

- Amos

- Obadiah, Obadya, Abdiah, Abdias

- Jonah, Yona, Yuna, Ionas

- Micah, Mika, Micheas, (Mikayahu)

- Nahum, Naoum

- Habakkuk, Habaqquq, Habacuc, (Havakuk), Habbakoum
- Zephaniah, Sefanya, Sophonias

- Haggai, Haggay, Aggeus, (Khagai), Haggaios

- Zechariah, Zacharias, (Zekharyah)

- Malachi, Malachias, Malahi, (Malakhi = 'My Messenger’)

KETUVIM or Ketubim ("Writings") [11 books]
Poetic books, Sifrei Emet

¢ Psalms 1-150 (Tehillim = 'Praises')

* Book of Proverbs (Mishlei Shlomo, Mishlei, Mishle)
* Book of Job (Iyob, Iyov)

Five scrolls, Five Megillot [read on festivals]

¢ Song of Solomon or Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim)
¢ Ruth (Rut) [on Shavuot]

¢ Lamentations (1—5) (Eka, Eikhah) [on Tisha B'Av]
* Ecclesiastes (Kohelet, Qohelet) [on Sukkot]

¢ Esther (Ester) [on Purim]

Other books

* Daniel (Daniyel)

¢ Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra)

* Chronicles (Divrei Hayamim), Paralipomenon

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The Christian Canon

The Old Testament as it has come down in Greek
translation from the Jews of Alexandria via the Christian
Church differs in many respects from the Hebrew Scriptures.
The books of the second and third divisions have been
redistributed and arranged according to categories of
literature—history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. Esther
and Daniel contain supplementary materials, and many
noncanonical books, whether of Hebrew or Greek origin,
have been interspersed with the canonical works. These
extracanonical writings comprise I Esdras, the Wisdom of
Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira), Additions to Esther,
Judith, Tobit, Baruch, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and additions
to Daniel, as listed in the manuscript known as Codex
Vaticanus (c. 350 AD). The sequence of the books varies,
however, in the manuscripts and in the patristic and synodic
lists of the Eastern and Western churches, some of which
include other books as well, such as I and II Maccabees.

The Christian Church received its Bible from Greek-
speaking Jews and found the majority of its early converts in
the Hellenistic world. The Greek Bible of Alexandria thus
became the official Bible of the Christian community, and the
overwhelming number of quotations from the Hebrew
Scriptures in the New Testament are derived from it.
Whatever the origin of the Apocryphal books in the canon of
Alexandria, these became part of the Christian Scriptures,
but there seems to have been no unanimity as to their exact
canonical status. The New Testament itself does not cite the
Apocryphal books directly, but occasional traces of a
knowledge of them are to be found. The Apostolic Fathers
(late 1st—early 2nd centuries) show extensive familiarity with
this literature, but a list of the Old Testament books by
Melito, bishop of Sardis in Asia Minor (2nd century), does
not include the additional writings of the Greek Bible, and
Origen (c. 185—c. 254) explicitly describes the Old Testament
canon as comprising only 22 books.

From the time of Origen* on, the Church Fathers who were
familiar with Hebrew differentiated, theoretically at least,
the Apocryphal books from those of the Old Testament,
though they used them freely. In the Syrian East, until the
7th century the Church had only the books of the Hebrew
canon with the addition of Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of
Jesus the son of Sira (but without Chronicles, Ezra, and
Nehemiah). It also incorporated the Wisdom of Solomon,
Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, and the additions to Daniel.
The 6th-century manuscript of the Peshitta (Syriac version)
known as Codex Ambrosianus also has III and IV Maccabees,
II (sometimes IV) Esdras, and Josephus' Wars VII. (* Full
name: Oregenes Adamantius, born c. 185 in Alexandria,
Egypt; died c. 254 in Tyre, Phoenicia [Lebanon]. He was one
of the most important theologian and biblical scholar of the
early Greek church. His greatest work is the 'Hexapla,' which
is a synopsis of six versions of the Old Testament.)

Early councils of the African Church held at Hippo (393)
and Carthage (397, 419) affirmed the use of the Apocryphal
books as Scripture. In the 4th century also, Athanasius™,

chief theologian of Christian orthodoxy, differentiated
“canonical books” from both “those that are read” by
Christians only and the “Apocryphal books” rejected alike
by Jews and Christians. (* Athanasius of Alexandria, born c.
293, died May 2, 373 AD was a theologian, ecclesiastical
statesman, and Egyptian national leader from Alexandria.
He was the chief defender of Roman (Pauline, Flavian or
Orthodox) Christianity in the 4th-century battle against
Arianism.)

In the preparation of a standard Latin version, the biblical
scholar Jerome (c. 347-419/420) separated “canonical
books” from “ecclesiastical books” (i.e., the Apocryphal or
‘hidden' writings), which he regarded as good for spiritual
edification but not authoritative Scripture. (* Full name:
Eusebius Hieronymus, pseudonym: Sophronius, born c. 347,
Dalmatia, died c. 420 AD, Bethlehem, Judaea, Holy Land.
He is known for his Bible translation into Latin, the famous
"Vulgate.')

A contrary view of Augustine* (354-430), one of the
greatest Western theologians, prevailed, however, and the
works remained in the Latin Vulgate version. The Decretum
Gelasianum, a Latin document of uncertain authorship but
recognised as reflecting the views of the Roman Church at
the beginning of the 6th century, includes Tobit, Judith, the
Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and I and II Maccabees
as biblical. (* Augustine of Hippo, Latin name: Aurelius
Augustinus, born Nov. 13, 354, Tagaste, Numidia [Algeria],
died Aug. 28, 430, Hippo Regius [Algeria]. Augustine was
the most influential supporter of merging ancient Platonic
and Stoic teachings with Christian ideas and created so
modern Roman Christianity, thus Western Civilisation.)

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Apocryphal books were
generally regarded as Holy Scripture in the Roman and
Greek churches. Luther's Reformation kept the issue of the
Christian canon alive. Protestants denied canonical status to
all books not in the Hebrew Bible. The first modern
vernacular Bible to segregate the disputed writings was a
Dutch version by Jacob van Liesveldt (Antwerp, 1526).
Luther's German edition of 1534 did the same thing and
entitled them “Apocrypha” for the first time, noting that
while they were not in equal esteem with sacred Scriptures
they were edifying. In response to Protestant views, the
Roman Catholic church made its position clear at the
Council of Trent (1546) when it dogmatically affirmed that
the entire Latin Vulgate enjoyed equal canonical status. This
doctrine was confirmed by the Vatican Council of 1870. In
the Greek Church, the Synod of Jerusalem (1672) had
expressly designated as canonical several Apocryphal works.
In the 19th century, however, Russian Orthodox theologians
agreed to exclude these works from the Holy Scriptures.

The history of the Old Testament canon in the English
Church has generally reflected a more restrictive viewpoint.
Even though the Wycliffite Bible (14th century) included the
Apocrypha, its preface made it clear that it accepted Jerome's
judgment. The translation made by the English bishop Miles
Coverdale (1535) was the first English version to segregate

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

these books, but it did place Baruch after Jeremiah. Article
VI of the Thirty-nine Articles of religion of the Church of
England (1562) explicitly denied their value for the
establishment of doctrine, although it admitted that they
should be read for their didactic worth. The first Bible in
English to exclude the Apocrypha was the Geneva Bible of
1599. The King James Version of 1611 placed it between the
Old and New Testaments. In 1615 Archbishop George Abbot
forbade the issuance of Bibles without the Apocrypha, but
editions of the King James Version from 1630 on often
omitted it from the bound copies. The Geneva Bible edition
of 1640 was probably the first to be intentionally printed in
England without the Apocrypha, followed in 1642 by the
King James Version. In 1644 the Long Parliament actually
forbade the public reading of these books, and three years
later the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians
decreed them to be no part of the canon. The British and
Foreign Bible Society in 1827 resolved 'never to print or
circulate copies containing the Apocrypha.’ In the new
edition of the King James Version from 1885, the disputed
books have been omitted. Most English Protestant Bibles in
the 20th century have omitted the disputed books or have
them as a separate volume, except in library editions, in
which they are included with the Old and New Testaments.

The Grand Bible, as well as this Version edited by Lord
Henfield puts them into the Holy Bible again due to their
value for studying Bible history in its completeness. In the
Appendix are even texts of ancients laws and other texts that
can give modern Jews and Christians a new perspective in
opposing the decline of their congregations and Western
Civilisation as a whole. (See: The Muratorian Canon; The
New Testament Canon, p.1647.)

CHAPTERS AND VERSES OF THE BIBLE

The use of numbered chapters and verses was not
introduced until the Middle Ages and later. Chapter and
verse divisions did not appear in the original texts of Jewish
or Christian bibles; if you take a look at the photos in the
Appendix, you will see that often not even the words in
documents were divided from on another.

Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of
the Bible have presented all but the shortest of the scriptural
books with divisions into chapters, generally a page or so in
length. Since the mid-16th century, editors have further
subdivided each chapter into verses — each consisting of a few
short lines or of one or more sentences.

The Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text differ at various
points from those used by Christians. Jewish tradition
regards the ascriptions to many Psalms as independent verses
or as parts of the subsequent verses, whereas established
Christian practice treats each Psalm ascription as
independent and unnumbered, resulting in 116 more verses
in Jewish versions than in the Christian texts. The system
used in English was developed by Stephanus (Robert
Estienne of Paris)

History of the Chapter Division

Early manuscripts of the biblical texts did not contain the
chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to
modern readers. Ancient Hebrew texts were divided into
paragraphs (parashot) that were identified by two letters of
the Hebrew alphabet. Peh 'P’ (5) indicated an "open"
paragraph that began on a new line, while Samekh 'S' (0)
indicated a "closed" paragraph that began on the same line
after a small space. These two letters begin the Hebrew words
open (patuach) and closed (satum), and are, themselves, open
in shape (5) and closed (0). The earliest known copies of the
Book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls used parashot
divisions, although they differ slightly from the Masoretic
divisions.

The Hebrew Bible was also divided into some larger
sections. In the Holy Land, the Torah (the Pentateuch) were
divided into 154 sections so that they could be read through
aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In
Babylonia, it was divided into 53 or 54 sections (Parashat
ha-Shavua) so it could be read through in one year.

The New Testament was divided into topical sections
known as kephalaia by the fourth century. Eusebius of
Caesarea (Constantine's right-hand man) divided the gospels
into parts that he listed in tables or canons. Neither of these
systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions.

Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th-
century Tours manuscript Paris Bibliotheque Nationale MS
Lat. 3, the so-called Bible of Rorigo.

Cardinal archbishop Stephen Langton and Cardinal Hugo
de Sancto Caro developed different schemas for systematic
division of the Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system
of Archbishop Langton on which the modern chapter
divisions are based.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

While chapter divisions have become nearly universal,
editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without
them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary
criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include
Alexander Campbell's The Sacred Writings (1826), Daniel
Berkeley Updike's fourteen-volume The Holy Bible
Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha,
Richard Moulton's The Modern Reader's Bible (1907), and
Ernest Sutherland Bates's The Bible Designed to Be Read as
Living Literature (1936).

History of the Verse Division

Since at least 916 the Tanakh has contained an extensive
system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal
divisions that were indicated in Masoretic vocalisation and
cantillation markings. One of the most frequent of these was
a special type of punctuation, the sof passug, symbol for a
period or sentence break, resembling the colon (:) of English
and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing
press and the translation of the Hebrew Bible into English,
versifications were made that correspond predominantly
with the existing Hebrew sentence breaks, with a few isolated
exceptions. Most attribute these to Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben
Kalonymus's work for the first Hebrew Bible concordance
around 1440.

The first person to divide New Testament chapters into
verses was the Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santes
Pagnino (1470-1541), but his system was never widely
adopted. His verse divisions in the New Testament were far
longer than those known today. The Parisian printer Robert
Estienne created another numbering in his 1551 edition of
the Greek New Testament, which was also used in his 1553
publication of the Bible in French. Estienne's system of
division was widely adopted, and it is this system which is
found in almost all modern Bibles. Estienne produced a 1555
Vulgate that is the first Bible to include the verse numbers
integrated into the text. Before this work, they were printed
in the margins.

The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions
was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524—
1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and
verses was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards by
Sir Rowland Hill in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained
acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since
been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority
of those in other languages.

Modern Christian Chapter and Verse Divisions

Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro is often given credit for first
dividing the Latin Vulgate into chapters in the real sense,
but it is the arrangement of his contemporary and fellow
cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter
divisions which are used today. They were then inserted into
Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 16th century.
Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number
the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering

printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1553 (Hebrew
Bible).

The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has
received criticism from some traditionalists and modern
scholars. Critics state that the text is often divided in an
incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and
that it encourages citing passages out of context.
Nevertheless, the chapter and verse numbers have become
indispensable as technical references for Bible study.

Several modern publications of the Bible have eliminated
numbering of chapters and verses. Biblica published such a
version of the NIV in 2007 and 2011. In 2014, Crossway
published the ESV Reader's Bible and Bibliotheca published
a modified ASV. Projects such as Icthus also exist which strip
chapter and verse numbers from existing translations.

Bible Statistics

The number of words can vary depending upon aspects such
as whether the Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119, the
superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms, and the
subscripts traditionally found at the end of the Pauline
epistles, are included.

Except where stated, the following apply to the King James
Version of the Bible in its modern 66-book Protestant form
including the New Testament and the protocanonical Old
Testament, not the deuterocanonical books.

The Chapters

* There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament.
> 187 chapters in the Pentateuch

> 249 chapters in the Historical books

> 243 chapters in the Poetic books ("Wisdom")
> 183 chapters in the Major prophets

> 67 chapters in the Minor prophets

¢ There are 260 chapters in the New Testament.

> 89 chapters in the Gospels

> 28 chapters in Acts

> 87 chapters in the Pauline Epistles (excluding Hebrews)

> 34 chapters in the General Epistles (including Hebrews)

> 22 chapters in Revelation

* This gives a total of 1,189 chapters (on average, 18 per
book).

* Psalm 117, the shortest chapter, is also the middle chapter
of the Bible, being the 595th Chapter.

* Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible.

* Five books are a single chapter: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 &
3 John, Jude. In many printed editions, the chapter number
is omitted for these books, and references just use the verse
numbers.

The Verses

¢ There are 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957
verses in the New Testament. This gives a total of 31,102
verses, which is an average of a little more than 26 verses per
chapter and 471 verses per book.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

* Psalm 103:1—2 being the 15,551st and 15,552nd verses is
in the middle of the 31,102 verses of the Bible.

¢ John 11:35 ("Jesus wept") is the shortest verse in most
English translations. Some translations—including the New
International Version, New Living Translation, New Life
Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible and New

International Reader's Version—trender Job 3:2 as "He said".

However, that is a translators’ condensation of the Hebrew
which literally translated is: "And Job answered and said."

* The shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is Luke
20:30 ("And the second") with twelve letters, according to
the Westcott and Hort text. In the Textus Receptus, the
shortest verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice always")
with fourteen letters, since Stephanus’ rendering of Luke
20:30 includes some additional words.

¢ | Chronicles 1:24 ("Shelah") is the shortest verse in the
Septuagint.

¢ | Kings 12:24 is the longest verse in the Septuagint
(1,017 words).

* Isaiah 10:8 ("Dicet enim", "For he shall say") is the
shortest verse in the Latin Vulgate.

* Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the Masoretic Text. The
discovery of several manuscripts at Qumran (in the Dead Sea
Scrolls) has reopened what is considered the most original
text of 1 Samuel 11; if one believes that those manuscripts
better preserve the text, several verses in 1 Samuel 11 surpass
Esther 8:9 in length.

¢ Exodus 20:13,14 and Deuteronomy 5:17 are the shortest
verses in the Masoretic Text.

* John 11:25 is the most read verse in funerals.

BIBLE ENGLISH

At first, some readers might find the usage of the old
pronouns and their verbs difficult. But very soon, you will
get used to it and you will perhaps even enjoy our colourful
language from the Past.

Another feature which might irritate at first might be the
sometimes different word order. Instead of "I do not know",
in older texts we find "I know not"; "Sleepeth he not?"
means "Does he not sleep?", etc.

We have chosen to present here the texts of the original
King James version, although it contains a few minor
mistranslations; especially in the Old Testament where the
knowledge of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac languages was
uncertain at the time.

Just some examples: Among the most commonly cited
errors is in the Hebrew of Job and Deuteronomy, where
"Re'em" with the probable meaning of "wild-ox, aurochs", is
translated in the King James Version as "unicorn"; following
in this the Vulgate unicornis and several medieval rabbinic
commentators. Otherwise, the translators on several
occasions mistakenly interpreted a Hebrew descriptive phrase
as a proper name (or vice versa); as at 2 Samuel 1:18 where
‘the Book of Jasher' properly refers not to a work by an
author of that name, but should rather be rendered as "the
Book of the Upright."

In the New Testament, we find Jesus’ father refered to as
"carpenter" although in original Greek we read the word
tekton (from tekne, 'skill') which means ‘any craftsman or
builder’ (as opposed to metalworker or smith) and even
‘master of any art,' such as author, creator, planner, poet. So,
arkhitekton means architect, 'chief builder," means 'chief
builder’ just like 'archenemy' means 'chief enemy.'

Another misinterpretation is the word "betray" or
"betrayal" in texts that describe the action of Jesus’ disciple
Judas in "And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went onto
the chief priests, to betray him unto them" (Mark 14;10).
The original Greek text however does not use the word
"betray" but "hand over". Looking at the fight between
Christianity and Judaism, we can assume that this
misinterpretation was deliberately created in order to
discredit anthing that has to do with the words "Judas, Jude,
Judaism, Judaea, Judea, Judean, Judah, Jew (from Old
French Juiu), Judaeus, loudaios, Yehudah, Judaic, Judaise".
Judas (and after the sinister Roman-Christian Anti-Jewish
propaganda all similar words) is today a synonym for
treachery, satanic, devilish and evil. Listeners should feel
unwell when hearing those words.

The Islamic Anti-Jewish propaganda in their so-called
perfect book,' the Koran (including all other Islamic texts
against the Jews), has taken this Pauline-Christian
propaganda unchecked and uncriticised as basis of their own
bigottery. This single misinterpretation led to almost 2,000
years of Jewish suffering and ultimately to the Holocaust in
Hitlers NAZI-Europe with more than six million dead Jews.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

On Grammar
Under Martin Luther's influence, William Tyndale began

his Bible translation from Hebrew and Greek sources in 1525.

Miles Coverdale, Thomas Matthew, John Rogers continued
that project in 1535, followed by the Great Bible in 1539,
and the Bishops' Bible in 1568. Finally, the Roman Catholics
came up with their own Douay—Rheims Bible in 1582 which
unfortunately was translated from the outdated Vulgate
version. The King James Version ("Authorised Version")
was published in 1611 under the auspices of James I of
England. Not since the Septuagint (c.285 BC) had a
translation of the Bible been undertaken under royal
sponsorship as a cooperative venture on so grandiose a scale.
Of 54 scholars approved by James, 47 laboured in six groups
at three locations for seven years, utilising previous English
translations and texts in the original languages. Their
translations influence the English language still today.

The victory of the King James Version could not obscure
some inherent weaknesses, errors and a lack of consistency.
The translators' understanding of the Hebrew tense system
was often limited so that their version contains inaccurate
renderings. The Greek source text of the New Testament, was
a poor one. The rediscovery of Greek uncial codices (Codex
Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandinus) triggered new reforms.
One unfortunate outcome was that the pronouns of the 2nd
person singular (thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself) were
scrapped, and also the entire Apocrypha that once were
approved by emperor Constantine in 325 AD.

All those Bible readers who want to come closer to what
has been said in the original Hebrew and Greek texts ought
to use a Bible with distinct thou-ponouns. The word "thou"
is a 2nd person singular pronoun, now largely archaic,
having been replaced in most contexts by "you". The
equalisation of these two, originally distinct pronouns, can
cause misunderstanding as to who is meant, either "you as a
single person", or "you as a group of people", which in
Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and almost all other languages in
the world is a big difference in form and sound of the
relevant pronoun and the verbs that are connected to them.

Subj. Obj Poss. Poss. Reflex.
Pron. Pron. Adj. Pron. Pron.
Ist, sg. I me my mine _— myself
2nd. sg. thou thee thy thine thyself
3rd.sg.m. he him his his himself
3rd.sg.f. she her her hers herself
3rd.sg.n. it it its its itself
Ist. pl. we us our ours ourselves
2nd. pl. you,ye you,ye your yours — yourselves
3rd. pl. they them their theirs —_ themselves

Using "thou" is also reflected in the use of the verb that
follows this pronoun. The verbs of the Second Person
Singular end with -(e)st. A few end only with -t such as art,
wilt, and shalt.

In Bible texts there is also another form for the verb in 3rd
person singular. In modern English, a verb that follows he,

she, it just ends with -s, but in 1611 when the King James
Version was first published, all those verbs ended with -(e)th.
And so do they still today in church service:

Verbs in their Present Tense Forms
3rd pers. sg.: all other pers. :
thou he, she, it I, we, you, ye, they
art, beest** is, be** are, be**
hast hath have
dost, doest doth, doeth do
wilt willeth will
shalt shalleth shall
canst caneth can
mayest mayeth may
must must must
sayest sayeth say
givest giveth give
takest taketh take
comest cometh come
prayest prayeth pray
tellest telleth tell
committest commiteth commit
goest goeth g0
speakest speaketh speak

*"to" after "ought" is often omitted in questions, negative
statements and questions.
** "beest" and "be" are present subjunctive forms.

The -(e)st and -(e)th endings even can be found attached on
verbs (particularly on irregular verbs) in their past tenseo,
although not all translators have used this feature
consequently (for either the present or past forms).

Verbs in their Past Tense Forms
thou he, she, it I, we, you, ye, they
wast, wert** was, were** was, were**
hadst hadth have
didst didth did
wouldst wouldeth would
shouldest shouldeth should
couldst couldeth could
mightest mighteth might
oughtest (to)* oughteth (to)* ought (to)*
saidest saideth said
gavest gaveth gave
tookest tooketh took
camest cameth came
prayedest prayedeth prayed
toldest toldeth told
committedest commitedeth commited
wentest wenteth went
spakest* spaketh* spake*

* "spake" is the old past form of "to speak"

** "wert" and "were" are past subjunctive forms
Notice: **Every past tense form can serve as subjunctive!

THE HOLY BIBLE

IN BASIC ENGLISH

Rom 3:21-26, 27-31; 4:1-5; Col 2:11-12 (semi-colon when
chapter or book change; only comma when additional verses

Additions to Daniel

Prayer of Azariah

Bel and the Dragon

Song of the Three Young Men
Susanna

1-2 Maccabees

3-4 Maccabees

1-2 Esdras

Prayer of Manasseh

Psalm 151

New Testament (Christian canon)
(Gospel according to) Matthew
(Gospel according to) Mark
(Gospel according to) Luke
(Gospel according to) John
Acts (Luke's Acts of the Apostles)
(Paul to the) Romans

(Paul to the) 1-2 Corinthians
(Paul to the) Galatians

(Paul to the) Ephesians

(Paul to the) Philippians

(Paul to the) Colossians

(Paul to the) 1-2 Thessalonians
(Paul to) 1-2 Timothy

(Paul to) Titus

(Paul to) Philemon

(Paul to the) Hebrews

James

1-2 Peter

1-2-3 John

Jude

Revelation / Apocalypse of John

Citing the Bible

Genesis chapters | through 2
Genesis chapter 1, verse 2
chapter / chapters

verse / verses (ot versus!)
Manuscript / Manuscripts
Old Testament

= Hebrew Bible

= Septuagint

New Testament

in the same chapter and book)

Capitalisation of Other Terms
* the Bible, but “biblical”; Scripture / scriptural

* the Gospels (referring to texts), “gospel” when referring to

* the Twenty-Third Psalm
* King of kings (used as title); Son of Man (used as title)

¢ Hebrew Bible (Jewish canon), Old Testament (Christian

* Second Temple period, intertestamental period

¢ deuterocanonical literature, Apocrypha (pl.; apocryphon,

A List of Abbreviations of the Books of the Bible Add Dan
(According to The SBL Handbook of Style, 2d ed., 2014) i
There are 400 million native English speakers but 4 times as Se Three
many who use English as a second language. Most of them Sus
are not familiar with biblical terms. Therefore, abbreviations 1-2 Mace
should be used as seldom as possible, and if, then their use 3-4 Macc
ought to be restricted to the widely accepted ones in this list. 1-2 Esd
Pr Man
OT Old Testament (1st Jewish canon) Ps 151
HB Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)
LXX Septuagint (Jewish canon in Greek) NT
Gen (Torah / Pentateuch) Genesis Matt
Exod (Torah / Pentateuch) Exodus Mark
Lev (Torah / Pentateuch) Leviticus Luke
Num (Torah / Pentateuch) Numbers John
Deut (Torah / Pentateuch) Deuteronomy Acts
Josh Joshua Rom
Judg Judges 1-2 Cor
Ruth Ruth Gal
1-2 Sam 1-2 Samuel Eph
= 1-2 Kgdms = 1-2 Kingdoms / Reigns (LXX) Phil
1-2 Kgs 1-2 Kings Col
= 3-4 Kgdms = 3-4 Kingdoms / Reigns (LXX) 1-2 Thess
1-2 Chr[on] 1-2 Chronicles 1-2 Tim
Ezra Ezra Titus
Neh Nehemiah Phim
Esth Esther Heb
Job Job Jas
Ps/ Pss Psalm / Psalms 1-2 Pet
Prov Proverbs 1-2-3 John
Eccl (Qoh) Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) Jude
Song (Cant) Song of Songs/Solomon (Canticles) Rev/ Apoc
Isa Isaiah
Jer Jeremiah
Lam Lamentations Gen 1-2
Ezek Ezekiel Gen 1:2
Dan Daniel ch. / chs.
Hos (12 Minor Prophets) Hosea v./ wv.
Joel (12 Minor Prophets) Joel Ms / Mss
Amos (12 Minor Prophets) Amos OT
Obad (12 Minor Prophets) Obadiah = HB
Jonah (12 Minor Prophets) Jonah = LXX
Mic (12 Minor Prophets) Micah NT
Nah (12 Minor Prophets) Nahum
Hab (12 Minor Prophets) Habakkuk
Zeph (12 Minor Prophets) Zephaniah
Hag (12 Minor Prophets) Haggai
Zech (12 Minor Prophets) Zechariah
Mal (12 Minor Prophets) Malachi
Aper Apocrypha (2nd Jewish canon) the Christian message
Tob Tobit
Jdt Judith
Add Esth Additions to Esther
Wis Wisdom of Solomon Bible)
Sir Sirach/Ecclesiasticus
Bar Baruch
Ep Jer Epistle of Jeremiah

sg.)

PAGE 29

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

GENRES IN THE BIBLE

Biblical genre is a classification of Bible literature
according to literary genre. The genre of a particular Bible
passage is ordinarily identified by analysis of its general
writing style, tone, form, structure, literary technique,
content, design, and related linguistic factors; texts that
exhibit a common set of literary features (very often in
keeping with the writing styles of the times in which they
were written) are together considered to be belonging to a
genre. In Biblical studies, genres are usually associated with
whole books of the Bible, because each of its books comprises
a complete textual unit; however, a book may be internally
composed of a variety of styles, forms, and so forth, and thus
bear the characteristics of more than one genre (for example,
chapter | of the Book of Revelation is prophetic/visionary;
chapters 2 and 3 are similar to the epistle genre; etc.).

Examples of Genres in the Bible

Some of the more generally recognised genres and
categorisations of the Bible (note that other systems and
classifications have also been advanced) include:

° Law: the last half of Exodus; also Leviticus, Deuteronomy

¢ Wisdom literature: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes

¢ Historical narrative / epic: Genesis and the first half of
Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, | and 2 Samuel, |
and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
Jonah, and possibly Acts

* Psalms: Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations

* Prophecy: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel,
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

* Apocalyptic literature: Daniel, Revelation

+ Epistle (letter): Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, | and 2 Thessalonians, |
and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, | and 2
Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude

* Gospel (narrative): Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

* Acts of the Apostles (genre): Book of Acts

Types of Genres the Bible student should be looking for:

* Maxims or Laws (the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments;
1 Samuel 15:22, 24:14, and the greater part of Proverbs)

* Monologues and Dialogues in Job 3:3 and following

* Parables (2 Samuel 12:1-4, 14:4-9; 1 Kings 20:39 and
following; synoptic Gospels)

* Fables such as the tale of Jotham (Judges 9:7-15)

* Riddles (Judges 14:14 and following; Proverbs 30:11 and
following)

¢ Typology, the study of types in literature, archaeology,
history, biology, etc. In literature and other texts, it is about
passages that describe something which appear in a similar
form also in other texts and thus build a deliberate link of
doctrine, e.g., New Testament passages that reflect passages
in the Old Testament, the Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, Nag
Hammadi Library, the Works of Philo and of Titus Flavius

Josephus, in ancient texts from Mesopotamia and Egypt; they
all can deliver explanations to details.

Here are four points to pay attention to, in particular these
details:

* occurence (circumstance). The circumstance of passages
can build a link, such as the Elisha and Elijah cycle: These are
two Jewish prophets, one followed on from the other which
have many of the story elements found in Jesus, for example
there is a "multiplication of food miracle" there is a "raising
of the dead miracle" there is a "water miracle" there is an
"ascension to heaven miracle."

* recurrence (frequency). How often something is repeated
tells us how important the author deemed it. With only 67%
of the size of the New Testament, the Koran is a rather small
book that can be read in its entirety in one or two days;
however, Moses is mentioned in it about 30 times, or many
times a call that a Muslim has to emulate the deeds of
Mohammed in order to be accepted as a good Muslim, that
includes viewing a woman as just being worth half a man,
cruel terrorist attacks on non-Muslims or apostates, and the
execution of 600 prisoners of war by beheading (as recorded
in the Sira).

* sequence (order, course, cycle). By studying the multiple
layers in the Gospel of Matthew and the The Jewish War by
Titus Flavius Josephus one can discover not just a handful
but over 40 typological parallels between the Gospel and the
work of Josephus which shows that the Ministry of Jesus
Christ followed an exact sequence the military campaign of
Titus Flavius, through parallel names, locations and
concepts.

When Vespasian died Titus began the process of having his
father deified. This was a complicated process because only
the Roman Senate could bestow such a title. And it was at
this time, the Gospels were written because the theological
structure in the Gospels of a God the Father, and the Son of
God, is the same one that Titus would have been presenting
to the Roman Senate. Upon the merits of Vespasian, the
Roman Senate did accept Titus' evidence and Vespasian was
deified and became a God. Titus therefore became a son of
God. And the Arch of Titus, that is still standing in modern
Rome today, bears the inscription of devinity for everyone to
see.

¢ kinship (relationship). Language is a crucial identifier
because with the mother tongue, everyone learns in his
childhood from their parents certain sets of behaviour, habit,
religion, or any particular oulook on life. Teachers in
particular carry a huge load of responsibility as they play
(after the parents) the most important role in the formation
of ones personality. After the death of Alexander the Great,
his generals divided his empire among themselves and were
fighting for ever larger chunks of territories from their
competitors. However, each of them did the very same thing
by spreading Greek language and culture in their realm
because this is exactly what they were taught by their teacher
Aristotle.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OF ORIGINALS, TRANSLATIONS
AND VERSIONS

Before we talk about translations, we need to know what
language the Bible authors used and why. The Christian
Bible consists of two main canonical works, the Old
Testament (that is the entire Hebrew Bible), the New
Testament (that is the Christian Bible), and the additional
Hebrew Deuterocanon (‘Second Canon,’ by Christians
known as Apocrypha, ‘hidden books' connected to the
Hebrew Bible). The Old Testament was composed in Hebrew,
the New Testament in Greek, and the Apocrypha in Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek.

It can help to understand the geopolitical environment of
the Bible composers. The 4th millenium BC saw three great
civilisations in the Middle East, Egypt, Sumer in
Mesopotamia and the Indus Civilisation in the northwest of
India. Natural disasters caused migration, thus new
civilisations formed, such as the Semitic Akkadians and
Amorites from northern Phoenicia (Lebanon), who began to
subjugate the native but exhausted Sumerians. Indo-
European peoples from Iran migrated as well, such as the
Elamites who crushed the last surviving Sumerians and other
Iranian tribes who crushed the likewise exhausted peoples of
the Indus Civilisation of northwest India.

These events occured at around 2000 BC and Abraham was
one of the protagonists who migrated from Ur in Sumer to
Harran in Anatolia and then to Egypt. The people of
Abraham (this name is a Semitic plural for ‘multitude of
people') were part of the likewise Semitic Hyksos (heqa
khasut, ‘conquerors from the east') who settled around their
new capital Avaris in Goshen, in the northeast of Egypt.
Mose (whose Egyptian name means 'son') and his tribe moved
over 400 years later from Egypt to Canaan, taking Akkadian
cuneiform clay (‘stone’) tablets with the Laws on them to
Canaan. And so, the Hebrew civilisation evolved out of
Sumerian, Akkadian, Canaanite and Egyptian origins. And
the Hebrew Bible tells us all about it.

Since the Phoenician-Canaanites invented the alphabet at
Ugarit, Syria, in the 14th century BC, it spread like wildfire
through the Mediterranean and Asia, giving people a written
language that can be learned in weeks or even days if one was
determined. Almost all alphabets in the World developed
from this marvellous invention. It replaced the hieroglyphic
writing systems that were awkward to use and difficult to
learn, and therefore expensive. Learning became affordable
and laid the foundations of democratic structures. Growing
trade made the quickly learned skills of writing and reading
a necessity. Translations like those on the Rosetta Stone of
Egypt or the Rock inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka of India
became an important tool of governance.

New civilisations and their languages appeared,
Phoenicians, Aramaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,
Indians, Chinese, Ethiopians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, and
the Hebrews were always part of them. They developed over
time a vast trade network reaching from West Africa to East

Asia, controlling the routes on land as well as on sea with the
help of their brothers, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians.
Wars, expulsions, uprisings, defeats and endless migrations
planted into the mind of Hebrews the love for learning.

From the 8th century BC onwards, Assyrians, Babylonians
and Persians imposed, by their conquest sprees, a new
language on the Hebrews: Aramaic, a Semitic language that
began to replace the old Akkadian language as lingua franca
of the day. Many hundred years later, Jesus and his disciples
still spoke Aramaic as their first language; Hebrew was
confined to the holy scripture.

From the 7th century BC onwards, Greeks began to
colonise all northern coasts of the Mediterranean. They
changed the Phoenician alphabet into the Greek alphabet
and created the most beautiful literature of its time. The
conquests of Alexander the Great had dramatic consequences
in terms of culture and ideology. Greek became, besides
Aramaic, the second lingua franca, spoken from Spain to
India and China.

The entire upper class of the Roman Empire spoke Greek;
including the Jewish people in the Roman empire (but not
those in the Holy Land). As they had forgotten their old
Hebrew language, they launched in around 300 BC the
monumental task of translating the entire Hebrew Bible into
Greek. Their work became famous as the "Septuagint" (the
70 or LXX) because circa 70 translators were involved. The
New Testament was written in Greek quite simply because
the authors were sophisticated and Greek-speaking Roman
citizens, not poor Hebrew fishermen.

The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

The Hebrew Bible was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew,
with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Biblical
Aramaic. From the 6th century to the 10th century AD,
Jewish scholars, today known as Masoretes, compared the
text of various biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a
unified, standardised text. A series of highly similar texts
eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as
Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel
points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text
contained only consonants. This sometimes required the
selection of an interpretation; since some words differ only in
their vowels their meaning can vary in accordance with the
vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed,
some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch
and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in
ancient versions in other languages.

First Steps: Targums - Translation into Aramaic (For side
by side reading)

The most important factor in the history of Mesopotamia
in the 10th century BC was the continuing threat from the
Aramaean nomads. Repeatedly, the kings of both Babylonia
and Assyria were forced to repel their invasions. Even
though the Aramaeans were not able to gain a foothold in
the main cities, there are evidences of them in many rural

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

areas. Aramaic replaced Akkadian and became the official
language of Assyria, Babylonia and even in the following
Persian Empire. Thus Aramaic also became the lingua franca
of the Jews.

Some of the first translations of the Torah began during the
Assyrian and Babylonian exiles from the 8th to the 6th
centuries, when most people were speaking only Aramaic and
not understanding Hebrew. The Targums were created to
allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was
read in ancient synagogues.

In the succeeding centuries it was used as the vernacular
over a wide area and was increasingly spoken by the
postexilic Jewish communities of Palestine and elsewhere in
the Diaspora. In response to liturgical needs, the institution
of a turgeman (or meturgeman, “translator”), arose in the
synagogues. These men translated the Torah and prophetic
lectionaries into Aramaic. The rendering remained for long
solely an oral, impromptu exercise, but gradually, by dint of
repetition, certain verbal forms and phrases became fixed and
eventually committed to writing.

There are several Targums (translations) of the Pentateuch.
The Babylonian Targum is known as “Onkelos,” named after
its reputed author. The Targum is Palestinian in origin, but
it was early transferred to Babylon where it was revised and
achieved great authority. At a later date, probably not
before the 9th century AD, it was re-exported to Palestine to
displace other, local, Targums. On the whole, Onkelos is
quite literal, but it shows a tendency to obscure expressions
attributing human form and feelings to God. It also usually
faithfully reflects rabbinic exegesis.

The most famous of the Palestinian Targums is that
popularly known as “Jonathan,” a name derived from a
14th-century scribal mistake that solved a manuscript
abbreviation “TJ” as “Targum Jonathan” instead of
“Targum Jerusalem.” In contrast with two other Targums,
which are highly fragmentary (Jerusalem II and III), Pseudo-
Jonathan (or Jerusalem I) is virtually complete. It is a
composite of the Old Palestinian Targum and an early
version of Onkelos with an admixture of material from
diverse periods. It contains much rabbinic material as well as
homiletic and didactic amplifications. There is evidence of
great antiquity, but also much late material, indicating that
Pseudo-Jonathan could not have received its present form
before the Islamic period.

Another extant Aramaic version is the Targum to the
Samaritan Pentateuch. It is less literal than the Jewish
Targums and its text was never officially fixed.

The Targum to the Prophets also originated in Palestine
and received its final editing in Babylonia. It is ascribed to
Jonathan ben Uzziel, a pupil of Hillel, the famous Ist century
BCE-Ist century CE rabbinic sage, though it is in fact a
composite work of varying ages. In its present form it
discloses a dependence on Onkelos, though it is less literal.

The Aramaic renderings of the Hagiographa are relatively
late productions, none of them antedating the Sth century
AD.

The Masoretic Text

The Masoretic Text (MT; from Hebrew masoreth,
“tradition”), traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible,
meticulously assembled and codified, and supplied with
diacritical marks to enable correct pronunciation. This
monumental work was begun around the 6th century AD
and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies
in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far
as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Their intention was not to interpret the meaning of the
Scriptures but to transmit to future generations the
authentic Word of God. To this end they gathered
manuscripts and whatever oral traditions were available to
them.

The Masoretic text that resulted from their work shows
that every word and every letter was checked with care. In
Hebrew or Aramaic, they called attention to strange
spellings and unusual grammar and noted discrepancies in
various texts. Since texts traditionally omitted vowels in
writing, the Masoretes introduced vowel signs to guarantee
correct pronunciation. Among the various systems of
vocalization that were invented, the one fashioned in the city
of Tiberias, Galilee, eventually gained ascendancy. In
addition, signs for stress and pause were added to the text to
facilitate public reading of the Scriptures in the synagogue.

When the final codification of each section was complete,
the Masoretes not only counted and noted down the total
number of verses, words, and letters in the text but further
indicated which verse, which word, and which letter marked
the centre of the text. In this way any future emendation
could be detected. The rigorous care given the Masoretic text
in its preparation is credited for the remarkable consistency
found in Old Testament Hebrew texts since that time. The
Masoretic work enjoyed an absolute monopoly for 600 years,
and experts have been astonished at the fidelity of the earliest
printed version (late 15th century) to the earliest surviving
codices (late 9th century). The Masoretic text is universally
accepted as the authentic Hebrew Bible. The discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in 1947, has confirmed the
effort of those scholars as largely correct.

The New Testament

The New Testament was written in 'Koine Greek' (common
Greek) and nearly all modern translations are to some extent
based upon the Greek text. The autographs, the Greek
manuscripts written by the original authors or collators,
have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text
from the manuscripts that do survive. The three main textual
traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called
the Alexandrian text-type, the Byzantine text-type, and the
Western text-type.

Most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as
alternative spelling, alternative word order, the presence or
absence of an optional definite article ("the"), and so on.
Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a
text was missing or for other reasons. Examples of major

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

variants are the endings of Mark, the Pericope Adultere, the
Comma Johanneum, and the Western version of Acts.

The discovery of older manuscripts which belong to the
Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th-century Codex
Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, led scholars to revise their
view about the original Greek text. Karl Lachmann based his
critical edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th
century and earlier, to argue that the Textus Receptus must
be corrected according to these earlier texts.

Early manuscripts of the Pauline epistles and other New
Testament writings show no punctuation whatsoever. The
punctuation was added later by other editors, according to
their own understanding of the text.

There is also a long-standing tradition owing to Papias of
Hierapolis (c.125) that the Gospel of Matthew was originally
in Hebrew. Eusebius (c.300) reports that Pantaenus went to
India (c. 200) and found them using a Gospel of St Matthew
in Hebrew letters. Jerome also reports in his preface to St
Matthew that it was originally composed "in Hebrew letters
in Judea" not in Greek and that he saw and copied one from
the Nazarene sect. The exact provenance, authorship, source
languages and collation of the four Gospel is unknown but
subject to much academic speculation and disputed methods.

The Samaritan Pentateuch

The importance of the recension known as the Samaritan
Pentateuch lies in the fact that it constitutes an independent
Hebrew witness to the text written in a late and developed
form of the paleo-Hebrew script. Some of the Exodus
fragments from Qumran demonstrate that it has close
affinities with a pre-Christian Palestinian text type and
testify to the faithfulness with which it has been preserved. It
contains about 6,000 variants from the Masoretic text, of
which nearly a third agree with the Septuagint. Only a
minority, however, are genuine variants, most being
dogmatic, exegetical, grammatical, or merely orthographic
in character.

The Samaritan Pentateuch first became known in the West
through a manuscript secured in Damascus in 1616 by Pietro
della Valle, an Italian traveler. It was published in the Paris
(1628-45) and London Polyglots (1654-57), written in
several languages in comparative columns. Many
manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are now available.
The Avisha‘ Scroll, the sacred copy of the Samaritans, has
recently been photographed and critically examined. Only
Numbers chapter 35 to Deuteronomy chapter 34 appears to
be very old, the rest stemming from the 14th century. A new,
definitive edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch is being
prepared in Madrid by F. Perez Castro.

The Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran and other texts

Until the discovery of the Judaean Desert scrolls, the only
pre-medieval fragment of the Hebrew Bible known to
scholars was the Nash Papyrus (c. 150 BC) from Egypt
containing the Decalogue and Deuteronomy. Now, however,
fragments of about 180 different manuscripts of biblical

books are available. Their dates vary between the 3rd
century BC and the 2nd century AD, and all but 10 stem
from the caves of Qumran. All are written on either leather
or papyrus in columns and on one side only.

The most important manuscripts from what is now
identified as Cave 1 of Qumran are a practically complete
Isaiah scroll (1 Qlsaa), dated c. 100—75 BC, and another very
fragmentary manuscript (1 QIsab) of the same book. The first
contains many variants from the Masoretic text in both
orthography and text; the second is very close to the
Masoretic type and contains few genuine variants. The
richest hoard comes from Cave 4 and includes fragments of
five copies of Genesis, eight of Exodus, one of Leviticus, 14
of Deuteronomy, two of Joshua, three of Samuel, 12 of Isaiah,
four of Jeremiah, eight of the Minor Prophets, one of
Proverbs, and three of Daniel. Cave 11 yielded a Psalter
containing the last third of the book in a form different from
that of the Masoretic text, as well as a manuscript of
Leviticus.

The importance of the Qumran scrolls cannot be
exaggerated. Their great antiquity brings them close to the
Old Testament period itself—from as early as 250—200 BC.
For the first time, Hebrew variant texts are extant and all
known major text types are present. Some are close to the
Septuagint, others to the Samaritan. On the other hand,
many of the scrolls are practically identical with the
Masoretic text, which thus takes this recension back in
history to pre-Christian times. Several texts in the paleo-
Hebrew script show that this script continued to be used side
by side with the Aramaic script for a long time.

Of quite a different order are scrolls from other areas of the
Judaean Desert. All of these are practically identical with the
received text. This applies to fragments of Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and Psalms discovered at Masada
(the Jewish fortress destroyed by the Romans in AD 73), as
well as to the finds at Wadi al-Murabba ‘at, the latest date of
which is AD 135. Here were found fragments of Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, and Isaiah in addition to the substantially
preserved Minor Prophets scroll. Variants from the
Masoretic text are negligible.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

HISTORY OF TRANSLATIONS
From the Classic Era to the Reformation

Translation into Greek - The Septuagint (LXX)

The story of the Greek translation of the Pentateuch is told
in the Letter of Aristeas, which purports to be a
contemporary document written by Aristeas, a Greek official
at the Egyptian court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285—246
BC). It recounts how the law of the Jews was translated into
Greek by Jewish scholars sent from Jerusalem at the request
of the king.

This narrative, repeated in one form or another by Philo
and rabbinic sources, is full of inaccuracies that prove that
the author was an Alexandrian Jew writing well after the
events he described had taken place. The Septuagint
Pentateuch, which is all that is discussed, does, however,
constitute an independent corpus within the Greek Bible,
and it was probably first translated as a unit by a company of
scholars in Alexandria about the middle of the 3rd century
BC.

The Septuagint, as the entire Greek Bible came to be called,
has a long and complex history and took well over a century
to be completed. It is for this reason not a unified or
consistent translation. The Septuagint became the
instrument whereby the basic teachings of Judaism were
mediated to the pagan world and it became an indispensable
factor in the spread of Christianity. The adoption of the
Septuagint, by Constantine and Eusebius, as the Bible of the

Christians naturally engendered suspicion on the part of Jews.

In addition, the emergence of a single authoritative text type
after the destruction of the Temple made the great differences
between it and the Septuagint increasingly intolerable, and
the need for a Greek translation based upon the current
Hebrew text in circulation was felt.

By the 3rd century BC, Alexandria had become the centre
of Hellenistic Judaism, and during the 3rd to 2nd centuries
BC translators compiled in Egypt a Koine Greek version of
the Hebrew scriptures in several stages (completing the task
by 132 BC). The Talmud ascribes the translation effort to
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 285-246 BC), who allegedly
hired 72 Jewish scholars for the purpose, for which reason
the translation is commonly known as the Septuagint (from
the Latin septuaginta, "seventy"), a name which it gained in
"the time of Augustine of Hippo" (354-430 AD). The
Septuagint (LXX), the very first translation of the Hebrew
Bible into Greek, later became the accepted text of the Old
Testament in the Christian church and the basis of its canon.
Jerome based his Latin Vulgate translation on the Hebrew
for those books of the Bible preserved in the Jewish canon (as
reflected in the Masoretic text), and on the Greek text for the
deuterocanonical books.

Sources of the Septuagint: A Greek translation of the Old
Testament, known as the Septuagint because there allegedly
were 70 or 72 translators, six from each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and designated LXX, is a composite of the work of
many translators labouring for well over 100 years. It was

made directly from Hebrew originals that frequently differed
considerably from the present Masoretic text. Apart from
other limitations attendant upon the use of a translation for
such purposes, the identification of the parent text used by
the Greek translators is still an unsettled question. The
Pentateuch of the Septuagint manifests a basic coincidence
with the Masoretic text. The Qumran scrolls have now
proven that the Septuagint book of Samuel—Kings goes back
to an old Palestinian text tradition that must be earlier than
the 4th century BC, and from the same source comes a short
Hebrew recension of Jeremiah that probably underlies the
Greek.

The translation now known as the Septuagint was widely
used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. It
differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew
(Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a
legend (primarily recorded as the Letter of Aristeas) that
seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators
all produced identical texts; supposedly proving its accuracy.

Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and
whole books not included in the Masoretic texts of the
Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally
composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations
of Hebrew books or of Hebrew variants not present in the
Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of
the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than
previously thought. While there are no complete surviving
manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was
based, many[quantify] scholars believe that they represent a
different textual tradition ("Vorlage") from the one that
became the basis for the Masoretic texts.

The Version of Aquila: About 130 AD, Aquila, a convert
to Judaism from Pontus in Asia Minor, translated the
Hebrew Bible into Greek under the supervision of Rabbi
Akiba. Executed with slavish literalness, it attempted to
reproduce the most minute detail of the original, even to the
extent of coining derivations from Greek roots to correspond
to Hebrew usage. Little of it has survived, however, except in
quotations, fragments of the Hexapla (see Origen's Hexapla,
below), and palimpsests (parchments erased and used again)
from the Cairo Geniza.

The Revision of Theodotion: A second revision of the
Greek text was made by Theodotion (of unknown origins)
late in the 2nd century, though it is not entirely clear
whether it was the Septuagint or some other Greek version
that underlay his revision. The new rendering was
characterized by a tendency toward verbal consistency and
much transliteration of Hebrew words.

The translation of Symmachus: Still another Greek
translation was made toward the end of the same century by
Symmachus, an otherwise unknown scholar, who made use of
his predecessors. His influence was small despite the superior
elegance of his work. Jerome did utilize Symmachus for his
Vulgate, but other than that, his translation is known
largely through fragments of the Hexapla.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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Origen's Hexapla: The multiplication of versions
doubtless proved to be a source of increasing confusion in the
3rd century. This situation the Alexandrian theologian
Origen, working at Caesarea between 230 and 240 AD,
sought to remedy. In his Hexapla (“six-fold”) he presented,
in parallel vertical columns, the Hebrew text, the same in
Greek letters, and the versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the
Septuagint, and Theodotion, in that order. In the case of
some books, Psalms for instance, three more columns were
added. The Hexapla serves as an important guide to
Palestinian pre-Masoretic pronunciation of the language.
The main interest of Origen lay in the fifth column, the
Septuagint, which he edited on the basis of the Hebrew. He
used the obels (— or +) and asterisk (*) to mark respectively
words found in the Greek text but not in the Hebrew and vice
versa.

The Hexapla was a work of such magnitude that it is
unlikely to have been copied as a whole. Origen himself
produced an abbreviated edition, the Tetrapla, containing
only the last four columns. The original manuscript of the
Hexapla is known to have been extant as late as c. 600 AD.
Today it survives only in fragments.

Manuscripts and Printed Editions of the Septuagint: The
manuscripts are conveniently classified by papyri uncials
(capital letters) and minuscules (cursive script). The papyri
fragments run into the hundreds, of varying sizes and
importance, ranging from the formative period of the
Septuagint through the middle of the 7th century. Two pre-
Christian fragments of Deuteronomy from Egypt are of
outstanding significance. Although not written on papyrus
but on parchment or leather, the fragments from Qumran of
Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and the leather scroll of the
Minor Prophets from Nahal Uever from the first pre-
Christian and post-Christian centuries, deserve special
mention among the earliest extant. The most important
papyri are those of the Chester Beatty collection, which
contains parts of 11 codices preserving fragments of nine Old
Testament books. Their dates vary between the 2nd and 4th
centuries. During the next 300 years papyri texts multiplied
rapidly, and remnants of about 200 are known.

The uncials are all codices written on vellum between the
4th and 10th centuries. The most outstanding are Vaticanus,
which is an almost complete 4th-century Old Testament,
Sinaiticus, of the same period but less complete, and the
practically complete 5th-century Alexandrinus. These three
originally contained both Testaments. Many others were
partial manuscripts from the beginning. One of the most
valuable of these is the Codex Marchalianus of the Prophets
written in the 6th century.

The minuscule codices begin to appear in the 9th century.
From the 11th to the 16th century they are the only ones
found, and nearly 1,500 have been recorded.

The first printed Septuagint was that of the Complutensian
Polyglot (1514-17). Since it was not released until 1522,
however, the 1518 Aldine Venice edition actually was

available first. The standard edition until modern times was
that of Pope Sixtus V, 1587. In the 19th and 20th centuries
several critical editions have been printed.

Late Antiquity: Christian translations of the Old
Testament also tend to be based upon the Hebrew, though
some denominations prefer the Septuagint (or may cite
variant readings from both). Bible _ translations
incorporating modern textual criticism usually begin with
the Masoretic text, but also take into account possible
variants from all available ancient versions.

2nd century: Origen's Hexapla (c. 235) placed side by side
six versions of the Old Testament: the Hebrew consonantal
text, the Hebrew text transliterated into Greek letters (the
Secunda), the Greek translations of Aquila of Sinope and
Symmachus the Ebionite, one recension of the Septuagint,
and the Greek translation of Theodotion. In addition, he
included three anonymous translations of the Psalms (the
Quinta, Sexta and Septima). His eclectic recension of the
Septuagint had a significant influence on the Old Testament
text in several important manuscripts.

The Peshita - Translation into Syriac-Aramaic

The Bible of the Syriac Churches is known as the Peshitta
(“simple” translation). Though neither the reason for the
title nor the origins of the versions are known, the earliest
translations most likely served the needs of the Jewish
communities in the region of Adiabene (in Mesopotamia),
which are known to have existed as early as the Ist century
AD. This probably explains the archaic stratum
unquestionably present in the Pentateuch, Prophets, and
Psalms of the Peshitta, as well as the undoubtedly Jewish
influences generally, though Jewish-Christians also may have
been involved in the rendering.

In the 2nd century, the Old Testament was translated into
Syriac translation, and the Gospels in the Diatessaron gospel
harmony. The New Testament was translated in the 5th
century, now known as the Peshitta. The Peshita (Syriac:
“simple,” or “common”) is the Syriac-Aramaic version of the
Bible, the accepted Bible of Syrian Christian churches from
the end of the 3rd century AD. Syriac (also Syriac-Aramaic
or modern Aramaic) was the native language of Jesus and his
relatives. The name Peshitta was first employed by Moses bar
Kepha in the 9th century to suggest (as does the name of the
Latin Vulgate) that the text was in common use. The name
also may have been employed in contradistinction to the
more complex Syro-Hexaplar version.

Of the vernacular versions of the Bible, the Old Testament
Peshitta is second only to the Greek Septuagint in antiquity,
dating from probably the Ist and 2nd centuries AD. The
earliest parts in Old Syriac are thought to have been
translated from Hebrew or Aramaic texts by Jewish
Christians at Edessa, although the Old Testament Peshitta
was later revised according to Greek textual principles. The
earliest extant versions of the New Testament Peshitta date

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

to the Sth century AD and exclude The Second Letter of
Peter, The Second Letter of John, the Third Letter of John,
The Letter of Jude, and The Revelation to John, which were
not canonical in the Syrian church.

The Peshitta displays great variety in its style and in the
translation techniques adopted. The Pentateuch is closest to
the Masoretic text, but elsewhere there is much affinity with
the Septuagint. This latter phenomenon might have resulted
from later Christian revision.

Following the split in the Syriac Church in the 5th century
into Nestorian (East Syrian) and Jacobite (West Syrian)
traditions, the textual history of the Peshitta became
bifurcated. Because the Nestorian Church was relatively
isolated, its manuscripts are considered to be superior.

A revision of the Syriac translation was made in the early
6th century by Philoxenos, bishop of Mabbug, based on the
Lucianic recension of the Septuagint. Another (the Syro-
Hexaplaric version) was made by Bishop Paul of Tella in 617
from the Hexaplaric text of the Septuagint. A Palestinian
Syriac version, extant in fragments, is known to go back to
at least 700, and a fresh recension was made by Jacob of
Edessa (died 708).

There are many manuscripts of the Peshitta, of which the
oldest bears the date 442. Only four complete codices are
extant from between the Sth and 12th centuries. No critical
edition yet exists, but one is being prepared by the Peshitta
Commission of the International Organization for the Study
of the Old Testament.

Coptic (Egyptian) Scripture: There have been many Coptic
versions of the Bible, including some of the earliest
translations into any language. Several different versions
were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the
Old and New Testament in five of the dialects of Coptic:
Bohairic (northern), Fayyumic, Sahidic (southern),
Akhmimic and Mesokemic (middle). Biblical books were
translated from the Alexandrian Greek Septuagint.

The first translation into the Sahidic dialect was made at
the end of the 2nd century in Upper Egypt, where Greek was
less well understood. So the Sahidic is famous for being the
first major literary development of the Coptic language,
though literary work in the other dialects soon followed.

Partial copies of a number of Coptic Bibles survive. A
considerable number of apocryphal texts also survive in
Coptic, most notably the Gnostic Nag Hammadi library.
Coptic remains the liturgical language of the Coptic Church
and Coptic editions of the Bible are central to that faith.

Translators of books of the Old Testament into Egyptian
dialects were naturally made from the Alexandrian Greek
version (Septuagint), and there is no reason to doubt that
they were translated at as early a date as the Gospels and
Epistles, if not indeed before them. Portions of the Old
Testament exist in each Egyptian dialect. The two main
dialects, Sahidic and Bohairic, are the most important for
the study of early versions of the New Testament.

In Sahidic, some Biblical books survived with complete text,
as well as a large number of extant fragments representing
most of the canonical and some of the deutero-canonical
books.

The Constantine Bible: In about 330 AD, Emperor
Constantine the Great (full name: Flavius Valerius
Constantinus [280-337 AD] commissioned 50 Bibles for the
Church of Constantinople, and his right-hand man Eusebius
of Caesarea had to deliver them. According to Eusebius,
Constantine wrote him in his letter: "J have thought it
expedient to instruct your Prudence to order fifty copies of
the sacred Scriptures, the provision and use of which you
know to be most needful for the instruction of the Church, to
be written on prepared parchment in a legible manner, and
in a convenient, portable form, by professional transcribers
thoroughly practised in their art."

Eusebius wrote in his biography on Flavius Constantinus
"Life of Constatine": "Such were the emperor's commands,
which were followed by the immediate execution of the work
itself, which we sent him in magnificent and elaborately
bound volumes ofa threefold and fourfold form (written in 3
or 4 columns)."

We know exactly were this commission went to and why. It
was Athanasius of Alexandria who referred to the emperor's
request of producing Bible manuscripts: "I sent to him
volumes containing the holy Scriptures, which he had
ordered me to prepare for him." Athanasius recorded this.
The commission went to Alexandria because this was the spot
where the Septuagint was produced. Alexandria had
traditionally the most and the best Jewish and Christian
scribes in the Mediterranian.

It has been speculated who decided on the final canon lists.
There are not so many possibilities. Constantine was not
interested in those matters. That leaves two decision-makers
who - like in the letters above - coordinated their action:
Eusebius of Caesarea and Athanasius of Alexandria. Both
had strong motivation to force all Church members into line.
As for the Old Testament, they decided to take the document
that was already in place for more than 500 years: the
Septuangint. And the New Testament canon was decided on
those books that were already in circulation in Rome and
Contantinople. All other non-canonical versions had to be
destroyed. But miraculously - like the Dead Sea Scrolls - they
have survived. They have been found in a cave near Nag
Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945.

Two volumes of Constantine's Bibles have been found too.
One is known as 'Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209,’ a volume
written in 3 columns and which has been kept in the Vatican
since 1209 AD, at least. The other one, a 4-column version
was discovered in the years 1844 to 1856 by Constantin von
Tischendorfin the St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai,
Egypt, and is now known as Codex Sinaiticus (See images on
p. 1243 and p. 1244). Both volumes are almost complete,
after 17 centuries! The New Testament had even two more

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books than we can find in modern Bibles: The Shepherd
(pastor) of Hermas and the Letter of Barnabas.

The Codex Alexandrinus and other uncial examples (Bibles
written with capital letters; lower case letters were invented
at c. 800 AD) are productions made some decades later.

4th century AD: The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the
Christian Bible in the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern
Germanic (Gothic) tribes in the 4th century AD. Their
language was very similar to Old High German.

During the third century AD, the Goths, who came from
southern Sweden, lived on the northeast border of the
Roman Empire, in what is now Ukraine, Bulgaria and
Romania. During the fourth century, the Goths were
converted to Christianity, largely through the efforts of the
Arian bishop and missionary Wulfila (or Ulfilas), who is
believed to have invented the Gothic alphabet. It was
developed in the 4th century AD by Wulfila, a Gothic
preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent, for the purpose of
translating the Bible. The alphabet essentially uses uncial
forms of the Greek alphabet, with a few additional letters to
express typical Gothic phonology. Based on analysing the
linguistic properties of the Gothic text, we now know that
Wulfila made the translation with the assistance of a team of
scholars.

During the fifth century, the Goths conquered parts of the
Western Roman Empire, including Italy, southern France,
and Spain. Gothic Christianity reigned in these areas for two
centuries, before the re-establishment of the Catholic Church,
and, in Spain, until the mass Gothic conversion to
Catholicism in 589, after the Third Council of Toledo.

Portions of this translation survive, affording the main
surviving text written in the Gothic language. The Wulfila
Bible, although fragmentary, is the only extensive document
in an ancient East Germanic language and one of the earliest
documents in any Germanic language. Since the other East
Germanic texts are of very limited extent, except maybe
Skeireins, it is of great significance for the study of these
languages.

Gothic Text of The Lord's Prayer in Latin
transliteration, Wulfila Bible, 4th century AD:
Atta unsar pu in himinam,

Weihnai namo pein.

Qimai piudinassus peins.

Wairbai wilja peins.

Swe in himina jah ana airpai.

Hlaif unsarana pana sinteinan gif uns himma daga.
Jah aflet uns patei skulans sijaima,

Swaswe jah weis afletam paim skulam unsaraim.
Jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai,

Ak lausei uns af bamma ubilin;

Unte beina ist piudangardi.

Jah mahts jah wulbus in aiwins.

Amen.

The Vetus Latina: Vetus Latina (meaning: the "Old
Latin"), also known as Vetus Itala ("Old Italian"), Itala
("Italian") and Old Italic, is the collective name given to the
Latin translations of biblical texts (both Old Testament and
New Testament) that preceded the Vulgate (the Latin
translation produced by Jerome in the late 4th century). The
Vetus Latina manuscripts that are preserved today are dated
from AD 350 to the 13th century.

The Vetus Latina translations continued to be used
alongside the Vulgate, but eventually the Vulgate became the
standard Latin Bible used by the Catholic Church, especially
after the Council of Trent (1545-1563) affirmed the Vulgate
translation as authoritative for the text of Catholic Bibles.
However, the Vetus Latina texts survive in some parts of the
liturgy (e.g., the Pater Noster).

There is no single "Vetus Latina Bible". Instead, Vetus
Latina is a collection of biblical manuscript texts that are
Latin translations of Septuagint and New Testament
passages that preceded Jerome's Vulgate.

Old Testament - Some of the oldest surviving Vetus Latina
versions of the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh)
include the Quedlinburg Itala fragment, a 5th-century
manuscript containing parts of | Samuel, and the Codex
Complutensis I, a 10th-century manuscript containing Old
Latin readings of the Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Book of
Tobit, Book of Judith, and 1-2 Maccabees.

New Testament - After comparing readings for Luke 24:4—
5 in Vetus Latina manuscripts, Bruce Metzger counted "at
least 27 variant readings in Vetus Latina manuscripts that
have survived" for this passage alone.

Replacement: When Jerome undertook the revision of Latin
translations of Old Testament texts in the late 4th century, he
checked the Septuagint and Vetus Latina translations
against the Hebrew texts that were then available. He broke
with church tradition and translated most of the Old
Testament of his Vulgate from Hebrew sources rather than
from the Greek Septuagint. His choice was severely criticised
by Augustine, his contemporary; a flood of still less moderate
criticism came from those who regarded Jerome as a forger.
While on the one hand he argued for the superiority of the
Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both
philological and theological grounds, on the other, in the
context of accusations of heresy against him, Jerome would
acknowledge the Septuagint texts as well.

Jerome's Vulgate Latin translation dates to between AD
382 and 405. Latin translations predating Jerome are
collectively known as Vetus Latina texts. Jerome began by
revising these earlier Latin translations, but ended by going
back to the original Greek, bypassing all translations, and
going back to the original Hebrew wherever he could instead
of the Septuagint.

There are also several ancient translations, most important
of which are in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic (including the
Peshitta).

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The Bible Canon in Ethiopia and Eritrea: Between the 4th
to 6th centuries, the Bible was translated into Ge'ez
(Ethiopic). Jewish and Christian traditions in Ethiopia
(Abyssinia) and Eritrea are among the oldest. Probably in
connexion with king Solomon and the queen of Sheba, the
Hebrews turned up in Ethiopia already in the 8th or even the
9th century BC. They built a ‘Jerusalem Temple' in Yeha,
Tigray, which in still standing today as it has just been
restored by Dr Iris Gerlach from the German Archaeological
Institute. The Beta Israel-Jews lived in Ethiopia until they
were rescued from Communist persecution by Israel's Armed
Forces between 1979 and 1990.

The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is a version of the
Christian Bible used in the two Oriental Orthodox Churches
of the Ethiopian and Eritrean traditions: the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox
Tewahedo Church. At 81 books, it is the largest and most
diverse biblical canon in traditional Christendom. Western
scholars have classified the books of the canon into two
categories — the narrower canon, which consists mostly of
books familiar to the West, and the broader canon, which
includes nine additional books:

Old Testament:

* Josippon (Ethiopic Josephus; 1 book)

New Testament:

* Sinodos (4 books)

* Book of Covenant (2 books)

¢ Ethiopic Clement (1 book)

* Didascalia (Church Law; | book)
Furthermore:

¢ 1,2, and 3 Meqabyan (are Ethiopic creations)
Other Books that can appear in some Bibles:
* Fetha Negest, The Law of Kings

* Book of the Cock, a Ge'ez passion gospel of Jesus

The Book of the Cock is a Ge‘ez narrative of the passion of
Jesus (a passion gospel). It is likely based on a vorlage (an
earlier version) in Arabic or Greek. It was probably written
in the 400s or 500s. It uses material from the four gospels
(Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John) and various other sources.

The Vulgate: The Vulgate (also called Biblia Vulgata (the
common language Bible), Latin: sometimes referred to as
the Latin Vulgate, is a late-4th-century Latin translation of
the Bible.

The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome (Full name:
Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; c. 342-420 AD) who,
in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise
the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later,
on his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision
and translation to include most of the books of the Bible.
The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text
within the Western Church. Over succeeding centuries, it
eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina. By the 13th century it
had taken over from the former version the designation

versio vulgata (the "version commonly used") or vulgata for
short. The Vulgate also contains some Vetus Latina
translations that Jerome did not work on.

The Vulgate was to become the Catholic Church's officially
promulgated Latin version of the Bible as the Sixtine
Vulgate (1590), then as the Clementine Vulgate (1592), and
then as the Nova Vulgata (1979). The Vulgate is still
currently used in the Latin Church. The Catholic Church
affirmed the Vulgate as its official Latin Bible at the Council
of Trent (1545-1563), though there was no authoritative
edition at that time.[2] The Clementine edition of the
Vulgate became the standard Bible text of the Roman Rite of
the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the
Nova Vulgata was promulgated.

Terminology: The term "Vulgate" is used to designate the
Latin Bible only since the 16th century. An example of the
use of this word in this sense at the time is the title of the
1538 edition of the Latin Bible by Erasmus: Biblia utriusque
testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem.

Authorship: The Vulgate has a compound text that is not
entirely Jerome's work. Jerome's translation of the four
Gospels are revisions of Vetus Latina translations he did
while having the Greek as reference.

The Latin translations of the rest of the New Testament are
revisions to the Vetus Latina, considered as being made by
Pelagian circles or by Rufinus the Syrian, or by Rufinus of
Aquileia. Several unrevised books of the Vetus Latina Old
Testament also commonly became included in the Vulgate.
These are: 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus,
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah.

Having separately translated the book of Psalms from the
Greek Hexapla Septuagint, Jerome translated all of the
books of the Jewish Bible—the Hebrew book of Psalms
included—from Hebrew himself. He also translated the
books of Tobit and Judith from Aramaic versions, the
additions to the Book of Esther from the Common
Septuagint and the additions to the Book of Daniel from the
Greek of Theodotion.

In the 5th century, Saint Mesrob translated the Bible using
the Armenian alphabet invented by him. Also dating from
the same period is the Georgian translation.

In the 6th century, the Bible was translated into Old
Nubian.

By the end of the 8th century, Church of the East
monasteries (so-called Nestorians) had translated the New
Testament and Psalms (at least, the portions needed for
liturgical use) from Syriac-Aramaic to Sogdian, the lingua
franca in Central Asia of the Silk Road, which was an
Eastern Iranian language with Chinese loanwords, written in
letters and logograms derived from Aramaic script.

Translation into Armenian

The Armenian version is an expression of a nationalist
movement that brought about a separation from the rest of
the Church (mid-5th century), the discontinuance of Syriac

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in Greek worship, and the invention of a national alphabet
by St. Mesrob, also called Mashtots (c. 361-439/440).
According to tradition, St. Mesrob first translated Proverbs
from the Syriac. Existing manuscripts of the official
Armenian recension, however, are based on the Hexaplaric
Septuagint, though they show some Peshitta (Syriac version)
influence. The Armenian Bible is noted for its beauty and
accuracy.

Translation into Georgian

According to Armenian tradition, the Georgian version
was also the work of Mesrob, but the Psalter, the oldest part
of the Georgian Old Testament, is probably not earlier than
the Sth century. Some manuscripts were based upon Greek
versions, others upon the Armenian.

MIDDLE AGES

Early Middle Ages: When ancient scribes copied earlier
books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page
(marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe
accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about
the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were
sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as
part of the text. See textual criticism. Over time, different
regions evolved different versions, each with its own
assemblage of omissions, additions, and variants (mostly in
orthography).

There are some fragmentary Old English Bible translations,
notably a lost translation of the Gospel of John into Old
English by the Venerable Bede, which is said to have been
prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. An
Old High German version of the gospel of Matthew dates to
748. Charlemagne in c. 800 charged Alcuin with a revision
of the Latin Vulgate. The translation into Old Church
Slavonic was started in 863 by Cyril and Methodius.

Alfred the Great, a ruler in England, had a number of
passages of the Bible circulated in the vernacular (language
of the common people) in around 900. These included
passages from the Ten Commandments and the Pentateuch,
which he prefixed to a code of laws he promulgated around
this time. In approximately 990, a full and freestanding
version of the four Gospels in idiomatic Old English
appeared, in the West Saxon dialect; these are called the
Wessex Gospels. Around the same time, a compilation now
called the Old English Hexateuch appeared with the first six
(or, in one version, seven) books of the Old Testament.

Translation into Arabic

There is no reliable evidence of any pre-Islamic Arabic
translation. Only when large Jewish and Christian
communities found themselves under Muslim rule after the
Arab conquests of the 7th century did the need for an Arabic
vernacular Scripture arise. The first and most important was
that of Sa‘adia ben Joseph (892—942), made directly from
Hebrew and written in Hebrew script, which became the
standard version for all Jews in Muslim countries. The

version also exercised its influence upon Egyptian Christians
and its rendering of the Pentateuch was adapted by Abi al-
Hasan to the Samaritan Torah in the 11th—12th centuries.
Another Samaritan Arabic version of the Pentateuch was
made by Abt Sa‘td (Abi al-Barakat) in the 13th century.
Among other translations from the Hebrew, that of the
10th-century Karaite Yaphith ibn ‘Ali is the most
noteworthy.

In 946 a Spanish Christian of Cordova, Isaac son of
Velasquez, made a version of the Gospels from Latin.
Manuscripts of 16th-century Arabic translations of both
testaments exist in Leningrad, and both the Paris and
London polyglots of the 17th century included Arabic
versions. In general, the Arabic manuscripts reveal a
bewildering variety of renderings dependent on Hebrew,
Greek, Samaritan, Syriac, Coptic, and Latin translations. As
such they have no value for critical studies. Several modern
Arabic translations by both Protestants and Catholics were
made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

High Middle Ages: The provincial synods of Toulouse
(1229) and Tarragona (1234) outlawed possession of some
vernacular renderings, in reaction to the Cathar and
Waldensian heresies, in South France and East Spain. There
is evidence of some vernacular translations being permitted
while others were being scrutinized.

The complete Bible was translated into Old French in the
late 13th century. Parts of this translation were included in
editions of the popular Bible historiale, and there is no
evidence of this translation being suppressed by the
Church.[18] The entire Bible was translated into Czech
around 1360.

Late Middle Ages: During the Late Middle Ages,
translation, particularly of the Old Testament was
discouraged in some regions. Translating the Bible carried
the death penalty, the clergy knew exactly that they would
lose power over the populace if everyone could read the Bible
just for themselves.

The Black Death, a pandemic that ravaged Europe between
1347 and 1351, ushered in an enormous paradigm shift. By
killing roughly half of the population, it was taking a
proportionately greater toll of life than any other known
epidemic or war did before. As the pandemic affected high-
dense populations with their well-educated elite, the Church
faced a total collapse. There were not many clercs still alive
who could read and teach a Bible that was written in a
foreign tongue, Latin or Greek. John Wycliffe, an educated
eyewitness, understood that the Bible, the most important
lawbook of the time, had to be translated into the language
of the common people, if Christianity was to survive.

In England, a group of Middle English Bible translations
were created: including the Wycliffe Bibles (1383, 1393) and
the Paues New Testament, based on the Vulgate. New
unauthorised translations were banned in England by the
provincial Oxford Synod in 1408 under church law;

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possession of material that contained Lollard material (such
as the so-called General Prologue found in a few Wycliffite
Bibles) was also illegal by English state law, in response to
Lollard uprisings.

The Hungarian Hussite Bible appeared in 1416. In 1478, a
Catalan translation was made in the dialect of Valencia.

Many parts of the Bible were printed by William Caxton in
his translation of the Golden Legend (1483), and in the loose
paraphrase Speculum Vitae Christi (The Mirror of the
Blessed Life of Jesus Christ), which had been authorized into
English around 1410.

The Gutenberg Bibles: There were recurrences of the
plague in 1361-63, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390, and 1400.
People became fully aware of their vulnerability and an evil
death cult arose. The population of western Europe did not
again reach its pre-1348 level until the beginning of the 16th
century. In this kind of zeitgeist, a man made a systematic
invention that took him about 10 years to perfectionate: In
1455, Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press presented
to the public the result of his work and it caused a revolution
that changed the civilisations of the whole planet.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book extant in
the West and the earliest printed from movable type, so
called after its printer, Johannes Gutenberg (1390s-1468),
who completed it about 1455 working at Mainz, Germany.
The three-volume work, in Latin text, was printed in 42-line
columns and, in its later stages of production, was worked on
by a small assembly line of six compositors who worked
simultaneously. The original number of copies of this work is
unknown; some 40 are still in existence. There are perfect
vellum copies in the U.S. Library of Congress, the French
Bibliotheque Nationale, and the British Library. In the
United States almost-complete texts are in the Huntington,
Morgan, New York Public, Harvard University, and Yale
University libraries. The quantity but in particular the
quality of those printed Bibles went far beyond anything a
single scibe could produce. The surviving Gutenberg Bibles
show their superior quality still today.

German craftsman and inventor who originated a method
of printing from movable type that was used without
important change until the 20th century. The unique
elements of his invention consisted of a mold, with punch-
stamped matrices (metal prisms used to mold the face of the
type) with which type could be cast precisely and in large
quantities; a type-metal alloy; a new press, derived from
those used in wine making, papermaking, and bookbinding;
and an oil-based printing ink. None of these features existed
in Asian or European printing.

For completing one single bible by hand, a scribe needed
roughly 4 years. One just imagine for a moment, what kind
of salary such a well-educated person would get nowadays.
Gutenberg could reduce that laboursome work to a few
weeks. With his invention, Gutenberg made education
affordable. The age of handwritten books ended, the
Renaissance began to free people from ignorance.

APPROACHES TO TRANSLATION

Modern translations take different approaches to the
rendering of the original languages of approaches. The
approaches can usually be considered to be somewhere on a
scale between the two extremes:

¢ Formal equivalence (sometimes called literal translation)
in which the greatest effort is made to preserve the meaning
of individual words and phrases in the original, with
relatively less regard for its understandability by modern
readers. Examples include the King James Version, English
Standard Version, Literal Standard Version, Revised
Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version and New
American Standard Bible.

¢ Dynamic equivalence (or functional equivalence,
sometimes paraphrastic translation) in which the translator
attempts to render the sense and intent of the original.
Examples include The Living Bible and The Message.

Some translations have been motivated by a strong
theological distinctive. In the Sacred Name Bibles the
conviction that God's name be preserved in a Semitic form is
followed. The Purified Translation of the Bible promotes the
idea that Jesus and early Christians drink grape juice not
wine. The Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation of
the Holy Scriptures renders the tetragrammaton as Jehovah
throughout the Old Testament, and it uses the form Jehovah
in the New Testament including — but not limited to —
passages quoting the Old Testament even though it does not
appear in the Greek text.

Single source translations

While most translations attempt to synthesize the various
texts in the original languages, some translations also
translate one specific textual source, generally for scholarly
reasons. A single volume example for the Old Testament is
The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible (ISBN 0-06-060064-0) by
Martin Abegg, Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich.

The Comprehensive New Testament (ISBN 978-0-
9778737-1-5) by T. E. Clontz and J. Clontz presents a
scholarly view of the New Testament text by conforming to
the Nestle-Aland 27th edition and extensively annotating the
translation to fully explain different textual sources and
possible alternative translations.[16][17]

A Comparative Psalter (ISBN 0-19-529760-1) edited by
John Kohlenberger presents a comparative diglot translation
of the Psalms of the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint,
using the Revised Standard Version and the New English
Translation of the Septuagint.

R. A. Knox's Translation of the Vulgate into English is
another example of a single source translation.

Deliberate changes

Apart from mechanical alterations of a text, many variants
must have been consciously introduced by scribes, some by
way of glossing—i.e., the insertion of a more common word
to explain a rare one—and others by explanatory comments
incorporated into the text. Furthermore, a scribe who had

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before him two manuscripts of a single work containing
variant readings, and unable to decide between them, might
incorporate both readings into his scroll and thus create a
conflate text.

Textual criticism: scholarly problems

The situation so far described poses two major scholarly
problems. The first involves the history of the Hebrew text,
the second deals with attempts to reconstruct its “original”
form.

As to when and how a single text type gained hegemony and
then displaced all others, it is clear that the early and
widespread public reading of the Scriptures in the
synagogues of Palestine, Alexandria, and Babylon was bound
to lead to a heightened sensitivity of the idea of a “correct”
text and to give prestige to the particular text form selected
for reading. Also, the natural conservatism of ritual would
tend to perpetuate the form of such a text. The Letter of
Aristeas, a document derived from the middle of the 2nd
century BCE that describes the origin of the Septuagint,
recognizes the distinction between carelessly copied scrolls of
the Pentateuch and an authoritative Temple scroll in the
hands of the high priest in Jerusalem. The Rabbinic
traditions (see above) about the textual criticism of Temple-
based scribes actually reflect a movement towards the final
stabilization of the text in the Second Temple period.
Josephus, writing not long after 70 CE, boasts of the
existence of a long-standing fixed text of the Jewish
Scriptures. The loss of national independence and the
destruction of the spiritual centre of Jewry in 70,
accompanied by an ever-widening Diaspora and the
Christian schism within Judaism, all made the exclusive
dissemination of a single authoritative text a vitally needed
cohesive force. The text type later known as Masoretic is
already well represented at pre-Christian Qumran. Scrolls
from Wadi al-Murabba‘at, Nahal Ze’elim, and Masada
from the 2nd century CE are practically identical with the
received text that by then had gained victory over all its
rivals.

In regard to an attempt to recover the original text of a
biblical passage—especially an unintelligible one—in the
light of variants among different versions and manuscripts
and known causes of corruption, it should be understood
that all reconstruction must necessarily be conjectural and
perforce tentative because of the irretrievable loss of the
original edition. But not all textual difficulties need
presuppose underlying mutilation. The Hebrew Bible
represents but a small portion of the literature of ancient
Israel and, hence, a limited segment of the language. A
textual problem may be the product of present limited
knowledge of ancient Hebrew, because scholars might be
dealing with dialectic phenomena or foreign loan-words.
Comparative Semitic linguistic studies have yielded hitherto
unrecognized features of grammar, syntax, and lexicography
that have often eliminated the need for emendation.
Furthermore, each version, indeed each biblical book within

it, has its own history, and the translation techniques and
stylistic characteristics must be examined and taken into
account. Finally, the number of manuscripts that attest to a
certain reading is of less importance than the weight given to
a specific manuscript.

None of this means that a Hebrew manuscript, an ancient
version, or a conjectural emendation cannot yield a reading
superior to that in the received Hebrew text. It does mean,
however, that these tools have to be employed with great
caution and proper methodology.

Names of Persons

(In ancient times, a name was not only used to identify a
person, it had in most cases a very particular meaning. Like
in nicknames, a name could be used to describe someone as in
'Thomas' which simply meant 'twin'. According to the motto
‘name is programme’, names were also used to fulfill a certain
expectation such as in 'Caesar' which became a title because
of the extraordinary deeds of Julius Caesar.)

Semitic patronym or patronymic suffix (bar, ben, etc.)

* bar, ben, bin = A Semitic patronym, a component of a
personal name meaning "son of".

¢ bar- or bat- (Aramaic: "son of" and "daughter of",
respectively).

¢ ben- or bat- (Hebrew: "son of" and "daughter of",
respectively).

* ben- (bin, ibn, or ibni, ibnu) or bint, (Arabic: "son of"
and "daughter of", respectively).

* beni, bani, banu = plural of the word ben-, bin-, ibn,
which means "sons (and daughters) of", "people of",
"children of", "House of" as in "Beni Israel", Hebrew: "B'nei
Yisrael" or "Bene Israel"; Arabic: "Beni Israel", "Banu
Koreish", "Beni Hashim" etc.

* bet, bit, beta, bita, pl. batte - (Assyrian, Hebrew: house,
dynasty, clan); Beta Israel means 'House of Israel’ denoting
the jews of Ethiopia

* mose (Egyptian: son of); equivalent to Hebrew ben,
Aramaic bar, etc. Mose (Greek: Moses), Ahmose, Dedimose,
Ramose (Ramesses, Ramses), Thutmose, etc.

¢ "Son of Man" = a typological phrase, Hebrew: Ben Adam
or Benodom, meaning "the first human":

1. Old Testament: The Hebrew expression "son of man"
(ben-adam) also appears over 100 times in the Hebrew Bible.
In 32 cases, the phrase appears in its plural form "sons of
men", i.e. human beings. The use of "the Son of man" in the
Christian gospels is unrelated to Hebrew Torah usages as the
use of the definite article in "the Son of man" is a new thing.
There is no example of "the" son of man in Hebrew sources.
The term originates in (the people's language) Aramaic bar
nash / bar nasha. In these sources "son of man" is a regular
expression for "man / human" in general and often serves as
an indefinite pronoun and in none of the extant texts does
"son of man" figure as a title.

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2. New Testament: The expression "the Son of man"
appears 81 times in the Greek text of the four Gospels: 30
times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark, 25 times in Luke and 12
times in John. The use of the definite article in "the Son of
man" in the Greek text of the Christian gospels is original,
and before its use there, no records of its use in any of the
surviving Greek documents of antiquity exist.

¢ "Son of God" = title. Jesus is by many regarded as "the
Son of God." In the first 4 centuries of Christianity, this title
was by no means a clear-cut decision. Dozens of different
church denominations squabbled about Jesus’ status for
centuries, they fought battles over it and persecuted people
who had a different opinion. It was a deadly business. The
Bible says nothing about such title. How did the idea of
giving Jesus this title come about?

Throughout history, emperors and rulers ranging from the
Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1000 BC) in China to Alexander
the Great (c. 360 BC) to the Emperor of Japan (c. 600 AD)
have assumed titles that reflect a filial relationship with
deities. The story of Jesus’ title "son of God" begins with the
Roman emperors.

Background: In 42 BC, Julius Caesar was (by the Senate of
Rome) formally deified as "the divine Julius" (divus Julius)
after his assassination. His adopted son, Octavian (better
known as Augustus, a title given to him 15 years later, in 27
BC) thus became known as divi Tuli filius (son of the divine
Julius) or simply divi filius (son of the god). As a daring and
unprecedented move, Augustus used this title to advance his
political position in the Second Triumvirate, finally
overcoming all rivals for power within the Roman state. The
word applied to Julius Caesar as deified was "divus", not the
distinct word "deus". Thus Augustus called himself Divi
filius, and not Dei filius. The line between been god and god-
like was at times less than clear to the population at large,
and Augustus seems to have been aware of the necessity of
keeping the ambiguity. After him, Tiberius (emperor from
14—37 AD) came to be accepted as the son of divus Augustus.
This title became a tradition which we can see on many
Roman coins ever since.

About 100 years after Julius Caesar, when Titus Flavius
Vespasianus, better known as "Vespasian", became emperor,
this phrase reached its climax of use as he saved the Roman
Empire from total disaster by defeating the Jewish Messianic
Movement. By everyone, he was seen as the 'saviour of the
Empire’. When he died, his son (with the same name) Titus
Flavius Vespasianus, known as "Titus" claimed deity status
for his father. As this has been granted by the Senate, Titus
became 'the Son of God'. And when Titus died, his younger
brother Titus Flavius Domitianus was being called "dominus
et deus" (master and god).

As Christianity (created by the Roman citizen Saul / Paul of
Tarsus) was a Roman religion, this title was taken for Paul's
fictional Jesus as well. The people, who knew the real person
called Jesus, were appalled. They believed in the Ten
Commandments of Moses in which is stated: Thou shalt have

no other God beside me! - early Judaism and early
Christianity broke into several factions upon this dispute.

Name Corruptions and Misleadings

Name corruption, or the distortion of names, is a feature
common in English but not confined to it as we find that
feature also to a lesser extant in other languages. Basically,
we are talking here about abbreviation, a contraction or
otherwise shortened form of the original name. The
development of a word corruption can go so far that the
original is linguistically unrecognisable. In religious texts it
often is created in order to steer the reader away from facts
that might be or could contain an uncomfortable truth that
contradicts a preveiling doctrine of a religion.

Typical examples of name corruption include personal
names such as Pliny, Livy, Ptolemy, Pompey, Antony, Jesus,
Joses, James, Jude, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mary, Marc
Aurel, and many others. Pliny stands for the Roman-Latin
original Plinius, Livy for Livius, Ptolemy for Ptolemaios,
Pompey for Gnaeus Pompeius, Antony for Marcus Antonius;
Jesus (Greek: Iesous) for Joshua (or Yoshua, Yeshua, Yeshu,
or the Hebrew-Aramaic original Yehoshua), Joses for Joseph
(or another form of Jesus), James for Jacob (or Yacob), Jude
for Judas, (or Yehuda, Judeas, Taddeus, Thaddeus),
Matthew for Matheus (or Matthias, Mattathias, or the
original Matityahu), Mark for Marcus, Luke for Lucius,
John for Johannes (or Ioannes, Yonah, Jonah, Yohanan),
Mary for Maria (or Mariam, Maryam), Marc Aurel for
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

"Misleadings" or extreme simplifications via translation
(often deliberate) are names such as Barabbas, Eliazar,
Elymas, Jesus of Nazareth, James the Less, James the brother
of the Lord, James the son of Mary, James the son of Zebedee
or James the son of Alphaeus. Someone who has not studied
linguistics has almost no chance to unravel the labyrinth of
name-giving in antiquity. But in order to understand
scripture one has to do exactly that.

Personal names in Semitic languages (such as Hebrew,
Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic) were historically based on a long
naming system; most Semites did not have given / middle /
family names, but a full chain of names. We find this system
still in Arabic. Let us examine some examples for
clarification: The most common form is the "patronym"
which is a component of a personal name based on the given
name of one's father, grandfather (i.e., an avonym), or an
earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the
name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a "matronym”.
Each is a means of conveying lineage, pretty much like in the
Scandinavian name Robinson which just means "Son of
Robin". Jews have historically used Aramaic patronymic
names and after the Third Jewish-Roman War (132-136
A.D.) they also used Hebrew names.

¢ In Aramaic, the first name was followed by bar- or bat-
("son of" and "daughter of", respectively). In the New
Testament, Simon Peter is called Shimon Bar-Yonah
(Matthew 16:17) which means "son of John" or "son of

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Yohanan" to be precise. Nathanael is called Bartholomew,
refering to the "son of Tolmai" (Hebrew form of the original
Greek: Ptolemaios, Latin: Ptolemaeus, English: Ptolemy,
with the unspeakable "P" removed from it). The titles can
also be figurative, for example in Acts 4:36-37 a man named
Joseph is called Barnabas meaning "son of consolation”.
Aramaic was an international language that had spread from
Palestine to north-western India already around 500 BC.

¢ In the Hebrew patronymic system the first name is
followed by either ben- or bat- ("son of" and "daughter of",
respectively), and then the father's name, mother's name, or
both. Hebrew was a regional language confined mostly to
religious texts.

¢ In Arabic, the word ibn (or bin, ben and sometimes ibni
and ibnu, to show the grammatical case of the noun) is the
equivalent for "son of". Thus, for example, "Ishaq ibn Musa"
means "Isaac son of Moses". In addition, bint means
"daughter of". In Classical Arabic, the word ibn is written as
bn between two names, since the case ending of the first name
then supplies a vowel. Consequently, ibn is often written as
"b.", as bint is often written as "bt.", in name formulas
rendered from Arabic into Roman characters. Thus "Ishaq
ibn Musa" is alternatively written as "Ishaq b. Musa”.
Instead of "son of" The word "Abu" (or "Aba" or "Abi") can
stand before a name and then means "father of", so "Abu
Musa" is the "father of Moses". Arabic, in antiquity known
as Edumean or Edomite, was a regional language around
Petra, Jordan and northern Arabia.

If we take a closer look at the Bible, we can find plenty of
such name constructions. The full name of Barabbas, for
instance, was Jesus (or Yoshua, Yeshua, Yeshu, Yehoshua)
bar Abbas which means nothing else but "Jesus the son of the
father", Eliazar was a soubriquet for Jesus and means "God
has helped". It is the same connotation for Jesus' original
name Yehoshua which means "God (or YHWH, Yahweh,
Jahwe) rescues" or "God is salvation" or more clearly "the
Saviour or Helper from God". It is a name as well as a title!

And so is "Jesus of Nazareth" (or "Iesus Nazarini" or "Jesus
the Nazarene" or "Jesus the Nazorean") just a title and it
means "the Saviour who is the Keeper of the Law (or
Covenant)". The title which is in English very imprecisely
rendered to "of Nazareth" has at least 11 distinct variations:
Nazarene: Nazarene (Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34); Nazarenon
(Mark 16:6); Nazarenos (Mark 10:47); Nazarenou (Mark
14:67, Luke 24:19); Nazorean: Nazoraios (Matthew 2:23,
Luke 18:37, John 19:19 Acts 6:14, 22:8); Nazoraiou
Matthew 26:71, Acts 3:6, Acts 4:10, Acts 26:9; Nazoraion

Acts 24:5, Nazoraion (John 18:5, 18:7, Acts 2:22); Nazareth:

Nazareth (Matthew 21:11, Luke 1:26, 2:4, 2:39, 2:51, Acts
10:38), Nazara (Matthew 4:13, Luke 4:16), Nazaret (Mark
1:9, Matthew 2:23, John 1:45, 1:46)

The title "Nazarene" as "Keeper of the Covenant" may well
have a religious significance instead of denoting a place of
origin. And there can be no doubt, this is exactly what Jesus
did. He and most of his close family members were strict
followers of "Moses' Law", the Covenant, and that is why

Jesus had clashes with Greacofied and Romanised
representatives of the Temple in Jerusalem. He found himself
in a situation comparable to that of Martin Luther 1500
years later. It is a matter of course that the name "Jesus
Christ" is also a title, a double title which we could nicely
translate to "Saviour Messiah" as Christ comes from the
Greek word Kristos for Messiah. In many cases, a name can
reveal the truth about something or someone better than the
entire narrative. A name can be a programme or promise.
For instance the extra name "Caesar" in Caesar Tiberius
bears the message "I will fullfil the political programme of
Julius Caesar". And when we see the entire name "Tiberius
Caesar Divi Augusti filius Augustus" it is much easier to
understand how the bearer of that name perceives himself: "I
am Tiberius, son of Augustus, who was the son of the divine
Caesar". In other words: "I will act according to laws and
legacy of Caesar and Augustus". The Flavian Dynasty had a
similar effect on successors. Titus Flavius Vespasianus (the
father, called "Vespasian" in English) helped creating
Christianity as a Roman religion. And about 200 years later,
another man made Christianity the official religion of the
entire Roman Empire and he emphasised his plans by taking
"Flavius" as family name: Flavius Valerius Aurelius
Constantinus Augustus better known as Constantine I. or
Constantine the Great. His father Marcus Flavius Valerius
Constantius Herculius Augustus took this name for he was
fighting the very same kind of military campaign against the
Celts (Picts) in Scotland as Flavius Vespasianus did. Both
conflicts had to do with destroying an unruly religion for a
new, more peaceful one.

If there was ever a place called Nazareth is still a matter of
debate. Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160-240 A.D.) was the
first who reported the name Nazareth in the 3rd century A.D.
Let us assume that Jesus lived in Nazareth, then it would
have severe implications on the official Church doctrines as
well: Theologian and other scholars are quite certain that
Jesus' language was Aramaic. We know that Aramaic was a
quasi official language for trade that was spoken in the vast
area from the Holy Land to Western India. Nazareth was
only 3.7 miles (6 km) southeast of the City of Sepphoris
which was on the other side of a hill. Sepphoris with its
30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants was not only the provicial
capital but also an important station of the Silk Road from
which were northbound Roads leading to Greece and the
Roman Empire as well as southbound Roads to Egypt and
Ethiopia. There is a high likelihood that Jesus, his father,
and other family members could have worked there as this
Roman city was the largest employer in the region. Some of
the very buildings we still can see in Sepphoris may have been
built by Jesus and his family. They had to walk only one hour
and they most certainly could have met numerous Buddhist
monks and Zoroastrian missionaries from Persia. Jesus could
have, exchanged religious ideas with them and learned lots
about different beliefs without using any interpreter. So is it
really a surprise that the teachings of Jesus contain plenty of
Buddhist and Zoroastrian philosophies? It is quite

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remarkable that Sepphoris and most of Galilee did not take
part in the Jewish-Roman War. Sepphoris declared herself

"Eirenopolis" (City of Peace) as a coin minted at that time (c.

65 A.D.) clearly tells us.

When we read the New Testament with the highest possible
conscienceness, we can discover almost two dozen members of
Jesus’ family. Elymas is one of them. He is also known as Bar-
Jesus (Greek: Bariesou, Latin: Bariesu), a Jew in the Acts of
the Apostles, Chapter 13. Bar Iesou means "Son of Joshua"
or "Son of Jesus" in Aramaic.

There is James the Less who is none other than James the
brother of the Lord, James the son of Mary, James the son of
Alphaeus, and probably James the son of Zebedee. All of
them are likely to refer to James the brother of Jesus.

Joseph the "carpenter" was Jesus father but no carpenter.
Instead of "carpenter", in the Greek original we find the
word "tekton" which means "builder", "mason", or
"architect" (arch-builder). This is also a very suitable term
for someone who builds a book or a family.

There were two men named Alphaeus which is also a
synonym for "the first one" like in "Alphabet"; or Adam
which means "the (first) man". One of them was the father of
the apostle James and the other the father of Matthew (also
called Levi, meaning "joined to" or "joining"; Levi,
according to the Book of Genesis, was the third son of Yacob
and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi).
Though both Matthew and James are described as being the
"son of Alphaeus,” there is no Biblical account of the two
being called brothers, even in the same context where John
and James or Peter and Andrew are described as being
brothers.

Another important person is Matthew, or to be precise,
Joseph (Yosef or Yosip or Yosippon) the son of Matthew
(Yosef bar Matityahu). This is a historical person we all
know under the name Titius Flavius Josephus the historian,
adoptive son to Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus (the
father), adoptive brother to Titus Flavius Vespasianus (the
son), Titus Flavius Domitianus, and Flavia Domitilla Minor
(also called Flavia Domitilla the Younger) who was mother
of Flavia Domitilla the Christian saint. She married her
cousin, the consul Titus Flavius Clemens, a grand-nephew of
Vespasian through his father Titus Flavius Sabinus (consul
AD 69). According to Cassius Dio, Clemens was put to death
per order of Titus Flavius Domitianus on a charge of
"atheism" (apostacy, that is rejecting the traditional Roman
gods), for which, he adds, many others who went over to the
Jewish opinions were executed. This may imply that Clemens
had converted to Judaism or Christianity. It is no surprise
that the name Titus Flavius Clemens turned up elsewhere as
Pope Clemens I (real name: Titus Flavius Clemens) who died
at about the same time at the very end of the Ist century A.D.
The entire Flavian family became engulfed in a religious
struggle between Roman traditions and the new, probably
by Flavius Josephus, created or at least promoted, Christian
movement which left a deep rift inside the Flavian family; the
Roman citizen Saul of Tarsos, better known as Paul the

Apostle, might have played an important part here. At
around the years 63 or 64, both, Josephus and Paul, were in
Rome. Did they meet there? What were they doing there?
Both have been in Roman service of some sort.

An interesting question here might be: Was Yosef bar
Matityahu the son of Matityahu (Matthew) the Apostle? -
And might he have been the author of the famous Gospel of
Matthew? The first part of that question is unanswerable.
But the second part shifts Flavius Josephus' authorship
clearly into an area of possibility. Due to the distruction of
the Great Temple in Jerusalem, the Romans did not only
carry loot made of gold to Rome but also the most valuable
items of them all: the original Jewish scripture from the
Temple Library! They all were brought to Rome, directly
into the palace of the new emperor Flavius Vespasianus.
Flavius Josephus took residence in that palace. He lived next
door to the emperor as well as next door to the Flavian
Library with the valuable scripture.

In fact, Josephus was made Chief Propagandist of the
Flavian dynasty. And he ruthlessly took revenge on the
Messianic Movement who had taken his family hostage at the
beginning of the war and had killed them when they heard
that he was captured alive by the Flavians. We even can see,
through all the scripture that came to us as well as those ones
that were not supposed to survive (such as the Dead Sea
Scrolls), what Josephus personal objective might have been.

His first objective, as a Jew, was to keep the Tanakh with its
Torah untouched. Objective number 2 was to reform the
Jewish Law Code, the Mishnah Sanhedrin. Objective number
3 was destroying the fundamentalistic, jihadist and hateful
writings of the Jewish Messianic movement. Objective
number 4 was to replace the hatepreachings of the violent
Messianic Movement with the peaceful writings full of Jesus’
ideas. Josephus was very successful in completing his
objectives. He eliminated all anti-Roman mentionings with
one exception: the writings left by members of the jihadist
Messianic Movement found in 1947 in the Qumran caves at
the shore of the Dead Sea.

The first 3 canonical gospels may be the result of this strive
and also the fact that all New Testament texts have a pro-
Roman perspective. The New Testament was in its entirety
written in Greek for very good reasons.

1. Knowing the things said above, it is quite feasable that
the authors of the New Testament were Greek-speaking
Roman Citizens. Greek was the language of the educated
elite and the tradesmen.

2. It was written in Greek in order to address a certain
clientel of people: the upper class and elite of the Roman
Empire of which Flavius Josephus was a member by birth.
Only members of this elite had a chance to enfluence the
masses with success. Just like English today is the language of
the ruling class in almost every country on Earth, so was it
Greek in Roman Antiquity. This includes the Jewish upper
class, the emperors' family, the aristocracy, the senate of
Rome, traders, officers and anyone else who could afford
good education--and that meant learning Greek.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3. Through Josephus, Roman leaders began to grasp that
all Jewish religions were based on scripture, and not on
public services and sacrifices alone like in the rest of the
Empire. They hoped that the installation of peaceful
scripture could undermine the goals of the Messianic
Movement and show that living in peace with Greeks and
Romans has clear advantages. This is the reason why all New
Testament writings depict Jesus' Holy Land as idealised
postoral landscape although in reality it was a horrifying
warzone for generations. Josephus reported that the Jewish-
Roman War cost 1.1 million lives. This means that this war
had world war character with all its slaughter, co-lateral
damage, famine, desease, epidemics, murder and rape.

Modern Translation Efforts

The Bible is the most translated book in the world. The
United Bible Societies announced that as of 31 December
2007 the complete Bible was available in 438 languages, 123
of which included the deuterocanonical material as well as
the Tanakh and New Testament. Either the Tanakh or the
New Testament was available in an additional 1,168
languages, in some kind of translations, like the interlinear
morpheme-by-morpheme translation (e.g. some Parallel
Bible, with interlinear morphemic glossing).

In 1999, Wycliffe Bible Translators announced Vision
2025—a project that intends to commence Bible translation
in every remaining language community by 2025. It was
realised that, at the rates of Bible translation at that point, it
would take until at least 2150 until Bible translation began
in every language that was needing a translation. Since the
launch of Vision 2025, Bible translation efforts have
increased dramatically, in large part due to the technology
that is now available. Due to the increase, at current rates,
Bible translation will begin in every language by 2038, thus
being 112 years faster.

As of September 2023, they estimated that around 99.8
million people spoke those 1,268 languages where
translation work still needs to begin. This represents 17.1%
of all languages (based off an estimate of 7,394 total
languages) and 1.3% of the human population (based of a
global population of 7.42 billion).

In total, there are 3,736 languages without any Bible
translation at all, but an estimated 1,148 of these (with a
population of 9.6 million people) are likely to never need a
Bible because they are very similar to other languages, or
spoken by very few speakers where the language will die out
very soon.

Bible translation is currently happening in 3,283 languages
in 167 countries. This work impacts 1.15 billion people, or
about 15.5 percent of all language users, who have (or will
soon have) new access to at least some portions of Scripture
in their first language.

Popularity in US: The Evangelical Christian Publishers
Association release monthly and annual statistics regarding
the popularity of different Bibles sold by their members in

the United States. In 2023, the top 10 best-selling
translations were the following:

1. New International Version

2. King James Version

3. English Standard Version

4. New Living Translation

5. Christian Standard Bible

6 New King James Version

7 Reina-Valera (Spanish)

8 New International Reader's Version

9 New American Standard Bible

10 New Revised Standard Version

Sales are affected by denomination and religious affiliation.
For example, the most popular Jewish version would not
compete with rankings of a larger audience. Sales data can be
affected by the method of marketing. Some translations are
directly marketed to particular denominations or local
churches, and many Christian booksellers only offer
Protestant Bibles, so books in other biblical canons (such as
Catholic and Orthodox Bibles) may not appear as high on
the CBA rank.

A study published in 2014 by The Center for the Study of
Religion and American Culture at Indiana University and
Purdue University found that Americans read versions of the
Bible as follows:

1. King James Version (55%)

2. New International Version (19%)

3. New Revised Standard Version (7%)

4. New American Bible (6%)

5. The Living Bible (5%)

6. All other translations (8%)

Differences in Bible translations

Modern critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly
research, including discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments
from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in some cases within
a few decades of the original New Testament writings. Today,
most critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such as
UBS4 and NA27, consider the Alexandrian text-type
corrected by papyri, to be the Greek text that is closest to the
original autographs. Their apparatus includes the result of
votes among scholars, ranging from certain {A} to doubtful
{E}, on which variants best preserve the original Greek text
of the New Testament.

Critical editions that rely primarily on the Alexandrian
text-type inform nearly all modern translations (and
revisions of older translations). For reasons of tradition,
however, some translators prefer to use the Textus Receptus
for the Greek text, or use the Majority Text which is similar
to it but is a critical edition that relies on earlier manuscripts
of the Byzantine text-type. Among these, some argue that the
Byzantine tradition contains scribal additions, but these
later interpolations preserve the orthodox interpretations of
the biblical text—as part of the ongoing Christian
experience—and in this sense are authoritative. Distrust of

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the textual basis of modern translations has contributed to
the King-James-Only Movement.

Dynamic or formal translation policy

A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological
approaches to translation have been used. Inside the Bible-
translation community, these are commonly categorized as:

1. Dynamic equivalence translation

2. Formal equivalence translation (similar to literal
translation)

3. Idiomatic, or paraphrastic translation, as used by the
late Kenneth N. Taylor

though modern linguists, such as Bible scholar Dr. Joel
Hoffman, disagree with this classification.

Other translation approaches include:

4. Literary translation, where the reader's experience of the
piece as literature is prized, as used used in the Knox Bible

5. Metrical translation, where prose is rendered in a
rhythmic form, as represented by Old English and Middle
English texts

6. Prose translation, where no attempt is made to render
the lyrical aspect of some poem or song, as King Alfred's
prose translation of the first fifty Psalms.

As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible,
like all languages, have some idioms and concepts not easily
translated, there is in some cases an ongoing critical tension
about whether it is better to give a word-for-word
translation, to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom
in the target language, or to invent a neologism.

For instance, in the Douay Rheims Bible, Revised Standard
Version Catholic Edition, New American Bible Revised
Edition, which are the English language Catholic
translations, as well as Protestant translations like the King
James Bible, the Darby Bible, the Recovery Version, the
Literal Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version,
the Modern Literal Version, and the New American
Standard Bible are seen as more literal translations (or
"word-for-word").

Translations like the New International Version and New
Living Translation sometimes attempt to give relevant
parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two
paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original
meaning in contemporary language.

The further away one gets from word-for-word translation,
the easier the text becomes to read while relying more on the
theological, linguistic or cultural understanding of the
translator, which one would not normally expect a lay reader
to require. On the other hand, as one gets closer to a word-
for-word translation, the text becomes more literal but still
relies on similar problems of meaningful translation at the
word level and makes it difficult for lay readers to interpret
due to their unfamiliarity with ancient idioms and other
historical and cultural contexts.

Doctrinal differences and translation policy

In addition to linguistic concerns, theological issues also
drive Bible translations. Some translations of the Bible,
produced by single churches or groups of churches, may be
seen as subject to a point of view by the translation
committee.

For example, the New World Translation, produced by
Jehovah's Witnesses, provides different renderings where
verses in other Bible translations support the deity of Christ.
The NWT also translates kurios as "Jehovah" rather than
"Lord" when quoting Hebrew passages that used YHWH.
The authors believe that Jesus would have used God's name
and not the customary kurios. On this basis, the anonymous
New World Bible Translation Committee inserted Jehovah
into the New World Translation of the Christian Greek
Scriptures (New Testament) a total of 237 times while the
New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old
Testament) uses Jehovah a total of 6,979 times to a grand
total of 7,216 in the entire 2013 Revision New World
Translation of the Holy Scriptures while previous revisions
such as the 1984 revision were a total of 7,210 times while
the 1961 revision were a total of 7,199 times.

A number of Sacred Name Bibles (e.g., the Sacred
Scriptures Bethel Edition) have been published that are even
more rigorous in transliterating the tetragrammaton using
Semitic forms to translate it in the Old Testament and also
using the same Semitic forms to translate the Greek word
Theos (God) in the New Testament—usually Yahweh,
Elohim or some other variation.

Other translations are distinguished by smaller but
distinctive doctrinal differences. For example, the Purified
Translation of the Bible, by translation and explanatory
footnotes, promoting the position that Christians should not
drink alcohol, that New Testament references to "wine" are
translated as "grape juice”.

Translations triggered by the Reformation

In the 16th century, the Bible was not only a sacred book
but also a secret book. Martin Luther had a Bible in his hand
the very first time when he entered university. Bible
translation existed before but they were made for the scholars
only. Luther ruthlessly used Gutenberg's new invention of
the printing system, snatched the Bible from clerics and laid
it into the hand of the believers. His revolution was about
language as much as about religion and power politics of the
ruling Roman (Catholic) Church. He created a new German
language by putting features of all dialects together and by
doing so, he woke up the national consciousness among
Germans they were not aware of at first; and he encouraged
Tyndale and others to do the very same.

The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament
appeared in 1516 from the Froben press, by Desiderius
Erasmus, who reconstructed a Greek text from several recent
manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type, to accompany his
Latin revision and philological annotations. He produced
four later editions of this text. Erasmus was Catholic, and his

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

ad fontes preference for the Greek manuscripts rather than
the Latin Vulgate led some traditionalist theologians to view
him with suspicion. This Latin, Greek and annotations were
used by subsequent Reformation vernacular translators.

The first complete Dutch Bible, partly based on the existing
portions of Luther's translation, was printed in Antwerp in
1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt.

The first printed edition with critical apparatus (noting
variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by
the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The Greek text
of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as the
Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to
it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it as the text
nunc ab omnibus receptum ("now received by all").

The churches of the Protestant Reformation translated the
Greek of the Textus Receptus to produce vernacular Bibles,
such as the German Luther Bible (1522), the Polish Brest
Bible (1563), the Spanish "Biblia del Oso" (in English: Bible
of the Bear, 1569) which later became the Reina-Valera
Bible upon its first revision in 1602, the Czech Melantrich
Bible (1549) and Bible of Kralice (1579-1593) and
numerous English translations of the Bible. Tyndale's New
Testament translation (1526, revised in 1534, 1535 and
1536) and his translation of the Torah (1530, 1534;
Pentateuch, 5 Books of Moses) and the Book of Jonah were
met with heavy sanctions given the widespread belief that
Tyndale changed the Bible as he attempted to translate it.
Tyndale's unfinished work, cut short by his execution, was
supplemented by Myles Coverdale and published under a
pseudonym to create the Matthew Bible, the first complete
English translation of the Bible. Attempts at an
"authoritative" English Bible for the Church of England
would include the Great Bible of 1538 (also relying on
Coverdale's work), the Bishops' Bible of 1568, and the
Authorized Version (the King James Version) of 1611, the
last of which would become a standard for English speaking
Christians for several centuries.

The first complete French Bible was a translation by
Jacques Lefévre d'Etaples, published in 1530 in Antwerp.
The Froschauer Bible of 1531 and the Luther Bible of 1534
(both appearing in portions throughout the 1520s) were an
important part of the Reformation.

The first English translations of Psalms (1530), Isaiah
(1531), Proverbs (1533), Ecclesiastes (1533), Jeremiah
(1534) and Lamentations (1534), were executed by the
Protestant Bible translator George Joye in Antwerp. In 1535
Myles Coverdale published the first complete English Bible
also in Antwerp.

By 1578 both Old and New Testaments were translated to
Slovene by the Protestant writer and theologian Jurij
Dalmatin. The work was not printed until 1583. The
Slovenes thus became the 12th nation in the world with a
complete Bible in their language. The translation of the New
Testament was based on the work by Dalmatin's mentor, the
Protestant Primoz Trubar, who published the translation of

the Gospel of Matthew already in 1555 and the entire
testament by parts until 1577.

Following the distribution of a Welsh New Testament and
Prayer Book to every parish Church in Wales in 1567,
translated by William Salesbury, Welsh became the 13th
language into which the whole Bible had been translated in
1588, through a translation by William Morgan, the bishop
of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.

Samuel Bogustaw Chylinski (1631-1668) translated and
published the first Bible translation into Lithuanian.

In 1660, John Eliot published the Eliot Indian Bible in the
language of the Massachusett people, an indigenous
American group who lived in the area around what is today
Boston, Massachusetts. This was the first translation of the
Bible into an indigenous American language. This
translation was produced by Eliot in an effort to convert the
dwindling population of Massachusett to Christianity in
praying towns such as Natick, Massachusetts.

Slavic Versions

The earliest Old Church Slavonic translations are
connected with the arrival of the brothers Cyril and
Methodius in Moravia in 863, and resulted from the desire to
provide vernacular renderings of those parts of the Bible
used liturgically. The oldest manuscripts derive from the
11th and 12th centuries. The earliest complete Bible
manuscript, dated 1499, was used for the first printed
edition (Ostrog, 1581). This was revised in Moscow in 1633
and again in 1712. The standard Slavonic edition is the St.
Petersburg revision of 1751, known as the Bible of Elizabeth.

The printing of parts of the Bulgarian Bible did not begin
until the mid-19th century. A fresh vernacular version of the
whole Bible was published at Sofia in 1925, having been
commissioned by the Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox
Church.

The Serbian and Croatian literary languages are identical;
they differ only in the alphabet they use. To further the
dissemination of Protestantism among the southern Slavs,
Count Jan Ungnad set up a press in 1560 at Urach that
issued a translation of the New Testament, in both Glagolitic
(1562-63) and Cyrillic (1563) characters. The efforts of the
Serbian leader Vuk Karadzié to establish the Serbo-Croatian
vernacular on a literary basis resulted in a new translation of
the New Testament (Vienna, 1847) that went through many
revisions.

The spread of the Lutheran Reformation to the Slovene-
speaking provinces of Austria stimulated the need for
vernacular translations. The first complete Slovene Bible,
translated from the original languages but with close
reference to Luther's German, was made by Jurij Dalmatin
(Wittenberg, 1584). Not until two centuries later did a
Slovene Roman Catholic version, rendered from the Latin
Vulgate, appear (Laibach, 1784—1802).

Between the 9th and 17th centuries the literary and
ecclesiastical language of Russia was Old Slavonic. A
vernacular Scriptures was thus late in developing. An

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

incomplete translation into the Belorussian dialect was
prepared by Franciscus Skorina (Prague, 1517-19) from the
Latin Vulgate and Slavonic and Bohemian versions, but not
until 1821 did the first New Testament appear in Russian, an
official version printed together with the Slavonic. With the
more liberal rule of Alexander II, the Holy Synod sponsored
a fresh version of the Gospels in 1860. The Old Testament
was issued at St. Petersburg in 1875. A Jewish rendering was
undertaken by Leon Mandelstamm, who published the
Pentateuch in 1862 (2nd ed., 1871) and the Psalter in 1864.
Prohibited in Russia, it was first printed in Berlin. A
complete Bible was published in Washington in 1952.

No manuscript in the Czech vernacular translation is
known to predate the 14th century, but at least 50 complete
or fragmentary Bibles have survived from the 15th. The first
complete Bible was published in Prague in 1488 in a text
based on earlier, unknown translations connected with the
heretical Hussite movement. The most important production
of the century, however, was that associated principally with
Jan Blahoslav. Based on the original languages, it appeared
at Kralice in six volumes (1579-93). The Kralice Bible is
regarded as the finest extant specimen of classical Czech and
became the standard Protestant version.

Closely allied to the Czech language, but not identical with
it, Slovakian became a literary language only in the 18th
century. A Roman Catholic Bible made from the Latin
Vulgate by Jiti Palkovi %3 was printed in the Gothic script
(2 vol. Gran, 1829, 1832) and another, associated with
Richard Osvald, appeared at Trnava in 1928. A Protestant
New Testament version of Josef Roha 3 ek was published at
Budapest in 1913 and his completed Bible at Prague in 1936.
A new Slovakian version by Stefan ZlatoS and Anton Jan
Surjansky was issued at Trnava in 1946.

A manuscript of a late 14th-century Psalter is the earliest
extant example of the Polish vernacular Scriptures, and
several books of the Old Testament have survived from the
translation made from the Czech version for Queen Sofia
(Sarospatak Bible, 1455). Otherwise, post-Reformation
Poland supplied the stimulus for biblical scholarship. The
New Testament first appeared in a two-volume rendering
from the Greek by the Lutheran Jan Seklucjan (K6nigsberg,
1553). The “Brest Bible” of 1563, sponsored by Prince
Radziwitt, was a Protestant production made from the
original languages. A version of this edition for the use of
Socinians (Unitarians) was prepared by the Hebraist Szymon
Budny (Nieswicz, 1570-82), and another revision, primarily
executed by Daniel Mikotajewski and Jan Turnowski (the
“Danzig Bible”) in 1632, became the official version of all
Evangelical churches in Poland. This edition was burnt by

the Catholics and had to be subsequently printed in Germany.

The standard Roman Catholic version (1593, 1599) was
prepared by Jakob Wujek whose work, revised by the Jesuits,
received the approval of the Synod of Piotrkow in 1607. A
revised edition was put out in 1935.

Hungarian versions

The spread of Lutheranism in the Reformation period gave
rise to several vernacular versions. Janos Sylvester (Erd6s1)
produced the first New Testament made from the Greek
(Sarvar, 1541). The Turkish occupation of much of Hungary
and the measures of the Counter-Reformation arrested
further printing of the vernacular Bible, except in the semi-
independent principality of Transylvania. The first complete
Hungarian Bible, issued at Vizsoly in 1590, became the
Protestant Church Bible.

In the 20th century, a new standard edition for Protestants
was published, the New Testament appearing in 1956 and
the Old Testament (Genesis to Job) in 1951 and following. A
new modernized Catholic edition of the New Testament from
the Greek appeared in Rome in 1957.

Non-European Versions

Translations of parts of the Bible are known to have existed
in only seven Asian and four African languages before the
15th century. In the 17th century Dutch merchants began to
interest themselves in the missionary enterprise among non-
Europeans. A pioneer was Albert Cornelius Ruyl, who is
credited with having translated Matthew into High Malay in
1629, with Mark following later. Jan van Hasel translated
the two other Gospels in 1646 and added Psalms and Acts in
1652. Other traders began translations into Formosan
Chinese (1661) and Sinhalese (1739).

A complete printed Japanese New Testament reputedly
existed in Miyako in 1613, the work of Jesuits. The first
known printed New Testament in Asia appeared in 1715 in
the Tamil language done by Bartholomius Ziegenbalg, a
Lutheran missionary. A complete Bible followed in 1727. Six
years later the first Bible in High Malay came out.

The distinction of having produced the first New Testament
in any language of the Americas belongs to John Eliot, a
Puritan missionary, who made it accessible to the
Massachusetts Indians in 1661. Two years later he brought
out the Massachusetts Indian Bible, the first Bible to be
printed on the American continent.

By 1800 the number of non-European versions did not
exceed 13 Asian, four African, three American, and one
Oceanian. With the founding of missionary societies after
1800, however, new translations were viewed as essential to
the evangelical effort. First came renderings in those
languages that already possessed a written literature. A
group at Serampore (in India) headed by William Carey, a
Baptist missionary, produced 28 versions in Indian
languages. Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary
to China, translated the New Testament into Chinese in 1814
and completed the Bible by 1823. Adoniram Judson, an
American missionary, rendered the Bible into Burmese in
1834.

With European exploration of the African continent often
came the need to invent an alphabet, and in many instances
the translated Scriptures constituted the first piece of written

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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literature. In the 19th century the Bible was translated into
Amharic, Malagasy, Tswana, Xosa, and Ga.

In the Americas, James Evans invented a syllabary for the
use of Cree Indians, in whose language the Bible was
available in 1862, the work of W. Mason, also a Wesleyan
missionary. The New Testament appeared in Ojibwa in 1833,
and the whole Bible was translated for the Dakota Indians in
1879. The Labrador Eskimos had a New Testament in 1826
and a complete Bible in 1871.

In Oceania, the New Testament was rendered into Tahitian
and Javanese in 1829 and into Hawaiian and Low Malay in
1835. By 1854 the whole Bible had appeared in all but the
last of these languages as well as in Rarotonga (1851).

In the 20th century the trend toward the development of
non-European Bible translations was characterized by an
attempt to produce “union” or “standard” versions in the
common language underlying different dialects. One such is
the Swahili translation (1950) that makes the Scriptures
accessible to most of East Africa. Within the realm of non-
European translation there has also been a movement for the
updating of versions to bring them in line with the spoken
language, especially through the use of native Christian
scholars. The first example of this was the colloquial
Japanese version of 1955.

By 1970 some part, if not the entire Bible, had been
translated into more than 100 languages or dialects spoken
in India and over 300 in Africa.

TRANSLATIONS INTO ROMANCE LANGUAGES

(Italian, Spanish, Portugiese, French)

Italian Versions

The vernacular Scriptures made a relatively late appearance
in Italy. Existing manuscripts of individual books derive
from the 13th century and mainly consist of the Gospels and
the Psalms.

These medieval versions were never made from the original
languages. They were influenced by French and Provencal
renderings as well as by the form of the Latin Vulgate
current in the 12th and 13th centuries in southern France.
There is evidence for a Jewish translation made directly from
the Hebrew as early as the 13th century.

The first printed Italian Bible appeared in Venice in 1471,
translated from the Latin Vulgate by Niccolo Malermi. In
1559 Paul IV proscribed all printing and reading of the
vernacular Scriptures except by permission of the church.
This move, reaffirmed by Pius IV in 1564, effectively stopped
further Catholic translation work for the next 200 years.

The first Protestant Bible (Geneva, 1607, revised 1641)
was the work of Giovanni Diodati, a Hebrew and Greek
scholar. Frequently reprinted, it became the standard
Protestant version until the 20th century. Catholic activity
was renewed after a modification of the ban by Pope
Benedict XIV in 1757. A complete Bible in translation made
directly from the Hebrew and Greek has been in progress
under the sponsorship of the Pontifical Biblical Institute
since the 1920s.

Spanish Versions

The history of the Spanish Scriptures is unusual in that
many of the translations were based, not on the Latin
Vulgate, but on the Hebrew, a phenomenon that is to be
attributed to the unusual role played by Jews in the
vernacular movement.

Nothing is known from earlier than the 13th century when
James I of Aragon in 1233 proscribed the possession of the
Bible in “romance” (the Spanish vernacular) and ordered
such to be burnt. Several partial Old Testament translations
by Jews as well as a New Testament from a Visigoth Latin
text are known from this century. In 1417 the whole Bible
was translated into Valencian Catalan, but the entire edition
was destroyed by the Inquisition.

Between 1479 and 1504, royal enactments outlawed the
vernacular Bible in Castile, Leon, and Aragon, and the
expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 transferred the
centre of Spanish translation activity to other lands. In 1557,
the first printed Index of Forbidden Books of the Spanish
Inquisition prohibited the “Bible in Castilian romance or
any other vulgar tongue,” a ban that was repeated in 1559
and remained in force until the 18th century. In 1916 the
Hispano-Americana New Testament appeared in Madrid as
an attempt to achieve a common translation for the entire
Spanish-speaking world. The first Roman Catholic
vernacular Bible from the original languages was made
under the direction of the Pontifical University of Salamanca
(Madrid, 1944, 9th ed. 1959).

Portuguese Versions

The first Portuguese New Testament (Amsterdam), the
work of Joao Ferreira d'Almeida, did not appear until 1681.
The first complete Bible (2 vol., 1748-53) was printed in
Batavia (in Holland). Not until late in the 18th century did
the first locally published vernacular Scriptures appear in
Portugal. A revision of d'Almeida was issued in Rio de
Janeiro (in Brazil), the New Testament in 1910 and the
complete Bible in 1914 and 1926; an authorized edition in
modernized orthography was published by the Bible Society
of Brazil (New Testament, 1951; Old Testament, 1958). A
new translation of the New Testament from Greek by José
Falc4o came out in Lisbon (1956-65).

French Versions

The deep conflicts that characterized the history of
Christianity in France made it difficult for one authoritative
version to emerge.

The first complete Bible was produced in the 13th century
at the University of Paris and toward the end of that century
Guyart des Moulins executed his Bible Historiale. Both
works served as the basis of future redactions of which the
Bible printed in Paris (date given variously as 1487, 1496,
1498) by order of King Charles VIII, is a good example.

The real history of the French Bible began in Paris, in 1523,
with the publication of the New Testament, almost certainly
the work of the Reformer Jacques Lefévre d'Etaples (Faber

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Stapulensis). The Old Testament appeared in Antwerp in
1528 and the two together in 1530 as the Antwerp Bible.
The first true Protestant version came out in Serriéres, near
Neuchatel, five years later, the work of Pierre Robert, called
Olivétan. This version was frequently revised throughout the
16th century, the most celebrated editions being Calvin's of
1546 and that of Robert Estienne (Stephanus) of 1553. The
Roman Catholics produced a new version, the Louvain Bible
of 1550, based on both Lefevre and Olivetan.
Modernizations of Olivetan appeared in succeeding centuries.
The most important French version of the 20th century is the
Jerusalem Bible prepared by professors at the Dominican
Ecole Biblique de Jérusalem (Paris, 1949-54, complete,
1956).

TRANSLATIONS INTO GERMANIC LANGUAGES
(German, Dutch, Scandinavian, English)

Translation into German

The early Old Testament in Gothic has already been
described. The New Testament remains are far more extensive
and are preserved mainly in the Codex Argenteus (c. 525)
and Codex Gissensis. The translation, essentially based on a
Byzantine text, is exceedingly literal and not homogeneous.
It is difficult to determine the degree of contamination that
the original Gospels translation of Ulfilas had undergone by
the time it appeared in these codices.

Nothing is known of the vernacular Scriptures in Germany
prior to the 8th century when an idiomatic translation of
Matthew from Latin into the Bavarian dialect was made.
From Fulda (in Germany) c. 830 came a more literal East
Franconian German translation of the Gospel story. In the
same period was produced the Heliand (“Saviour”), a
versified version of the Gospels. Such poetic renderings
cannot, strictly speaking, be regarded as translations. There
is evidence, however, for the existence of German Psalters
from the 9th century on. By the 13th century, the different
sects and movements that characterized the religious
situation in Germany had stimulated a demand for popular
Bible reading. Since all the early printed Bibles derived from
a single family of late 14th-century manuscripts, German
translations must have gained wide popularity. Another
impetus towards the use of the German Scriptures in this
period can be traced to mystics of the Upper Rhine. A
complete New Testament, the Augsburg Bible, can be dated
to 1350, and another from Bohemia, Codex Teplensis (c.
1400), has also survived.

The Wenzel Bible, an Old Testament made between 1389
and 1400, is said to have been ordered by King Wenceslas,
and large numbers of 15th-century manuscripts have been
preserved.

The first printed Bible (the Mentel Bible) appeared at
Strassburg no later than 1466 and ran through 18 editions
before 1522. Despite some evidence that ecclesiastical
authority did not entirely look with favour upon this
vernacular development, the printed Bible appeared in

Germany earlier, and in more editions and in greater
quantity than anywhere else.

A new era opened up with the work of Martin Luther, to
whom a translation from the original languages was a
necessary and logical conclusion of his doctrine of
justification by faith—to which the Scriptures provided the
only true key. His New Testament (Wittenberg, 1522) was
made from the second edition of Erasmus' Greek Testament.
The Old Testament followed in successive parts, based on the
Brescia Hebrew Bible (1494). Luther's knowledge of Hebrew
and Aramaic was limited, but his rendering shows much
influence of Rashi, the great 11th—12th-century French
rabbinical scholar and commentator, through the use of the
notes of Nicholas of Lyra. The complete Lutheran Bible
emerged from the press in 1534. Luther was constantly
revising his work with the assistance of other scholars, and
between 1534 and his death in 1546, 11 editions were
printed, the last posthumously. His Bible truly fulfilled
Luther's objective of serving the needs of the common man,
and it, in turn, formed the basis of the first translations in
those lands to which Lutheranism spread. It proved to be a
landmark in German prose literature and contributed
greatly to the development of the modern language.

The phenomenal success of Luther's Bible and the failure of
attempts to repress it led to the creation of German Catholic
versions, largely adaptations of Luther. Hieronymus Emser's
edition simply brought the latter into line with the Vulgate.
Johann Dietenberger issued a revision of Emser (Mainz,
1534) and used Luther's Old Testament in conjunction with
an Anabaptist (radical Protestant group) version and the
Ziirich (Switzerland) version of 1529. It became the standard
Catholic version. Of the 20th-century translations, the
Griinewald Bible, which reached a seventh edition in 1956, is
one of the most noteworthy.

German glosses in Hebrew script attached to Hebrew Bibles
in the 12th and 13th centuries constitute the earliest Jewish
attempts to render the Scriptures into that German dialect
current among the Jews of middle Europe, the dialect that
developed into Judeo-German, or Yiddish. The first
translation proper has been partially preserved in a
manuscript from Mantua dated 1421. The earliest printed
translation is that of the Scriptural dictionaries prepared by
a baptized Jew, Michael Adam (Constance, 1543-44; Basel,
1583, 1607). The version of Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi of
Janow, known as the Tz’enah u-Re’na (Lublin, 1616),
became one of the most popular and widely diffused works of
its kind.

The first Jewish translation into pure High German,
though in Hebrew characters (1780-83), made by Moses
Mendelssohn, opened a new epoch in German-Jewish life.
The first Jewish rendering of the entire Hebrew Bible in
German characters was made by Gotthold Salomon (Altona,
1837). An attempt to preserve the quality of the Hebrew
style in German garb was the joint translation of two Jewish
religious philosophers, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

(15 vol., Berlin, 1925-37; revised ed. Cologne, 4 vol.,
1954-62).

Translation into Swiss German

Four parts of Luther's version were reprinted in the
Swyzerdeutsch dialect in Zitrich in 1524—25. The Prophets
and Apocrypha appeared in 1529. A year later, the first
Swiss Bible was issued with the Prophets and Apocrypha
independently translated. The Swiss Bible underwent
frequent revision between 1660 and 1882. A fresh
translation from the original languages was made between
1907 and 1931.

Translation into Dutch

Until the Reformation, Dutch Bible translations were
largely free adaptations, paraphrases, or rhymed verse
renderings of single books or parts thereof. A popular
religious revival at the end of the 12th century accelerated
the demand for the vernacular Scriptures, and one of the
earliest extant examples is the Liége manuscript (c. 1270)
translation of the Diatessaron (a composite rendering of the
four Gospels) by Tatian, a 2nd century Syrian Christian
heretical scholar; it is believed to derive from a lost Old
Latin original. Best known of all the rhymed versions is the
Rijmbijbel of Jacob van Maerlant (1271) based on Peter
Comestar's Historia scholastica. Despite the poor quality of
Johan Schutken's translation of the New Testament and
Psalms (1384), it became the most widely used of medieval
Dutch versions.

With the Reformation came a renewed interest in the study
of the Scriptures. Luther's Bible (see German versions, below)
was repeatedly rendered into Dutch, the most important
version being that of Jacob van Liesveldt (1526). It was
mainly to counter the popularity of this edition that Roman
Catholics produced their own Dutch Bible, executed by
Nicolaas van Winghe (Leuven, 1548). A revision printed by
Jan Moerentorf (Moretus, 1599) became the standard
version until it was superseded by that of the Peter Canisius
Association (1929-39), now in general use. A fresh
translation of the New Testament in modern Dutch appeared
in 1961.

Translations into Germanic Scandinavian

(Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland)

In pre-Reformation times, only partial translations were
made, all on the basis of the Latin Vulgate and all somewhat
free. The earliest and most celebrated is that of Genesis—
Kings in the so-called Stjorn (“Guidance”; i.e., of God)
manuscript in the Old Norwegian language, probably to be
dated about 1300. Swedish versions of the Pentateuch and of
Acts have survived from the 14th century and a manuscript
of Joshua—Judges by Nicholaus Ragnvaldi of Vadstena from
c. 1500. The oldest Danish version covering Genesis—Kings
derives from 1470.

Within two years of publication, Luther's New Testament
had already influenced a Danish translation made at the

request of the exiled king Christian IT by Christiern Vinter
and Hans Mikkelsen (Wittenberg, 1524). In 1550 Denmark
received a complete Bible commissioned by royal command
(the Christian III Bible, Copenhagen). A revision appeared in
1589 (the Frederick If Bible) and another in 1633 (the
Christian IV Bible).

A rendering by Hans Paulsen Resen (1605-07) was
distinguished by its accuracy and learning and was the first
made directly from Hebrew and Greek, but its style was not
felicitous and a revision was undertaken by Hans Svane
(1647). Nearly 200 years later (1819), a combination of the
Svaning Old Testament and the Resen—Svane New Testament
was published. In 1931 a royal commission produced a new
translation of the Old Testament with the New Testament
following in 1948 and the Apocrypha in 1957.

The separation of Norway from Denmark in 1814
stimulated the revival of literature in the native language.
The Old Testament of 1842-87 (revised, 1891) and New
Testament of 1870-1904 were still intelligible to Danish
readers, but the version of E. Blix (New Testament, 1889;
complete Bible, 1921) is in New Norwegian. A revised Bible
in this standardized form of the language, executed by R.
Indreb6é, was published by the Norwegian Bible Society in
1938.

The first Icelandic New Testament was the work of Oddur
Gottskalksson (Roskilde, Denmark, 1540), based on the
Latin Vulgate and Luther. It was not until 1584 that the
complete Icelandic Scriptures were printed (at Holar),
mainly executed by Gudbrandur Thorlaksson. It was very
successful and became the Church Bible until displaced by the
revision of Thorlakur Skulason (1627-55), based apparently
on Resen's Danish translation. In 1827 the Icelandic Bible
Society published a new New Testament and a complete Bible
in 1841 (Videyjar; 1859, Reykjavik), revised and reprinted
at Oxford in 1866. A completely new edition (Reykjavik,
1912) became the official Church Bible.

Soon after Sweden achieved independence from Denmark in
the early 16th century, it acquired its own version of the New
Testament published by the royal press (Stockholm, 1526).
Luther's New Testament of 1522 served as its foundation,
but the Latin Vulgate and Erasmus' Greek were also
consulted. The first official complete Bible and the first such
in any Scandinavian country was the Gustav Vasa Bible
(Uppsala; 1541), named for the Swedish king under whose
reign it was printed. It utilized earlier Swedish translations
as well as Luther's. A corrected version (the Gustavus
Adolphus Bible, named for the reigning Swedish king) was
issued in 1618, and another with minor alterations by Eric
Benzelius in 1703. The altered Bible was called the Charles
XII Bible, because it was printed during the reign of Charles
XII. In 1917 the church diet of the Lutheran Church
published a completely fresh translation directly from
modern critical editions of the Hebrew and Greek originals
and it received the authorization of Gustaf V to become the
Swedish Church Bible.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH

Beginnings

Partial Bible translations into languages of the English
people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including
translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100
complete translations into English have been produced. A
number of translations have been prepared of parts of the
Bible, some deliberately limited to certain books and some
projects that have been abandoned before the planned
completion.

Knowledge of the pre-Wycliffite English renditions stems
from the many actual manuscripts that have survived and
from secondary literature, such as booklists, wills, citations
by later authors, and references in polemical works that have
preserved the memory of many a translation effort. For
about seven centuries after the conversion of England to
Christianity (beginning in the 3rd century), the common
man had no direct access to the text of the Scriptures.
Ignorant of Latin, his knowledge was derived principally
from sermons and metrical prose paraphrases and summaries.

Modest Renderings into Anglo-Saxon

The earliest poetic rendering of any part of the Bible is
credited to Caedmon (flourished 658-680), but only the
opening lines of his poem on the Creation in the
Northumbrian dialect have been preserved. An actual
translation of the Psalter into Anglo-Saxon is ascribed to
Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne (died 709), but nothing has
survived by which its true character, if it actually existed,
might be determined. Linguistic considerations alone rule
out the possibility that the prose translation of Psalms 1—S0
extant in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris is a 7th-century
production. In the next century, Bede (died 735) is said to
have translated parts of the Gospels, and, though he knew
Greek and possibly even some Hebrew, he does not appear to
have applied himself to the Old Testament.

The outstanding name of the 9th century is that of King
Alfred the Great. He appended to his laws a free translation
of the Ten Commandments and an abridgment of the
enactments of Exodus 21—23. These actually constitute the
earliest surviving examples of a portion of the Old Testament
in Anglo-Saxon prose.

An important step towards the emergence of a true English
translation was the development of the interlinear gloss, a
valuable pedagogic device for the introduction of youthful
members of monastic schools to the study of the Bible. The
Vespasian Psalter is the outstanding surviving example of the
technique from the 9th century. In the next century the
Lindisfarne Gospels, written in Latin c. 700, were glossed
(explained) in Anglo-Saxon c. 950.

The last significant figure associated with the vernacular
Bible before the Norman Conquest was the so-called Aelfric
the Grammarian (c. 955-1020). Though he claimed to have
rendered several books into English, his work is more a
paraphrase and abridgment than a continuous translation.

Translation into Old English

The Bible in its entirety was not translated into English
until the Middle English period, with John Wycliffe's
translation in 1382. In the centuries before this, however,
many had translated large portions of the Bible into English.
Parts of the Bible were first translated from the Latin
Vulgate into Old English by a few monks and scholars. Such
translations were generally in the form of prose or as
interlinear glosses (literal translations above the Latin
words).

Very few complete translations existed during that time.
Most of the books of the Bible existed separately and were
read as individual texts. Translations of the Bible often
included the writer's own commentary on passages in
addition to the literal translation.

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne and Abbot of Malmesbury
(639-709), is thought to have written an Old English
translation of the Psalms.

Bede (c. 672-735) produced a translation of the Gospel of
John into Old English, which he is said to have prepared
shortly before his death. This translation is lost; we know of
its existence from Cuthbert of Jarrow's account of Bede's
death.

In the 10th century an Old English translation of the
Gospels was made in the Lindisfarne Gospels: a word-for-
word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by
Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. This is the oldest extant
translation of the Gospels into the English language.

The Wessex Gospels (also known as the West-Saxon
Gospels) are a full translation of the four gospels into a West
Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced in approximately
990, they are the first translation of all four gospels into
English without the Latin text.

In the 11th century, Abbot A‘lfric translated much of the
Old Testament into Old English. The Old English Hexateuch
is an illuminated manuscript of the first six books of the Old
Testament (the Hexateuch).

Translation into Anglo-Norman (French)

In 1066, a severe paradigm shift occured, the French-
speaking Normans conquered England and had it
transformed into a Norman-French province. The
displacement of the English upper class, with the consequent
decline of the Anglo-Saxon tradition following the Norman
invasion, brought the use of English as written language to a
complete halt for 250 years. Within about 50 years (c. 1120)
of the Conquest, Eadwine's Psalteritum triplex, which
contained the Latin version accompanied by Anglo-Norman
and Anglo-Saxon renderings, appeared. The contemporary
Oxford Psalter achieved such influence that it became the
basis of all subsequent Anglo-Norman versions. By 1361 a
prose translation of most of Scripture in this dialect had been
executed.

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

Translation into Middle English

The Ormulum is in Middle English of the 12th century.
Like its Old English precursor from Alfric, an abbot of
Eynsham, it includes very little Biblical text, and focuses
more on personal commentary. This style was adopted by
many of the original English translators. For example, the
story of the Wedding at Cana is almost 800 lines long, but
fewer than 40 lines are in the actual translation of the text.
An unusual characteristic is that the translation mimics
Latin verse, and so is similar to the better known and
appreciated 14th-century English poem Cursor Mundi.

Richard Rolle (1290-1349) wrote an English Psalter.
Many religious works are attributed to Rolle, but it has been
questioned how many are genuinely from his hand. Many of
his works were concerned with personal devotion, and some
were used by the Lollards.

By the middle of the 13th century the English component in
the Anglo-Norman amalgam had begun to assert itself and
the close of the century witnessed a Northumbrian version of
the Psalter made directly from Latin, which, because it
survived in several manuscripts, must have achieved
relatively wide circulation. By the next century, English had
gradually superseded French among the upper classes. When
the first complete translation of the Bible into English
emerged, it became the object of violent controversy because
it was inspired by the heretical teachings of John Wycliffe.
Intended for the common man, it became the instrument of
opposition to ecclesiastical authority.

The translation by Wycliffe

Theologian John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384) is credited with
translating what is now known as Wycliffe's Bible, though it
is not clear how much of the translation he himself did. This
translation came out in two different versions. The earlier
text is characterised by a strong adherence to the word order
of Latin, and might have been difficult for the layperson to
comprehend. The later text made more concessions to the
native grammar of English.

The exact degree of Wycliffe's personal involvement in the
Scriptures that came to bear his name is not clear. Because a
note containing the words “Here ends the translation of
Nicholas of Hereford” is found in a manuscript copy of the
original (and incomplete) translation, it may be presumed
that, though there must have been other assistants, Hereford
can be credited with overall responsibility for most of the
translation and that his summons before a synod in London
and his subsequent departure for Rome in 1382 terminated
his participation in the work. Who completed it is uncertain.

However, we know why he launched the translation works
in the first place. Translating the Bible was punishable by
death. The Black Death shifted this arrogant notion of
Church officials into desperation when almost everybody
died who could read and write. The pandemic ravaged
Europe between 1347 and 1351, when Wycliffe was a young
man. It took a proportionately greater toll of life than any
other known epidemic or war up to that time. The squallor

of the Black Death happened in front of John Wycliffe's very
eyes.

The Wycliffite translations encountered increasing
ecclesiastical opposition. In 1408 a synod of clergy
summoned to Oxford by Archbishop Arundel forbade the
translation and use of Scripture in the vernacular. The
proscription was rigorously enforced, but remained
ineffectual. In the course of the next century the Wycliffite
Bible, the only existing English version, achieved wide
popularity as is evidenced by the nearly 200 manuscripts
extant, most of them copied between 1420 and 1450.

Translation into Early Modern English

Early Modern English Bible translations are of between
about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English.
This was the first major period of Bible translation into the
English language.

This period began with the introduction of the Tyndale
Bible. The first complete edition of his New Testament was in
1526. William Tyndale used the Greek and Hebrew texts of
the New Testament (NT) and Old Testament (OT) in
addition to Jerome's Latin translation. He was the first
translator to use the printing press — this enabled the
distribution of several thousand copies of his New Testament
translation throughout England. Tyndale did not complete
his Old Testament translation.[10]

The first printed English translation of the whole Bible was
produced by Miles Coverdale in 1535, using Tyndale's work
together with his own translations from the Latin Vulgate or
German text. After much scholarly debate it is concluded
that this was printed in Antwerp and the colophon gives the
date as 4 October 1535. This first edition was adapted by
Coverdale for his first "authorised version", known as the
Great Bible, of 1539.

Other early printed versions were the Geneva Bible
published by Sir Rowland Hill in 1560. This version is
notable for being the first Bible divided into verses and
which negated the Divine Right of Kings; the Bishop's Bible
(1568), which was an attempt by Elizabeth I to create a new
authorised version; and the Authorized King James Version
of 1611.

The first complete Catholic Bible in English was the
Douay—Rheims Bible, of which the New Testament portion
was published in Rheims in 1582 and the Old Testament
somewhat later in Douay in Gallicant Flanders. The Old
Testament was completed by the time the New Testament was
published but, due to extenuating circumstances and
financial issues, it was not published until nearly three
decades later, in two editions: the first released in 1609, and
the rest of the OT in 1610. In this version, the seven
deuterocanonical books are amongst the other books, as in
the Latin Vulgate, rather than kept separate in an appendix.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Translation into Modern English

While early English Bibles were generally based on a small
number of Greek texts, or on Latin translations, modern
English translations of the Bible are based on a wider variety
of manuscripts in the original languages, mostly Greek and
Hebrew.

The translators put much scholarly effort into cross-
checking the various sources such as the Septuagint, Textus
Receptus, and Masoretic Text. Relatively recent discoveries
such as the Dead Sea scrolls provide additional reference
information. Some controversy has existed over which texts
should be used as a basis for translation, as some of the
alternate sources do not include phrases (or sometimes entire
verses) which are found only in the Textus Receptus.

Some say the alternate sources were poorly representative
of the texts used in their time, whereas others claim the
Textus Receptus includes passages that were added to the
alternate texts improperly. These controversial passages are
not the basis for disputed issues of doctrine: they tend to be
additional stories or snippets of phrases. Many modern
English translations, such as the New International Version,
contain limited text notes indicating where differences occur
in original sources.

A somewhat greater number of textual differences are noted
in the New King James Bible, indicating hundreds of New
Testament differences between the Nestle-Aland, the Textus
Receptus, and the Hodges edition of the Majority Text. The
differences in the Old Testament are less well documented,
but they do contain some references to differences between
consonantal interpretations in the Masoretic Text, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint. Even with these hundreds of
differences, however, a more complete listing is beyond the
scope of most single-volume Bibles.

English translations after the Reformation

The translation of William Tyndale

Because of the influence of printing and a demand for
scriptures in the vernacular, William Tyndale began working
on a New Testament translation directly from the Greek in
1523. The work could not be continued in England because
of political and ecclesiastical pressures, and the printing of
his translation began in Cologne (in Germany) in 1525.
Again under pressure, this time from the city authorities,
Tyndale had to flee to Worms, where two complete editions
were published in 1525. Copies were smuggled into England
where they were at once proscribed. Of 18,000 copies printed
(1525-28), two complete volumes and a fragment are all
that remain.

When the New Testament was finished Tyndale began work
on the Old Testament. The Pentateuch was issued in
Marburg in 1530, each of the five books being separately
published and circulated. Henry's henchmen captured
Tyndale in Germany and Tyndale was smuggled back to
England and then executed for having the Bible translated
without permision. Tyndale's greatest achievement was the
ability to strike a felicitous balance between the needs of

scholarship, simplicity of expression, and literary
gracefulness, all in a uniform dialect. As a matter of fact,
Tyndale did exactly what Martin Luther did for the German
language, he combined all main English dialects to the
Standard English language we still use today created. The
effect was the creation of an English style of Bible translation,
tinged with Hebraisms, that was to serve as the model for all
future English versions.

The translation of Miles Coverdale

King Henry VIII's totalitarian dictatorship found
expression in a translation that, for all its great significance,
turned out to be a backward step in the manner of its
execution (due to fear of death), although it proved to be a
justification of Tyndale's work. On October 4, 1535, the first
complete English Bible, the work of Miles Coverdale, came
off the press either in Ziirich (Switzerland) or in Cologne
(Germany). The edition was soon exhausted. A second
impression appeared in the same year and a third in 1536. A
new edition, “overseen and corrected,” was published in
England by James Nycholson in Southwark in 1537.
Another edition of the same year bore the announcement,
“set forth with the king's most gracious license.” In 1538 a
revised edition of Coverdale's New Testament printed with
the Latin Vulgate in parallel columns issued in England was
so full of errors that Coverdale promptly arranged for a rival
corrected version to appear in Paris.

The Thomas Matthew version

In the same year that Coverdale's authorized version
appeared, another English Bible was issued under royal
license and with the encouragement of ecclesiastical and
political power. It appeared (Antwerp?) under the name of
Thomas Matthew, but it is certainly the work of John Rogers,
aclose friend of Tyndale. The Thomas Matthew version was a
combination of the labours of Tyndale and Coverdale.
Rogers used the former's Pentateuch and 1535 revision of the
New Testament and the latter's translation from Ezra to
Malachi and his Apocrypha. Rogers’ own contribution was
primarily editorial.

The Great Bible

In an injunction of 1538, Henry VIII commanded the clergy
to install in a convenient place in every parish church, “one
book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English.”
The order seems to refer to an anticipated revision of the
Matthew Bible. The first edition was printed in Paris and
appeared in London in April 1539 in 2,500 copies. The huge
page size earned it the sobriquet the Great Bible. It was
received with immediate and wholehearted enthusiasm.

The first printing was exhausted within a short while, and
it went through six subsequent editions between 1540 and
1541. “Editions” is preferred to “impressions” here since the
SIX SUCCESSIVE issues Were not identical.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The Geneva Bible

The brief efflorescence of the Protestant movement during
the short reign of Edward VI (1547-53) saw the reissue of
the Scriptures, but no fresh attempts at revision. The
repressive rule of Edward's successor, Mary, a Roman
Catholic, put an end to the printing of Bibles in England for
several years. Their public reading was proscribed and their
presence in the churches discontinued.

The persecutions of Protestants caused the focus of English
biblical scholarship to be shifted abroad where it flourished
in greater freedom. A colony of Protestant exiles, led by
Coverdale and John Knox (the Scottish Reformer), and
under the influence of John Calvin, published the New
Testament in 1557.

The editors of the Geneva Bible (or “Breeches Bible,” so-
named because of its rendering of the first garments made for
Adam and Eve in chapter three, verse seven of Genesis)—
published in 1560—may almost certainly be identified as
William Whittingham, the brother-in-law of Calvin's wife,
and his assistants Anthony Gilby and Thomas Sampson. The
Geneva Bible was not printed in England until 1576, but it
was allowed to be imported without hindrance. The
accession of Elizabeth in 1558 put an end to the persecutions
and the Great Bible was soon reinstated in the churches. The
Geneva Bible, however, gained instantaneous and lasting
popularity over against its rival, the Great Bible. Its
technical innovations contributed not a little to its becoming
for a long time the family Bible of England, which, next to
Tyndale, exercised the greatest influence upon the King
James Version.

The Bishops' Bible

The failure of the Great Bible to win popular acceptance
against the obvious superiority of its Geneva rival and the
objectionable partisan flavour of the latter's marginal
annotations made a new revision a necessity. By about 1563—
64 Archbishop Matthew Parker of Canterbury had
determined upon its execution and the work was apportioned
among many scholars, most of them bishops, from which the
popular name was derived.

The Bishops' Bible came off the press in 1568 as a handsome
folio volume, the most impressive of all 1 6th-century English
Bibles in respect of the quality of paper, typography, and
illustrations. A portrait of the Queen adorned the engraved
title page, but it contained no dedication. For some reason
Queen Elizabeth never officially authorized the work, but
sanction for its public use came from the Convocation
(church synod or assembly) of 1571 and it thereby became in
effect the second authorized version.

Catholic Versions

With the exception of a version by Irish-American
archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick (1849-60), all
translations up to the 20th century were merely versions of
the Douay—Rheims Bible. A celebrated translation was that

of Ronald Knox (New Testament, 1945; Old Testament,
1949; complete edition with Old Testament revised, 1955).

The most significant development in modern Catholic
translations was initiated by the Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine in 1936. A New Testament version of the Latin
Clementine Vulgate (1941), intended as a revision, in effect
was a new translation into clear and simple English. The Old
Testament revision remained unfinished, the work having
been interrupted by a decision inspired by the Pontifical
Biblical Commission in 1943 to encourage modern
vernacular translations from the original languages instead
of from the Latin Vulgate. Accordingly, both the Old and
New Testaments were respectively retranslated into modern
English from the Hebrew and Greek originals. The resultant
Confraternity Version (1952-61) was later issued as the New
American Bible (1970). Another modern version, more
colloquial, is the Jerusalem Bible (1966), translated from the
French Catholic Bible de Jérusalem (one-volume edition,
1961).

The Douay—Rheims Bible

The Roman Catholics addressed themselves affirmatively to
the same problem faced by the Anglican Church: a Bible in
the vernacular. In 1568 English exiles, many from Oxford,
established the English College of Douay (also spelled Douai,
Doway) in Flanders, under William Allen (later the Cardinal
of Rheims in France; also spelled Reims, Rhemes, Rheimes or
Reimes). The burden of the work fell to Gregory Martin,
professor of Hebrew at Douay. In the intervening period it
had been brought into line with the new text of the Vulgate
authorised by Clement VIII in 1592.

Gregory Martin, began the work of preparing an English
translation of the Bible for Catholic readers In October,
1578, the first such translation into Modern English.
Assisting were William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas
Worthington, and William Reynolds who revised, criticised,
and corrected Dr Martin's work. The college published the
New Testament at Rheims, France, in 1582 through John
Fogny with a preface and explanatory notes, authored chiefly
by Bristol, Allen, and Worthington. The Old Testament,
delayed by lack of funds, did not appear until 1609, when it
was finally published in two parts (1609 and 1610) at Douay
by Laurence Kellam through the efforts of Dr Worthington,
then superior of the seminary. Later the Old Testament was
published at The translation had been prepared before the
appearance of the New Testament, but the publication was
delayed due to financial difficulties. The religious and
scholarly adherence to the Latin Vulgate text led to the less
elegant and idiomatic words and phrases often found in the
translation. In some instances where no English word
conveyed the full meaning of the Latin, a Latin word was
Anglicised and its meaning defined in a glossary. Although
ridiculed by critics, many of these words later found common
usage in the English language. Spellings of proper names and
the numbering of the Psalms are adopted from the Latin
Vulgate.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

In 1749 Dr Richard Challoner began a major revision of
the Douay and Rheims texts, the spellings and phrasing of
which had become increasingly archaic in the almost two
centuries since the translations were first produced. He
modernised the diction and introduced a more fluid style,
while faithfully maintaining the accuracy of Dr Martin's
texts. This revision became the 'de facto' standard text for
English speaking Catholics until the 20th century. It is still
highly regarded by many for its style, although it is now
rarely used for liturgical purposes.

The greatest difference between the Caholic Bible and a
Protestant Bible, such as the KJV, lies not so much in the
text itself but in the order of the books in Bible. While the
Hebrew Deuterocanon, the so-called Apocrypha (‘hidden
books’), builds an own part in between the Old Testament
and the New Testament, the Catholic Bibles incorporates it
within the text bulk of the Old Testament and it has therefore
46 books. In addition, in the original Hebrew Bible canon,
the books Samuel, Kings (Reigns), Paralipomenon
(Chronicles), Ezra & Nehamia, as well as the 12 Minor Prophets,
are just one book each; they are not divided.

Challoner provided to many of the chapters and to some of
the verses short explanatory texts. This was a useful thing as
most readers in the past had no education in history what so
ever. Those kind of texts were also added to some Protestant
Bibles. That some of the explanations refered to Christ even
in the Old Testament shows how past generations of
Christians misused the old Hebrew texts for Christian
propaganda purposes. (Douay-Rheims Version, Isa 11, 22,
28, 53, 55, 58, 60, etc.)

Unfortunately, some of those explanatory text were utterly
deplorable with their unconcealed anti-Semitism and anti-
Jewishness as they depicted Jews always as plotting and
scheming bunch of evil people. Such irresponsible propa-
ganda poisoned the mind of generations and consequential
led directly to the murder of millions of Jews and others by
the very hands of "righteous" Christians and Muslims.
(Douay-Rheims, Isa 43, 48; Jer 5, 8, 11, 12, 43, 44, etc.)

The King James and Subsequent Versions

The King James (Authorised) Version

Because of changing conditions, another official revision of
the Protestant Bible in English was needed. The reign of
Queen Elizabeth had succeeded in imposing a high degree of
uniformity upon the church. The failure of the Bishops' Bible
to supplant its Geneva rival made for a discordant note in the
quest for unity.

A conference of churchmen in 1604 became noteworthy for
its request that the English Bible be revised because existing
translations “were corrupt and not answerable to the truth
of the original.” King James I was quick to appreciate the
broader value of the proposal and at once made the project
his own.

By June 30, 1604, King James had approved a list of 54
revisers, although extant records show that 47 scholars
actually participated. They were organised into six

companies, two each working separately at Westminster,
Oxford, and Cambridge on sections of the Bible assigned to
them. It was finally published in 1611.

Not since the Septuagint had a translation of the Bible been
undertaken under royal sponsorship as a cooperative venture
on so grandiose a scale. An elaborate set of rules was
contrived to curb individual proclivities and to ensure its
scholarly and nonpartisan character. In contrast to earlier
practice, the new version was to preserve vulgarly used forms
of proper names in keeping with its aim to make the
Scriptures popular and familiar.

The impact of Jewish sources upon the King James Version
is one of its noteworthy features. The wealth of scholarly
tools available to the translators made their final choice of
rendering an exercise in originality and independent
judgment. For this reason, the new version was more faithful
to the original languages of the Bible and more scholarly
than any of its predecessors. The impact of the Hebrew upon
the revisers was so pronounced that they seem to have made a
conscious effort to imitate its rhythm and style in the Old
Testament. The English of the New Testament actually
turned out to be superior to its Greek original.

Two editions were actually printed in 1611, later
distinguished as the “He” and “She” Bibles because of the
variant reading “he” and “she” in the final clause of chapter
3, verse 15 of Ruth: “and he went into the city.” Both
printings contained errors. Some errors in subsequent
editions have become famous: The so-called Wicked Bible
(1631) derives from the omission of “not” in chapter 20
verse 14 of Exodus, “Thou shalt commit adultery,” for which
the printers were fined £300; the “Vinegar Bible” (1717)
stems from a misprinting of “vineyard” in the heading of
Luke, chapter 20.

The English Revised Version

The remarkable and total victory of the King James
Version could not entirely obscure those inherent weaknesses
that were independent of its typographical errors. The
manner of its execution had resulted in a certain unequalness
and lack of consistency. The translators' understanding of
the Hebrew tense system was often limited so that their
version contains inaccurate and infelicitous renderings. In
particular, the Greek text of the New Testament, which they
used as their base, was a poor one. The great early Greek
codices were not then known or available, and Hellenistic
papyri, which were to shed light on the common Greek
dialect, had not yet been discovered.

A committee established by the Convocation of Canterbury
in February 1870 reported favourably three months later on
the idea of revising the King James Version: two companies
were formed, one each for the Old and New Testaments. A
novel development was the inclusion of scholars
representative of the major Christian denominations, except
the Roman Catholics (who declined the invitation to
participate). Another innovation was the formation of
parallel companies in the United States to whom the work of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the English scholars was submitted and who, in turn, sent
back their reactions. The instructions to the committees
made clear that only a revision and not a new translation was
contemplated.

The New Testament was published in England on May 17,
1881, and three days later in the United States, after 11 years
of labour. Over 30,000 changes were made, of which more
than 5,000 represent differences in the Greek text from that
used as the basis of the King James Version. Most of the
others were made in the interests of consistency or
modernization.

The publication of the Old Testament in 1885 stirred far
less excitement, partly because it was less well known than
the New Testament and partly because fewer changes were
involved. The poetical and prophetical books, especially Job,
Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah, benefitted greatly.

The revision of the Apocrypha, not originally contemplated,
came to be included only because of copyright arrangements
made with the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge
and was first published in 1895.

The American Standard Version

According to the original agreement, the preferred
readings and renderings of the American revisers, which
their British counterparts had declined to accept, were
published in an appendix to the Revised Version. In 1900 the
American edition of the New Testament, which incorporated
the American scholars’ preferences into the body of the text,
was produced. A year later the Old Testament was added, but
not the Apocrypha. The alterations covered a large number
of obsolete words and expressions and replaced Anglicisms
by the diction then in vogue in the United States.

The Revised Standard Version

The American Standard Version had been an expression of
sensitivity to the needs of the American public. At the same
time, several individual and unofficial translations into
modern speech made from 1885 on had gained popularity,
their appeal reinforced by the discovery that the Greek of the
New Testament used the common nonliterary variety of the
language spoken throughout the Roman Empire when
Christianity was in its formative stage. The notion that a
nonliterary modern rendering of the New Testament best
expressed the form and spirit of the original was hard to
refute. This, plus a new maturity of classical, Hebraic, and
theological scholarship in the United States, led to a desire
to produce a native American version of the English Bible.

In 1928 the copyright of the American Standard Version
was acquired by the International Council of Religious
Education and thereby passed into the ownership of churches
representing 40 major denominations in the United States
and Canada. A two-year study by a special committee
recommended a thorough revision, and in 1937 the council
gave its authorization to the proposal. Not until 1946,
however, did the revision of the New Testament appear in
print, and another six years elapsed before the complete

Revised Standard Version (RSV) was published, the work of
32 scholars, one of them Jewish, drawn from the faculties of
20 universities and theological seminaries. A decision to
translate the Apocrypha was not made until 1952 and the
revision appeared in 1957. Insofar as the RSV was the first to
make use of the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, it was
revolutionary.

The Revised Standard Version was essentially not a new
translation into modern speech, but a revision. It did engage
in a good deal of modernisation, however. It dispensed with
archaic pronouns, retaining “thou” only for the Deity. But
its basic conservatism was displayed in the retention of forms
or expressions in passages that have special devotional or
literary associations even where this practice makes for
inconsistency. The primary aim was to produce a version for
use in private and public worship.

Jewish Translation into English

Jewish English Bible translations are modern English Bible
translations that include the books of the Hebrew Bible
(Tanakh) according to the Masoretic Text, and according to
the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and
Ketuvim.

Jewish translations often also reflect traditional Jewish
interpretations of the Bible, as opposed to the Christian
understanding that is often reflected in non-Jewish
translations. For example, Jewish translations translate
mm2y ‘almah in Isaiah 14 as young woman, while many
Christian translations render the word as virgin.

While modern biblical scholarship is similar for both
Christians and Jews, there are distinctive features of Jewish
translations, even those created by academic scholars. These
include the avoidance of Christological interpretations,
adherence to the Masoretic Text (at least in the main body of
the text, as in the new Jewish Publication Society (JPS)
translation) and greater use of classical Jewish exegesis. Some
translations prefer names transliterated from the Hebrew,
though the majority of Jewish translations use the Anglicised
forms of biblical names.

The first English Jewish translation of the Bible into
English was by Isaac Leeser in the 19th century.

The JPS produced two of the most popular Jewish
translations, namely the JPS The Holy Scriptures of 1917
and the NJPS Tanakh (first printed in a single volume in
1985, second edition in 1999).

Since the 1980s there have been multiple efforts among
Orthodox publishers to produce translations that are not
only Jewish, but also adhere to Orthodox norms. Among
these are The Living Torah and Nach by Aryeh Kaplan and
others, the Torah and other portions in an ongoing project
by Everett Fox, and the ArtScroll Tanakh.

Jewish Versions

Though Jews in English-speaking lands generally utilized
the King James Version and the Revised Version, the English
versions have presented great difficulties. They contain

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

departures from the traditional Hebrew text; they sometimes
embody Christological interpretations; the headings were
often doctrinally objectionable and the renderings in the
legal portions of the Pentateuch frequently diverged from
traditional Jewish exegesis. In addition, where the meaning
of the original was obscure, Jewish readers preferred to use
the well-known medieval Jewish commentators. Finally, the
order of the Jewish canon differs from Christian practice and
the liturgical needs of Jews make a version that does not
mark the scriptural readings for Sabbaths and festivals
inconvenient.

Until 1917 all Jewish translations were the efforts of
individuals. Planned in 1892, the project of the Jewish
Publication Society of America was the first translation for
which a group representing Jewish learning among English-
speaking Jews assumed joint responsibility.

This version essentially retained the Elizabethan diction. It
stuck unswervingly to the received Hebrew text that it
interpreted in accordance with Jewish tradition and the best
scholarship of the day. For over half a century it remained
authoritative, even though it laid no claim to any official
ecclesiastical sanction.

With an increasingly felt need for modernization, a
committee of translators was established composed of three
professional biblical and Semitic scholars and three rabbis. It
began its work in 1955 and the Pentateuch was issued in
1962. The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes,
Esther, and Jonah, all in a single volume for the convenience
of synagogue use, followed in 1969; and Isaiah and Psalms
appeared in 1973. A second committee had been set up in
1955 to work separately on the rest of the Hagiographa
(Ketuvim).

The New English Bible

The idea of a completely new translation into British
English was first broached in 1946. Under a joint committee,
representative of the major Protestant churches of the British
Isles, with Roman Catholics appointed as observers, the New
Testament was published in 1961 and a second edition
appeared in 1970. The Old Testament and Apocrypha were
also published in 1970.

The New English Bible proved to be an instant commercial
success, selling at a rate of 33,000 copies a week in 1970. The
translation differed from the English mainstream Bible in
that it was not a revision but a completely fresh version from
the original tongues. It abandoned the tradition of “biblical
English” and, except for the retention of “thou” and “thy”
in addressing God, freed itself of all archaisms. It
endeavoured to render the original into the idiom of
contemporary English and to avoid ephemeral modernisms.

Individual translations

While most Bible translations are made by committees of
scholars in order to avoid bias or idiosyncrasy, translations
are sometimes made by individuals. The following, selected
translations are largely the work of individual translators:

* Noah Webster's Bible Translation (1833). Based on the
KJV with updated grammar and lexicon.

¢ Young's Literal Translation (1862). An exacting literal
English translation from the original Hebrew and Greek
texts. Young even used the present tense extensively where
most English translations use the past, because that conforms
to the original Hebrew.

¢ Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson (1864),

¢ Julia E. Smith Parker Translation (1876), "Translated
Literally",

¢ J.N. Darby's Darby Bible (1890),

* Five Pauline Epistles, New Translation (1900) by
William Gunion Rutherford,

¢ Bryant Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (1902),

* Modern Reader's Bible (1914) by Richard Green Moulton
(1918)

¢ Helen Barrett Montgomery's The Centenary Translation
(1924)

* George Lamsa translated The Holy Bible from Ancient
Eastern Manuscripts (1933)

¢S. H. Hooke's The Bible in Basic English (1949). A smart
translation using the 850-word Basic English created by
Charles Kay Ogden that especially addresses readers whose
English vocabulary is not large yet and who do not know any
legal and religious terminology either.

¢ R.A. Knox (1950),

¢ J.B. Phillips (1958),

* Verkuyl's Berkeley Version (1959),

¢ Holy Name Bible containing the Holy Name Version of
the Old and New Testaments (1963) by Angelo Traina,

* The Living Bible (1971) by Kenneth N. Taylor,

¢ The Bible in Living English (1972) by Stephen T.
Byington,

¢ Jay P. Green's Literal Translation (1985),

* Heinz Cassirer's translation (1989),

¢ The Complete Jewish Bible (1998) by Dr. David H. Stern,

¢ American King James Version (1999) by Michael
Engelbrite,

¢ World English Bible (2000), in short WEB, is a
contemporary project to create a modern translation of the
Bible free of copyrights and archaic language. Based on the
American Standard Version, the Greek Majority Text, and
the Hebrew Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. The WEB
includes the Apocrypha.

* Eugene H. Peterson's The Message (2002),

¢ The Original Aramaic Bible in Plain English (2010) by
David Bauscher,

¢ Father Nicholas King's translation of the Greek Bible
into English.

¢ The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, by
Robert Alter (2019)

Others, such as N. T. Wright, have translated portions of
the Bible.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION 2
THE JEWISH LAWS

The Holiness Code

Most Bible readers have a hard time to understood the texts
of the Old Testament during the process of reading.
Unfortunately, Christian clerics are neither willing nor able
to explain what is written. As a result, readers feel uncomfor-
table while going through the chapters of a strange teaching,
even worse, they are not aware that the texts of the Old
Testament are the basis of our own books of law and the texts
of the New Testament. (See: 'The Elephantine Papyrus Find,'
p.1381.) For Jesus, the Old Testament was holy and
untouchable and this applies also for the early Christians.

Roman Christians, also known as "gentiles," disagreed
with the Hebrews in a only a few points for the simple reason
that Roman Christians had to obey Roman law in which
circumcision of the males was forbidden under the Lex
Cornelia (the laws of Cornelius Sulla) and the typical
Hebrew food laws (for purity reasons) were unknown and
unpopular among Greeks and Romans. These were the two
main points the opponents Paul the Apostle and James the
Just (the brother of Jesus) were argueing about.

The schism of these two factions led to the beginnings of the
Roman Church that was, one by one, replacing Hebrew and
Pagan lithurgy, priest organisation and festivals for new,
Christian, ones. Replacing the Hebrew laws proved to be
much more difficult as there was no Christian law book.
Despite strong efforts by Anti-Jews, like Marcion of Sinope,
to get rid of the Old Testament, the Church Fathers decided
to keep it as scripture. Instead of that, they began to write
their own law codes, the Didache and the Apostolic
Constitution. These few remarks will make it easier for you
to grasp what the following laws are taliking about.

The Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to
refer to Leviticus chapters 17—26, and is so called due to its
highly repeated use of the word Holy. Critical biblical
scholars have regarded it as a distinct unit and have noted
that the style is noticeably different from the main body of
Leviticus. Unlike the remainder of Leviticus, the many laws
of the Holiness Code are expressed very closely packed
together, and very briefly.

According to most versions of the documentary hypothesis,
the Holiness Code represents an earlier text that was edited
and incorporated into the Priestly source and the Torah as a
whole, although some scholars, such as Israel Knohl, believe
the Holiness Code to be a later addition to the Priestly
source. This source is often abbreviated as "H".[3] A
generally accepted date is sometime in the seventh century
BC, when it presumably originated among the priests in the
Temple in Jerusalem.

The Holiness Code also uses a noticeably different choice of
vocabulary, repeating phrases such as I, The LORD, am holy,
I am the LORD, and I the LORD, which sanctify..., an
unusually large number of times. Additionally, Leviticus 17

begins with This is the thing which the LORD hath
commanded, saying.., and Leviticus 26 strongly resembles
the conclusion of a law code, despite the presence of further
laws afterward, such as at Leviticus 27, giving the Holiness
Code the appearance of a single distinct unit.

Embedding In The Priestly Source

The Holiness Code is considered part of the Priestly source
by scholars holding to the documentary hypothesis. However,
such scholars generally believe it to have been an originally
separate legal code (referred to as "H") which the priestly
source edited and chose to embed into their writing after.
Some such editing is simply the addition of phrases such as
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the
children of Israel, and say unto them, designed to put the
code into the context of the remainder of a code being given
by God, as is the case for the remainder of Leviticus.

It is also alleged by critical scholarship that several
additional laws, written with a style unlike that of the
Holiness Code but like that of the remainder of Leviticus,
were inserted into the body of the text by the Priestly source.
These alleged additions are:

¢ The prohibition against consuming the naturally dead
(Leviticus 115—16)

¢ The order to make trespass offerings after sexual
involvement with an engaged slavewoman (Leviticus 19:20—
22)

¢ The prohibition against an anointed high priest
uncovering his head or rending his clothes (Leviticus 21:10)

¢ The prohibition against offerings by Aaronic priests who
are blemished (Leviticus 21:21—22)

* The order to keep the sabbath, passover, and feast of
unleavened bread (Leviticus 23: 1—10a)

¢ The order to keep Yom Kippur, and Sukkot (Leviticus
23:23-44)

¢ The order for continual bread and oil (Leviticus 24: 1-9)

* Case law concerning a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:10—ISa
and 24:23)

¢ The order for a trumpet sounding on Yom Kippur
(Leviticus 25:9b)

* Rules concerning redeeming property (Leviticus 25:23
and 25:26-34)

¢ Order to release Israelite slaves at the year of jubilee
(Leviticus 25:40, 25:42, 25:44—46)

* Rules concerning redeeming people (Leviticus 25:48—52,
and 25:54)

The Covenant Code

(The Covenant Code, or Book of the Covenant, 1s the name
given by academics to a text appearing in the Torah, at
Exodus 20:22-23:19; or, more strictly, the term Covenant
Code may be applied to Exodus 21:1-22:16. Biblically, the
text 1s the second of the law codes given to Moses by God at
Mount Sinai. This legal text provides a small but substantive
proportion of the mitzvot within the Torah, and hence 1s a
source of Jewish Law.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The Large and Small Covenant Codes compared

Some scholars, calling attention to Exodus 34:10, "Then
the LORD said: 'I am making a covenant with you'," note
that the laws of Exodus 34 appear to be a shorter and
differently organised version of the Covenant Code (Exodus
20:22—23:33). These have been differentiated as the "Small
Covenant Code" (Exodus 34) and the "Large Covenant
Code" (Exodus 20-23). These views are not mutually
exclusive. Aaron (2006), for example, discusses how the
"Exodus 34 Decalogue", while presented as the Ten
Commandments, appears to be a reworking of the Covenant
Code. Indeed, H.L. Ginsberg believed that the Ritual
Decalogue was an interpolation, and that the phrase "Ten
Commandments" in Exodus 34:28 originally referred to a
portion of the Covenant Code, Exodus 23:10—27, which he
called the First Ritual Decalogue. The reader may put the
following two examples in a table or list with two columns.

LARGE COVENANT CODE, Exodus 23:10—22

But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say,
then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

23 When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to
the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the
Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,

32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.

33 They shall not live in your land, or they will make you
sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be
a snare to you.

24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them,
nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow
them, and break in pieces their pillars.

13 Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke
the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your
lips.

15a You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I
commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven
days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you
came out of Egypt.

15b No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

10 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its
yield; 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie
fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what
they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same
with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. 12 Six days
you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest,
so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your
homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.

16 You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first
fruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall
observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year,
when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour.

17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear
before the Lord God.

18 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with
anything leavened, or let the fat of my festival remain until
the morning.

19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall
bring into the house of the LORD your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

In comparison to the Large Covenant Code, here is the
Small Covenant Code in the same sequence:

SMALL COVENANT CODE (also known as Ritual
Decalogue), Exodus 34:1 1—26

11 Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out
before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants
of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare
among you.

13 You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and
cut down their sacred poles

14 (for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).

15 You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of
the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods
and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite
you, and you will eat of the sacrifice.

16 And you will take wives from among their daughters for
your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to
their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to
their gods.

17 You shall not make cast idols.

18 You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. For
seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded
you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the
month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

19 All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male
livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

20a The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb,
or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the
firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.

20b No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

21 For six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you
shall rest; even in ploughing time and in harvest time you
shall rest.

22 You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of
wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of
the year.

23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear
before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

24 For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your
borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to
appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

25 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven,
and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be
left until the morning.

26 The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall
bring to the house of the Lord your God.

You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE RITUAL DECALOGUE is a list of laws at Exodus
34:11—26. These laws are similar to the Covenant Code and
are followed by the phrase "ten commandments" (Hebrew:
Aseret Ha-Dvarim, in Exodus 34:28). Although the phrase
"Ten Commandments" has traditionally been interpreted as
referring to a very different set of laws, in Exodus 20:2—17,
many scholars believe it instead refers to the Ritual
Decalogue found two verses earlier. (On history of the Jewish
Law, see: "The Elephantine Papyrus Find,' p. 1381.)

Critical biblical scholars understand the two sets of laws to
have different authorship. Early scholars, adopting a
proposal of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, contrasted the
"Ritual" Decalogue with the "Ethical" Decalogue of Exodus
20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6—21, which are the texts more
generally known as the Ten Commandments. Believing that
the Bible reflected a shift over time from an emphasis on the
ritual to the ethical, they argued that the Ritual Decalogue
was composed earlier than the Ethical Decalogue. Later
scholars have held that they were actually parallel
developments, with the Ethical Decalogue a late addition to
Exodus copied from Deuteronomy, or that the Ritual
Decalogue was the later of the two, a conservative reaction
to the secular Ethical Decalogue. A few Bible scholars call
the verses in Exodus 34 the "small Covenant code", as it
appears to be a compact version of the Covenant Code in
Exodus 20:19—23:33; they argue the small Covenant code
was composed around the same time as the Decalogue of
Exodus 20, but either served different functions within
Israelite religion, or reflects the influence of other Ancient
Near Eastern religious texts.

The word decalogue comes from the Greek name for the
Ten Commandments, déka. Adyot (déka logoi; "ten terms"),
a translation of the Hebrew (aseret ha-dvarim "the ten
items/terms").

The Ritual Decalogue is framed in the context of God
making a covenant with Israel:

Yahweh said to Moses, Cut two tablets of stone like the
former ones, and | will write on the tablets the words that
were on the former tablets, which you broke. ... I hereby
make a covenant. [Commandments of Exodus 34]

Yahweh said to Moses, Write these words; in accordance
with these words I have made a covenant with you and with
Israel. ... And he wrote on the tablets the words of the
covenant, the ten commandments [aseret ha-dvarim]. This is
the only place in the Bible where the phrase Ten
Commandments identifies a set of commandments.

THE ETHICAL DECALOGUE

The two Ethical Decalogues compared

We see now what is known as the Ten Commandments in
Exodus 20, which is almost the same as the Ten
Commandments of Deuteronomy 5, and in Deuteronomy
10:4.

Ethical Decalogue, Exodus 20:2—17

21am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

3 Do not have any other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the
form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I
the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for
the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth
generation of those who reject me,

6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation
of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord
your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses
his name.

8 Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work.

10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;
you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,
your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien
resident in your towns.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

12 Honour your father and your mother, so that your days
may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 You shall not murder.

14 You shall not commit adultery.

15 You shall not steal.

16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

17 You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall
not covet your neighbour's wife, or male or female slave, or
ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Ethical Decalogue, Deuteronomy 5:6—21

6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

7 you shall have no other gods before me.

8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the
form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I
the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for
the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of
those who reject me,

10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation
of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the
Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who
misuses his name.

12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord
your God commanded you.

13 For six days you shall labour and do all your work.

14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;
you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your
donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your
towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as
you.

15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a
mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord
your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

16 Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your
God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that
it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is
giving you.

17 You shall not murder.

18 Neither shall you commit adultery.

19 Neither shall you steal.

20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your
neighbour.

21 Neither shall you covet your neighbour's wife. Neither
shall you desire your neighbour's house, or field, or male or
female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to
your neighbour.

That we have two versions of the Covenant Code and also
two versions of the Ethical Decalogue in the Torah
underlines their significance.

COMMANDMENTS OF THE PARASHAH

The term parashah (Hebrew: "portion") formally means a
section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).

According to the Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 23 positive
and 30 negative commandments in the parashah:

¢ To purchase a Hebrew slave in accordance with the
prescribed laws.

* To betroth the Jewish maidservant.

* To redeem Jewish maidservants.

The master must not sell his Jewish maidservant.

* Not to withhold food, clothing, or sexual relations from
one's wife.

¢ The courts must execute by strangulation those who
deserve it.

* Not to strike one's father or mother.

¢ The court must implement laws against the one who
assaults another or damages another's property.

¢ The court must carry out the death penalty of the sword.

* The court must judge the damages incurred by a goring
Ox.

* Not to benefit from an ox condemned to be stoned.

* The court must judge the damages incurred by a pit.

¢ The court must implement punitive measures against the
thief.

* The court must judge the damages incurred by an animal
eating.

* The court must judge the damages incurred by fire.

¢ The courts must carry out the laws of an unpaid guard.

¢ The courts must carry out the laws of the plaintiff,
admitter, or denier.

* The courts must carry out the laws of a hired worker and
hired guard.

¢ The courts must carry out the laws of a borrower.

* The court must fine one who seduces a maiden.

¢ The court must not let the sorcerer live.

* Not to insult or harm a sincere convert with words.

* Not to cheat a sincere convert monetarily.

* Not to afflict any orphan or widow.

* To lend to the poor and destitute.

* Not to press them for payment if you know they don't
have it.

* Not to intermediate in an interest loan, guarantee,
witness, or write the promissory note.

* Not to curse judges.

* Not to blaspheme.

* Not to curse the head of state or leader of the Sanhedrin.

* Not to preface one tithe to the next, but separate them in
their proper order.

* Not to eat meat of an animal that was mortally wounded.

* Judges must not accept testimony unless both parties are
present.

¢ Transgressors must not testify.

* The court must not execute through a majority of one; at
least a majority of two is required.

Celebrating Sukkot

¢ A judge who presented an acquittal plea must not present
an argument for conviction in capital cases.

* To decide by majority in case of disagreement.

* Not to pity a poor man in judgement.

¢ To help another remove the load from a beast which can
no longer carry it.

¢ A judge must not decide unjustly the case of the habitual
transgressor.

¢ The court must not kill anybody on circumstantial
evidence.

* Judges must not accept bribes.

* To leave free all produce that grew in the Sabbatical year.

¢ To rest on the Sabbath.

* Not to swear in the name of an idol.
* Not to turn Israelites to idolatry.
* To celebrate on the three Festivals of Passover, Shavuot,
and Sukkot.
¢ Not to slaughter the Passover lamb while in possession of
leaven.
* Not to leave the fat overnight.
¢ To set aside the first fruits and bring them to the Temple.
* Not to eat meat and milk cooked together.
¢ Not to make any treaty with the seven nations to be
extirpated, or with any idol worshiper.
Not to let them dwell in our land.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PRIESTLY CODE

The Priestly Code (Hebrew: Torat Kohanim) is the name
given, by academia, to the body of laws expressed in the
Torah which do not form part of the Holiness Code, the
Covenant Code, the Ritual Decalogue, or the Ethical
Decalogue. Jewish Law as we know it today was introduced
by Ezra in 445 BC; (On history of the Jewish Law, see: 'The
Elephantine Papyrus Find,' p.1381.).

The Priestly Code constitutes the majority of Leviticus, as
well as some of the laws expressed in Numbers. The code
forms a large portion, approximately one third, of the
commandments of the Torah, and thus is a major source of
Jewish law.

It is termed the Priestly Code due to its large concern with
ritual and the Jewish priesthood, and also, in critical
scholarship, it is defined as the whole of the law code believed
to be present in the Priestly Source except for the Holiness
Code. Under the documentary hypothesis, while some
scholars believe that the Priestly Code was created to rival
the Ethical Decalogue and Covenant Code, others believe
was intended as only supplementary to the Holiness Code.

Constituent Parts of the Priestly Code

The majority of the Priestly Code is presented in the Torah
as the Law which is given to Moses directly by God at Mount
Sinai. Unlike the Decalogues, however, Yahweh speaks the
laws to Moses while descended, in a cloud, upon the
Tabernacle which the Israelites have constructed. The
remainder is present as scattered laws either given by Moses
directly, or by being given in a similar manner to the
majority, via the tabernacle, but after the Israelites have
moved elsewhere, taking the tabernacle with them. The
implication, therefore, is that the tabernacle is the place
where God speak with the priesthood.

Although the majority of the code forms the bulk of
Leviticus, there are several laws which appear in other places
in the Torah. The code is generally regarded to contain the
following laws :

1. Law of circumcision (Genesis 17)

2. Laws concerning consumption of the Passover meal
(Exodus 12:43-49)

3. Laws concerning the keeping of the Sabbath (Exodus
31:14b-17 and 35:1-3)

4. Law concerning the consumption of dead animals, fat,
blood, and the portion due to the priest (Leviticus 22-38)

5. Law concerning inappropriate behaviour for priests
(Leviticus 10:6-15)

6. List of clean and unclean animals (Leviticus 11)

7. Laws of purification and atonement (Leviticus 12,
Leviticus 13, and Leviticus 15)

8. Laws interrupting the Holiness Code:

8a The prohibition against consuming the naturally dead
(Leviticus 115-16)

8b The order to make trespass offerings after sexual
involvement with an engaged slavewoman (Leviticus 19:21 -
22)

8c. The prohibition against an anointed high priest
uncovering his head or rending his clothes (Leviticus 21:10)

8d. The prohibition against offerings by Aaronid priests
who are blemished (Leviticus 21:21-22)

8e. Case law concerning a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:10-
15a and 24:23)

8f. The order for a trumpet sounding on Yom Kippur
(Leviticus 25:9b)

8g. Rules concerning redeeming property (Leviticus
25:23 and 25:26-34)

8h. Order to only keep heathens as slaves (Leviticus 25:40,
25:42, 25:44-46)

81. Rules concerning redeeming people (Leviticus 25:48-
52, and 25:54)

9. Law concerning the commutation of vows (Leviticus 27)

10. Miscellaneous laws concerning lepers, and dedicated
things (Numbers 5: 1-10)

11. Law concerning women suspected of adultery (Numbers
5:11-31)

12. Law of the "Little Passover" (Numbers 9:9-14)

13. Laws concerning the duties and revenue of priests and
Levites (Numbers 18)

14. Law concerning the daughters of Zelophehad and
inheritance (Numbers 21-11)

15. Law concerning oaths (Numbers 30)

16. The giving of 48 cities to the Levits (Numbers 35: 1-8)

17 Law on the treatment of murder and manslaughter
(Numbers 35:9-34)

18. Law concerning the daughters of Zelophehad and
marriage to a land owner (Numbers 36)

It is also generally regarded as containing the following
descriptions and rules of ritual:

19. Ritual of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Exodus 12:15-20)

20. Ritual of Consecration of Priests (Exodus 29:1-37,
carried out at Leviticus 8)

21. Continual morning and evening offerings (Exodus
29:38-42)

22. Rules concerning the burning of incense and of hand
washing (Exodus 30:7-10, and 30:19-20)

23. Rules about the composition of anointing oil and
incense (Exodus 30:22-38)

24. Rules of burnt offerings, meal offerings, peace offerings,
sin offerings, and guilt offerings, including specifications of
the portions allocated to priests, and, in some cases, the
appropriate costume of the officiating priest (Leviticus 1-21,
carried out at Leviticus 9)

25. Ritual of cleansing lepers (Leviticus 14)

26. Rule of fringes (Leviticus 15:37-41)

27. Ritual of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:3-34, 25:9b)

28. Rituals interrupting the Holiness Code:

28a. The order to keep the sabbath, passover, and feast of
unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:1-10a)

28b. The order to keep Yom Kippur, and Sukkot
(Leviticus 23:23-38)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28c. The order for continual bread and oil (Leviticus
24:1-9)
29. Ritual concerning Nazarites (Numbers 6:1-21)
30. The priestly benediction (Numbers 6:22-27)
30a. The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
30b. The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be
gracious unto thee:
30c. The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and
give thee peace.

31. Rules concerning how to fix lamps on the golden
candlestick, and how to consecrate priests (Numbers 8:1-15,
carried out at Numbers 8:20-22)

32. Ritual of the Red Heifer, for purification after contact
with a corpse (Numbers 19)

THE 613 MITZVOT

(All precepts and laws mentioned in the Torah, the Five
Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, are summarised in a list
codex known as "613 Mitzvot" [plural of Mitzvah meaning
precept, commandment]. In this canonical order the list by
Maimonides is sorted by occurrence in the Torah

The Mosaic Covenant (named after Moses), the Covenant of
Moses, or, more precise: The Agreement between God and
the People of Israel, also known as the Sinaitic Covenant
(named after the biblical Mount Sinai), refers to God's
promise to the biblical Israelites, including their proselytes,
and their commitment to worship Him alone. The
establishment and stipulations of the Mosaic covenant are
recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible,
traditionally attributed to Moses and collectively called the
Torah or Pentateuch. This covenant is sometimes also
referred to as the Law of Moses, Mosaic Law, or the 613
Mitzvot, or commandments (singular: mitzvah).

The tradition that 613 commandments (Hebrew: mitzvot
or mitzvah) is the number of mitzvot in the Torah, began in
the 3rd century AD, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a
sermon that is recorded in Talmud Makkot 23b.

Although there have been many attempts to codify and
enumerate the commandments contained in the Torah, the
most traditional enumeration is by Moses ben Maimon (1135
- 1204) also called Maimonides. The 613 commandments
include "positive commandments", to perform an act
(mitzvot aseh), and "negative commandments", to abstain
from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). The negative
commandments number 365, which coincides with the
number of days in the solar year, and the positive
commandments number 248, a number ascribed to the
number of bones and main organs in the human body
(Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b—24a). Though the
number 613 is mentioned in the Talmud, its real significance
increased in later medieval rabbinic literature, including
many works listing or arranged by the mitzvot. Three types
of negative commandments fall under the self-sacrificial
principle yehareg ve'al ya'avor, meaning "One should let
oneself be killed rather than violate it". These are murder,
idolatry, and forbidden sexual relations.

The 613 mitzvot have been divided also into three general
categories: mishpatim; edot; and chukim. Mishpatim ("laws")
include commandments that are deemed to be self-evident,
such as not to murder and not to steal. Edot ("testimonies")
commemorate important events in Jewish history. For
example, the Shabbat is said to testify to the story that
Hashem created the world in six days and rested on the
seventh day and declared it holy. Chukim ("decrees") are
commandments with no known rationale, and are perceived
as pure manifestations of the Divine will.

Many of the mitzvot cannot be observed now, following the
destruction of the Second Temple, although they still retain
religious significance. According to one standard reckoning,
there are 77 positive and 194 negative commandments that
can be observed today, of which there are 26 commands that
apply only within the Land of Israel. Furthermore, there are
some time-related commandments from which women are
exempt (examples include shofar, sukkah, lulav, tzitzit and
tefillin). Some depend on the special status of a person in
Judaism (such as kohanim), while others apply only to men
or only to women. )

Typical order

1. To know there is a God — Ex. 20:2

2. Not to even think that there are other gods besides Him
— Standard: Ex. 20:3; Yemenite: Ex. 20:2 [17]

3. To know that God is One — Deut. 6:4

4. To love God —Deut. 6:5

5. To fear God — Deut. 10:20

6. To sanctify God's Name — Lev. 22:32

7. Not to profane God's Name — Lev. 22:32

8. Not to destroy objects associated with God's Name —
Deut. 12:4

9. To listen to the prophet speaking in God's Name —
Deut. 18:15

10. Not to try the LORD unduly — Deut. 6:16

11. To emulate God's ways — Deut. 28:9

12. To cleave to those who know God — Deut. 10:20

13. To love other Jews — Lev. 19:18

14. To love converts — Deut. 10:19

15. Not to hate fellow Jews — Lev. 19:17

16. To reprove a sinner — Lev. 19:17

17. Not to embarrass others — Lev. 19:17

18. Not to oppress the weak — Ex. 22:21

19. Not to speak derogatorily of others — Lev. 19:16

20. Not to take revenge — Lev. 19:18

21. Not to bear a grudge — Lev. 19:18

22. To learn the Torah — Deut. 6:7

23. To honour those who teach and know the Torah — Lev.
19:32

24. Not to inquire into idolatry — Lev. 19:4

25. Not to follow the whims of your heart or what your
eyes see — Num. 15:39

26. Not to blaspheme — Ex. 22:27

27. Not to worship idols in the manner they are worshiped
— Standard: Ex. 20:6; Yemenite: Ex. 20:5

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28. Not to worship idols in the four ways we worship God
— Standard: Ex. 20:6; Yemenite: Ex. 20:5

29. Not to make an idol for yourself — Standard:Ex. 20:5;
Yemenite: Ex. 20:4

30. Not to make an idol for others — Lev. 19:4

31. Not to make human forms even for decorative purposes
— Standard: Ex. 20:21; Yemenite: Ex. 20:20

32. Not to turn a city to idolatry — Deut. 13:14

33. To burn a city that has turned to idol worship — Deut.

34. Not to rebuild it as a city — Deut. 13:17

35. Not to derive benefit from it — Deut. 13:18

36. Not to missionize an individual to idol worship —
Deut. 13:12

37. Not to love the idolater — Deut. 13:9

38. Not to cease hating the idolater — Deut. 13:9

39. Not to save the idolater — Deut. 13:9

40. Not to say anything in the idolater's defense — Deut.

41. Not to refrain from incriminating the idolater — Deut.

42. Not to prophesy in the name of idolatry — Deut. 13:14
43. Not to listen to a false prophet — Deut. 13:4
44. Not to prophesy falsely in the name of God — Deut.

45. Not to be afraid of the false prophet — Deut. 18:22

46. Not to swear in the name of an idol — Ex. 23:13

47. Not to perform ov (medium) — Lev. 19:31

48. Not to perform yidoni ("magical seer") — Lev. 19:31

49. Not to pass your children through the fire to Molech
— Lev. 18:21

50. Not to erect a pillar in a public place of worship —
Deut. 16:22

51. Not to bow down before a smooth stone — Lev. 26:1

52. Not to plant a tree in the Temple courtyard — Deut.
16:21

53. To destroy idols and their accessories — Deut. 12:2

54. Not to derive benefit from idols and their accessories —
Deut. 26

55. Not to derive benefit from ornaments of idols — Deut.

56. Not to make a covenant with idolaters —Deut. 2
57. Not to show favour to idolaters — Deut. 2
58. Not to let idolaters dwell in the Land of Israel — Ex.

59. Not to imitate idolaters in customs and clothing — Lev.

60. Not to be superstitious — Lev. 19:26

61. Not to go into a trance to foresee events, etc. — Deut.
18:10

62. Not to engage in divination or soothsaying — Lev.
19:26

63. Not to mutter incantations — Deut. 18:11

64. Not to attempt to contact the dead — Deut. 18:11

65. Not to consult the ov — Deut. 18:11

66. Not to consult the yidoni — Deut. 18:11

67. Not to perform acts of magic — Deut. 18:10

68. Men must not shave the hair off the sides of their head
— Lev. 19:27

69. Men must not shave their beards with a razor — Lev.
19:27

70. Men must not wear women's clothing — Deut. 22:5

71. Women must not wear men's clothing — Deut. 22:5

72. Not to tattoo the skin — Lev. 19:28

73. Not to tear the skin in mourning — Deut. 14:1

74. Not to make a bald spot in mourning — Deut. 14:1

75. To repent and confess wrongdoings — Num. 5:7

76. To say the Shema twice daily — Deut. 6:7

77. To pray every day — Ex. 23:25

78. The Kohanim must bless the Jewish nation daily —
Num. 6:23

79. To wear tefillin (phylacteries) on the head — Deut. 6:8

80. To bind tefillin on the arm — Deut. 6:8

81. To put a mezuzah on the door post — Deut. 6:9

82. Each male must write a Torah scroll — Deut. 31:19

83. The king must have a separate Torah scroll for himself
— Deut. 118

84. To have tzitzit on four-cornered garments — Num.
15:38

85. To bless the Almighty after eating — Deut. 8:10

86. To circumcise all males on the eighth day after their
birth — Gen. 110

87. To rest on the seventh day — Ex. 23:12

88. Not to do prohibited labour on the seventh day —
Standard: Ex. 20:11; Yemenite: Ex. 20:10

89. The court must not inflict punishment on Shabbat —
Ex. 35:3

90. Not to walk outside the city boundary on Shabbat —
Ex. 16:29

91. To sanctify Shabbat with Kiddush and Havdalah —
Standard: Ex. 20:9; Yemenite: Ex. 20:8

92. To rest from prohibited labour on Yom Kippur — Lev.
23:32

93. Not to do prohibited labour on Yom Kippur — Lev.
23:32

94. To afflict oneself'on Yom Kippur — Lev. 16:29

95. Not to eat or drink on Yom Kippur — Lev. 23:29

96. To rest on the first day of Passover — Lev. 23:7

97. Not to do prohibited labour on the first day of
Passover — Lev. 23:8

98. To rest on the seventh day of Passover — Lev. 23:8

99. Not to do prohibited labour on the seventh day of
Passover — Lev. 23:8

100. To rest on Shavuot — Lev. 23:21

101. Not to do prohibited labour on Shavuot — Lev.
23:21

102. To rest on Rosh Hashanah — Lev. 23:24

103. Not to do prohibited labour on Rosh Hashanah —
Lev. 23:25

104. To rest on Sukkot — Lev. 23:35

105. Not to do prohibited labour on Sukkot — Lev. 23:35

106. To rest on Shemini Atzeret — Lev. 23:36

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

107. Not to do prohibited labour on Shemini Atzeret —
Lev. 23:36

108. Not to eat chametz on the afternoon of the 14th day of
Nisan — Deut. 16:3

109. To destroy all chametz on 14th day of Nisan — Ex.
12:15

110. Not to eat chametz all seven days of Passover —Ex.
13:3

111. Not to eat mixtures containing chametz all seven days
of Passover — Ex. 12:20

112. Not to see chametz in your domain seven days — Ex.
13:7

113. Not to find chametz in your domain seven days — Ex.
12:19

114. To eat matzah on the first night of Passover — Ex.
12:18

115. To relate the Exodus from Egypt on that night — Ex.
13:8

116. To hear the Shofar on the first day of Tishrei (Rosh
Hashanah) — Num. 9:1

117. To dwell in a Sukkah for the seven days of Sukkot —
Lev. 23:42

118. To take up a Lulav and Etrog on the first day of
Sukkot (in the temple, all seven days) — Lev. 23:40

119. Each man must give a half shekel annually — Ex.
30:13

120. Courts must calculate to determine when a new month
begins — Ex. 12:2

121. To afflict oneself and cry out before God in times of
calamity — Num. 10:9

122. To marry a wife by means of ketubah and kiddushin
— Deut. 22:13

123. Not to have sexual relations with women not thus
married — Deut. 23:18

124. Not to withhold food, clothing, and sexual relations
from your wife — Ex. 21:10

125. To have children with one's wife — Gen. 1:28

126. To issue a divorce by means of a Get document —
Deut. 24:1

127. A man must not remarry his ex-wife after she has
married someone else — Deut. 24:4

128. To perform yibbum (marry the widow of one's
childless brother) — Deut. 25:5

129. To perform halizah (free the widow of one's childless
brother from yibbum) — Deut. 25:9

130. The widow must not remarry until the ties with her
brother-in-law are removed (by halizah) — Deut. 25:5

131. The court must fine one who sexually seduces a maiden
— Ex. 22:15-16

132. The rapist must marry his victim if she is unwed —
Deut. 22:29

133. He is never allowed to divorce her — Deut. 22:29

134. The slanderer must remain married to his wife —
Deut. 22:19

135. He must not divorce her — Deut. 22:19

136. To fulfill the laws of the Sotah — Num. 5:30

137. Not to put oil on her meal offering (as usual) — Num.
5:15

138. Not to put frankincense on her meal offering (as usual)
—Num. 5:15

139. Not to have sexual relations with your mother — Lev.
18:7

140. Not to have sexual relations with your father's wife —
Lev. 18:8

141. Not to have sexual relations with your sister — Lev.
18:9

142. Not to have sexual relations with your father's wife's
daughter — Lev. 18:11

143. Not to have sexual relations with your son's daughter
— Lev. 18:10

144. Not to have sexual relations with your daughter —
Lev. 18:10

145. Not to have sexual relations with your daughter's
daughter — Lev. 18:10

146. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her
daughter — Lev. 18:17

147. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her
son's daughter — Lev. 18:17

148. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her
daughter's daughter — Lev. 18:17

149. Not to have sexual relations with your father's sister
— Lev. 18:12

150. Not to have sexual relations with your mother's sister
— Lev. 18:13

151. Not to have sexual relations with your father's
brother's wife — Lev. 18:14

152. Not to have sexual relations with your son's wife —
Lev. 18:15

153. Not to have sexual relations with your brother's wife
— Lev. 18:16

154. Not to have sexual relations with your wife's sister —
Lev. 18:18

155. A man must not have sexual relations with an animal
— Lev. 18:23

156. A woman must not have sexual relations with an
animal — Lev. 18:23

157. A man must not have sexual relations with a man —
Lev. 18:22

158. Not to have sexual relations with your father — Lev.
18:7

159. Not to have sexual relations with your father's brother
— Lev. 18:14

160. Not to have sexual relations with someone else's wife
— Lev. 18:20

161. Not to have sexual relations with a menstrually
impure woman — Lev. 18:19

162. Not to marry non-Jews — Deut. 3

163. Not to let Moabite and Ammonite males marry into
the Jewish people — Deut. 23:4

164. Not to refrain from letting a third-generation
Egyptian convert enter the Assembly — Deut. 23:8-9

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

165. Not to refrain from letting a third-generation
Edomite convert enter the Assembly — Deut. 23:8-9

166. Not to let a mamzer (a child born due to an illegal
relationship) marry into the Jewish people — Deut. 23:3

167. Not to let a eunuch marry into the Jewish people —
Deut. 23:2

168. Not to offer to God any castrated male animals —
Lev. 22:24

169. The High Priest must not marry a widow — Lev.
21:14

170. The High Priest must not have sexual relations with a
widow even outside of marriage — Lev. 21:15

171. The High Priest must marry a virgin maiden — Lev.
21:13

172. A Kohen (priest) must not marry a divorcee — Lev.
21:7

173. A Kohen must not marry a zonah (a woman who has
had a forbidden sexual relationship) — Lev. 21:7

174. A Kohen must not marry a chalalah ("a desecrated
person") (party to or product of 169-172) — Lev. 21:7

175. Not to make pleasurable (sexual) contact with any
forbidden woman — Lev. 18:6

176. To examine the signs of animals to distinguish
between kosher and non-kosher — Lev. 11:2

177. To examine the signs of fowl to distinguish between
kosher and non-kosher — Deut. 14:11

178. To examine the signs of fish to distinguish between
kosher and non-kosher — Lev. 11:9

179. To examine the signs of locusts to distinguish between
kosher and non-kosher — Lev. 11:21

180. Not to eat non-kosher animals — Lev. 11:4

181. Not to eat non-kosher fowl — Lev. 11:13

182. Not to eat non-kosher fish — Lev. 11:11

183. Not to eat non-kosher flying insects — Deut. 14:19

184. Not to eat non-kosher creatures that crawl on land —
Lev. 11:41

185. Not to eat non-kosher maggots — Lev. 11:44

186. Not to eat worms found in fruit on the ground — Lev.

11:42

187. Not to eat creatures that live in water other than
(kosher) fish — Lev. 11:43

188. Not to eat the meat of an animal that died without
ritual slaughter — Deut. 14:21

189. Not to benefit from an ox condemned to be stoned —
Ex. 21:2

190. Not to eat meat of an animal that was mortally
wounded — Ex. 22:30

191. Not to eat a limb torn off a living creature — Deut.
12:23

192. Not to eat blood —Lev. 3:17

193. Not to eat certain fats of clean animals — Lev. 3:17

194. Not to eat the sinew of the thigh — Gen. 32:33

195. Not to eat mixtures of milk and meat cooked together
— Ex. 23:19

196. Not to cook meat and milk together — Ex. 34:26

197. Not to eat bread from new grain before the Omer —
Lev. 23:14

198. Not to eat parched grains from new grain before the
Omer — Lev. 23:14

199. Not to eat ripened grains from new grain before the
Omer — Lev. 23:14

200. Not to eat fruit of a tree during its first three years —
Lev. 19:23

201. Not to eat diverse seeds planted in a vineyard — Deut.
22:9

202. Not to eat untithed fruits — Lev. 22:15

203. Not to drink wine poured in service to idols — Deut.
32:38

204. To ritually slaughter an animal before eating it —
Deut. 12:21

205. Not to slaughter an animal and its offspring on the
same day — Lev. 22:28

206. To cover the blood (of a slaughtered beast or fowl)
with earth — Lev. 113

207. To send away the mother bird before taking its
children — Deut. 22:6

208. To release the mother bird if she was taken from the
nest — Deut. 22:7

209. Not to swear falsely in God's Name — Lev. 19:12

210. Not to take God's Name in vain — Standard: Ex.
20:7; Yemenite: Ex. 20:6

211. Not to deny possession of something entrusted to you
— Lev. 19:11

212. Not to swear in denial of a monetary claim — Lev.
19:11

213. To swear in God's Name to confirm the truth when
deemed necessary by court — Deut. 10:20

214. To fulfill what was uttered and to do what was
avowed — Deut. 23:24

215. Not to break oaths or vows — Num. 30:3

216. For oaths and vows annulled, there are the laws of
annulling vows explicit in the Torah — Num. 30:3

217. The Nazirite must let his hair grow — Num. 6:5

218. He must not cut his hair — Num. 6:5

219. He must not drink wine, wine mixtures, or wine
vinegar — Num. 6:3

220. He must not eat fresh grapes — Num. 6:3

221. He must not eat raisins — Num. 6:3

222. He must not eat grape seeds — Num. 6:4

223. He must not eat grape skins — Num. 6:4

224. He must not be under the same roof as a corpse —
Num. 6:6

225. He must not come into contact with the dead — Num.
6:7

226. He must shave his head after bringing sacrifices upon
completion of his Nazirite period — Num. 6:9

227. To estimate the value of people as determined by the
Torah —Lev. 22

228. To estimate the value of consecrated animals — Lev.
212-13

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

229. To estimate the value of consecrated houses — Lev.
214

230. To estimate the value of consecrated fields — Lev. 216

231. Carry out the laws of interdicting possessions (cherem)
— Lev. 228

232. Not to sell the cherem — Lev. 228

233. Not to redeem the cherem — Lev. 228

234. Not to plant diverse seeds together — Lev. 19:19

235. Not to plant grains or greens in a vineyard — Deut.
22:9

236. Not to crossbreed animals — Lev. 19:19

237. Not to work different animals together — Deut.
22:10

238. Not to wear shaatnez, a cloth woven of wool and linen
— Deut. 22:11

239. To leave a corner of the field uncut for the poor —
Lev. 19:10

240. Not to reap that corner — Lev. 19:9

241. To leave gleanings — Lev. 19:9

242. Not to gather the gleanings — Lev. 19:9

243. To leave the unformed clusters of grapes — Lev.
19:10

244. Not to pick the unformed clusters of grapes — Lev.
19:10

245. To leave the gleanings of a vineyard — Lev. 19:10

246. Not to gather the gleanings of a vineyard — Lev.
19:10

247. To leave the forgotten sheaves in the field — Deut.
24:19

248. Not to retrieve them — Deut. 24:19

249. To separate the "tithe for the poor" — Deut. 14:28

250. To give charity — Deut. 15:8

251. Not to withhold charity from the poor — Deut. 15:7

252. To set aside Terumah (heave offering) Gedolah (gift
for the Kohen) — Deut. 18:4

253. The Levite must set aside a tenth of his tithe — Num.
18:26

254. Not to preface one tithe to the next, but separate them
in their proper order — Ex. 22:28

255. Anon-Kohen must not eat Terumah — Lev. 22:10

256. A hired worker or a Jewish bondsman of a Kohen
must not eat Terumah — Lev. 22:10

257. An uncircumcised Kohen must not eat Terumah — Ex.

12:48

258. An impure Kohen must not eat Terumah — Lev. 22:4

259. A chalalah (party to #s 169-172 above) must not eat
Terumah — Ley. 22:12

260. To set aside Ma'aser (tithe) each planting year and
give it to a Levite — Num. 18:24

261. To set aside the second tithe (Ma'aser Sheni) — Deut.
14:22

262. Not to spend its redemption money on anything but
food, drink, or ointment — Deut. 26:14

263. Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni while impure — Deut. 26:14

264. A mourner on the first day after death must not eat
Ma'aser Sheni — Deut. 26:14

265. Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni grains outside Jerusalem —
Deut. 12:17

266. Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni wine products outside
Jerusalem — Deut. 12:17

267. Not to eat Ma'aser Sheni oil outside Jerusalem —
Deut. 12:17

268. The fourth year crops must be totally for holy
purposes like Ma'aser Sheni — Lev. 19:24

269. To read the confession of tithes every fourth and
seventh year — Deut. 26:13

270. To set aside the first fruits and bring them to the
Temple — Ex. 23:19

271. The Kohanim must not eat the first fruits outside
Jerusalem — Deut. 12:17

272. To read the Torah portion pertaining to their
presentation — Deut. 26:5

273. To set aside a portion of dough for a Kohen — Num.
15:20

274. To give the foreleg, two cheeks, and abomasum of
slaughtered animals to a Kohen — Deut. 18:3

275. To give the first shearing of sheep to a Kohen — Deut.
18:4

276. To redeem firstborn sons and give the money to a
Kohen — Num. 18:15

277. To redeem the firstborn donkey by giving a lamb to a
Kohen — Ex. 13:13

278. To break the neck of the donkey if the owner does not
intend to redeem it — Ex. 13:13

279. To rest the land during the seventh year by not doing
any work which enhances growth — Ex. 34:21

280. Not to work the land during the seventh year — Lev.
25:4

281. Not to work with trees to produce fruit during that
year — Lev. 25:4

282. Not to reap crops that grow wild that year in the
normal manner — Lev. 25:5

283. Not to gather grapes which grow wild that year in the
normal way — Lev. 25:5

284. To leave free all produce which grew in that year —
Ex. 23:11

285. To release all loans during the seventh year — Deut.
15:2

286. Not to pressure or claim from the borrower — Deut.
15:2

287. Not to refrain from lending immediately before the
release of the loans for fear of monetary loss —Deut. 15:9

288. The Sanhedrin must count seven groups of seven years
— Lev. 25:8

289. The Sanhedrin must sanctify the fiftieth year — Lev.
25:10

290. To blow the Shofar on the tenth of Tishrei to free the
slaves — Lev. 25:9

291. Not to work the soil during the fiftieth year (Jubilee)
— Lev. 25:11

292. Not to reap in the normal manner that which grows
wild in the fiftieth year — Lev. 25:11

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

293. Not to pick grapes which grew wild in the normal
manner in the fiftieth year — Lev. 25:11

294. Carry out the laws of sold family properties — Lev.
25:24

295. Not to sell the land in Israel indefinitely — Lev.
25:23

296. Carry out the laws of houses in walled cities — Lev.
25:29

297. The Tribe of Levi must not be given a portion of the
land in Israel, rather they are given cities to dwell in — Deut.
18:1

298. The Levites must not take a share in the spoils of war
— Deut. 18:1

299. To give the Levites cities to inhabit and their
surrounding fields — Num. 35:2

300. Not to sell the fields but they shall remain the Levites'
before and after the Jubilee year — Lev. 25:34

301. To build a Temple — Ex. 25:8

302. Not to build the altar with stones hewn by metal —
Standard: Ex. 20:24; Yemenite: Ex. 20:23

303. Not to climb steps to the altar — Standard: Ex. 20:27;
Yemenite: Ex. 20:26

304. To show reverence to the Temple — Lev. 19:30

305. To guard the Temple area — Num. 18:2

306. Not to leave the Temple unguarded — Num. 18:5

307. To prepare the anointing oil — Ex. 30:31

308. Not to reproduce the anointing oil — Ex. 30:32

309. Not to anoint with anointing oil — Ex. 30:32

310. Not to reproduce the incense formula — Ex. 30:37

311. Not to burn anything on the Golden Altar besides
incense — Ex. 30:9

312. The Levites must transport the ark on their shoulders
—Num. 9

313. Not to remove the staves from the ark — Ex. 25:15

314. The Levites must work in the Temple — Num. 18:23

315. No Levite must do another's work of either a Kohen
or a Levite — Num. 18:3

316. To dedicate the Kohen for service — Lev. 21:8

317. The work of the Kohanim's shifts must be equal
during holidays — Deut. 18:6-8

318. The Kohanim must wear their priestly garments
during service — Ex. 28:2

319. Not to tear the priestly garments — Ex. 28:32

320. The Kohen Gadol 's (High Priest) breastplate must
not be loosened from the Efod — Ex. 28:28

321. A Kohen must not enter the Temple intoxicated —
Lev. 10:9

322. A Kohen must not enter the Temple with his head
uncovered — Lev. 10:6

323. A Kohen must not enter the Temple with torn clothes
— Lev. 10:6

324. A Kohen must not enter the Temple indiscriminately
— Lev. 16:2

325. A Kohen must not leave the Temple during service —
Lev. 10:7

326. To send the impure from the Temple — Num. 5:2

327. Impure people must not enter the Temple — Num.
5:3

328. Impure people must not enter the Temple Mount area
— Deut. 23:11

329. Impure Kohanim must not do service in the temple —
Lev. 22:2

330. An impure Kohen, following immersion, must wait
until after sundown before returning to service — Lev. 22:7

331. A Kohen must wash his hands and feet before service
— Ex. 30:19

332. A Kohen with a physical blemish must not enter the
sanctuary or approach the altar — Lev. 21:23

333. A Kohen with a physical blemish must not serve —
Lev. 21:17

334. A Kohen with a temporary blemish must not serve —
Lev. 21:17

335. One who is not a Kohen must not serve — Num. 18:4

336. To offer only unblemished animals — Lev. 22:21

337. Not to dedicate a blemished animal for the altar —
Lev. 22:20

338. Not to slaughter it — Lev. 22:22

339. Not to sprinkle its blood — Lev. 22:24

340. Not to burn its fat — Lev. 22:22

341. Not to offer a temporarily blemished animal — Deut.
ll

342. Not to sacrifice blemished animals even if offered by
non-Jews — Lev. 22:25

343. Not to inflict wounds upon dedicated animals — Lev.
22:21

344. To redeem dedicated animals which have become
disqualified — Deut. 12:15

345. To offer only animals which are at least eight days old
— Lev. 22:27

346. Not to offer animals bought with the wages of a harlot
or the animal exchanged for a dog. Some interpret "exchange
for a dog" as referring to wage of a male prostitute.[15][16]
— Deut. 23:19

347. Not to burn honey or yeast on the altar — Lev. 2:11

348. To salt all sacrifices — Lev. 2:13

349. Not to omit the salt from sacrifices — Lev. 2:13

350. Carry out the procedure of the burnt offering as
prescribed in the Torah — Lev. 1:3

351. Not to eat its meat — Deut. 12:17

352. Carry out the procedure of the sin offering — Lev.
6:18

353. Not to eat the meat of the inner sin offering — Lev.
6:23

354. Not to decapitate a fowl brought as a sin offering —
Lev. 5:8

355. Carry out the procedure of the guilt offering — Lev.
1

356. The Kohanim must eat the sacrificial meat in the
Temple — Ex. 29:33

357. The Kohanim must not eat the meat outside the
Temple courtyard — Deut. 12:17

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

358. A non-Kohen must not eat sacrificial meat — Ex.
29:33

359. To follow the procedure of the peace offering — Lev.
11

360. Not to eat the meat of minor sacrifices before
sprinkling the blood — Deut. 12:17

361. To bring meal offerings as prescribed in the Torah —
Lev. 2:1

362. Not to put oil on the meal offerings of wrongdoers —
Lev. 5:11

363. Not to put frankincense on the meal offerings of
wrongdoers — Lev. 3:11

364. Not to eat the meal offering of the High Priest — Lev.

6:16

365. Not to bake a meal offering as leavened bread — Lev.
6:10

366. The Kohanim must eat the remains of the meal
offerings — Lev. 6:9

367. To bring all avowed and freewill offerings to the
Temple on the first subsequent festival — Deut. 12:5-6

368. Not to withhold payment incurred by any vow —
Deut. 23:22

369. To offer all sacrifices in the Temple — Deut. 12:11

370. To bring all sacrifices from outside Israel to the
Temple — Deut. 12:26

371. Not to slaughter sacrifices outside the courtyard —
Lev. 14

372. Not to offer any sacrifices outside the courtyard —
Deut. 12:13

373. To offer two lambs every day — Num. 28:3

374. To light a fire on the altar every day — Lev. 6:6

375. Not to extinguish this fire — Lev. 6:6

376. To remove the ashes from the altar every day — Lev.
6:3

377. To burn incense every day — Ex. 30:7

378. To light the Menorah every day — Ex. 221

379. The Kohen Gadol must bring a meal offering every
day — Lev. 6:13

380. To bring two additional lambs as burnt offerings on
Shabbat — Num. 28:9

381. To make the show bread — Ex. 25:30

382. To bring additional offerings on Rosh Chodesh (" The
New Month") — Num. 28:11

383. To bring additional offerings on Passover — Num.
28:19

384. To offer the wave offering from the meal of the new
wheat — Lev. 23:10

385. Each man must count the Omer - seven weeks from the
day the new wheat offering was brought — Lev. 23:15

386. To bring additional offerings on Shavuot — Num.
28:26

387. To bring two loaves to accompany the above sacrifice
— Lev. 23:17

388. To bring additional offerings on Rosh Hashana —
Num. 29:2

389. To bring additional offerings on Yom Kippur —
Num. 29:8

390. To bring additional offerings on Sukkot — Num.
29:13

391. To bring additional offerings on Shmini Atzeret —
Num. 29:35

392. Not to eat sacrifices which have become unfit or
blemished — Deut. 14:3

393. Not to eat from sacrifices offered with improper
intentions — Lev. 18

394. Not to leave sacrifices past the time allowed for eating
them — Lev. 22:30

395. Not to eat from that which was left over — Lev. 19:8

396. Not to eat from sacrifices which became impure —
Lev. 19

397. An impure person must not eat from sacrifices — Lev.
20

398. To burn the leftover sacrifices — Lev. 17

399. To burn all impure sacrifices — Lev. 19

400. To follow the procedure of Yom Kippur in the
sequence prescribed in Parshah Acharei Mot ("After the
death of Aaron's sons...") — Lev. 16:3

401. One who profaned property must repay what he
profaned plus a fifth and bring a sacrifice — Lev. 5:16

402. Not to work consecrated animals — Deut. 15:19

403. Not to shear the fleece of consecrated animals — Deut.
15:19

404. To slaughter the paschal sacrifice at the specified time
— Ex. 12:6

405. Not to slaughter it while in possession of leaven — Ex.
23:18

406. Not to leave the fat overnight — Ex. 23:18

407. To slaughter the second Paschal Lamb — Num. 9:11

408. To eat the Paschal Lamb with matzah and Marror on
the night of the fourteenth of Nisan — Ex. 12:8

409. To eat the second Paschal Lamb on the night of the
15th of Iyar — Num. 9:11

410. Not to eat the paschal meat raw or boiled — Ex. 12:9

411. Not to take the paschal meat from the confines of the
group — Ex. 12:46

412. An apostate must not eat from it — Ex. 12:43

413. A permanent or temporary hired worker must not eat
from it — Ex. 12:45

414. An uncircumcised male must not eat from it — Ex.
12:48

415. Not to break any bones from the paschal offering —
Ex. 12:46 Ps. 34:20

416. Not to break any bones from the second paschal
offering — Num. 9:12

417. Not to leave any meat from the paschal offering over
until morning — Ex. 12:10

418. Not to leave the second paschal meat over until
morning — Num. 9:12

419. Not to leave the meat of the holiday offering of the
14th until the 16th — Deut. 16:4

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

420. To be seen at the Temple on Passover, Shavuot, and
Sukkot — Deut. 16:16

421. To celebrate on these three Festivals (bring a peace
offering) — Ex. 23:14

422. To rejoice on these three Festivals (bring a peace
offering) — Deut. 16:14

423. Not to appear at the Temple without offerings —
Deut. 16:16

424. Not to refrain from rejoicing with, and giving gifts to,
the Levites — Deut. 12:19

425. To assemble all the people on the Sukkot following
the seventh year — Deut. 31:12

426. To set aside the firstborn animals — Ex. 13:12

427. The Kohanim must not eat unblemished firstborn
animals outside Jerusalem — Deut. 12:17

428. Not to redeem the firstborn — Num. 18:17

429. Separate the tithe from animals — Lev. 232

430. Not to redeem the tithe — Lev. 233

431. Every person must bring a sin offering (in the temple)
for his transgression — Lev. 4:27

432. Bring an asham talui (temple offering) when uncertain
of guilt — Lev. 5:17-18

433. Bring an asham vadai (temple offering) when guilt is
ascertained — Lev. 5:25

434. Bring an oleh v'yored (temple offering)(if the person is
wealthy, an animal; if poor, a bird or meal offering) — Lev.
5:7-11

435. The Sanhedrin must bring an offering (in the Temple)
when it rules in error — Lev. 4:13

436. A woman who had a running (vaginal) issue must
bring an offering (in the Temple) after she goes to the
Mikveh — Lev. 15:28-29

437. A woman who gave birth must bring an offering (in
the Temple) after she goes to the Mikveh — Lev. 12:6

438. A man who had a running (unnatural urinary) issue
must bring an offering (in the Temple) after he goes to the
Mikveh — Lev. 15:13-14

439. A metzora (one having a skin disease) must bring an
offering (in the Temple) after going to the Mikveh — Lev.
14:10

440. Not to substitute another beast for one set apart for
sacrifice — Lev. 210

441. The new animal, in addition to the substituted one,
retains consecration — Lev. 210

442. Not to change consecrated animals from one type of
offering to another — Lev. 226

443. Carry out the laws of impurity of the dead — Num.
19:14

444. Carry out the procedure of the Red Heifer (Para
Aduma) — Num. 19:2

445. Carry out the laws of the sprinkling water — Num.
19:21

446. Rule the laws of human tzara'at as prescribed in the
Torah — Lev. 13:12

447. The metzora must not remove his signs of impurity —
Deut. 24:8

448. The metzora must not shave signs of impurity in his
hair — Lev. 13:33

449. The metzora must publicize his condition by tearing
his garments, allowing his hair to grow and covering his lips
— Lev. 13:45

450. Carry out the prescribed rules for purifying the
metzora — Lev. 14:2

451. The metzora must shave off all his hair prior to
purification — Lev. 14:9

452. Carry out the laws of tzara'at of clothing — Lev.
13:47

453. Carry out the laws of tzara'at of houses — Lev. 13:34

454. Observe the laws of menstrual impurity — Lev. 15:19

455. Observe the laws of impurity caused by childbirth —
Lev. 12:2

456. Observe the laws of impurity caused by a woman's
running issue — Lev. 15:25

457. Observe the laws of impurity caused by a man's
running issue (irregular ejaculation of infected semen) —
Lev. 15:3

458. Observe the laws of impurity caused by a dead beast
— Lev. 11:39

459. Observe the laws of impurity caused by the eight
shratzim (insects) — Lev. 11:29

460. Observe the laws of impurity of a seminal emission
(regular ejaculation, with normal semen) — Lev. 15:16

461. Observe the laws of impurity concerning liquid and
solid foods — Lev. 11:34

462. Every impure person must immerse himself in a
Mikvah to become pure — Lev. 15:16

463. The court must judge the damages incurred by a
goring ox — Ex. 21:28

464. The court must judge the damages incurred by an
animal eating — Ex. 22:4

465. The court must judge the damages incurred by a pit
— Ex. 21:33

466. The court must judge the damages incurred by fire —
Ex. 22:5

467. Not to steal money stealthily — Lev. 19:11

468. The court must implement punitive measures against
the thief — Ex. 21:37

469. Each individual must ensure that his scales and
weights are accurate — Lev. 19:36

470. Not to commit injustice with scales and weights —
Lev. 19:35

471. Not to possess inaccurate scales and weights even if
they are not for use — Deut. 25:13

472. Not to move a boundary marker to steal someone's
property — Deut. 19:14

473. Not to kidnap — Standard: Ex. 20:14; Yemenite: Ex.
20:13

474. Not to rob openly — Lev. 19:13

475. Not to withhold wages or fail to repay a debt — Lev.
19:13

476. Not to covet and scheme to acquire another's
possession — Standard: Ex. 20:15; Yemenite: Ex. 20:14

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

477. Not to desire another's possession — Standard: Deut.
5:19; Yemenite: Deut. 5:18

478. Return the robbed object or its value — Lev. 5:23

479. Not to ignore a lost object — Deut. 22:3

480. Return the lost object — Deut. 22:1

481. The court must implement laws against the one who
assaults another or damages another's property — Ex. 21:18

482. Not to murder — Standard: Ex. 20:13; Yemenite: Ex.
20:12

483. Not to accept monetary restitution to atone for the
murderer — Num. 35:31

484. The court must send the accidental murderer to a city
of refuge — Num. 35:25

485. Not to accept monetary restitution instead of being
sent to a city of refuge — Num. 35:32

486. Not to kill the murderer before he stands trial —
Num. 35:12

487. Save someone being pursued even by taking the life of
the pursuer — Deut. 25:12

488. Not to pity the pursuer — Num. 35:12

489. Not to stand idly by if someone's life is in danger —
Lev. 19:16

490. Designate cities of refuge and prepare routes of access
— Deut. 19:3

491. Break the neck of a calf by the river valley following
an unsolved murder — Deut. 21:4

492. Not to work nor plant that river valley — Deut. 21:4

493. Not to allow pitfalls and obstacles to remain on your
property — Deut. 22:8

494. Make a guard rail around flat roofs — Deut. 22:8

495. Not to put a stumbling block before a blind man (nor
give harmful advice) — Lev. 19:14

496. Help another remove the load from a beast which can
no longer carry it — Ex. 23:5

497. Help others load their beast — Deut. 22:4

498. Not to leave others distraught with their burdens (but
to help either load or unload) — Deut. 22:4

499. Conduct sales according to Torah law — Lev. 25:14

500. Not to overcharge or underpay for an article — Lev.
25:14

501. Not to insult or harm anybody with words — Lev.
25:17

502. Not to cheat a convert monetarily — Ex. 22:20

503. Not to insult or harm a convert with words — Ex.
22:20

504. Purchase a Hebrew slave in accordance with the
prescribed laws — Ex. 21:2

505. Not to sell him as a slave is sold — Lev. 25:42

506. Not to work him oppressively — Lev. 25:43

507. Not to allow a non-Jew to work him oppressively —
Lev. 25:53

508. Not to have him do menial slave labour — Lev. 25:39

509. Give him gifts when he goes free — Deut. 15:14

510. Not to send him away empty-handed — Deut. 15:13

511. Redeem Jewish maidservants — Ex. 21:8

512. Betroth the Jewish maidservant — Ex. 21:8

513. The master must not sell his maidservant — Ex. 21:8

514. Canaanite slaves must work forever unless injured in
one of their limbs — Lev. 25:46

515. Not to extradite a slave who fled to (Biblical) Israel
— Deut. 23:16

516. Not to wrong a slave who has come to Israel for refuge
— Deut. 23:16

517. The courts must carry out the laws of a hired worker
and hired guard — Ex. 22:9

518. Pay wages on the day they were earned — Deut.
24:15

519. Not to delay payment of wages past the agreed time
— Lev. 19:13

520. The hired worker may eat from the unharvested crops
where he works — Deut. 23:25

521. The worker must not eat while on hired time — Deut.
23:26

522. The worker must not take more than he can eat —
Deut. 23:25

523. Not to muzzle an ox while plowing — Deut. 25:4

524. The courts must carry out the laws of a borrower —
Ex. 22:13

525. The courts must carry out the laws of an unpaid guard
— Ex. 22:6

526. Lend to the poor and destitute — Ex. 22:24

527. Not to press them for payment if you know they don't
have it — Ex. 22:24

528. Press the idolater for payment — Deut. 15:3

529. The creditor must not forcibly take collateral — Deut.
24:10

530. Return the collateral to the debtor when needed —
Deut. 24:13

531. Not to delay its return when needed — Deut. 24:12

532. Not to demand collateral from a widow — Deut.
24:17

533. Not to demand as collateral utensils needed for
preparing food — Deut. 24:6

534. Not to lend with interest — Lev. 25:37

535. Not to borrow with interest — Deut. 23:20

536. Not to intermediate in an interest loan, guarantee,
witness, or write the promissory note — Ex. 22:24

537. Lend to and borrow from idolaters with interest —
Deut. 23:21

538. The courts must carry out the laws of the plaintiff,
admitter, or denier — Ex. 22:8

539. Carry out the laws of the order of inheritance — Num.
28

540. Appoint judges — Deut. 16:18

541. Not to appoint judges who are not familiar with
judicial procedure — Deut. 1:17

542. Decide by majority in case of disagreement — Ex.
23:2

543. The court must not execute through a majority of one;
at least a majority of two is required — Ex. 23:2

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

544. A judge who presented an acquittal plea must not
present an argument for conviction in capital cases — Deut.
23:2

545. The courts must carry out the death penalty of stoning
— Deut. 22:24

546. The courts must carry out the death penalty of
burning — Lev. 20:14

547. The courts must carry out the death penalty of the
sword — Ex. 21:20

548. The courts must carry out the death penalty of
strangulation — Lev. 20:10

549. The courts must hang those stoned for blasphemy or
idolatry — Deut. 21:22

550. Bury the executed on the day they are killed — Deut.
21:23

551. Not to delay burial overnight — Deut. 21:23

552. The court must not let the sorcerer live — Ex. 22:17

553. The court must give lashes to the wrongdoer — Deut.
25:2

554. The court must not exceed the prescribed number of
lashes — Deut. 25:3

555. The court must not kill anybody on circumstantial
evidence — Ex. 23:7

556. The court must not punish anybody who was forced to
do a crime — Deut. 22:26

557. A judge must not pity the murderer or assaulter at the
trial — Deut. 19:13

558. A judge must not have mercy on the poor man at the
trial — Lev. 19:15

559. A judge must not respect the great man at the trial —
Lev. 19:15

560. A judge must not decide unjustly the case of the
habitual transgressor — Ex. 23:6

561. A judge must not pervert justice — Lev. 19:15

562. A judge must not pervert a case involving a convert or
orphan — Deut. 24:17

563. Judge righteously — Lev. 19:15

564. The judge must not fear a violent man in judgement
— Deut. 1:17

565. Judges must not accept bribes — Ex. 23:8

566. Judges must not accept testimony unless both parties
are present — Ex. 23:1

567. Not to curse judges — Ex. 22:27

568. Not to curse the head of state or leader of the
Sanhedrin — Ex. 22:27

569. Not to curse any upstanding Jew — Lev. 19:14

570. Anybody who knows evidence must testify in court —
Lev. 5:1

571. Carefully interrogate the witness — Deut. 13:15

572. A witness must not serve as a judge in capital crimes
— Deut. 19:17

573. Not to accept testimony from a lone witness — Deut.
19:15

574. Transgressors must not testify — Ex. 23:1

575. Relatives of the litigants must not testify — Deut.
24:16

576. Not to testify falsely —- Standard: Ex. 20:14;
Yemenite: Ex. 20:13

577. Punish the false witnesses as they tried to punish the
defendant — Deut. 19:19

578. Act according to the ruling of the Sanhedrin — Deut.
111

579. Not to deviate from the word of the Sanhedrin —
Deut. 111

580. Not to add to the Torah commandments or their oral
explanations — Deut. 13:1

581. Not to diminish from the Torah any commandments,
in whole or in part — Deut. 13:1

582. Not to curse your father and mother — Ex. 21:17

583. Not to strike your father and mother — Ex. 21:15

584. Respect your father or mother — Standard: Ex. 20:13;
Yemenite: Ex. 20:12

585. Fear your mother or father — Lev. 19:3

586. Not to be a rebellious son — Deut. 21:18

587. Mourn for relatives — Lev. 10:19

588. The High Priest must not defile himself for any
relative — Lev. 21:11

589. The High Priest must not enter under the same roof as
a corpse — Lev. 21:11

590. A Kohen must not defile himself (by going to funerals
or cemeteries) for anyone except relatives — Lev. 21:1

591. Appoint a king from Israel — Deut. 115

592. Not to appoint a foreigner — Deut. 115

593. The king must not have too many wives — Deut. 117

594. The king must not have too many horses — Deut. 116

595. The king must not have too much silver and gold —
Deut. 117

596. Destroy the seven Canaanite nations — Deut. 20:17

597. Not to let any of them remain alive — Deut. 20:16

598. Wipe out the memory of Amalek — Deut. 25:19

599. Remember what Amalek did to the Jewish people —
Deut. 25:17

600. Not to forget Amalek's atrocities and ambush on our
journey from Egypt in the desert — Deut. 25:19

601. Not to dwell permanently in Egypt — Deut. 116

602. Offer peace terms to the inhabitants of a city while
holding siege, and treat them according to the Torah if they
accept the terms — Deut. 20:10

603. Not to offer peace to Ammon and Moab while
besieging them — Deut. 23:7

604. Not to destroy food trees even during the siege —
Deut. 20:19

605. Prepare latrines outside the camps — Deut. 23:13

606. Prepare a shovel for each soldier to dig with — Deut.
23:14

607. Appoint a priest to speak with the soldiers during the
war — Deut. 20:2

608. He who has taken a wife, built a new home, or planted
a vineyard is given a year to rejoice with his possessions —
Deut. 24:5

609. Not to demand from the above any involvement,
communal or military — Deut. 24:5

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

610. Not to panic and retreat during battle — Deut. 20:3

611. Keep the laws of the captive woman — Deut. 21:11

612. Not to sell her into slavery — Deut. 21:14

613. Not to retain her for servitude after having sexual
relations with her — Deut. 21:14

Rabbinical Mitzvot

The Biblical mitzvot are referred to in the Talmud as
mitzvot d'oraita, translated as commandments of the Law
(Torah). In contradistinction to this are rabbinical
commandments, referred to as mitzvot d'rabbanan. Mitzvot
d'rabbanan are a type of takkanah. Among the more
important mitzvot d'rabbanan are:

* To recite a blessing for each enjoyment

* To ritually wash the hands before eating bread

* To prepare lights in advance of Shabbat (to have peace in
the home, and to act in contradiction to customs of Karaite
Judaism)

* To construct an Eruv to permit carrying to and within
public areas on Shabbat

* To recite the Hallel psalms on holy days

¢ To light the Hanukkah lights

* To read the Scroll of Esther on Purim

These seven rabbinical commandments are treated like
Biblical commandments insofar as, prior to the performance
of each, a benediction is recited, 1.e.:

Blessed are You, O LORD our God, King of the universe,
Who has commanded us...

They give rise to the phrase "Keter Torah" ("The Crown of
the Torah") as the numeric value of Keter is 620 (613+7).

The divine command is considered implied in the general
law to follow any instructions of the religious authorities
(Deuteronomy 111, and 32:7; Shab. 23a). In addition, many
of the specific details of the Biblical mitzvot are only derived
via rabbinical application of the Oral Torah
(Mishna/Gemarah); for example, the three daily prayers in
any language and the recitation of the Shema (Deuteronomy
6:4-7) twice a day in any language, the binding of the tefillin
and the fixing of the mezuzah (Deuteronomy 6:8-9), and the
saying of Grace After Meals (Deuteronomy 8:10).

The Six Constant Mitzvot

Out of the 613 Mitzvot mentioned in the Torah, there are
six mitzvot which the Sefer Hachinuch calls "constant
mitzvot": "We have six mitzvot which are perpetual and
constant, applicable at all times, all the days of our lives".

1. To know God, and that he created all things.

2. Not to have any god(s) beside God (lit. in his face).

3. To know God's Oneness.

4. To fear God.

5. To love God.

6. Not to pursue the passions of your heart and stray after
your eyes.

NOAHIDISM OR THE 7 LAWS OF NOAH

(Noahidism or Noachidism is a monothetstic, Jewish
religious movement based upon the Seven Laws of Noah and
their traditional interpretations within Orthodox Judaism.
According to the Jewish law, non-Jews (Gentiles) are not
obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to
observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in
the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba), the final reward of the
righteous. The divinely ordained penalty for violating any of
these Noahide Laws 1s discussed in the Talmud, but in
practical terms it 1s subject to the working legal system
which is established by the society at large. Those who
subscribe to the observance of the Noahic Covenant are
referred to as Bnet Noach (Hebrew: "Children of Noah") or
Noahides. There is a modern Noahide movement was
founded in the 1990s by Orthodox rabbis from Israel.

Historically, the Hebrew term Bnet Noach has been applied
to all non-Jews as descendants of Noah. However, nowadays
it is primarily used to refer specifically to those "Righteous
Gentiles" who observe the Seven Laws of Noah. According
to a Noahide source in 2018, there are over 20,000 official
Noahides, and the country with the greatest number 1s the
Philippines.)

The Seven Laws Of Noah

The Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: Sheva Mitzvot B'nei
Noach), also referred to as the Noahide Laws or the
Noachide Laws (from the Hebrew pronunciation of "Noah"),
are a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud,
were given by God as a binding set of laws for the "children
of Noah" — that is, all of humanity.

According to Jewish tradition, non-Jews who adhere to
these laws are said to be followers of Noahidism and
regarded as righteous gentiles, who are assured of a place in
Olam Haba (the world to come), the final reward of the
righteous. The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions
against worshipping idols, cursing God, murder, adultery
and sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh torn from a living
animal, as well as the obligation to establish courts of justice.
The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven laws can
be found in the Tosefta: Seven commandments were
commanded of the sons of Noah:

1. concerning adjudication (dinim)

2. concerning idolatry (avodah zarah)

3. concerning blasphemy (qilelat ha-shem)

4. concerning sexual immorality (gilui arayot)

5. concerning blood-shed (shefikhut damim)

6. concerning robbery (gezel)

7. concerning a limb torn from a living animal (ever min
ha-hay)

Clarification of The Seven Laws

The seven Noahide laws are better understandable in the
following example. Here they are traditionally enumerated:

1. Not to worship idols.

2. Not to curse God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3. To establish courts of justice.

4. Not to commit murder.

5. Not to commit adultery, bestiality, or sexual immorality.
6. Not to steal.

7. Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal.

According to the Talmud, the rabbis agree that the seven
laws were given to the sons of Noah. However, they disagree
on precisely which laws were given to Adam and Eve. Six of
the seven laws are exegetically derived from passages in
Genesis, with the seventh being the establishment of courts.
The seven laws as listed by the Babylonian Talmud in
Sanhedrin 56a are designed as __ straight-forward
commandments to be easily understood by everyone:

1. Do not worship idols.

2. Do not blaspheme God.

3. Do not murder.

4. Do not practise sexual immorality.

5. Do not steal.

6. Do not eat flesh from a living animal.

7. Establish Courts of Justice to build upon these laws.

Origin

There are a range of theories regarding the origin of the
Noachide laws, including the Bible, Hittite law, the
Maccabean period, and the Roman period. The Seven Laws
of Noah were not mentioned in Genesis but they might have
been extracted from the Torah by second-century rabbis.
They basically represent a smaller version of the Ten
Commandments in which idolatry and blasphemy are
reflected in the first four of the Ten Commandments, whilst
concerns on justice, commit murder, stealing, adultery,
bestiality, or sexual immorality can be traced back to earlier
Egyptian and Mesopotamian regulations. The "concerning a
limb torn from a living animal" seem to have come from
Zoroastrianism.

Torah sources

According to the Genesis flood narrative, a deluge covered
the whole world, killing every surface-dwelling creature
except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, and the
animals taken aboard Noah's Ark. According to this, all
modern humans are descendants of Noah, thus the name
Noahide Laws are referred to the laws that apply to all of
humanity. After the flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah
with the following admonitions (Genesis 9):

* Flesh of a living animal: "However, flesh with its life-
blood [in it], you shall not eat." (9:4)

¢ Murder and courts: "Furthermore, I will demand your
blood, for [the taking of] your lives, I shall demand it [even]
from any wild animal. From man too, I will demand of each
person's brother the blood of man. He who spills the blood of
man, by man his blood shall be spilt; for in the image of God
He made man." (9:5-6)

Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees, generally dated to the 2nd century
BC, may include an early reference to Noahide Law at verses
20-28:

And in the twenty-eighth jubilee Noah began to enjoin
upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and
all the judgements that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to
observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh,
and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother,
and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from
fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to
these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For
whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of
any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth.

THE HALAKHA

Halakha, also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and
halocho, is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that
are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. Halakha
constitutes the practical application of the 613 mitzvot
("commandments") in the Torah, as developed through
discussion and debate in the classical rabbinic literature,
especially the Mishnah and the Talmud (the "Oral Torah"),
and as codified in the Mishneh Torah and Shulchan Aruch.
Because halakha is developed and applied by various
halakhic authorities rather than one sole "official voice",
different individuals and communities may well have
different answers to halakhic questions. With few exceptions,
controversies are not settled through authoritative
structures because during the Jewish diaspora, Jews lacked a
single judicial hierarchy or appellate review process for
halakha. Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law",
although a more literal translation of it might be "the way to
behave" or "the way of walking". The words halakha and
sharia both mean literally "the path to follow". The word is
derived from the root which means "to behave" (also "to go"
or "to walk"). Halakha not only guides religious practices
and beliefs, it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life.
The term may also be related to Akkadian ilku, a property
tax, rendered in Aramaic as halakh, designating one or
several obligations.

Historically, widespread observance of the laws of the
Torah is first in evidence beginning in the second century BC.
In the Jewish diaspora, halakha served many Jewish
communities as an enforceable avenue of law — both civil and
religious, since no differentiation of them exists in classical
Judaism, just like still in Islam today. Since the Jewish
Enlightenment (Haskalah) and Jewish emancipation, some
have come to view the halakha as less binding in day-to-day
life, because it relies on rabbinic interpretation, as opposed
to the authoritative, canonical text which is recorded in the
Hebrew Bible. Under contemporary Israeli law, certain areas
of Israeli family and personal status law are under the
authority of the rabbinic courts, so they are treated
according to halakha. Some minor differences in halakha are
found among Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Yemenite, Ethiopian and other Jewish communities which
historically lived in isolation.

Court of Law and Punishment: Halakha versus Sharia

The written Jewish Halakha law and the Islamic Sharia law
have only minor differences because both derive from the
antique Jewish law, which contains many brutal passages
from the law Code of Hammurabi. Why then is the Sharia
law considered more violent, brutal and inhuman than the
Halakha law?

All 4 schools of Sunni jurisprudence (Hanbali, Hanafi,
Maliki and Shafi'i) as well as Shia schools follow the laws
recorded in the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith. In both the
rules of civil disputes and application of penal law, Sharia
distinguishes between men and women, between Muslims and
non-Muslims, and between free persons and slaves. Jewish
law does not make such differences, is one answer. The second
and most crucial answer, however, influences the outcome of
a trial much more: There were two classes of Jewish courts
called Sanhedrin, the "Great Sanhedrin" and the "Lesser
Sanhedrin". A lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges (trivial cases 3
judges) was appointed to each city, but there was to be only
one Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges, which among other roles
acted as the Supreme Court, taking appeals from cases
decided by lesser courts.

In Jewish law, this court structure makes it almost
impossible to apply the death penalty as these many judges
almost never unanimously (that is: [the necessary] one
hundred percent) agree to such a harsh penalty. Therefore,
no record exists of a gentile having been put to death for
violating any of the Seven Laws of Noah. Some of the
categories of capital punishment recorded in the Talmud are
recorded as having never been carried out.

In a Sharia court, on the other hand (and this is a grave
distortion of the original Jewish law), presides only one
judge (in some important cases 3 judges) who is expected to
stick to the law in the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith to the
letter. He rules supreme like a dictator with the Islamic
scripture in his hand as "hammer of law". In early Islamic
times, the outcome of a trial has been (and 1s again) therefore
almost always the same: certain death, amputation, slavery,
or other harsh penalties. This explains also in part why the
Jews have fought against Mohammed and his Islam so
passionately. In consequence, the distortion of law in Islam
has brought about the mutual hatred between Jews and
Muslims.

The question is, why did Mohammed the creator of Islam
deside (1st) to tear the Ten Commandments apart, and (2nd)
why did he decide to get rid of the Sanhedrin? The answer
can be found in the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith: Al-
Taqqiya (the doctrine of the sacred lie)! Al-Taqiyya is a tool
of deceit in order to protect subversive Islamic actions
towards non-Muslims. Muslims are expected to follow
Mohammed'ss invokings such as: Fight non-Muslims until
there is only Islam (Koran 2:193); - how long will this 1,400
years war last? -Until everybody has become a Muslim!

Therefore, to promote Islam, one may lie (Koran 3:28,
16:106) as Muslims are in a constant state of war with non-
Muslims, "War is deceit" (Bukhari 4, 52, 269). One may be
violent as violent Medina verses abrogate all peaceful Mecca-
verses (Koran 2:106); the Ten Commandments are a strategic
obstable to total supprmacy of Islam. Mohammed, who
started 95 wars and numerous attrocities within the last 12
years of his life, simply wanted to make sure that Islam can
perform its evil doctrines and deeds without having any fear
of being procecuted. And the Ten Commandments certainly
would have hampered the violent progress of Islam the cult
of death.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

CRN FORRES

THE CHRISTIAN LAWS

THE DIDACHE
The teaching of the Lord to the Nations
or: The Lord's Teaching Through the
Twelve Apostles to the Nations
Translation: Charles H. Hoole, 1885
Estimated range of dating: 90-150 AD

(The Didache (Greek: Didakhe, lit. "Teaching"), also
known as "The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve
Apostles to the Nations", 1s a brief anonymous early
Christian treatise written in Greek. It is the oldest Christian
law text and its Greek title Didache means exactly the same
as Torah in Hebrew: The Teaching of the Law..

Lost for centuries, a Greek manuscript of the Didache was
rediscovered in Constantinople [Istanbul] in 1873 by
Philotheos Bryennios, the Metropolitan of Nicomedia. He
found it in the Codex Hierosolymitanus. A Latin version of
the first five chapters was discovered in 1900 by J. Schlecht.
The Codex Hierosolymitanus (also called the Bryennios
manuscript or the Jerusalem Codex, often designated simply
"H" in scholarly discourse) is an 11th-century Greek
manuscript, written by an otherwise unknown scribe named
Leo, who dated it 1056. The codex contained also the Epistle
of Barnabas, the First Epistle of Clement and the Second
Epistle of Clement, the long version of the letters of Ignatius
of Antioch and a list of books of the Bible following the
order of John Chrysostom. Hitchcock and Brown produced
the first English translation in March 1884. Adolf von
Harnack produced the first German translation in 1884, and
Paul Sabatier produced the first French translation and
commentary in 1889.

The first line of this treatise 1s "The teaching of the Lord to
the Gentiles (or Nations) by the twelve apostles". The text,
parts of which constitute the oldest extant written catechism,
has three main sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals
such as baptism and Eucharist, and Church organisation. A
catechism, from Ancient Greek katecheo, "to teach orally",
is a summary of Christian doctrine and serves as a doctrinal
manual — often in the form of questions followed by answers
to be memorised.

The Didache is a relatively short text with only some 2,300
words. The contents may be divided into four parts, which
most scholars agree were combined from separate sources by
a later redactor: the first 1s the Two Ways, the Way of Life
and the Way of Death (chapters 1—6); the second part Is a
ritual dealing with baptism, fasting, and Communion
(chapters 7-10); the third speaks of the ministry and how to
treat apostles, prophets, bishops, and deacons (chapters 1 1—

15); and the final section (chapter 16) 1s a prophecy of the
Antichrist and the Second Coming.

The opening chapters describe the virtuous Way of Life and
the wicked Way of Death. The Lord's Prayer 1s included in
full. Baptism is by immersion, or by aftusion if immersion 1s
not practical. Fasting is ordered for Wednesdays and Fridays.
Two Eucharistic prayers are given. Church organisation was
at an early stage of development. Itinerant apostles and
prophets are important, serving as "chief priests".
Meanwhile, local bishops and deacons also have authority
and seem to be taking the place of the itinerant ministry.

The Didache is considered the first example of the genre of
Church Orders. The Didache reveals how Jewish Christians
saw themselves and how they adapted their practice for
Gentile Christians. The Didache 1s similar in several ways to
the Gospel of Matthew, either because it was considered the
first gospel or the other gospels were not written yet. The
opening chapters, which also appear in other early Christian
texts, are likely derived from an earlier Jewish source.

The Didache is considered part of the group of second-
generation Christian writings known as the "Apostolic
Fathers". The work was considered by some Church Fathers
to be a part of the New Testament, while being rejected by
others as spurious or non-canonical, In the end, it was not
accepted into the New Testament canon. However, the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church "broader canon" includes the
Didascalia, a work which draws on the Didache.

The Didache was most likely written in the first half of the
second century AD. The document 1s a composite work, and
the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with its Manual of
Discipline, has provided evidence of development over a
considerable period of time, developing from a Jewish
catechetical work into a church manual. The teaching 1s
anonymous, a pastoral manual which reveals more about
how Jewish-Christians saw themselves and how they adapted
their Judaism for gentiles than any other book in the
Christian Scriptures. The Two Ways section 1s likely based
on an earlier Jewish source. The community that produced
the Didache could have been based in Syria, as it addressed
the Gentiles but from a Judaic perspective, at some remove
from Jerusalem, and shows no evidence of Pauline influence.
Alan Garrow claims that its earliest layer may have
originated in the decree issued by the Apostolic council of
AD 49-50, that is by the Jerusalem assembly under James the
Just [the brother of Jesus].)

DIDACHE CHAPTER |

| There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the
difference is great between the two paths.

2 Now the path of life is this -- first, thou shalt love the
God who made thee, thy neighbour as thyself, and all things
that thou wouldest not should be done unto thee, do not
thou unto another.

3 And the doctrine of these maxims is as follows. Bless them
that curse you, and pray for your enemies. Fast on behalf of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

those that persecute you; for what thank is there if ye love
them that love you? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
But do ye love them that hate you, and ye will not have an
enemy.

4 Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts. If any one give
thee a blow on thy right cheek, turn unto him the other also,
and thou shalt be perfect; if any one compel thee to go a mile,
go with him two; if a man take away thy cloak, give him thy
coat also; if a man take from thee what is thine, ask not for it
again, for neither art thou able to do so.

5 Give to every one that asketh of thee, and ask not again;
for the Father wishes that from his own gifts there should be
given to all. Blessed is he who giveth according to the
commandment, for he is free from guilt; but woe unto him
that receiveth. For if a man receive being in need, he shall be
free from guilt; but he who receiveth when not in need, shall
pay a penalty as to why he received and for what purpose;
and when he is in tribulation he shall be examined
concerning the things that he has done, and shall not depart
thence until he has paid the last farthing.

6 For of a truth it has been said on these matters, let thy
almsgiving abide in thy hands until thou knowest to whom
thou hast given.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 2

1 But the second commandment of the teaching is this.

2 Thou shalt not kall; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou
shalt not corrupt youth; thou shalt not commit fornication;
thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not use soothsaying; thou
shalt not practise sorcery; thou shalt not kill a child by
abortion, neither shalt thou slay it when born; thou shalt not
covet the goods of thy neighbour;

3 thou shalt not commit perjury; thou shalt not bear false
witness; thou shalt not speak evil; thou shalt not bear malice;

4 thou shalt not be double-minded or double-tongued, for
to be double tongued is the snare of death.

5 Thy speech shall not be false or empty, but concerned
with action.

6 Thou shalt not be covetous, or rapacious, or hypocritical,
or malicious, or proud; thou shalt not take up an evil design
against thy neighbour;

7 thou shalt not hate any man, but some thou shalt confute,
concerning some thou shalt pray, and some thou shalt love
beyond thine own soul.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 3

1 My child, fly from everything that is evil, and from
everything that is like to it.

2 Be not wrathful, for wrath leadeth unto slaughter; be not
jealous, or contentious, or quarrelsome, for from all these
things slaughter ensues.

3 My child, be not lustful, for lust leadeth unto fornication;
be not a filthy talker; be not a lifter up of the eye, for from all
these things come adulteries.

4 My child, be not an observer of omens, since it leadeth to
idolatry, nor a user of spells, nor an astrologer, nor a

travelling purifier, nor wish to see these things, for from all
these things idolatry ariseth.

5 My child, be not a liar, for lying leadeth unto theft; be
not covetous or conceited, for from all these things thefts
arise.

6 My child, be not a murmurer, since it leadeth unto
blasphemy; be not self-willed or evil-minded, for from all
these things blasphemies are produced;

7 but be thou meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth;

8 be thou longsuffering, and compassionate, and harmless,
and peaceable, and good, and fearing alway the words that
thou hast heard.

9 Thou shalt not exalt thyself, neither shalt thou put
boldness into thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined unto the
lofty, but thou shalt walk with the just and humble.

10 Accept the things that happen to thee as good, knowing
that without God nothing happens.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 4

1 My child, thou shalt remember both night and day him
that speaketh unto thee the Word of God; thou shalt honour
him as thou dost the Lord, for where the teaching of the
Lord is given, there is the Lord;

2 thou shalt seek out day by day the favour of the saints,
that thou mayest rest in their words;

3 thou shalt not desire schism, but shalt set at peace them
that contend; thou shalt judge righteously; thou shalt not
accept the person of any one to convict him of transgression;

4 thou shalt not doubt whether a thing shall be or not.

5 Be not a stretcher out of thy hand to receive, and a
drawer of it back in giving.

6 If thou hast, give by means of thy hands a redemption for
thy sins.

7 Thou shalt not doubt to give, neither shalt thou murmur
when giving; for thou shouldest know who is the fair
recompenser of the reward.

8 Thou shalt not turn away from him that is in need, but
shalt share with thy brother in all things, and shalt not say
that things are thine own; for if ye are partners in what is
immortal, how much more in what is mortal?

9 Thou shalt not remove thine heart from thy son or from
thy daughter, but from their youth shalt teach them the fear
of God.

10 Thou shalt not command with bitterness thy servant or
thy handmaid, who hope in the same God as thyself, lest they
fear not in consequence the God who is over both; for he
cometh not to call with respect of persons, but those whom
the Spirit hath prepared.

11 And do ye servants submit yourselves to your masters
with reverence and fear, as being the type of God.

12 Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy and everything that is not
pleasing to God;

13 thou shalt not abandon the commandments of the Lord,
but shalt guard that which thou hast received, neither
adding thereto nor taking therefrom;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 thou shalt confess thy transgressions in the Church, and
shalt not come unto prayer with an evil conscience. This is
the path of life.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 5

1 But the path of death is this. First of all, it is evil, and full
of cursing; there are found murders, adulteries, lusts,
fornication, thefts, idolatries, soothsaying, sorceries,
robberies, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-mindedness,
craft, pride, malice, self-will, covetousness, filthy talking,
jealousy, audacity, pride, arrogance;

2 there are they who persecute the good -- lovers of a lie,
not knowing the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to the
good nor to righteous judgement, watching not for the good
but for the bad, from whom meekness and patience are afar
off, loving things that are vain, following after recompense,
having no compassion on the needy, nor labouring for him
that is in trouble, not knowing him that made them,
murderers of children, corrupters of the image of God, who
turn away from him that is in need, who oppress him that is
in trouble, unjust judges of the poor, erring in all things.
From all these, children, may ye be delivered.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 6
1 See that no one make thee to err from this path of

doctrine, since he who doeth so teacheth thee apart from God.

2 If thou art able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou
wilt be perfect; but if thou art not able, what thou art able,
that do.

3 But concerning meat, bear that which thou art able to do.
But keep with care from things sacrificed to idols, for it is the
worship of the infernal deities.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 7

1 But concerning baptism, thus baptise ye: having first
recited all these precepts, baptise in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in running water;

2 but if thou hast not running water, baptise in some other
water, and if thou canst not baptise in cold, in warm water;

3 but if thou hast neither, pour water three times on the
head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.

4 But before the baptism, let him who baptiseth and him
who is baptised fast previously, and any others who may be
able. And thou shalt command him who 1s baptised to fast
one or two days before.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 8

1 But as for your fasts, let them not be with the hypocrites,
for they fast on the second and fifth days of the week, but do
ye fast on the fourth and sixth days.

2 Neither pray ye as the hypocrites, but as the Lord hath
commanded in his gospel so pray ye: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
as in heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debt, as we also forgive our debtors. And

lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil: for
thine is the power, and the glory, for ever.
3 Thrice a day pray ye in this fashion.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 9

1 But concerning the Eucharist, after this fashion give ye
thanks.

2 First, concerning the cup. We thank thee, our Father, for
the holy vine, David thy Son, which thou hast made known
unto us through Jesus Christ thy Son; to thee be the glory for
ever.

3 And concerning the broken bread. We thank thee, our
Father, for the life and knowledge which thou hast made
known unto us through Jesus thy Son; to thee be the glory
for ever.

4 As this broken bread was once scattered on the mountains,
and after it had been brought together became one, so may
thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth
unto thy kingdom; for thine is the glory, and the power,
through Jesus Christ, for ever.

5 And let none eat or drink of your Eucharist but such as
have been baptised into the name of the Lord, for of a truth
the Lord hath said concerning this, Give not that which is
holy unto dogs.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 10

1 But after it has been completed, so pray ye.

2 We thank thee, holy Father, for thy holy name, which
thou hast caused to dwell in our hearts, and for the
knowledge and faith and immortality which thou hast made
known unto us through Jesus thy Son; to thee be the glory
for ever.

3 Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for the
sake of thy name, and hast given both meat and drink, for
men to enjoy, that we might give thanks unto thee, but to us
thou hast given spiritual meat and drink, and life everlasting,
through thy Son.

4 Above all, we thank thee that thou art able to save; to
thee be the glory for ever.

5 Remember, Lord, thy Church, to redeem it from every
evil, and to perfect it in thy love, and gather it together from
the four winds, even that which has been sanctified for thy
kingdom which thou hast prepared for it; for thine is the
kingdom and the glory for ever.

6 Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to
the Son of David. If any one is holy let him come (to the
Eucharist); if any one is not, let him repent. Maranatha.
Amen.

7 But charge the prophets to give thanks, so far as they are
willing to do so.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 11

1 Whosoever, therefore, shall come and teach you all these
things aforesaid, him do ye receive;

2 but if the teacher himself turn and teach another doctrine
with a view to subvert you, hearken not to him; but if he

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

come to add to your righteousness, and the knowledge of the
Lord, receive him as the Lord.

3 But concerning the apostles and prophets, thus do ye
according to the doctrine of the Gospel.

4 Let every apostle who cometh unto you be received as the
Lord.

5 He will remain one day, and if it be necessary, a second;
but ifhe remain three days, he is a false prophet.

6 And let the apostle when departing take nothing but
bread until he arrive at his resting-place; but if he ask for
money, he is a false prophet.

7 And ye shall not tempt or dispute with any prophet who
speaketh in the spirit; for every sin shall be forgiven, but this
sin shall not be forgiven.

8 But not every one who speaketh in the spirit is a prophet,
but he is so who hath the disposition of the Lord; by their
dispositions they therefore shall be known, the false prophet
and the prophet.

9 And every prophet who ordereth in the spirit that a table
shall be laid, shall not eat of it himself, but if he do otherwise,
he is a false prophet;

10 and every prophet who teacheth the truth, if he do not
what he teacheth is a false prophet;

11 and every prophet who is approved and true, and
ministering in the visible mystery of the Church, but who
teacheth not others to do the things that he doth himself,
shall not be judged of you, for with God lieth his judgement,
for in this manner also did the ancient prophets.

12 But whoever shall say in the spirit, Give me money, or
things of that kind, listen not to him; but if he tell you
concerning others that are in need that ye should give unto
them, let no one judge him.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 12

1 Let every one that cometh in the name of the Lord be
received, but afterwards ye shall examine him and know his
character, for ye have knowledge both of good and evil.

2 If the person who cometh be a wayfarer, assist him so far
as ye are able; but he will not remain with you more than two
or three days, unless there be a necessity.

3 But if he wish to settle with you, being a craftsman, let
him work, and so eat;

4 but if he know not any craft, provide ye according to you
own discretion, that a Christian may not live idle among you;

5 but if he be not willing to do so, he is a trafficker in
Christ. From such keep aloof.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 13

| But every true prophet who is willing to dwell among you
is worthy of his meat,

2 likewise a true teacher is himself worthy of his meat, even
as is a labourer.

3 Thou shalt, therefore, take the firstfruits of every produce
of the wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and sheep, and
shalt give it to the prophets, for they are your chief priests;

4 but if ye have not a prophet, give it unto the poor.

5 If thou makest a feast, take and give the firstfruits
according to the commandment;

6 in like manner when thou openest a jar of wine or of oil,
take the firstfruits and give it to the prophets;

7 take also the firstfruits of money, of clothes, and of every
possession, as it shall seem good unto thee, and give it
according to the commandment.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 14

1 But on the Lord's day, after that ye have assembled
together, break bread and give thanks, having in addition
confessed your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure.

2 But let not any one who hath a quarrel with his
companion join with you, until they be reconciled, that your
sacrifice may not be polluted,

3 for it is that which is spoken of by the Lord. In every
place and time offer unto me a pure sacrifice, for | am a great
King, saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the
Gentiles.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 15

1 Elect, therefore, for yourselves bishops and deacons
worthy of the Lord, men who are meek and not covetous,
and true and approved, for they perform for you the service
of prophets and teachers.

2 Do not, therefore, despise them, for they are those who
are honoured among you, together with the prophets and
teachers.

3 Rebuke one another, not in wrath but peaceably, as ye
have commandment in the Gospel; and, but let no one speak
to any one who walketh disorderly with regard to his
neighbour, neither let him be heard by you until he repent.

4 But your prayers and your almsgivings and all your deeds
so do, as ye have commandment in the Gospel of our Lord.

DIDACHE CHAPTER 16

1 Watch concerning your life; let not your lamps be
quenched or your loins be loosed, but be ye ready, for ye
know not the hour at which our Lord cometh.

2 But be ye gathered together frequently, seeking what is
suitable for your souls; for the whole time of your faith shall
profit you not, unless ye be found perfect in the last time.

3 For in the last days false prophets and seducers shall be
multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and
love shall be turned into hate;

4 and because iniquity aboundeth they shall hate each other,
and persecute each other, and deliver each other up; and then
shall the Deceiver of the world appear as the Son of God, and
shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered
into his hands; and he shall do unlawful things, such as have
never happened since the beginning of the world.

5 Then shall the creation of man come to the fiery trial of
proof, and many shall be offended and shall perish; but they
who remain in their faith shall be saved by the rock of offence
itself.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first the sign
of the appearance in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the
trumpet, and thirdly the resurrection of the dead

7 -- not of all, but as it has been said, The Lord shall come
and all his saints with him;

8 then shall the world behold the Lord coming on the
clouds of heaven.

(The End of the Didache)

THE DIDASCALIA APOSTOLORUM
or: The Catholic Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
and Holy Disciples of Our Saviour
Translation: R. Hugh Connolly, 1929
Estimated Range of Dating: 200 - 250 A.D.

(Didascalia Apostolorum, or just Didascalta, 1s a Christian
treatise which belongs to the genre of the Church Orders. It
presents itself as being written by the Twelve Apostles at the
time of the Council of Jerusalem; however, scholars agree
that it was actually a composition of the 3rd century,
perhaps around 230 AD. The Didascalia was clearly modeled
on the earlier Didache. The author ts unknown, but he was
probably a bishop. The provenance 1s usually regarded as
Northern Syria, possibly near Antioch.

The Latin title Didascalia Apostolorum means Teaching of
the Apostles, and the full title given in Syriac 1s: "Didascalia,
that 1s, the teaching of the twelve Apostles and the holy
disciples of our Lord". The text never touches upon dogma
but concerns itself entirely with practice. In comparison with
the Didache, the Didascalia moved the main focus from the
moral issues to empty and and plain belief of liturgical
practice and church organisation, away from the original
teachings of Jesus..

The earliest mention of the work 1s by Epiphanius of
Salamis, who believed it to be truly Apostolic. He found it in
use among the Audiant, Syrian heretics. The few extracts
Epiphanius gives do not quite tally with our present text, but
he is notoriously inexact in his quotations. At the end of the
fourth century the Didascalia was used as the basis of the first
six books of the Apostolic Constitutions. At the end of the
4th century it 1s quoted in the Pseudo-Chrysostom's Opus
Imperfectum in Matthaeum. But the Didascalia never had a
great vogue, and it was superseded by the Apostolic
Constitutions.

The Didascalia, or the Catholic Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles and Holy Disciples of Our Saviour, is a Church
Order, composed, according to recent investigations, in the
first part, perhaps even the first decades, of the third century,
for a community of Christian converts from paganism in the
northern part of Syria. The work 1s modelled on the Didache
(cf: vol. [, pp. 29-39) and forms the main source of the first
six books of the Apostolic Constitutions.

The unknown author of the Didascalia seems to have been
of Jewish descent. A bishop with a considerable knowledge of
medicin, he lacked special theological training. He makes

ample use of Holy Scripture and borrows from the Didache,
Hermas, Irenaeus, the Gospel of Peter and the Acts of Paul.

The text can be reconstructed from the Apostolic
Constitutions, a few Greek fragments, a complete Syriac
translation, an old Latin translation of about half, and the
Arabic and Ethiopic Didascalia that depend on_ the
Didascalia Apostolorum.

This document shows by what means the clergy, in the early
centuries of the Christian movement, obtained for themselves,
whether for good or evil, the unquestioning obedience of
Christian people. To this end, the Didascalia Apostolorum
must have been a potent instrument of Church rule. The title
implicates that it had the authority of Jesus’ apostles
although that treatise was written during the reign of
Flavius Constantinus, 10 generations after Jesus and when
the real aspostles were long gone.

The Didascalia Apostolorum, whose lost original was in
Greek, was first published in 1854 in Syriac by Paul de
Lagarde. In 1900 Edmund Hauler published the Verona
Palimpsest which includes a Latin translation of the
Didascalia, perhaps of the fourth century, more than half of
which has perished. In 1906 Franz Xaver von Funk
published the texts, printed side by side, of both the
Didascalia and the Apostolic Constitutions, in order to show
the similarities A short fragment of chapter 15 has been
found in Greek, and in 1996 another probable fragment in
Coptic.

Margaret Dunlop Gibson was the first person to translate
the work into English in 1903. It was published by C. J. Clay
& Sons in Cambridge. R. Hugh Connolly translated the
work into English in 1929. It was published by Clarendon
Press, Oxford. It included an extensive introduction by
Connolly. In the same year of 1929 G. Homer also did a
translation, also in Oxford.)

Presentation of text in brackets:
{words} probably to be restored
[words] probably to be omitted
(words) supplied for translation sense

THE CATHOLIC DIDASCALIA
THAT IS, THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE HOLY
APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES OF OUR SAVIOUR

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 1

On the simple and natural Law.

GOD'S planting and the holy vineyard of His Catholic
Church, the elect, who rely on the simplicity of the fear of the
Lord, who by their faith inherit His everlasting kingdom,
who have received the power and fellowship of His Holy
Spirit, and by Him are armed and made firm in the fear of
Him, who are become partakers in the sprinkling of the pure
and precious blood of the Great God, Jesus Christ, who have
received boldness to call the Almighty God Father, as joint
heirs and partakers with His Son and His beloved hear the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Didascalia of God, you that hope and wait for His promises,
which hath been written after the command of our Saviour
and is in accord with His glorious words.

Give heed, children of God, and do all things so that you be
obedient to God; and be you pleasing in all things to the
Lord our God. For if any man run after iniquity and be
contrary to the will of God, the same shall be accounted unto
God as heathen and ungodly. Flee therefore and depart from
all avarice and evil dealing. And you shall not desire that
which is any man's, for it is written in the Law: Thou shalt
not desire aught of that which is thy neighbour's: neither his
field, nor his wife, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor
his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing of his possessions. For all
these desires are from the Evil One. For he that desires the
wife of his companion, or his servant, or his maidservant, is
already an adulterer and a thief, and is condemned of
uncleanness, as they that lie with males, by our Lord and
Teacher Jesus Christ: to whom (is) glory and honour for ever
and ever, Amen. As also in the Gospel He renews and
confirms and fulfils the Ten Words of the Law, (saying): For
it is written in the Law: Thou shalt not commit adultery: but
I say unto you this,-- who in the Law spake through Moses,
but now myself say unto you: Whosoever shall look upon the
wife of his neighbour to desire her, hath already committed
adultery with her in his heart. And thus was he who desired
condemned as an adulterer. He also that desires the ox or the
ass of his neighbour, it is to steal and to lead it away that he
is minded. And he again that desires the field of his
companion, does he not seek to straiten him in his boundary,
and contrive that he may sell it to him for nothing? For this
cause therefore come slayings and deaths and condemnations
from God upon these persons.

But for men who obey God there is one law, simple and true
and mild -- without question, for Christians -- this, that
what thou hatest that it should be done to thee by another,
thou do not to another. Thou wouldst not that a man should
look upon thy wife evilly to corrupt her: neither look thou
upon the wife of thy companion with evil intent. Thou
wouldst not that a man should take away thy garment:
neither do thou take away that of another. Thou wouldst not
be reviled and insulted, or beaten: neither do thou to another
anyone of these things.

But if a man revile thee, do thou bless him; for it is written
in the Book of Numbers: He that blesseth is blessed, and he
that curseth is cursed. And in the Gospel also it is written
again: Bless them that curse you. And to them that do you
evil, do not you evil; and do good to them that hate you, and
be patient and endure, for the Scripture saith: Thou shalt not
say: I wilt render to mine enemy evil, even as he hath done to
me: but be patient, and the Lord will be thy helper, and will
bring a recompense upon him that doeth thee evil. And again
He saith in the Gospel: Love them that hate you, and pray
for them that curse you, and ye shall have no enemy. Let us
attend then, our beloved, and understand these
commandments and keep them, that we may be sons of the
light.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 2

Teaching every man that he should please his wife alone;
and that he should not adorn himself and become a cause of
stumbling to women; and that he should not love idleness;
and that he should occupy himself with the Scriptures of life,
and avoid profane writings and the bonds of the Second
Legislation; and that he should not bathe in a bath with
women; and that he should not give himself to the vice of
harlots.

Bear with one another, O servants and sons of God. Let not
a man despise or contemn his wife, nor be lifted up against
her; but let him be merciful, and let his hand be open to give.
And let him please his wife alone, and cherish her with
honour; and let him study to be loved by her alone, and by
none other. Adorn not thyself that a strange woman may see
and desire thee. And if indeed thou be constrained by her and
sin with her, death in fire shall come upon thee of a surety
from God, even that which abides for ever, which is in sore
and bitter fire; and thou shalt know and understand when
thou art grievously tormented. But if thou do not this
uncleanness, but put her from thee and deny her: in this only
hast thou sinned, that by thy adornment thou hast caused the
woman to be taken with the desire of thee; for thou hast
caused her, to whom it so happened by reason of thee, to
commit adultery through her desire. But not so art thou
under sin, because thou didst not desire her: but there shall
be mercy upon thee from the Lord, because thou didst not
deliver thyself to her nor consent to her when she sent unto
thee, neither in thought didst thou turn thyself to that
woman who was taken with the desire of thee: but she on a
sudden encountered thee, and was stricken in her thought
and sent unto thee; but thou as a godfearing man didst deny
her and avoid her, and didst not sin with her; but she was
stricken in her heart, because thou art young and fair and
comely, and didst adorn thyself and cause her to desire thee:
and thou art found to be guilty of the sin of her to whom it
so happened by reason of thy adornment. But entreat of the
Lord God that sin be not ascribed to thee on this account.
And if thou wouldst please God and not men, and lookest
and hopest for the life and rest everlasting, adorn not thy
natural beauty which is given thee from God, but with
humility of neglect make it mean before men. In like manner
also thou shalt not nourish the hair of thy head, but do thou
shear it off; and thou shalt not comb and adorn it, nor
anoint it, lest thou bring upon thee such women as ensnare,
or are ensnared, by lust. Neither shalt thou put on fine
raiment, nor be shod on thy feet with shoes which are
fashioned according to the lust of folly; nor shalt thou put
upon thy fingers rings of gold device: for all these things are
the wiles of harlotry, and every thing that thou dost apart
from nature. For to thee, a faithful man of God, it is not
permitted to nourish the hair of thy head and to comb and
smooth it, which is a wantonness of lust; neither shalt thou
arrange and adorn it, nor adjust it so that it may be beautiful.
And thou shalt not destroy the hairs of thy beard, nor alter
the natural form of thy face and change it to other than God

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

created it, because that thou desirest to please men. But if
thou do these things, thy soul shall be deprived of life, and
thou shalt be rejected before the Lord God. As a man
therefore who would please God, take heed thou do no such
things; and avoid all those things which the Lord hateth.

And thou shalt not stray and go about idly in the streets
and see the vain spectacle of those who behave themselves
evilly; but be thou always attending to thy craft and thy
work, and be willing to do those things that are pleasing to
God; and thou shalt be meditating constantly upon the
words of the Lord.

But if thou art rich and hast no need of a craft whereby to
live, thou shalt not stray and go about vacantly; but be ever
constant in drawing near to the faithful and to them that are
like-minded with thee, and be meditating and learning with
them the living words. And if not, sit at home and read the
Law, and the Book of Kings and the Prophets, and the
Gospel the fulfilment of these.

But avoid all books of the heathen. For what hast thou to
do with strange sayings or laws or lying prophecies, which
also turn away from the faith them that are young For what
is wanting to thee in the word of God, that thou shouldst
cast thyself upon these fables of the heathen? If thou wouldst
read historical narratives, thou hast the Book of Kings; but
if wise men and philosophers, thou hast the Prophets,
wherein thou shalt find wisdom and understanding more
than that of the wise men and philosophers; for they are the
words of the one God, the only wise. And if thou wish for
songs, thou hast the Psalms of David; but if (thou wouldst
read of) the beginning of the world, thou hast the Genesis of
the great Moses; and if laws and commandments, thou hast
the glorious Law of the Lord God. All strange (writings)
therefore, which are contrary (to these), wholly avoid.

Yet when thou readest the Law, beware of the Second
Legislation, that thou do but read it merely; but the
commands and warnings that are therein much avoid, lest
thou lead thyself astray and bind thyself with the bonds
which may not be loosed of heavy burdens. For this cause
therefore, if thou read the Second Legislation, consider this
alone, that thou know and glorify God who delivered us
from all these bonds. And have this set before thine eyes, that
thou discern and know what [in the Law] is the Law, and
what are the bonds that are in the Second Legislation, which
after the Law were given to those who, in the Law and in the

Second Legislation, committed so many sins in the wilderness.

For the first Law is that which the Lord God spoke before
the people had made the calf and served idols, which consists
of the Ten Words and the Judgements. But after they had
served idols, He justly laid upon them the bonds, as they were
worthy. But do not thou therefore lay them upon thee; for
our Saviour came for no other cause but to fulfil the Law,
and to set us loose from the bonds of the Second Legislation.
For He set loose from those bonds and thus called those who
believe in Him, and said: Come unto me, all ye that toil and
are laden with heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Do
thou therefore, without the weight of these burdens, read the

simple Law, which is in accord with the Gospel; and
moreover the Gospel itself, and the Prophets; and the Book
of Kings likewise, that thou mayest know that as many kings
as were righteous were both advanced by the Lord God in
this world, and continued in God's promise of everlasting life;
but those kings who turned aside from God and served idols
did justly, by a summary judgement, perish miserably, and
were deprived of the kingdom of God, and instead of
(obtaining) rest are punished. When therefore thou readest
these things, thou wilt grow the more in faith and be
improved.

And afterwards rise up, go forth to the market-place and
bathe in a bath of men: but not in one of women, lest, when
thou hast stripped thyself and shewn the nakedness of thy
bare body, either thou be ensnared, or thou constrain
another and she slip and be ensnared by thee. Beware of these
things therefore, and thou shalt live unto God.

Learn, then, what saith the holy word in Wisdom: My Son,
keep my words, and my commandments hide within thee. My
son, honour the Lord, and be strengthened; and beside him
thou shalt fear none other. Keep my commandments, and live
well, and my laws as the apple of thine eye; and bind them
upon thy fingers. and write them on the tables of thy heart.
And say to wisdom: Thou art my sister, and make known to
thy soul understanding: that she may keep thee from a
strange and adulterous woman, whose words are flattering.
For from the window of her house and from the porch she
looked forth into the streets; and whomsoever she saw of the
youths that are simple and lack understanding, that pass in
the street beside the corners of the paths of her house, and
speak in the darkness, at even and in the gloom of the
stillness of the night: then the woman went forth and met
him, in the harlot's dress that fluttereth the heart of youths.
And she is wanton and bold and dissolute: and her feet
cannot be quiet in her house; but now she roameth abroad,
and now she lurketh in the streets and in the corners. And she
caught him and kissed him, and made her face impudent, and
said to him: Sacrifices I have, even peace offerings, today do I
pay my vows: therefore am I come forth to meet thee; for I
was looking to see thee, and I have found thee. I have spread
my couch with a coverlet, and with rugs of Egypt have I
overlaid it: I have sprinkled saffron upon my couch, and
cinnamon in my house. Come, let us take our pleasure with
love until morning, and let us embrace each other with desire,
For my husband is not at home: he is gone a long journey,
and hath taken a bag of money in his hand; and after many
days will he come to his house. And she beguiled him with
her many words, and with the flattery of her lips she drew
him unto her. And he went after her like a simpleton, and as
an ox that goeth to the slaughter, and as a dog to the leash,
and as a hart stricken with an arrow; and he maketh haste
[and] as a bird to the snare: and he knew not that he went to
the death of his soul. Now therefore, hear me, my son, and
hearken tothe words of my mouth. Let not thy heart incline
to her ways, and draw not nigh to the door of her house, and
go not astray in her path; for many slain hath she cast down,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and there is no number to them that are slain by her. The
ways of her house are the ways of Sheol, which bring down to
the chambers of death. My son, hearken to my wisdom, and
to mine understanding bend thy mind: that my counsel may
keep thee, and the knowledge of my lips which I command
thee. For the lips of an adulterous woman drop honey, and
with her flatteries she maketh sweet thy palate: but the latter
end of them is more bitter than wormwood, and sharper than
a two-edged sword. For the feet of a foolish (woman) lead
down to the chambers of Sheol them that cleave unto her: for
there is no standing for her footsteps, nor treading in the
land of life: for her paths are error, and they are not known.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and turn not aside from the
words of my mouth. Keep thy way far from her, and draw
not nigh to the door of her house; lest thou give thy life to
others, and thy years to them that have no mercy; and lest
strangers be satisfied of thy strength, and thy revenues go
into the houses of others: and in thine old age thy soul repent
thee, when the flesh of thy body is consumed, and thou say:
Why then did I hate correction, and my heart reject reproof;
and hearkened I not to the voice of my teachers, and to them
that admonished me inclined not mine ears I am come well-
nigh into every evil.

And that we prolong not and extend the admonition of our
teaching with many (words), if we have left anything, do you
as wise men choose for yourselves those things that are good
from the holy Scriptures and from the Gospel of God, that
you may be made firm, and may put away and cast from you
all evil, and be found blameless in life everlasting with God.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 3

An instruction to women, that they should please and
honour their husbands alone, caring diligently and wisely for
the work of their houses with attention; and that they should
not bathe with men; and that they should not adorn
themselves and become a cause of stumbling to men and
ensnare them; and that they should be chaste and quiet, and
not quarrel with their husbands.

And let a woman also be subject to her husband; because
the head of the woman is the man, and the head of a man that
walks in the way of justice is Christ. After the Lord Almighty,
our God and the Father of the worlds, of the present and of
that which is to come, and the Lord of every breath and of all
powers, and His living and Holy Spirit -- to whom is glory
and honour for evermore, Amen -- woman, fear thy husband
and reverence him, and please him alone, and be ready to
minister to him; and let thy hands be (put forth) to the wool,
and thy mind be upon the spindle, as He saith in Wisdom: A
valiant woman who shall find? For she is more worth than
goodly stones of great price; 1 land the heart of her husband
relieth upon her, and provision is not wanting to her, For
she is a helper to her husband in all things, and causeth that
nothing be wanting to him in his living. She made wool and
linen with her ready hands. She is become a good provider,
as a merchant ship, and hath gathered all her riches from afar.
She rose up in the night and gave victuals to her household,

and work to her handmaids. She looked upon a field, and
bought it; and of the fruits of her hands she planted a
possession. She girded her loins with strength, and made firm
her arms, and tasted that it is good to work: and her lamp
was not put out all the night long. Her arms she stretched
forth with diligence, and her hands to the spindle. Her hands
she extended to the poor, and of her fruits she gave to the
needy. And her husband hath no anxiety for the house; for all
his household have been clothed with a double raiment. She
made for her husband garments of fine linen and scarlet: her
husband is notable in the gates, when he sitteth in the seat of
the elders. She made in her house linen cloths and girdles ,
and sold to the Canaanites. Strength and comeliness are her
raiment:? and she shall rejoice in the last day. She opened her
mouth with wisdom and with prudence, and her tongue
speaketh orderly. The ways of her house are strict: and bread
she hath not eaten slothfully. She opened her mouth in
wisdom, rightly: and the law of mercy is upon her tongue.
Her sons rose up and were enriched, and praised he: and she
shall rejoice in them in her last days. Her husband also
congratulated her: and her many daughters have gotten
riches. And many great things she did, and she was exalted
above all the women: for a woman that feareth God shall be
blessed, and the fear of the Lord shall glorify her. Give unto
her of her fruits, which are worthy of her lips, and let her be
praised in the gates: and in every place let her husband be
praised. And again: A valiant woman is the crown of her
husband.

You have heard, then, how great praise a chaste woman and
one that loves her husband receives of the Lord God, one
that is found faithful and is minded to please God. Thou
therefore, O woman, shalt not adorn thyself that thou mayest
please other men; and thou shalt not be plaited with the
tresses of harlotry, nor put on the dress of harlotry, nor be
shod with shoes so that thou resemble them that are such; lest
thou bring upon thee those who are ensnared by these things.
And if thou sin not thyselfin this work of uncleanness, yet in
this thou wilt have sinned, that thou hast constrained and
caused that (man) to desire thee. But if thou also sin, thou
hast destroyed thy life from God, and art become guilty also
of the soul of that (man). And moreover, when thou hast
sinned with one, thou wilt grow reckless and go also to
others; as in Wisdom He said: When the wicked is come to
the depth of evil, he contemneth and groweth reckless: and
there cometh upon him dishonour and reproach. For one
who is such that she is wholly stricken in her soul and taken
with desire, leads captive the souls of them that lack
understanding. But let us learn concerning these also, how
the holy word in Wisdom exposes them; for it saith thus: Asa
ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is beauty to a woman that
doeth evil. And again: As a worm in wood, so doth an evil
woman destroy a man. And again: A woman void of
understanding and boastful cometh to want bread, and
knoweth no shame. For she sitteth in the street, by the door
of her house, upon a high chair, and calleth to them that pass
by the way, and to them that walk in her paths, and saith:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Whoso among you is a simpleton, let him draw nigh to me;
and to him that wanteth understanding I will say: Touch
lovingly the hidden bread, and stolen waters that are sweet.
And he knoweth not that valiant men perish with her, and
come even to the depth of Sheol. But flee thou, and tarry not
in that place; and lift not up thine eyes to look upon her. And
again: It is better to sit upon a corner of the roof than to
dwell with a prating and quarrelsome woman within the
house.

Thou therefore that art a Christian, do not imitate such
women; but if thou wouldst be a faithful woman, please thy
husband only. And when thou walkest in the street, cover thy
head with thy robe, that by reason of thy veil thy great
beauty may be hidden. And adorn not thy natural face; but
walk with downcast looks, being veiled.

And take heed that thou bathe not in a bath with men. For
when there is a women's bath in the city or in the village, a
believing woman may not bathe in a bath with men. For if
thou coverest thy face from strange men with a veil of
modesty, how then canst thou go in with strange men to a
bath? But if there is no women's bath, and thou art
constrained to bathe in a bath of men and women, -- which
indeed is unfitting -- bathe with modesty and shame, and
with bashfulness and moderation: and not at all times, nor
every day, and not at midday; but let there be an appointed
season for thee to bathe at, (to wit) at the tenth hour. For it
behoves thee, as a believing woman, by every means to fly
from the vain and curious gaze of the many which is met with
in a bath.

And thy strife with all, and especially with thy husband,
check and restrain as a believing woman; lest thy husband, if
he be a heathen, be offended by reason of thee and blaspheme
against God, and thou receive a Woe from God: for, Woe to
them, by reason of whom the name of God is blasphemed
among the gentiles; or (lest) again, if thy husband be a
believer, he be constrained, as one who knows the Scriptures,
and say to thee the word from Wisdom: It is better to sit
upon a corner of the roof than to dwell with a prating and
quarrelsome woman within the house. For it behoves women
by a veil of modesty and humility to shew (their) fear of God,
for the conversion and the increase of faith of them that are
without, (both) of men and women.

Now if we have admonished and instructed you in brief, our
sisters and our daughters and our members, do you as wise
women seek and choose out for yourselves those things that
are good and honourable and without reproach in worldly
conversation; and learn and know those things whereby you
may arrive at the kingdom of our Lord, and may find rest,
pleasing Him with good works.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 4

Teaching what manner of man he is that is chosen for the
Bishopric, and of what sort his conduct should be.

But concerning the bishopric, hear ye. The pastor who is
appointed bishop and head among the presbytery in the
Church in every congregation, it is required of him that he be

blameless, in nothing reproachable, one remote from all evil,
a man not less than fifty years of age, who is now removed
from the manners of youth and from the lusts of the Enemy,
and from the slander and blasphemy of false brethren, which
they bring against many because they understand not that
word which is said in the Gospel: Every one that shall say an
idle word, shall give an answer concerning it to the Lord in
the day of judgement: for from thy words thou shalt be
justified, and from thy words thou shalt be condemned. But
if it be possible, let him be instructed and apt to teach; but if
he know not letters, let him be versed and skilled in the word,
and let him be advanced in years.

But if the congregation be a small one, and there be not
found a man advanced in years of whom they give testimony
that he is wise and suitable to stand in the bishopric: but
there be found there one who is young, of whom they that are
with him give testimony that he is worthy to stand in the
bishopric, and who, though he is young, yet by meekness and
quietness of conduct shows maturity: let him be proved
whether all give testimony concerning him, and so let him sit
in peace. For Solomon also at the age of twelve years reigned
over Israel; and Josiah at the age of eight years reigned with
righteousness; and Joash likewise reigned when seven years
old. Wherefore, even though he be young, yet let him be
meek and fearful and quiet; for the Lord God said in Isaiah:
On whom shall I look and take pleasure (in him), but on the
quiet and meek, that trembleth at my words? And in the
Gospel also He spoke thus: Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. And let him be merciful; for He said
again in the Gospel thus: Blessed are the merciful, for upon
them there shall be mercy. And again let him be a
peacemaker; for He saith : Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the sons of God. And let him be clear of
all evil and wrong and iniquity; for He saith again: Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And let him be
watchful and chaste and staid and orderly; and let him not be
turbulent, and let him not be one that exceeds in wine ; and
let him not be a backbiter; but let him be quiet, and not be
quarrelsome; and let him not be money-loving. And let him
not be youthful in mind, lest he be lifted up and fall into the
judgement of Satan: for everyone that exalteth himself shall
be humbled. But it is required that the bishop be thus: a man
that hath taken one wife, that hath governed his house well.
And thus let him be proved when he receives the imposition
of hands to sit in the office of the bishopric: whether he be
chaste, and whether his wife also be a believer and chaste; and
whether he has brought up his children in the fear of God,
and admonished and taught them; and whether his
household fear and reverence him, and all of them obey him.
For if his household in the flesh withstand him and obey him
not, how shall they that are without his house become his,
and be subject to him?

And let him be proved whether he be without blemish in the
things of the world, and likewise in his body; for it is written:
See that there be no blemish in him that standeth up to be
priest. But let him be also without anger; for the Lord saith:

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Anger destroyeth even the wise. And let him be merciful and
gracious and full of love; for the Lord saith: Love covereth a
multitude of sins. And let his hand be open to give; and let
him love the orphans with the widows, and be a lover of the
poor and of strangers. And let him be alert in his ministry,
and constant in ministration; and let him be afflicting his
soul, and not be one that is put to confusion. And let him
know who is the more worthy to receive; for if there be a
widow who has (some- what), or is able to nourish herself
with that which she needs for her bodily sustenance; and
there be another who, though she is not a widow, is in want,
whether by reason of sickness, or of the rearing of children,
or of bodily infirmity: to this (latter) rather let him stretch
out his hand. But if there be any man who is dissolute, or
drunken, or idle, and he be in straits for bodily nourishment,
the same is not worthy of an alms, neither of the Church.

And let the bishop be also without respect of persons, and
let him not defer to the rich nor favour them unduly; and let
him not disregard or neglect the poor, nor be lifted up
against them. And let him be scant and poor in his food and
drink, that he may be able to be watchful in admonishing
and correcting those who are undisciplined. And let him not
be crafty and extravagant, nor luxurious, nor pleasure-
loving, nor fond of dainty meats. And let him not be
resentful, but let him be patient in his admonition; and let
him be assiduous in his teaching, and constant in reading the
divine Scriptures with diligence, that he may interpret and
expound the Scriptures fittingly. And let him compare the
Law and the Prophets with the Gospel, so that the sayings of
the Law and the Prophets may be in accord with the Gospel.
But before all let him be a good discriminator between the
Law and the Second Legislation, that he may distinguish and
show what is the Law of the faithful, and what are the bonds
of them that believe not; lest anyone of those under thy
authority take the bonds for the Law, and lay upon himself
heavy burdens, and become a son of perdition. Be diligent
therefore and attentive to the word, O bishop, so that, if
thou canst, thou explain every saying: that with much
doctrine thou mayest abundantly nourish and give drink to
thy people; for it is written in Wisdom: Be careful of the herb
of the field, that thou mayest shear thy flock: and gather the
grass of summer, that thou mayest have sheep for thy
clothing: give attention and care to thy pasture, that thou
mayest have lambs. Let not the bishop therefore be a lover of
filthy lucre, and especially from the heathen. Let him be
suffering a wrong, and not doing a wrong; and let him not
love riches. And let him not think ill of any man, nor bear
false witness; and let him not be wrathful, nor quarrelsome;
and let him not love the presidency; and let him not be
double-minded nor double-tongued, nor given to incline his
ear to words of slander and murmuring; and let him be no
respecter of persons. And let him not love the festivals of the
heathen, nor occupy himself with vain error. And let him not
be lustful, nor money-loving: for all these things are of the
agency or demons.

Now all these things let the bishop command and enjoin
upon all the people. And let him be wise and lowly; and let
him be admonishing and teaching with the doctrine and
discipline of God. And let him be of a noble mind, and aloof
from all the evil artifices of this world, and from all the evil
lust of the heathen. And let his mind be keen to discern, that
he may know beforehand them that are evil: and do you keep
yourselves from them. But let him be the friend of all, being a
righteous judge. And whatever of good there be that is found
in men, let the same be in the bishop. For when the pastor
shall be remote from all evil, he will be able to constrain his
disciples also and encourage them by his good manners to be
imitators of his good works; as the Lord has said in the
Twelve Prophets: The people shall be even as the priest. For
it behoves you to be an example to the people, for you also
have Christ for an example. Be you therefore also a good
example to your people, for the Lord said in Ezekiel: And the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of man, speak to
the sons of thy people, and say unto them: When I bring the
sword upon a land, let the people of that land take one man
from among them and make him their watchman: and he
shall see the sword coming upon the land, and shall blow the
trumpet and warn the people, and everyone that heareth the
sound of the trumpet shall give ear. And if he take not
warning, and the sword come and take him away, his blood
shall be upon his head. Because he heard the sound of the
trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon his
head. But he that took warning hath delivered his soul. But
if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the
trumpet, and the people be not warned, and the sword come
and take away a soul from them: he hath been taken away in
his sins, and his blood will I require at the hands of the
watchman. Now the sword is the judgement, and the trumpet
is the Gospel, but the watchman is the bishop who is set over
the Church.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 5

A teaching on judgement.

It behoves thee therefore, O bishop, when thou preachest,
to testify and affirm concerning the judgement according as
it is (found) in the Gospel. For to thee also has the Lord said:
And thee, son of man, I have set as a watchman to the house
of Israel; that thou mayest hear a word from my mouth, and
give warning and preach it as from me. And when I say to the
ungodly: The ungodly shall surely die, and thou preach not
and say that the ungodly should depart from his iniquity: the
ungodly shall die in his iniquity, and at thy hands will I
require his blood. But if thou warn the ungodly from his way,
and he take not warning: the ungodly shall die in his iniquity,
and thou shalt deliver thy soul. Wherefore you also, since to
your account is laid the blame of them that sin in ignorance,
do you preach and testify; and those who behave themselves
without discipline admonish and rebuke openly. Now
whereas we speak and repeat these things often, we are not
blameworthy; for through much teaching and hearing it
happens that a man is put to shame, and does good and

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avoids evil. For the Lord also said in the Law: Hear, O Israel;
and unto this day they have not heard. And in the Gospel
likewise He often proclaims and says; Every one that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. But not even they have heard who
thought that they heard; for they cast themselves swiftly into
the dire destruction of heresy: upon whom the word of
sentence is about to go forth. For we believe not, brethren,
that when a man has (once) gone down into the water he will
do again the abominable and filthy works of the ungodly
heathen. For this is manifest and known to all, that
whosoever does evil after baptism, the same is already
condemned to the Gehenna of fire.

And we think indeed that the heathen also will blaspheme
on this account, that we do not mix with them nor hold
communication with them. But through the falsehood of the
heathen our brethren have the rather attained to the truth;
for in the Gospel He saith thus: Blessed are ye when they shall
revile you, and persecute you, and speak against you every
evil word for my sake, falsely. But do ye rejoice and be glad,
for your reward is great in heaven: for so did their fathers
persecute the prophets. If therefore they shall blaspheme
against any man falsely, blessed is he, even because that he is
tempted; for the Scripture has said: A man that is not
tempted, neither is he approved. But if a man be convicted of
doing the works of iniquity, he is no Christian but a liar, and
he holds the fear of the Lord in hypocrisy. Wherefore these
persons, when they have been exposed and convicted by the
truth openly, let ,the bishop who is without offence and
without hypocrisy avoid.

But if the bishop himself is not of a clean conscience, and
accepts persons for the sake of filthy lucre, or for the sake of
the presents which he receives, and spares one who impiously
sins, and suffers him to remain in the Church: such a bishop
has polluted his congregation with God; yea, and with men
also, and with many of the receivers who are young in their
minds, or with the hearers; and youths and maidens beside he
destroys with him. For by reason of the lewdness of an
ungodly man, when they have seen such a one in their midst
they too will doubt in their soul, and will imitate him, and
themselves also will stumble and be taken with the same
malady, and will perish with him. But if he who sins sees that
the bishop and the deacons are clear of reproach, and the
whole flock pure: first of all he will not dare to enter the
congregation, because he is reproved by his conscience; but if
it should happen that he is bold, and comes to the Church in
his arrogance, and he is reproved and rebuked by the bishop,
and looking upon all (present) finds no offence in any of
them, neither in the bishop nor in those who are with him: he
will then be put to confusion, and will go forth quietly, in
great shame, weeping and in remorse of soul; and so shall the
flock remain pure. Moreover, when he is gone out he will
repent of his sin and weep and sigh before God, and there
shall be hope for him. And the whole flock itself also, when it
sees the weeping and tears of that man, will fear, knowing
and understanding that everyone who sins perishes.

Wherefore, O bishop, strive to be pure in thy works. And
know thy place, that thou art set in the likeness of God
Almighty, and holdest the place of God Almighty; and so sit
in the Church and teach as having authority to judge them
that sin in the room of God Almighty. For to you bishops it
is said in the Gospel: That which ye shall bind on earth, shall
be bound in heaven.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 6

Concerning transgressors, and concerning those who
repent.

Judge therefore, O bishop, strictly as God Almighty; and
those who repent receive with mercy as God Almighty. And
rebuke and exhort and teach; for the Lord God also with an
oath promised forgiveness to them that have sinned, as He
said in Ezekiel: And thou, son of man, say to the house of
Israel: Ye have said thus: Our crimes and our sins are upon us,
and in them we are wasted away: how then can we live? Say
unto them: As I live, saith the Lord Adonai, desire not the
death of the sinner, but that the wicked return from his evil
way and live. Return, therefore, and be converted from your
evil ways, and ye shall not die, O house of Israel. Here, then,
He gave hope to them that sin, when they shall have repented,
that they may have salvation by their repentance, and may
not despair of themselves and continue in their sins and
further add to them, but may repent and sigh and weep for
their sins, and be converted with all their heart.

But let them that have not sinned continue without sin, lest
they also come to have need of weeping and sighs and sorrow,
and of forgiveness. For whence knowest thou, O man that
sinnest, how many are the days of thy life in this world, that
thou mayest repent? For thou knowest not thy exit from the
world, whether haply thou die in thy sins and there be no
more repentance for thee; as it 1s said in David: In Sheol who
shall confess to thee? Wherefore he remains without danger,
whosoever spares his soul and remains without sin: so that
the righteousness also which was done by him in time past
may be preserved to him.

Do thou therefore, O bishop, thus judge: first of all strictly;
and afterwards receive (the sinner) with mercy and
compassion, when he promises to repent. And rebuke and
afflict him, and (afterwards) be entreated of him, because of
the word which is spoken in David thus: Deliver not up the
soul that confesseth to thee. And in Jeremiah again He speaks
thus concerning the repentance of them that sin: Shall he
that is fallen not rise up or he that is turned away not return?
Wherefore are my people turned away with a shameless
perversion, and are held fast in their own devices, and have
refused to repent and to return? For this cause, then, receive
him that repents without hesitating ever so little; and be not
hindered by those who are without mercy, who say: ' It is not
fitting that we should be defiled with these.’ For the Lord
God has said: The fathers shall not die for the sons, nor the
sons for the fathers. And again in Ezekiel He speaketh thus:
And the word of the Lord came unto me saying: Son of man,
if a land sin against me, and do iniquity before me, I will

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

stretch forth my hand against her, and will destroy out of her
the staff of bread, and will send a famine upon her, and will
destroy out of her men and beasts. But if there be in her these
three men, Noah and Daniel and Job, they by their
righteousness shall deliver their souls, saith the Lord Adonai.
The Scripture, then, has shown clearly that if there be found
a righteous man with an ungodly, he shall not perish with
him, but every man shall be saved by his righteousness: and if
he is hindered, it is by his own sins that he is hindered. And
again in Wisdom He saith: Every man is tied with the cord of
his sins. Each one therefore of the laity is to render an
account of his own sins; and a man is not hurt by reason of
the sins of others. For neither did Judas harm us at all when
he was praying with us, but he alone perished. And in the ark,
Noah and his two sons who were saved alive, they were
blessed; but Ham, his other son, was not blessed, but his seed
was cursed; and the animals that went in, animals they came
forth.

It behoves you not therefore to hearken to those who desire
(to put to) death, and hate their brethren and love
accusations, and are ready to slay on any pretext: (for one
shall not die for another). But do you help them that are sore
sick and exposed to danger and are sinning, that you may
deliver them from death; and (do) not according to the
hardness of heart and the word and thought of men, (but
according to the will and command of the Lord our God).
For it behoves thee not, O bishop, that being the head thou
shouldst obey the tail, that is a layman, a contentious man
who desires the destruction of another; but do thou regard
only the word of the Lord God. And concerning this, that
(men) are not to suppose that they perish or are defiled by the
sins of others, He again cut off their evil thought, and by
Ezekiel also the Lord our God spoke thus: And the word of
the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of man, why use ye this
proverb in the land of Israel, and say: The fathers do eat sour
grapes, and their sons’ teeth are on edge. As I live, saith the
Lord Adonai, there shall no more be any that useth this
proverb in Israel. For all the souls are mine: as the soul of the
father is mine, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul
that sinneth, the same shall die. And a man, if he be righteous,
and do judgement and righteousness, and eat not upon the
mountains, and lift not up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, and defile not the wife of his neighbour, and come not
near to a woman in her menstruation, and treat no man with
violence, and restore the pledge of his debtor which he hath
taken, and clothe the naked with a garment, 8and give not
out his money on usury, and receive not (back) with
overcharge, and turn away his hand from iniquity, and judge
right judgement betwixt a man and his neighbour, and walk
in my laws, and keep my judgements and do them: this man is
righteous, he shall surely live, saith the Lord Adonai, And if
he beget an evil son, that sheddeth blood and doeth iniquity,
and walketh not in the way of his righteous father, and
eateth upon the mountains, and defileth his neighbour's wife,
and evil entreateth the poor and needy, and committeth
robbery, and restoreth not the pledge which he hath taken,

and lifteth up his eyes to idols, and doeth iniquity, and
giveth out his money on usury, and receiveth (back) with
overcharge: this man shall not live: because he hath done all
this iniquity, he shall surely die, and his blood shall be upon
him. But if he beget a son, and he see those sins which his
father did, and fear and do not the like of them, and eat not
upon the mountains, and lift not up his eyes to the idols of
the house of Israel, and defile not his neighbour's wife, and
evil entreat no man, and take not a pledge, and commit not
robbery, and give his bread to the hungry, and clothe the
naked with a garment, and turn away his hand from iniquity,
and receive not usury and overcharge, and do righteousness
and walk in my laws: this man shall not die for the iniquity of
his father, but he shall surely live. But his father, because he
indeed committed oppression and robbery, and did not good
to my people, shall die for his iniquity. And ye say:
Wherefore is not the son requited for the iniquity of his
father? Because the son did righteousness and mercy, and
kept all my commandments and did them, he shall surely live:
the soul that sinneth, the same shall die. A son shall not be
requited for the sins of his father; and a father shall not be
requited for the sins of his son. The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him; and the iniquity of the ungodly
shall be upon him. And if the ungodly shall turn away from
all his iniquity which he did, and keep all my commandments,
and do judgement and righteousness, he shall surely live and
not die; and all the iniquity which he did shall not be
remembered unto him: for the righteousness which he did,
for the same he shall live. For I desire not the death of the
sinner, saith the Lord Adonai: but everyone that shall turn
from his evil way shall live. And if the righteous turn away
from his righteousness, and do iniquity according to all the
iniquity which the ungodly did: all his righteousness which
he did shall not be remembered unto him, but for the
iniquity which he did, and for the sins which he sinned, for
the same he shall die. And they have said: The way of the
Lord is not well. Hear ye, house of Israel: my way is well, but
your own ways are not well. And if the righteous shall turn
away from his righteousness and do iniquity: for the iniquity
which he hath done he shall die. And if the ungodly shall
turn away from his iniquity which he did, and shall do
judgement and righteousness: this man hath delivered his
soul. Because he turned away from all the iniquity which he
did, he shall surely live and not die. And the house of Israel
say: The way of the Lord is not well. My way is well, O house
of Israel, but your own ways are not well. Therefore will I
judge every man of you according to his ways, saith the Lord
Adonai. Return and be converted from all your iniquity and
your wickedness, lest these things be unto you for an evil
torment. And cast away and put from you all the wickedness
which ye have done, and make to yourselves a new heart and
a new spirit, and ye shall not die, O house of Israel: for I
desire not the death of the sinner, saith the Lord Adonai :
but do ye return and live.

You see, beloved and dear children, how abundant are the
mercies of the Lord our God and His goodness and loving-

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kindness towards us, and (how) He exhorts them that have
sinned to repent. And in many places He speaks of these
things; and He gives no place to the thought of those who are
hard of heart and wish to judge strictly and without mercy,
and to cast away altogether them that have sinned as though
there were no repentance for them. But God (is) not so, but
even sinners He calls to repentance and gives them hope; and
those who have not sinned He teaches, and tells them that
they should not suppose that we bear or partake in the sins of
others. Simply, then, receive them that repent, rejoicing. For
He spoke again in the same prophet concerning repentance
thus: And thou, son of man, say to the sons of thy people:
The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in
the day that he doeth wickedly; and the iniquity of the
ungodly shall not hurt him in the day that he returneth from
his iniquity: and the righteous cannot live in the day that he
sinneth. And when I shall say to the righteous that he shall
surely live, and he rely upon his righteousness and do
iniquity: all his righteousness shall not be remembered unto
him, but for the iniquity which he hath done, for the same he
shall die. And when I shall say to the ungodly: Thou shalt
surely die; and he turn from his sin and do judgement and
righteousness, and return the pledge which he hath taken,
and restore that which he hath robbed, and walk in the
judgements and commandments of life so that he do no
iniquity: he shall surely live and not die, and all his sins
which he sinned shall not be remembered unto him: he hath
done judgement and righteousness, he shall surely live. And
the sons of thy people say: The way of the Lord Adonai is not
well. Say unto them: It is your own ways are not well: for if
the righteous shall turn away from his righteousness and do
iniquity, he shall surely die for his iniquity; and if the
ungodly shall turn away from his iniquity and do judgement
and righteousness, for the same he shall live.

It behoves you then, O bishops, to judge according to the
Scriptures those who sin, with gentleness and with mercy.
For if, when a man is walking by the brink of a river and is
ready to slip, thou by suffering him (to slip) hast thrust (and)
cast him into the river, thou hast also committed murder.
But if a man were to slip on the brink of a river and be near
to perish, thou wouldst quickly reach out a hand to him and
draw him out, lest he perish altogether. So do therefore
(with the sinner); that both thy people may learn and
understand, and he also that sins may not utterly perish.

But when thou hast seen one who has sinned, be stern with
him, and command that they put him forth; and when he is
gone forth let them be stern with him, and take him to task,
and keep him without the Church; and then let them come in
and plead for him. For our Saviour Himself also was
pleading with His Father for sinners, as it is written in the
Gospel: My Father, they know not what they do, neither
what they speak: but if it be possible, do Thou forgive them.
And then do thou, O bishop, command him to come in, and
examine him whether he be repentant. And if he is worthy to
be received into the Church, appoint him days of fasting
according to his offence, two or three weeks, or five, or seven;

and so dismiss him that he may depart, saying to him
whatever is right for admonition and instruction; and rebuke
him, and say to him that he be by himself in humiliation, and
that he beg and beseech during the days of his fast that he
may be found worthy of the forgiveness of sins:? as it is
written in Genesis: Hast thou sinned be silent: thy repentance
shall be with thee, and thou shalt have power over it. To
Mary the sister of Moses also, when she had spoken against
Moses, and afterwards repented and was held worthy of
forgiveness, it was said of the Lord: If her father had but spit
in her face, it were right for her to be ashamed, and to be
separate seven days without the camp, and then to come in.
So it behoves you also to do: to put forth from the Church
those who promise to repent of their sins (for a space)
proportionate to their offences: and afterwards do you
receive them as merciful fathers.

But if the bishop be in himself a (cause of) offence, how can
he stand up and make inquisition of any man's misdeeds, or
rebuke him and give sentence upon him? For by reason of
partiality, or of the presents which they receive -- either he or
the deacons, whose conscience is not pure -- they (the deacons)
cannot exert themselves to help the bishop; for they are
afraid lest they should hear (from the sinner), as from an
insolent man, that word which is written in the Gospel: Why
seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and perceivest
not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast
out first the beam from thine eye; and then shalt thou
perceive to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. The reason,
then, that the bishop, with his deacons, is afraid, (is) lest they
should hear from the sinner, as from an insolent man, that
word of the Lord. For he knows not that it is a perilous
thing for a man to speak against the bishop, and that he (the
bishop) may be made an offence throughout the whole of
that district. For one who has been sinning lacks
understanding, and no more spares his soul. Hence, for
whatever cause it be that the bishop is afraid, he feigns not to
have knowledge of him who sins, and passes him over and
rebukes and corrects him not. And hence Satan, when he has
found him an occasion by means of one, gets power over
others also -- which God forbid that it should come about --
and so it happens that the flock becomes such that it can no
longer be set right. For when there are found many that sin,
evil waxes strong; and whereas they that sin are not corrected
and reproved that they should repent, this becomes to all an
inducement to sin:? and that which is said is fulfilled: My
house is called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of
thieves. But if the bishop keeps not silent from them that sin,
but rebukes and reproves and corrects and admonishes and
afflicts him that sins, he casts dread and fear upon others also.
For it behoves the bishop to be by his doctrine a restrainer of
sins and an example and encourager of righteousness, and by
the admonition of his teaching a director of good works, and
one who lauds and magnifies the good things which are to
come and are promised by God in the place of life everlasting:
a proclaimer also of the wrath to come in the judgement of
God, with threatening of the grievous fire which is

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

unquenchable and intolerable. And let him know the
meaning of God's will, that he despise no man; because our
Saviour has said: See that ye despise not any of these little
ones that believe in me.

Let the bishop therefore be careful of all, both of them that
have not sinned, that they may continue as they are without
sin, and of them that have sinned, that they may repent, and
that he may grant them forgiveness of sins, as it is written in
Isaiah that the Lord saith: Loose every bond of iniquity, and
sever all bands of violence and extortion.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 7

To Bishops.

Do thou therefore, O bishop, teach and rebuke, and loose
by forgiveness. And know thy place, that it is that of God
Almighty, and that thou hast received authority to forgive
sins. For to you bishops it was said: All that ye shall bind on
earth, it shall be bound in heaven; and all that ye shall loose,
it shall be loosed. As therefore thou hast authority to loose,
know thyself and thy manners and thy conversation in this
life, that they be worthy of thy place. But without sin there is
none among men, for it is written: There is no man pure of
defilement, not even though his life in the world be but one
day. Therefore the life and manner of conversation of the just
men and patriarchs was written, that it might be known that
in each one of them there was found at least some small sin;
that it might be understood that the Lord God alone is
without sin, as He said in David: That thou mayest be
justified in thy words, and prevail in thy judgements. For the
little defilement of the just is to us a solace and an
encouragement, and a (source of) trust that we also, if we sin
but a little, have a hope of obtaining forgiveness.

There is no man, then, without sin. But do thou strive
according to thy power to be in nothing reproachable. And
have a care of all, that none may stumble and perish by
reason of thee. For a layman has the care of himself alone,
but thou carriest the burden of all. And very great is the load
that thou bearest; for to whom the Lord hath given much,
much also will he require at his hand. As therefore thou
carriest the burden of all, be watchful; for it is written: The
Lord said unto Moses: Thou and Aaron shall take upon you
the sins of the priesthood. For as thou art to render an
account for many, so be careful of all; for those that are
sound thou shalt preserve, but those that have sinned do thou
admonish and rebuke and afflict; and (afterwards) ease them
with forgiveness. And when he that sinned has repented and
wept, receive him; and while the whole people prays over him,
lay hand upon him, and suffer him henceforth to be in the
Church. But those who are drowsy and slack do thou bring
back and stir up and make firm, and exhort them and make
them sound: for thou knowest what reward thou hast if thou
do thus; but if thou neglect it, danger shall come upon thee;
for the Lord spoke thus in Ezekiel concerning those bishops
who neglect their people: And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying: Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord Adonai: Woe

unto the shepherds of Israel, who feed themselves; and my
sheep the shepherds have not fed. The milk ye eat, and with
the wool ye are clothed, and that which is fat ye kill and the
sheep ye feed not. That which was sick ye healed not, and
that which was weak ye strengthened not, and that which
was broken ye bound not up, and that which was gone astray
ye brought not back, and that which was lost ye sought not
out; but with force and with derision ye have subdued them.
And my sheep were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and
became meat for every beast of the field. And my sheep were
scattered and gone astray on an the high mountains and on
an the high hills, and on an the face of the land were my
sheep scattered, and there was none to require and seek.
Wherefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord Adonai.
Forasmuch as my sheep are become a spoil and meat to every
beast of the field for lack of a shepherd, and the shepherds
have not sought my sheep, but the shepherds have fed
themselves, and my sheep the shepherds have not fed:
therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus
saith the Lord Adonai: Behold, I am against the shepherds,
and I wilt seek my sheep at their hands; and I will cause them
to cease, that henceforth they feed not my sheep: and the
shepherds shalt no more feed themselves; but I will deliver my
sheep out of their hands, and they shall no more be to them
for meat. For thus saith the Lord Adonai: Therefore, behold,
I wilt seek my sheep and visit them: as a shepherd visiteth his
sheep in the day of tempest, when he is in their midst, so will
I visit my sheep. And I will gather them together from all
places wherein they were scattered in the day of cloud and
thick darkness, and I will bring them forth from the peoples,
and gather them from the lands, and bring them into their
land; and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel, and in
all the waste places of the land. And in a good and fat pasture
will I feed them, and in the mountains of the Most High of
Israel shall be the glory of their beauty. There shall they be
encamped in a good encampment, and in a fat pasture shall
they be fed in the mountains of Israel. I will feed my sheep,
and I will stablish them, saith the Lord Adonai: that which is
lost will I seek, and that which is gone astray will I bring
back, and that which is broken will I bind up, and that which
is sick will I strengthen, and that which is fat and sound will
I keep: and I will feed them in judgement. And ye, my sheep,
the sheep of my flock, thus saith the Lord Adonai: Behold, I
will judge between ewe and ewe, and between ram and ram.
Is this a small thing to you, that ye devour a good and fat
pasture, and the residue of your pasture ye trample upon
with your feet, and my sheep did drink that which was
trodden with your feet. Wherefore thus saith the Lord
Adonai: Behold, I will judge between ewe and ewe, and
between them that are sick: because that ye were thrusting
them with your sides and with your shoulders, and with your
horns ye were butting all the sick ones, until ye had scattered
them abroad. And I will deliver my sheep, and they shall no
more be for a spoil: and I will judge between ewe and ewe.
And I will set over them one shepherd, and he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd; and David my servant shall be

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

their ruler in their midst: I the Lord have spoken it. And I
will make for them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil
beasts to cease from the land; and they shall dwell in the
wilderness securely, and sleep in the woods. And I will give to
them round about my mountain a blessing; and I will send
down rain in its season, and it shall be rain of blessing. And
the trees of the field shall give their fruits, and the land shall
give its increase. And they shall dwell in their land securely:
and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall cut the
thongs of their yoke. And I will deliver them from the hand
of them that subdued them, and they shall no more be for a
prey to the peoples, and the beasts of the field shall no more
devour them; but they shall lie down securely, and there shall
be none to make them afraid. And I will establish for them a
plantation for renown; and they shall no more be few and
forsaken in the land, and they shall no more bear the shame
of the peoples. And they shall know that I am the Lord their
God with them, and they are my people of the house of Israel,
saith the Lord Adonai. And ye my sheep, the sheep of my
flock, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Adonai.

Hear, then, ye bishops, and hear, ye laymen, how the Lord
saith: I will judge between ram and ram, and between ewe
and ewe; that is, between bishop and bishop, and between
layman and layman: whether layman loves layman, and
whether again the layman loves the bishop and honours and
fears him as father and lord, and (as) God after God
Almighty; for to the bishop it was said through the apostles:
Everyone that heareth you, heareth me; and everyone that
rejecteth you rejecteth me, and him that sent me: and again,
whether the bishop loves the laity as his children, and
cherishes and keeps them warm with loving care, as eggs
from which young birds are to come; or broods over them
and cherishes them as young birds, for the rearing up of
winged fowl. Teach, then, and admonish all; and them that
deserve rebuke, rebuke and afflict: but unto conversion and
not unto destruction; and admonish unto repentance and
correct them, so that thou make their ways straight and fair,
and order well the conduct of their life in the world.

That which is whole preserve: that is, him that is
established in the faith guard watchfully; and shepherd the
whole people in peace. And that which is weak strengthen:
that is, him that is tempted confirm with admonition. And
that which is sick heal: that is, him that is sick with doubting
of his faith, heal with doctrine. And that which is broken
bind up: that is, him that is stricken or buffeted or broken by
his sins, and halts from the right way, bind up; that is, with
the exhortation of admonition cure him, and lighten him of
his transgressions, and comfort him and show him that there
is hope for him; and bind him up and heal him and bring him
into the Church. And that which is gone astray bring back:
that is, him that was left in sins and was put forth for reproof,
leave not without, but teach and admonish him, and bring
him back and receive him into thy flock, that is, into the
people of the Church. And that which is lost seek out: that is,
him who by reason of the multitude of his transgressions has
despaired and abandoned himself to destruction, suffer not

to perish altogether, lest through utter neglect and
indifference he fall asleep, and under the weight of his sleep
forget his life, and hold aloof and depart from his flock, that
is from the Church, and come to perdition. For when he shall
be without the fold and removed from the flock, wolves will
devour him while he is astray, and he will perish utterly. But
do thou seek him out, and admonish and teach him, and
bring him back; and visit him, and encourage him to be
wakeful, and let him know that there is hope for him. And
cut away this from men's thought, that they should say or
imagine that which has already been rehearsed: Our crimes
and our sins are upon us, and in them we are wasted away:
how then can we live? For they ought not to say or to
imagine these things; and they are not to think that their
hope is cut off by reason of the multitude of their sins; but
they are to know that the mercies of God are many, for that
with an oath and with gracious intent He has promised
forgiveness to them that sin.

But if a man sin and know not the Scriptures, and is not
aware of the patience and mercy of God, and knows not the
limit of forgiveness and repentance: by this very thing, that
he is ignorant, he perishes. Do thou therefore as a
compassionate shepherd, full of love and mercy and careful of
his flock, visit and count thy flock, and seek that which is
gone astray; as said the Lord God, Jesus Christ our good
Teacher and Saviour: (p. 26) 'Leave the ninety and nine upon
the mountains, and go seek that one which is gone astray.
And when thou hast found it, bear it upon thy shoulders,
rejoicing because thou hast found that which was gone astray;
and bring it and let it mix with the flock.' So be thou also
obedient, O bishop, and search out him that is lost, and seek
him that is gone astray, and bring back him that is holding
aloof. For thou hast authority to forgive sins to him that
offendeth; for thou hast put on the person of Christ.
Wherefore our Saviour also said to him that had sinned: Thy
sins are forgiven thee: thy faith hath saved thee alive: go in
peace. Now 'peace' is the Church of tranquillity and rest, into
which He restored those whom He loosed from sins, sound
(and) without blemish, having a good hope and earnest in
exercises of labours and afflictions. For as a wise and
compassionate physician He was healing all, and especially
those who were gone astray in their sins; for they that are
whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.
And thou also, O bishop, art made the physician of the
Church: do not therefore withhold the cure whereby thou
mayest heal them that are sick with sins, but by all means
cure and heal, and restore them sound to the Church. And be
not reproached with this word which the Lord spoke: With
force and with derision ye were subduing them. Do not then
use force, and be not violent, and pass not sentence sharply,
and be not unmerciful; and deride not the people that is
under thy charge, nor hide from them the word of repentance.
For this is that, With force and with derision ye were
subduing them, if thou deal harshly with thy lay folk, and
correct them with force, and thrust and drive out and receive
not (back) them that sin, but harshly and without mercy hide

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

away repentance from them, and become a helper for the
return of evil, and for the scattering of the flock for meat to
the beasts of the field, that is, to evil men of this world: nay,
not to men in truth, but to beasts, to the heathen and to
heretics. For to him who goes forth from the Church they
presently join themselves, and like evil beasts devour him as
meat. And by reason of thy harshness, he who goes forth
from the Church will either depart and enter among the
heathen, or will be sunk in the heresies; and he will become
an alien altogether, and will depart from the Church and
from the hope of God, And of the perdition of that (man)
thou wilt be guilty, because thou art ready to drive out and
cast away them that sin, and when they have repented and
been converted thou wilt not receive them again. And thou
hast fallen under the condemnation of that word of the Lord
which He spoke: Their feet are swift to evil, and they hasten
to shed blood. Affliction and misery are in their ways; and
the way of peace they have not known. Now the way of peace
is our Saviour Himself, as He said:? Forgive ye the sins of
them that sin, that to you also your sins may be forgiven:
give, and it shall be given unto you; which means: Give
forgiveness of sins, that you also may receive forgiveness.
And again He taught us that we should be constantly
praying at all times and saying: Forgive us our debts, as we
also have forgiven our debtors. But if thou forgive not them
that sin, how shalt thou receive forgiveness? Lo, is not thine
own mouth against thee, and dost not thou condemn thyself
in that thou hast said, 'I have forgiven,' when thou hast not
forgiven, but in sooth hast slain? For he who drives a man
out of the Church without mercy, what does he else but
cruelly slay and shed blood without pity For if by any a
righteous man is unjustly slain with the sword, with God he
shall be received into rest; but he who drives a man out of the
Church and receives him not again, has committed
everlasting murder, evilly and bitterly, and [God] gives for
food to the grievous fire eternal him that is driven out from
the Church, and regards not the mercy of God, and
remembers not His goodness towards penitents, and takes
not the example of Christ, nor considers those who repented
of their many transgressions and received of Him forgiveness.

It behoves thee then, O bishop, to have before thine eyes
those things which happened of old time, that from them
thou mayest learn by comparison the healing of souls, and
the admonition and reproof and exhortation of them that
repent and have need of exhortation. And when thou judgest
any persons, do thou with diligence and much investigation
compare and follow out God's will: and as He did, so ought
you also to do in your judgements. Hear then, O bishops, in
regard to these things an apt and helpful example. It is
written in the fourth Book of Kingdoms, and likewise in the
second Book of Chronicles, thus: In those days reigned
Manasseh, being twelve years old; and fifty years he reigned
in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Hephzibah.
And he did that which was evil before the Lord, after the
uncleanness of those peoples which the Lord destroyed from
before the children of Israel. And he turned again and built

the shrines which Hezekiah his father had thrown down; and
he set up pillars to Baal, and made abominations, as Ahab
king of Israel had done. And he made altars for all the service
of heaven, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven. And he
built altars to demons in the house of the Lord, whereof the
Lord had said: In the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, there
will I set my name. And Manasseh served the shrines, and said:
My name shall endure for ever. And he built altars for all the
service of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord;
6and he made his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of
Bar-Hinnom. And he practised augury and used magic; and
he made soothsayers and enchanters and diviners, and did
much evil before the eyes of the Lord to provoke him to
anger. And he set the molten and graven image of
abomination, which he had made, in the house of the Lord,
whereof the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son:
In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all
the tribes of Israel, will I set my name for ever; and I will no
more withhold my feet from the land of Israel, which I gave
to their fathers: yet only if they will keep all that I have
commanded them, according to all the commandments which
my servant Moses commanded them. And they hearkened not:
and Manasseh seduced them to do that which was evil before
the eyes of the Lord, after the works of those peoples which
the Lord destroyed from before the children of Israel. And
the Lord spake against Manasseh and against his people by
the hand of his servants the prophets, and said: Because
Manasseh king of Judah hath done these evil abominations,
as did the Amorites which were before him, and hath made
Judah also to sin with his idols: therefore, thus saith the
Lord the God of Israel: Behold, I bring such evils upon
Jerusalem and upon Judah that everyone that heareth of
them, both his ears shalt tingle. And I will stretch over
Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of
the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a water-pot is
wiped, when it is overturned and falleth upon its face. And I
wilt give the residue of mine inheritance to the sword, and
wilt deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they
shall be for a prey and a spoil to all them that hate them,
because they have done evil before mine eyes: for they are a
provoking (people), from the day that I brought out their
fathers from Egypt even unto this day. Moreover Manasseh
shed much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from
one end to the other with slain: by reason of the sins which he
sinned, and caused Judah also to sin, in doing that which was
evil before the Lord. And the Lord brought against them the
chieftains of Assyria; and they took Manasseh and fettered
him and cast ropes about him, and led him away to Babylon,
and shut him up in prison all bound and fettered with iron?
And there was given him bran-bread by weight, and water
mingled with gall in small measure, that he might be alive
and be sore afflicted and vexed. And when he was afflicted
exceeding much, he entreated the face of the Lord his God,
and humbled himself exceedingly before the God of his
fathers; and he prayed before the Lord God and said:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE PRAYER OF MANASSEH. O Lord God of my
fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and of
their righteous seed, who madest the heaven and the earth
with all the adornment thereof; who didst bind the sea and
fix it by the commandment of thy word; who didst shut up
the abyss and seal it with thy fearful and glorious name;
before whose power all things fear and tremble: for
unsupportable is the exceeding beauty of thy glory, and none
can endure to stand before thine anger and thy wrath against
sinners: without bound and without measure are the mercies
of thy promises; for thou art a Lord long-suffering and
merciful and very gracious, and dost repent thee of the evil of
men. And thou, O Lord, according to the gentleness of thy
goodness hast promised forgiveness to them that repent of
their sins, and in the multitude of thy mercies hast appointed
repentance for the salvation of sinners. If then, O Lord God
of the righteous, thou didst not appoint repentance to the
righteous, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob: for neither
did they sin against thee: yet hast thou appointed repentance
to me a sinner. For more than the sands of the sea are my sins
multiplied, and I have no respite to lift up my head for the
multitude of mine iniquities. And now, O Lord, behold, I am
justly afflicted; and as I am worthy, (so) am I vexed. For lo, I
am bound and bowed down with (these) many bands of iron,
so that I may not lift up my head: for neither am I worthy to
lift up mine eyes and behold and see the height of heaven, by
reason of the exceeding malice of my wickedness. For I have
done evil before thee, and provoked thy wrath, and have set
up idols and multiplied abominations. And now, behold, I
bend the knees of my heart before thee, and beseech thy
kindness: I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned; and because
that I know my sins, I make supplication before thee. Forgive
me, O Lord, and destroy me not with mine offences, and be
not angry with me for ever, nor keep against me mine evil
(deeds), neither condemn and cast me into the nether parts of
the earth. For thou art the God of penitents: wherefore in me
also, O Lord, show thy goodness, that whereas I am
unworthy, thou deliverest me after the multitude of thy
mercies. And for this will I praise thee ever and all the days of
my life: for thee do all the hosts of heaven praise, and unto
thee do they sing for evermore.

And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Manasseh, and had
mercy on him. And there was made over him a flame of fire,
and all the iron (bands) that were upon him were melted and
dissolved. And the Lord delivered Manasseh from his
afflictions, and caused him to return to Jerusalem over his
kingdom. And Manasseh knew the Lord, and said: He is the
Lord God alone. And he served the Lord only, with all his
heart and with all his soul, all the days of his life: and he was
accounted righteous. And he slept with his fathers; and
Amon his son reigned after him.

You have heard, beloved children, how Manasseh served
idols evilly and bitterly, and slew righteous men; yet when he
repented God forgave him, albeit there is no sin worse than
idolatry. Wherefore, there is granted a place for repentance.
But concerning one who says: I shall have good (success)

when I shall walk in the perverse desire of my heart, thus
saith the Lord: I will stretch out my hand against him, and
he shall be for a byword and a parable. For Amon also the
son of Manasseh, when he conceived a design that he should
transgress the Law, and said: 'My father from his youth did
exceeding wickedly, and in his old age he repented: I also will
walk in all the desires of my soul, and in the end will return
to the Lord,' and did that which was evil before the Lord: he
reigned but two years, because the Lord God quickly
destroyed him from (his) good land. Beware therefore, you
that are without faith, lest any man of you establish in his
heart the thought of Amon, and perish suddenly and swiftly.
Wherefore, O bishop, so far as thou canst, keep those that
have not sinned, that they may continue without sinning;
and those that repent of (their) sins heal and receive. But if
thou receive not him who repents, because thou art without
mercy, thou shalt sin against the Lord God; for thou obeyest
not our Saviour and our God, to do as He also did with her
that had sinned, whom the elders set before Him, and leaving
the judgement in His hands, departed. But He, the Searcher
of hearts, asked her and said to her: Have the elders
condemned thee, my daughter? She saith to him: Nay, Lord.
And he said unto her: Go thy way: neither do I condemn thee.
In Him therefore, our Saviour and King and God, be your
pattern, O bishops, and do you imitate Him, that you may be
quiet and meek, and merciful and compassionate, and
peacemakers, and without anger, and teachers and correctors
and receivers and exhorters; and that you be not wrathful,
nor tyrannical; and that you be not insolent, nor haughty,
nor boastful.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 8

Warnings to Bishops; how they ought to conduct
themselves.

You shall not be lovers of wine, nor drunken; and you shall
not be extravagant, nor luxurious, nor spending money
improperly. You shall make use of the gifts of God not {as
alien (funds), but} as your own, as being appointed good
stewards of God, who is ready to require at your hands an
account of the discharge of the stewardship entrusted to you.
Let that suffice you therefore which is enough for you, food
and clothing and whatsoever is necessary. And you shall not
make use of the revenues (of the Church) improperly, as alien
(funds), but with moderation; and you shall not procure
pleasure and luxury from the revenues of the Church: for
sufficient for the labourer is his clothing and his food. As
good stewards of God, therefore, dispense well, according to
the command, those things that are given and accrue to the
Church, to orphans and widows and to those who are in
distress and to strangers, as knowing that you have God who
will require an account at your hands, who delivered this
stewardship unto you. Divide and give therefore to all who
are in want.

But be you also nourished and live from the revenues of the
Church; yet do not devour them by yourselves, but let them
that are in want be partakers with you, and you shall be

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

without offence with God. For God upbraids those bishops
who greedily and by themselves make use of the revenues of
the Church, and make not the poor to be partakers with
them, saying thus: The milk ye eat, and with the wool ye are
clothed. For the bishops ought to be nourished from the
revenues of the Church, but not to devour them; for it is
written: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out (the
corn). As then the ox which works unmuzzled in the
threshing floor eats, indeed, but does not consume the whole,
so do you also, who work in the threshing floor which is the
Church of God, be nourished from the Church, after the
manner of the Levites who ministered in the tabernacle of
witness, which in all things was a type of the Church: for
even by its name it declares (this), for the tabernacle ‘of
witness' foreshowed the Church. Now the Levites who
ministered therein were nourished from those things which
were given as offerings to God by all the people -- gifts, and
part-offerings, and first fruits, and tithes, and sacrifices, and
offerings, and holocausts -- without restraint, they and their
wives and their sons and their daughters; because their work
was the ministry of the tabernacle alone; and therefore they
received no inheritance of land among the children of Israel,
because the inheritance of Levi and his tribe was the produce
of the people.

You also then to-day, O bishops, are priests to your people,
and the Levites who minister to the tabernacle of God, the
holy Catholic Church, who stand continually before the
Lord God. You then are to your people priests and prophets,
and princes and leaders and kings, and mediators between
God and His faithful, and receivers of the word, and
preachers and proclaimers thereof, and knowers of the
Scriptures and of the utterances of God, and witnesses of His
will, who bear the sins of all, and are to give an answer for all.
You are they who have heard how the word sternly threatens
you if you neglect and preach not God's will, who are in sore
peril of destruction if you neglect your people. You again are
they to whom is promised from God the great reward which
is not falsified nor withheld, and grace unspeakable in great
glory, when you shall minister well to the tabernacle of God,
His Catholic Church. As then you have undertaken the
burden of all, so also ought you to receive from all your
people the ministration of food and clothing, and of other
things needful. And so again, from these same gifts that are
given you by the people which is under your charge, do you
nourish the deacons and widows and orphans, and those who
are in want, and strangers. For it behoves thee, O bishop, as
a faithful steward to care for all; for as thou bearest the sins
of all those under thy charge, so shalt thou beyond all men
receive more abundant glory of God. For thou art an
imitator of Christ: and as He took upon Him the sins of us all,
so it behoves thee also to bear the sins of all those under thy
charge; for it is written in Isaiah concerning our Saviour
thus: We saw him having no splendour nor beauty, but as
one whose aspect was marred and dejected beyond that of
men; and as a man that suffereth, and knoweth to bear
infirmities. For his face was changed: he was despised, and

was nothing accounted in our eyes. But he endured our sins,
and for our sake did sigh. But we accounted him as one
smitten and plagued and brought low. Yet for our sins was
he smitten, and, was made sick for our iniquities: and by his
stripes all we are healed. And again He saith: He bare the sins
of many, and for their iniquity was delivered up. And in
David and in all the prophets, and in the Gospel also, our
Saviour makes intercession for our sins, whereas He is
without sin. Therefore, as you have Christ for a pattern, so
be you also a pattern to the people under your charge; and as
He took upon Him (our) sins, so do you also take upon you
the sins of the people. For you are not to think that the
burden of the bishopric is light or easy. Wherefore, as you
have taken up the burden of all, so the fruits also which you
receive from all the people shall be yours, for all things of
which you have need. And do you nourish well them that are
in want, as being to render an account to Him who will
require it, who can make no mistake nor be evaded. For as
you administer the office of the bishopric, so from the same
office of the bishopric ought you to be nourished, as the
priests and Levites and ministers who serve before God,
according as it is written in the Book of Numbers: The Lord
spake with Aaron and said: Thou and thy sons and thy
father's house shall take upon you the sins of the sanctuary;
and thou and thy sons shall take upon you the sins of your
priesthood. And thy brethren the sons of thy father, the tribe
of Levi, bring nigh unto thee, and let them be added to thee
and minister unto thee. And thou and thy sons with thee
shall minister before this tabernacle of witness. Howbeit the
sons of Levi shall not come nigh unto the vessels of the
sanctuary and unto the altar, lest they die, they and you; but
let them be added unto thee, and let them keep the charges of
the tabernacle of witness, according to all the ministry of the
tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto thee.
And ye shall keep the charges of the sanctuary and the
charges of the altar: and there shall be no wrath against the
children of Israel. And I, behold, I have taken your brethren
the sons of Levi from among the children of Israel: as a gift
they are given unto the Lord, that they may perform the
ministry of the tabernacle of witness. And do thou and thy
sons with thee keep your priesthood, according to all the
ministry of the altar and of that which is within the veil; and
perform your ministry as that which is given to your
priesthood. But the stranger that cometh near shall die the
death. And the Lord spake with Aaron and said: Behold, I
have given to you the charges of the firstfruits, of every thing
which is hallowed unto me by the children of Israel: to thee
have I given them for a ministry, and to thy children after
thee: (it is) an everlasting ordinance. And this shall be yours,
of every holy thing which is hallowed of their fruits and of
their offerings, and of all their sacrifices, and of all their
trespass offerings, and of all their sin offerings: all that they
shall offer to me of things hallowed shall be for thee and for
thy sons. In the holy place ye shall eat thereof: every male of
you shall eat thereof, thou and thy sons: it shall be for thee a
holy thing. And these shall be for thee the firstfruits of their

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

gifts, of all the part-offerings of the children of Israel: to thee
have I given them, and to thy sons and thy daughters with
thee: (it is) an everlasting ordinance: every one that is clean
in thy house shall eat thereof. All the firstfruits of oil, and all
the firstfruits of wine, and the firstfruits of corn, even all
things that they shall give to the Lord, shall be thine:
everyone that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. And
every devoted thing of the children of Israel shall be thine;
and all that openeth the womb of all flesh, even all which
they offer to the Lord, from men even unto beasts, shall be
thine. Howbeit the firstborn of men and the firstlings of
unclean beasts which shall be offered, shall be redeemed. And
the redemption of them (shall be on this wise): from a month
old and upward thou shalt redeem with a price, five shekels
according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which are twenty
shekels of silver. But the firstlings of oxen, and the firstlings
of sheep and of goats, thou shalt not redeem: they are holy:
their blood thou shalt pour out before the altar, and the fat
of them thou shalt offer up for an offering of a sweet savour
unto the Lord; and their flesh shall be clean to thee. And the
top of the breast of the part-offering, and the right shoulder
shall be thine. All part-offerings of the sanctuary, which the
children of Israel shall set apart unto the Lord, to thee have I
given them and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee:
an ordinance for ever and an everlasting covenant is it before
the Lord unto thee and unto thy seed after thee. And the
Lord spake with Aaron and said: In their land thou shalt
receive no inheritance, and thou shalt have no portion
among them; for I am thy portion and thine inheritance
among the children of Israel. And to the sons of Levi, behold,
I have given all the tithes of the children of Israel for an
inheritance, in return for their ministry which they minister
in the tabernacle of witness. And the children of Israel shall
no more come nigh to the tabernacle of witness, lest they
contract a sin of death; but the Levites shall perform the
ministry of the tabernacle of witness, and they shall take
upon them their sins: it is an everlasting ordinance unto their
generations. And among the children of Israel they shall
receive no inheritance; because the tithes of the children of
Israel, even all that they shall set apart as part-offerings to
the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. For
which cause I said unto them: Among the children of Israel
they shall receive no inheritance. And the Lord spake with
Moses and said unto him: Speak to the Levites and say to
them: When ye receive of the children of Israel the tithes
which I have given you from them for an inheritance, set by
thereof, ye also, a part-offering unto the Lord, a tithe of the
tithes: and your part-offering shall be accounted unto you as
the corn from the threshing floor, and as the part-offering of
the winepress. So shall ye set apart, ye also, a part-offering
unto the Lord of all your tithes which ye receive from all the
children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof a part-offering for
the Lord unto Aaron the priest. Of all your gifts ye shall set
by a part-offering unto the Lord, even of the firstfruits, (part)
whereof he halloweth unto himself. And say thou unto them:
When ye have set apart his firstfruits therefrom, it shall be

reckoned unto the Levites as the produce of the threshing
floor and as the produce of the winepress:? 3land do ye eat
thereof in every place, ye and your households, because it is
your reward in return for your ministry in the tabernacle of
witness:? 32and ye shall contract no sin by reason thereof,
when ye shall set apart the firstfruits thereof. And the holy
things of the children of Israel ye shall not profane, lest ye die.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 9

An admonition to the People, that they should honour the
Bishop.

Hear these things then, ye laymen also, the elect Church of
God. For the former People also was called a church; but
you are the Catholic Church, the holy and perfect, a royal
priesthood, a holy multitude, a people for inheritance, the
great Church, the bride adorned for the Lord God. Those
things then which were said beforetime, hear thou also now.
Set by part-offerings and tithes and first fruits to Christ, the
true High Priest, and to His ministers, even tithes of
salvation (to Him) the beginning of whose name is the
Decade. Hear, thou Catholic Church of God, that wast
delivered from the ten plagues, and didst receive the Ten
Words, and didst learn the Law, and hold the faith, (and
know the Decade,) and believe in the Yod in the beginning of
the Name, and art established in the perfection of His glory:
instead of the sacrifices which then were, offer now prayers
and petitions and thanksgivings. Then were first fruits and
tithes and part-offerings and gifts; but to-day the oblations
which are offered through the bishops to the Lord God. For
they are your high priests; but the priests and Levites now
are the presbyters and deacons, and the orphans and widows:
but the Levite and high priest is the bishop. He is minister of
the word and mediator; but to you a teacher, and your father
after God, who begot you through the water. This is your
chief and your leader, and he is your mighty king. He rules in
the place of the Almighty: but let him be honoured by you as
God, for the bishop sits for you in the place of God Almighty.
But the deacon stands in the place of Christ; and do you love
him. And the deaconess shall be honoured by you in the place
of the Holy Spirit; and the presbyters shall be to you in the
likeness of the Apostles; and the orphans and widows shall be
reckoned by you in the likeness of the altar. And as it was not
lawful for a stranger, that is for one who was not a Levite, to
draw near to the altar or to offer aught without the high
priest, so you also shall do nothing without the bishop. But
if any man do aught without the bishop, he does it in vain,
for it shall not be accounted to him for a work; for it is not
fitting that any man should do aught apart from the high
priest.

Do you therefore present your offerings to the bishop,
either you yourselves, or through the deacons; and when he
has received he will distribute them justly. For the bishop is
well acquainted of those who are in distress, and dispenses
and gives to each one as is fitting for him; so that one may
not receive often in the same day or in the same week, and
another receive not even a little. For whom the priest and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

steward of God knows to be the more in distress, him he
succours according as he requires. And to those who invite
widows to suppers let him send frequently her whom he
knows to be in the more distress. [And again, if anyone gives
bounties to widows, let him send her the rather who is in
want.] But let the portion of the pastor be separated and set
apart for him according to rule at the suppers or the bounties,
even though he be not present, in honour of Almighty God.
But how much (soever) is given to one of the widows, let the
double be given to each of the deacons in honour of Christ,
(but) twice twofold to the leader for the glory of the
Almighty. But if anyone wish to honour the presbyters also,
let him give them a double (portion), as to the deacons; for
they ought to be honoured as the Apostles, and as the
counsellors of the bishop, and as the crown of the Church;
for they are the moderators and councillors of the Church.
But if there be also a lector, let him too receive with the
presbyters. To every order, therefore, let everyone of the
laity pay the honour which is befitting him, with gifts and
presents and with the respect due to his worldly condition.

But let them have very free access to the deacons, and let
them not be troubling the head at all times, but making
known what they require through the ministers, that is
through the deacons. For neither can any man approach the
Lord God Almighty except through Christ. All things
therefore that they desire to do, let them make known to the
bishop through the deacons, and then do them. For neither
formerly in the temple of the sanctuary was anything offered
or done without the priest. And moreover, even the idol-
temples of the impure and abhorred and reprobate heathen
to this day imitate the sanctuary. Far indeed in comparison
be the house of abomination from the sanctuary: nevertheless,
even in their absurd rites they neither offer nor do anything
without their unclean priest; but so they imagine, that the
unclean priest is the mouthpiece of the stones; and they wait
for what he will command them to do. And in all that they
purpose to do they consult their unclean priest, and without
him do nothing, And because they imagine that what they do
is acceptable, they honour him and worship him, as it were
for the honour of the dumb stones that are fixed in the walls,
and for the service of the foul and evil and cruel demons. If
then those who are vain, and their customs false, and who
have no hope, but are deceived by an empty hope, study and
desire to imitate the sanctuary, and bestow all honour upon
those who stand before their absurd idols: you who
manifestly and openly believe in the truth, and hold fast to
the hope that is not belied, and wait for the glorious promise
which shall never pass away nor be made void -- why should
not you rather honour the Lord God through those who
preside over you?

Do you therefore esteem the bishop as the mouth of God.
For if Aaron, because he interpreted to Pharaoh the words
which were given through Moses, was called a prophet, as
the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I have given thee as a god to
pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be to thee a prophet:
why then should not you also reckon them as prophets who

are for you the mediators of the word, and worship them as
God? But for us now, Aaron is the deacon, and Moses is the
bishop. Now if Moses was called a god by the Lord, let the
bishop also be honoured by you as God, and the deacon as a
prophet. Wherefore, for the honour of the bishop, make
known to him all things that you do, and let them be
performed through him. And if thou know of one who is in
much distress, and the bishop know not of him, do thou
inform him; and without him do not, to his discredit,
anything, lest thou bring a reproach upon him as one who
neglects the poor. For he who sets abroad an evil report
against the bishop, whether by word or by deed, sins against
God Almighty. And again, if any man speaks evil of a deacon,
whether by word or deed, he offends against Christ,
Wherefore in the Law also it is written: Thou shalt not revile
thy gods; and thou shalt not speak evil of a prince of thy
people. Now let no man think that the Lord speaks (here) of
idols of stone; but he calls 'gods' those who preside over you.
Moses also saith in the Book of Numbers, when the people
had murmured against him and against Aaron: Not against
us do ye murmur, but against the Lord God. And our
Saviour likewise said: Everyone that rejecteth you, rejecteth
me, and him that sent me. For what hope at all is there for
him who speaks evil of the bishop, or of the deacon? For if
one call a layman fool, or raca, he is liable to the assembly, as
one of those who rise up against Christ: because that he calls
‘empty’ his brother in whom Christ dwells, who is not empty
but fulfilled; or (calls) him 'fool' in whom dwells the Holy
Spirit of God, fulfilled with all wisdom: as though he should
become a fool by the very Spirit that dwells in him! If then
one who should say any of these things to a layman is found
to fall under so great condemnation, how much more if he
should dare to say aught against the deacon, or against the
bishop, through whom the Lord gave you the Holy Spirit,
and through whom you have learned the word and have
known God, and through whom you have been known of
God, and through whom you were sealed, and through
whom you became sons of the light, and through whom the
Lord in baptism, by the imposition of hand of the bishop,
bore witness to each one of you and uttered His holy voice,
saying: Thou art my son: this day have begotten thee.
Wherefore, O man, know thy bishops, through whom thou
wast made a son of God, and the right hand, thy mother; and
love him who is become, after God, thy father and thy
mother: for whosoever shall revile his father or his mother,
shall die the death. But do you honour the bishops, who have
loosed you from sins, who by the water regenerated you, who
filled you with the Holy Spirit, who reared you with the
word as with milk, who bred you up with doctrine, who
confirmed you with admonition, and made you to partake of
the holy Eucharist of God, and made you partakers and joint
heirs of the promise of God. These reverence, and honour
them with all honour; for they have received from God the
authority of life and death: not as judging those who sin and
condemning them to death in fire everlasting, by cutting off
and casting away those who are judged, which God forbid,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

but that they may receive and save alive those who return and
repent.

Let them be your rulers therefore, and let them be
accounted of by you as kings; and do you offer them tribute
in service as to kings; for by you they ought to be sustained,
and those who are with them: for thus is it written in the first
Book of Kingdoms: Samuel spake all the words of the Lord
unto the people, which had asked of him a king, and said to
them: This is the law of the king that shall reign over you:
your sons he will take, and will set them upon his chariots;
and he will make of them runners before him, and will make
him captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. And
they shall reap his harvest, and gather his vintage, and
fashion the instruments of his chariots. And your daughters
he will take to be weavers, and to be the ministers of his
house. And your fields, and your vineyards, and your
oliveyards, even the best (of them), he will take away and
give to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed
and of your vineyards, and give to his servants and to his
eunuchs.? And your servants and your handmaids, and the
best of your cattle, and your asses, he will take and tithe for
the service of his work; and he will take the tenth of your
sheep: and ye also shall be his servants. Now in like case is
also the bishop. For if the king who reigned over so
numerous a people -- as it is written in Hosea: The people of
the children of Israel was numerous as the sand which is upon
the seashore, which may not be measured nor numbered --
took also from the people the ministrations which he
required according to the multitude of that people:? so now
does the bishop also take for himself from the people those
whom he accounts and knows to be worthy of him and of his
office, and appoints him presbyters as counsellors and
assessors, and deacons and subdeacons, as many as he has
need of in proportion to the ministry of the house. And what
can we say more? For the king who wears the diadem reigns
over the body alone, and binds and looses it but on earth; but
the bishop reigns over soul and body, to bind and to loose on
earth with heavenly power. For great power, heavenly,
almighty, is given to him. Therefore love the bishop as a
father, and fear him as a king, and honour him as God. Your
fruits and the works of your hands present to him, that you
may be blessed; your firstfruits and your tithes and your
vows and your part-offerings give to him; for he has need of
them that he may be sustained, and that he may dispense also
to those who are in want, to each as is just for him. And so
shall thine offering be acceptable to the Lord thy God for a
sweet savour, in the heights of heaven before the Lord thy
God; and He will bless thee and multiply for thee the good
things of His promise. For it is written in Wisdom: Every
simple soul shall be blessed: and a blessing shall be upon the
head of him that giveth.

Wherefore be constantly doing work, and be labouring and
[[98]] offering an oblation. For the Lord has lightened the
weight from you, and has loosed from you the collar-bands,
and lifted from you the yoke of burden; and He has put away
from you the Second Legislation after the abundance of His

mercy; as it is written in Isaiah: Say to them that are in bonds,
Go forth; and again: To bring forth the prisoners from
bonds. And in David he said: His prisoners he hath not
despised. And likewise in the Gospel He said: Come unto me,
all ye that toil and are laden with heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am gentle and lowly in heart: and ye shalt find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is pleasant, and my burden is light.

If then the Lord, by the gift of His grace, has set you loose
and given you rest, and brought you out into refreshment,
that you should no more be bound with sacrifices and
oblations, and with sin offerings, and purifications, and
vows, and gifts, and holocausts, and burnt offerings, and
(Sabbath) idlings, and shewbread, and the observing of
purifications; nor yet with tithes and firstfruits, and part-
offerings, and gifts and oblations, -- for it was laid upon
them to give all these things as of necessity, but you are not
bound by these things, -- it behoves you to know the word of
the Lord, who said: Except your righteousness abound more
than that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shalt not enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Now thus shall your righteousness
abound more than their tithes and first fruits and part-
offerings, when you shall do as it is written: Sell all thou hast,
and give to the poor. So do, therefore, and keep the
command through (him who is) bishop and priest and thy
mediator with the Lord God. For thou art commanded to
give, but he to dispense. And thou shalt require no account
of the bishop, nor observe him, how he dispenses and
discharges his stewardship, or when he gives, or to whom, or
where, or whether well or ill, or whether he gives fairly; for
he has One who will require, even the Lord God, who
delivered this stewardship into his hands and held him
worthy of the priesthood of so great an office. Wherefore,
that thou observe not the bishop, nor require an account of
him, nor speak ill of him and oppose God, nor offend the
Lord, let that be set before thine eyes which is said to thee in
Jeremiah: Shall the clay say to the potter: Thou workest not,
and hast not hands as one who should say to his father or his
mother: Why bearest thou me? But do thou work and labour
simply in the house of God; and let that saving word of the
renewing of the Law be ever written and laid up in thy heart,
and remember it, as the Lord said: Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. Now thy
strength is thy worldly substance. And not with the lips only
shall you love the Lord, as did that People, to whom
upbraiding them He saith: This people honoureth me with
their lips, but their heart is very far from me; but do thou
love and honour the Lord with all thy strength, and offer His
oblations ever at all times. And hold not aloof from the
Church; but when thou hast received the Eucharist of the
oblation, that which comes into thy hands cast (in), that
thou mayest share it with strangers: for this is collected (and
brought) to the bishop for the entertainment of all strangers.
Wherefore lay up and set by as much as thou canst, for the
Lord has said in the Law: Thou shalt not appear before me
empty. Be doing good works therefore, and laying up to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

thyself treasure everlasting in heaven, where the moth
corrupteth not, neither do thieves steal. And in so doing
thou shalt not judge thy bishop nor thy fellow layman; for to
you laymen it is said: Judge not, that ye be not judged. For if
thou judge thy brother and condemn him, thou hast
reckoned thy brother guilty: that is, thou hast condemned
thyself; for thou shalt be judged with them that are guilty.
For it is lawful for the bishops to judge, because to them it is
said: Be ye approved money-changers [Agraphon]: so that it
behoves the bishop, as one who proves money, to separate the
bad from the good, and to reject and cast away those that are
altogether bad, and to leave in the melting-pot those that are
hard, and for whatever reason faulty, like faulty (coins). But
to the layman it is not permitted to judge his neighbour, nor
to lay upon himself a burden that is not his. For the weight
of this burden is not for laymen, but for the bishop.
Wherefore, being a layman, thou shalt not lay snares for
thyself; but leave judgement in the hand of those who will
have to render an account, and do thou study to work peace
with all men; and love thy members, thy fellow laymen, for
the Lord saith: Love thy neighbour as thyself.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 10

Of False Brethren

But if there be false brethren who, through envy or jealousy
of the Enemy and Satan, who works in them, bring an
accusation against any of the brethren falsely, or even truly,
let them know that everyone who searches out such things for
the purpose of accusing or slandering any man, is a son of
wrath: and where wrath is, God is not; for wrath is of Satan,
and through these false brethren he never suffers peace to be
in the Church. Wherefore, when you have known those who
are thus void of understanding, first of all believe them not;
and secondly, do you the bishops and deacons be wary of
them; and when you hear them saying anything against one
of the brethren, take knowledge of him against whom they
bring the accusation, and make inquiry prudently, and weigh
his conduct; and if he is found blameworthy, do according to
the teaching of our Lord which is written in the Gospel:
Reprove him between thyself and him; and save him when he
repenteth and returneth. But if he be not persuaded, reprove
him among two or three; that that may be fulfilled which is
said: At the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall
be established. Now why, brethren, is it required that a
testimony be established at the mouth of two or three
witnesses? Because the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit bear witness to the works of men. For where there is
the admonition of doctrine, there also is correction and
conversion of them that err. Wherefore, at the mouth of two
or three witnesses every word shall be established. But if he
obey not, reprove him before the whole church. But if he
obey not even the church, let him be accounted by thee as the
heathen and as the publican. For the Lord has commanded
you, O bishops, that you should not henceforth receive such a
one into the Church as a Christian, nor communicate with
him. For neither dost thou receive the evil heathen or

publicans into the Church and communicate with them
except they first repent, professing that they believe and
henceforth will do no more evil works: for to this end did our
Lord and Saviour grant a place for repentance to those who
have sinned. For I Matthew also, who am one of the twelve
Apostles who speak to you in this Didascalia, was formerly a
publican; but now, because that I believed, I have obtained
mercy, and have repented of my former deeds, and have been
counted worthy also to be an apostle and preacher of the
word. And the prophet John likewise preached in the Gospel
to publicans; and he deprived them not of hope, but taught
them how they should order themselves; and when they asked
him for advice, he said to them: Exact no more than that
which is commanded and appointed you. And Zacchaeus, too,
the Lord received unto repentance when he besought Him.
Nor do we withhold life even from the heathen, if they will
repent and put away and reject their error.

As a heathen, then, and as a publican let him be accounted
by you who has been convicted of evil deeds and falsehood;
and afterwards, if he promise to repent -- even as when the
heathen desire and promise to repent, and say 'We believe’ we
receive them into the congregation that they may hear the
word, but do not communicate with them until they receive
the seal and are fully initiated: so neither do we communicate
with these until they show the fruits of repentance. But let
them by all means come in, if they desire to hear the word,
that they may not wholly perish; but let them not
communicate in prayer, but go forth without. For they also,
when they have seen that they do not communicate with the
Church, will submit themselves, and repent of their former
works, and strive to be received into the Church for prayer;
and they likewise who see and hear them go forth like the
heathen and publicans, will fear and take warning to
themselves not to sin, lest it so happen to them also, and
being convicted of sin or falsehood they be put forth from the
Church. But thou shalt by no means forbid them to enter the
Church and hear the word, O bishop; for neither did our
Lord and Saviour utterly thrust away and reject publicans
and sinners, but did even eat with them. And for this cause
the Pharisees murmured against Him, and said: He eateth
with publicans and sinners. Then did our Saviour make
answer against their thoughts and their murmuring, and say:
They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they
that are sick. Do you therefore consort with those who have
been convicted of sins and are sick, and attach them to you,
and be careful of them, and speak to them and comfort them,
and keep hold of them and convert them. And afterwards, as
each one of them repents and shows the fruits of repentance,
receive him to prayer after the manner of a heathen. And as
thou baptisest a heathen and then receivest him, so also lay
hand upon this man, whilst all pray for him, and then bring
him in and let him communicate with the Church. For the
imposition of hand shall be to him in the place of baptism:
for whether by the imposition of hand, or by baptism, they
receive the communication of the Holy Spirit.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Wherefore, as a compassionate physician, heal all those who
sin; and go about with all skill, and bring healing to bear for
the succour of their lives. And thou shalt not be ready to cut
off the members of the Church; but employ the bandages of
the word, and the fomentations of admonition, and the
compress of exhortation. But if the sore be sunken and lack
flesh, nourish it and level it up with healing drugs; and if
there be dirt in it, cleanse it with a pungent drug, that is with
the word of rebuke. But if the flesh be over swollen, wear it
down and level it with a violent drug, that is with the threat
of judgement. But if gangrene should set in, cauterize it with
burnings, that is, with incisions of much fasting cut away
and clear out the rottenness of the sore. But if the gangrene
assert itself and prevail even over the burnings, give
judgement:? and then, whichever member it be that is
putrified, with advice and much consultation with other
physicians, cut off that putrefied member, that it may not
corrupt the whole body. Yet be not ready to amputate
straightway, and be not in haste to have recourse at once to
the saw (p. 46) of many teeth; but use first the knife and cut
the sore, that it may be clearly seen, and that it may be
known what is the cause of the disease that is hidden within;
so that the whole body may be kept uninjured. But if thou see
that a man will not repent, but has altogether abandoned
himself, then with grief and to sorrow cut him off and cast
him out of the Church. But if it be found that the hostile
charge 1s false, and you the pastors, with the deacons, accept
the falsehood as truth -- whether through respect of persons,
or by reason of the presents which you receive -- and pervert
judgement because you desire to do the will of the Evil One,
and expel and cast out from the Church him that is accused,
whereas he is innocent of this charge: you shall render an
account in the day of the Lord; for it is written: Thou shalt
not respect persons in judgement; and again the Scripture
saith: A bribe blindeth the eyes of them that see, and
perverteth right words; and again it hath said: Deliver ye the
oppressed, and judge the fatherless, and acquit the widows;
and: Judge right judgement in the gates.

Give heed therefore that you be not respecters of persons
and incur the judgement of the Lord's word, which He spoke
thus: Woe to them that make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter;
and call light darkness, and darkness light; and acquit the
wicked for his bribe, and turn away the innocency of the
innocent. But beware that you condemn not a man
wrongfully, nor abet them that are evil; for when you judge
others, you judge your own selves, as the Lord said: With the
judgement that ye judge, ye shall be judged; and as ye
condemn, ye shall be condemned. Wherefore, remember and
have ready by you this saying: Forgive, and it shall be
forgiven you; and condemn not, that ye may not be
condemned.

But if your judgement be without respect of persons, O
bishops, observe him that accuses his brother, whether he be
not a false brother, and has brought the accusation out of
envy or jealousy, that he may disturb the Church of God and
slay him who is accused by him through his expulsion from

the Church and his delivery over to the sword of fire. Judge
him therefore, thou, sternly, because he has brought evil
upon his brother. For as regards his own intent, if he had
been able to catch beforehand the judge's ear, he would have
slain his brother in fire. It is written: Whoso sheddeth man's
blood, his own blood shall be shed for the blood which he
hath shed. If then he is found to be such, expel him from the
Church with great denunciation as a murderer; and after a
time, if he promise to repent, warn him and correct him
sternly; and then lay hand upon him and receive him into the
Church. And be wary and guard such a one, that he no more
disturb any other. But if, after he is come in, you see that he
is still contentious and minded to accuse others also, and
mischievous and designing, and making false complaints
against many: drive him out, that he may no further disturb
and trouble the Church. For such a one, though he be within,
yet because he is unseemly to the Church, he is superfluous to
her, and there is no profit in him. For we see that there are
some men born with superfluous members to their bodies, as
fingers or other excessive flesh; but these, though they
pertain to the body, are a reproach and a disgrace both to
the body and to the man, because they are superfluous to him.
Yet when they are removed by the surgeon, that man
recovers the comeliness and beauty of his body; and he suffers
no defect by the removal from it of that which was
superfluous, but is even the more conspicuous in his beauty.
In like manner then do you also act, O pastors. For since
the Church is a body, and the members are we who believe in
God and abide in love in the fear of the Lord, even as we have
received command to be perfect: therefore, one who contrives
evil against the Church, and troubles her members, and loves
the complaints and fault-findings of the Enemy, to wit,
disturbances, quarrels, slanders, murmurings, contentions,
controversies, accusations, charges, vexations: he that loves
and does these things -- rather it is the Enemy that works in
him -- and remains within the Church, the same is alien to
the Church and a domestic of the Enemy; for to him he
ministers that he may be working through him and may
thwart and harass the Church. Such a one therefore, if he
remain within, is a disgrace to the Church by reason of his
blasphemies and his manifold disorder; for through him the
Church of God comes in danger of being scattered. Deal with
him therefore as it is written in Wisdom: Put forth an evil
man from the assembly, and his contention will go out with
him; and make an end of strife and ignominy: lest, if he sit in
the assembly, he dishonour you all. For when he has gone
forth twice from the Church, he is justly cut off; and the
Church is the more beautiful in her proper form, forasmuch
as peace has been restored to her, which (before) was wanting
to her: for from that hour the Church remains free from
blasphemy and disorder. But if your mind be not pure --
whether it be through respect of persons, or the gifts of filthy
lucre which you receive -- and you endure that an evil person
should remain among you; or again, (if) you thrust away and
expel from the Church them that are of good conversation,
and foster among you many that are evil, contentious persons

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and scatterers (of the flock) and riotous:? you will bring
blasphemy upon the assembly of the Church, and will run the
risk of scattering her through these persons; and you will
have put yourselves in deadly peril of forfeiting eternal life --
because you have pleased men, and have turned back from the
truth of God, through respect of persons and the habit of
receiving empty gifts: and you will have scattered the
Catholic Church, the beloved daughter of the Lord God.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 11

An Exhortation to Bishops and Deacons

Strive therefore, O bishops, together with the deacons, to
be right with the Lord; for the Lord has said: If ye will be
right with me, I also will be right with you; and if ye will
walk perversely with me, I also will walk perversely with you,
saith the Lord of Hosts. Be right therefore, that you may
deserve to receive praise of the Lord, and not blame (from
him who is) of the contrary part.

Let the bishops and the deacons, then, be of one mind; and
do you shepherd the people diligently with one accord. For
you ought both to be one body, father and son; for you are in
the likeness of the Lordship. And let the deacon make known
all things to the bishop, even as Christ to His Father. But
what things he can, let the deacon order, and all the rest let
the bishop judge. Yet let the deacon be the hearing of the
bishop, and his mouth and his heart and his soul; for when
you are both of one mind, through your agreement there will
be peace also in the Church.

Now for a Christian this is becoming praise, that he have no
evil word with any man. But if by the agency of the Enemy
some temptation befall a man, and he have a lawsuit, let him
strive to be quit of it, even though he be to suffer some loss:
and at all events let him not go to the tribunals of the
heathen. And you shall not admit a testimony from the
heathen against any of our own people; for through the
heathen the Enemy contrives against the servants of God.
Wherefore, because the heathen are to stand on the left, He
called them 'the left hand;' for our Saviour spoke thus to us:
Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.
For the heathen are not to know of your lawsuits, and you
shall not admit a testimony from them against yourselves,
nor go to law before them: as also in the Gospel He saith:
Give what is Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God.
Be thou willing therefore to suffer a loss, and striving rather
to make peace. For when thou shalt suffer any worldly loss
for the sake of peace, with God it shall be gain to thee,
because that thou fearest God and doest according to His
commandment.

But if there be brethren who have a quarrel one with
another -- which God forbid -- you the leaders should know
forthwith that it is no work of brotherhood in the Lord that
they perform who have dared so to do. But if one of them be
found to be of the sons of God, being meek and yielding, he is
a son of the light. But one who is hard and froward, and
overreaching and blasphemous, is a hypocrite, and the
Enemy works in him. Reprove him therefore, and rebuke and

upbraid him, and put him forth for correction; and
afterwards, as we have already said, receive him, that he may
not utterly perish. For when such are corrected and reproved,
you will not have many lawsuits. But if they know not the
word which was spoken by our Lord in the Gospel, which
saith: How many times, if my brother offend against me,
shall I forgive him? but are angry one with another and
become enemies, teach them, you, and reprove them, and
make peace between them; for the Lord has said: Blessed are
the peacemakers. And know that it behoves the bishop and
the presbyters to judge warily: as our Saviour said when we
asked Him, How many times, if my brother offend against me,
shall I forgive him?? unto seven times? But our Lord taught
us and said to us: Not seven times, I say, only, but even unto
seventyfold seven. For so the Lord desires, that they who are
His in truth should never have anything at all against any
man, and should not be angry with any man:? how much less
does He desire that men should have lawsuits one with
another? But if aught should happen to come about through
the agency of the Enemy, so let them be judged before you as
you also are surely to be judged.

First, then, let your judgements be held on the second day
of the week, that if perchance anyone should contest the
sentence of your words, you may have space until the
Sabbath to compose the matter, and may make peace between
them that are at odds and reconcile them on the Sunday.
Now let the presbyters and the deacons be ever present in all
judgements with the bishops. Judge without respect of
persons.

When therefore the two parties who have the suit or quarrel
one with another shall come and stand together in the
judgement, as the Scripture saith, after you have heard them,
pass sentence righteously. And give diligence to keep them in
friendship before the sentence is pronounced upon them, lest
there go forth from you against one of them, being a brother,
a condemnation of earthly judgement. And so judge as you
also are surely to be judged, even as you have Christ for
partner and assessor and counsellor and spectator with you
in the same cause. But if there be any who are accused by
some one, it being charged against them that they conduct
themselves not well in the way of the Lord: again, hearing
both parties, make diligent inquiry, as being to give sentence
in a matter of everlasting life or cruel and bitter death. For if
a man is truly convicted, and he be condemned and go forth
from the Church, he has been cast out from life and glory
everlasting, and is become reprobate among men and guilty
before God. Judge therefore, according to the magnitude of
the charge, whatever it be, with much mercy; and incline
rather to save alive without respect of persons than to
destroy, by condemning, those who are judged.

But if there be one who is innocent, and he be condemned
by the judges through respect of persons, the judgement of
unjust judges shall do him no hurt with God, but shall rather
profit him; for but for a little while is he unjustly judged by
men, but afterwards, in the day of judgement, because he has
been unjustly condemned, he shall be the judge of (his) unjust

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judges. For you have been the arbiters of an unjust
judgement, and therefore shall be requited by God
accordingly, and cast out of the Catholic Church of God.
And that shall be fulfilled in your case: With what judgement
ye judge, ye shall be judged.

Wherefore, when you sit to judge, let both parties -- for we
do not call them brothers until peace has been made between
them -- come and stand together; and do you make prudent
and diligent inquiry as between those who have the suit and
quarrel one with another. And learn first concerning him
who makes the accusation, whether there be any accusation
against him also, or whether perchance he has brought
charges against others as well; and again, whether he has
brought his accusation out of any former enmity or quarrel,
or out of envy; and (inquire) also of what manner his
conversation is -- whether he is meek, and without anger,
and not given to slander, and whether he loves the widows
and the poor and strangers, and is not greedy of filthy lucre;
and whether he is quiet, and friendly to all and a lover of all;
whether he is merciful and open-handed to give, and not a
glutton and greedy, nor grasping, nor drunken, nor
intemperate, nor slothful: for the perverse heart contriveth
evil, and the same disturbeth cities at all times; and whether
no such evil has been committed by him as is (done) in the
world. And if he that makes the accusation is free from all
these things, it is already evident and manifest that he is
trustworthy, and that his accusation is true. But if he is
known to be perverse and contentious, and his conduct not
right, this (also) is evident, that he brings false witness
against your brother. When therefore he is found and known
to be an injurious person, rebuke him and put him forth for a
time, until he repent and be converted and weep: lest
perchance he again blaspheme against some other of our
brethren who is of good conversation; or lest, while he sits in
your congregation, some other like him, seeing him
unreproved, should himself dare to do in like manner to one
of our brethren, and should perish before God. But if he who
has sinned is rebuked and corrected and put forth for a
season, he also who was ready to imitate him and to do as he
did, having seen him put forth, will fear lest it happen to him
in like manner, and will submit himself: and he shall live
before God, and in no wise be put to shame among men.

And concerning him again who is judged take counsel and
thought among you in like manner:? and observe his manners
and conduct in the world, whether perchance you have heard
many charges against him, or whether he has committed
many crimes. For if he is found to have committed crimes, it
is likely that this charge also which they prefer against him is
true. But again, it may happen that he had formerly
committed some sin, but is innocent of this present charge.
Wherefore, make diligent investigation of these things, that
you may give sentence with great caution and surety; and do
you judge rightfully concerning him who is found to be
guilty, and pass judgement upon him. But let anyone of them
who will not abide by your judgement be reproved and put
forth from the congregation until he repent and make

entreaty of the bishop or of the Church, and confess that he
has sinned, and is penitent. And thus shall advantage accrue
to many: lest at any time some other, seeing him sit in the
Church unrebuked and uncorrected, should himself dare to
do as he did, thinking him alive among men, whereas with
God he is lost. But if you hear one party alone, while the
other is not present to make his defence to the charge which
they bring against him, and you pass sentence hastily,
without counsel and without inquiry, and, in accordance
with the falsehoods which you have believed, condemn him
while he is not present to defend himself: you shall be
partners before God of him that brought the false witness,
and with him you shall be punished by God. For the Lord
has said in Proverbs: He that meddleth in a quarrel that is
not his own, is as he that taketh hold of a dog's tail; and
again in another place He has said: Judge right judgement;
and again He has said: Judge the fatherless, and justify the
widows; and again He saith:? Deliver the oppressed, and
sever every bond of iniquity But if you resemble those elders
who were in Babylon, who bore false witness against Susanna
and wickedly condemned her to death, you also shall be
partners of their judgement and of their condemnation; for
the Lord by Daniel saved Susanna from the hand of the
ungodly, and those elders who were guilty of her blood He
condemned to fire.

Now very far apart do we set the things of the sanctuary
from those of the world; nevertheless (this) we say: You see,
brethren, how, when murderers are brought before the (civil)
authority, the judges question diligently those who bring
them, and learn from them what they have done. And then
again they ask the criminal whether these things are so; and
though he himself confess and say, 'Yea' they do not send him
straightway to death, but question him again for many days,
and drawing the curtain take thought and counsel much
together. And then at length they pass upon him the sentence
of death, and lifting up their hands to heaven protest that
they are innocent of the man's blood. And these things they
do though they are heathens and know not God nor the
requital they receive from God for those whom they judge
and condemn unjustly. And do you, who know who is our
God and what His judgements, dare to give sentence upon
one who is not guilty? We counsel you therefore that you
make inquiry with diligence and much caution. For the word
of sentence which you decree ascends straightway to God;
and if you have justly judged, you shall receive of God the
reward of justice, both now and hereafter; but if you have
judged unjustly, again you shall receive of God a recompense
accordingly. Strive therefore, brethren, that you be worthy
to receive praise from God, and not blame; for praise from
God is everlasting life to men, but blame from God is eternal
death to men.

Have a care therefore, O bishops, that you be not in haste to
sit in judgement forthwith, lest you be constrained to
condemn a man; but before they come and stand in the
judgement, admonish them and make peace between them.
And admonish those who have the suit and quarrel one with

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another, and teach them in the first place that it is not right
for any man to be angry, because the Lord has said: Every
one that is angry with his brother is liable to the judgement;
and secondly, that if it should happen through the agency of
the Enemy that some anger arise, they ought at once, that
very day, to be reconciled and appeased, and to be at peace
with one another. For it is written: Let not the sun go down
upon thine anger against thy brother; and in David also He
saith: Be angry, and sin not; that is, be speedily reconciled,
lest, if anger continue, malice arise and beget sin. He saith in
Proverbs: The soul that keepeth malice shall die. And our
Lord and Saviour also said: If thou offer thy gift upon the
altar, and there remember that thy brother keepeth any
malice against thee, leave thy gift before the altar, and go,
first be reconciled with thy brother: and then come, offer thy
gift. Now the gift of God is our prayer and our Eucharist. If
then thou keep any malice against thy brother, or he against
thee, thy prayer is not heard and thy Eucharist is not
accepted ; and thou shalt be found void (both) of prayer and
Eucharist by reason of the anger which thou keepest. A man
ought to pray diligently at all times; but those who bear
anger and malice towards their brethren God does not hear;
and though thou pray three times in one hour, thou shalt
gain nothing, for thou art not heard by reason of thine
enmity against thy brother. Wherefore, if thou carest and
strivest to be a Christian, follow the saying of the Lord
which saith: Loose all ties of iniquity; and sever the bands of
violence and oppression. For upon thee has our Saviour laid
this power, that thou shouldst forgive thy brother who has
offended against thee unto seventyfold seven time, that is,
four hundred and ninety. How many times then hast thou
forgiven thy brother, that thou wilt no more forgive him,
but keepest malice and maintainest enmity, and desirest to go
to law? Therefore is thy prayer hindered. But even if thou
hast forgiven the full four hundred and ninety times, add still
more for thine own sake, and of thy bounty, without anger,
forgive thy brother. And if thou do it not for thy brother's
sake, bethink thee and do it at least for thine own; and
forgive thy neighbour, that thou mayest be heard when thou
prayest, and mayest offer an acceptable oblation to the Lord.
Wherefore, O bishops, that your oblations and your
prayers may be acceptable, when you stand in the Church to
pray let the deacon say with a loud voice: 'Is there any man
that keepeth aught against his fellow?’ that if there be found
any who have a lawsuit or quarrel one with another, thou
mayest entreat them and make peace between them. They
who enter a house and say, Peace be in this house, both are
proclaimers of peace and do bring peace. If then thou preach
peace to others, still more does it behove thee to have peace
with thy brethren. As a son of light and peace therefore, be
thou light and peace to all men; and contend with no man,
but be in quiet and peace with all men. And be a helper with
God that (the number of) those who are saved may be
increased; for this is the will of the Lord God. But they who
love enmity and quarrels, and contentions and lawsuits, are
enemies of God. For the Lord from the beginning, through

the prophets and righteous men, called all generations to
repentance and salvation; and we, moreover, the Apostles,
who have been accounted worthy to be the witnesses of His
manifestation and preachers of His divine word, have heard
from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and do know of a
surety and say what is His will, and the will of His Father,
that no man should perish, but that all men should believe
and be saved. For this is that which He taught us to say when
we pray: Thy will be done in earth, as in heaven; that as the
angels of heaven and the hosts and all (His) ministers praise
God, so too on earth all men should praise God. It is His will,
then, to save all; and this is His pleasure, that they who are
saved should be many.

He who is contentious, or makes himself an enemy to his
neighbour, diminishes the people of God. For either he
drives out of the Church him whom he accuses, and
diminishes her and deprives God of the soul of a man which
was being saved, or by his contention he expels and ejects
himself from the Church, and so again he sins against God.
For God our Saviour spoke thus: Everyone that is not with
me, is against me; and everyone that gathereth not with me,
scattereth. Wherefore thou art no helper with God for the
gathering together of the people, because thou art a
disturber and a scatterer of the flock, and an adversary and
enemy of God. Be not therefore forever embroiled in
contentions and quarrels, or wrangling, or enmity, or
lawsuits, lest thou scatter some one from the Church. For we
by the power of the Lord God have gathered (men) from all
peoples and from all tongues, and have brought them to the
Church with much labour and toil and in daily peril, that we
might do the will of God and fill the house with guests, that
is His holy Catholic Church, that they might be glad and
rejoicing, and be praising and glorifying God who called
them to life.

Be you then, O laymen, peaceable one with another, and
strive like wise doves to fill the Church, and to convert and
tame those that are wild and bring them into her midst. And
(for) this is the great reward that is promised by God: if you
deliver them from fire, and present them to the Church firmly
established and faithful.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 12

To Bishops: that they should be peaceable.

And you the bishops, be not hard, nor tyrannical, nor
wrathful, and be not rough with the people of God which is
delivered into your hands. And destroy not the Lord's house
nor scatter His people; but convert all, that you may be
helpers with God; and gather the faithful with much
meekness and long-suffering and patience, and without anger,
and with doctrine and exhortation, as ministers of the
kingdom everlasting.

And in your congregations in the holy churches hold your
assemblies with all decent order, and appoint the places for
the brethren with care and gravity. And for the presbyters let
there be assigned a place in the eastern part of the house; and
let the bishop's throne be set in their midst, and let the

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presbyters sit with him. And again, let the lay men sit in
another part of the house toward the east. For so it should be,
that in the eastern part of the house the presbyters sit with
the bishops, and next the lay men, and then the women that
when you stand up to pray, the rulers may stand first, and
after them the lay men, and then the women also. For it is
required that you pray toward the east, as knowing that
which is written: Give ye glory to God, who rideth upon the
heaven of heavens toward the east.

But of the deacons let one stand always by the oblations of
the Eucharist; and let another stand without by the door and
observe them that come in; and afterwards, when you offer,
let them minister together in the Church. And if anyone be
found sitting out of his place, let the deacon who is within
reprove him and make him to rise up and sit in a place that is
meet for him. For our Lord likened the Church to a fold; for
as we see the dumb animals, oxen and sheep and goats, lie
down and rise up, and feed and chew the cud, according to
their families, and none of them separate itself from its kind;
and (see) the wild beasts also severally range with their like
upon the mountains: so likewise in the Church ought those
who are young to sit apart, if there be room, and if not to
stand up; and those who are advanced in years to sit apart.
And let the children stand on one side, or let their fathers
and mothers take them to them; and let them stand up. And
let the young girls also sit apart; but if there be no room, let
them stand up behind the women. And let the young women
who are married and have children stand apart, and the aged
women and widows sit apart. And let the deacon see that
each of them on entering goes to his place, that no one may
sit out of his place. And let the deacon also see that no one
whispers, or falls asleep, or laughs, or makes signs. For so it
should be, that with decency and decorum they watch in the
Church, with ears attentive to the word of the Lord.

But if any brother or sister come from another
congregation, let the deacon question her and learn whether
she is married, or again whether she is a widow (who is) a
believer; and whether she is a daughter of the Church, or
belongs perchance to one of the heresies; and then let him
conduct her and set her in a place that is suitable for her. But
if a presbyter should come from another congregation, do
you the presbyters receive him with fellowship into your
place. And if it be a bishop, let him sit with the bishop; and
let him accord him the honour of his rank, even as himself.
And do thou, O bishop, invite him to discourse to thy people;
for the exhortation and admonition of strangers is very
profitable, especially as it is written: There is no prophet that
is acceptable in his own place. And when you offer the
oblation, let him speak. But if he is wise and gives the honour
to thee, and is unwilling to offer, at least let him speak over
the cup. But if, as you are sitting, some one else should come,
whether a man or a woman, who has some worldly honour,
either of the same district or of another congregation: thou,
O bishop, if thou art speaking the word of God, or hearing,
or reading, shalt not respect persons and leave the ministry
of thy word and appoint them a place; but do thou remain

still as thou art and not interrupt thy word, and let the
brethren themselves receive them. And if there be no place,
let one of the brethren who is full of charity and loves his
brethren, and is one fitted to do an honour, rise and give
them place, and himself stand up. But if, while younger men
or women sit, an older man or woman should rise and give
up their place, do thou, O deacon, scan those who sit, and see
which man or woman of them is younger than the rest, and
make them stand up, and cause him to sit who had risen and
given up his place; and him whom thou hast caused to stand
up, lead away and make him to stand behind his neighbours:
that others also may be trained and learn to give place to
those more honourable than themselves. But if a poor man or
woman should come, (whether of the same district) or of
another congregation, and especially if they are stricken in
years, and there be no place for such, do thou, O bishop, with
all thy heart provide a place for them, even if thou have to sit
upon the ground; that thou be not as one who respects the
persons of men, but that thy ministry may be acceptable with
God.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 13

An Instruction to the People to be constant in assembling
in the Church.

Now when thou teachest, command and warn the people to
be constant in assembling in the Church, and not to
withdraw themselves but always to assemble, lest any man
diminish the Church by not assembling, and cause the body
of Christ to be short of a member. For let not a man take
thought of others only, but of himself as well, hearkening to
that which our Lord said: Everyone that gathereth not with
me, scattereth. Since therefore you are the members of Christ,
do not scatter yourselves from the Church by not assembling.
Seeing that you have Christ for your head, as He promised --
for you are partakers with us -- be not then neglectful of
yourselves, and deprive not our Saviour of His members, and
do not rend and scatter His body. And make not your
worldly affairs of more account than the word of God; but
on the Lord's day leave every thing and run eagerly to your
Church; for she is your glory. Otherwise, what excuse have
they before God who do not assemble on the Lord's day to
hear the word of life and be nourished with the divine food
which abides for ever? For you are eager to receive temporal
things and those that are but for a day and an hour, (but)
those that are eternal you neglect; and you are anxious about
baths, and to be fed with the meat and drink of the belly, and
about other things, but for the things eternal you have no
care, but neglect your soul and have no zeal for the Church,
to hear and receive the word of God. And in comparison of
them that err what excuse have you? For the heathen, when
they daily rise from their sleep, go in the morning to worship
and minister to their idols; and before all their works and
undertakings they go first and worship their idols. Neither
at their festivals and their fairs are they wanting, but are
constant in assembling: not only they who are of the district,
but even those who come from afar; and all likewise assemble

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and come to the spectacle of their theatre.? And so in like
manner they who are vainly called Jews, they remain idle one
day after six, and assemble in their synagogue; and never do
they withdraw themselves or neglect their synagogue, nor
disregard their (days of) idleness -- even they who by reason
of their unbelief are made void of the power of the word, and
of the very name by which they call themselves Jews: for 'Jew'
is interpreted ‘confession’ but these are no confessors, since
they do not confess the passion of Christ, which by
transgression of the Law they caused, that they should repent
and be saved. If then they who are not saved bestow care at
all times on things wherein there is no profit and which avail
them nothing, what excuse has he before the Lord God who
withdraws himself from the assembly of the Church, and does
not even imitate the gentiles, but by reason of his non-
attendance grows indifferent and careless, and stands aloof
and does evil to whom the Lord said by Jeremiah: My laws ye
have not kept but neither have ye conversed after the laws of
the gentiles; and ye have well nigh surpassed them in
evildoing; and: Do the gentiles exchange their gods, which
yet be no gods? But my people have exchanged their honour
for that which is without profit. How then shall he excuse
himself who is indifferent and has no zeal for the assembly of
the Church? But if there be anyone who takes occasion of
worldly business to withdraw himself, let him know this,
that the trades of the faithful are called works of superfluity;
for their true work is religion. Pursue your trades therefore
as a work of superfluity, for your sustenance, but let your
true work be religion.

Have a care therefore that you never withdraw yourselves
from the assembly of the Church. But if any man leave the
assembly of the Church of God and go to the assembly of the
gentiles, what shall he say, and what excuse can he make to
God in the day of judgement? seeing that he has left the holy
Church, and the words of the living God, which are living
and lifegiving and able to redeem and to deliver from fire and
to save alive, and has gone to the assembly of the gentiles,
because he has lusted after the spectacle of the theatre.
Therefore shall he be accounted as one of them that go in
thither; because he has lusted to hear and receive their fables,
which are those of dead men and are from the spirit of Satan:
for they are dead and deadly, and turn away from the faith
and bring to everlasting fire. Nay, but the things of the
world are your care, and you attend to the affairs of this life
and scorn to betake yourselves to the Catholic Church, the
beloved daughter of the Lord God Most High, that you may
receive the teaching of God which endures for ever and is able
to save them that receive the word of life.

Be constant therefore in coming together with the faithful
who are being saved in your mother the Church, the living
and lifegiving.

And beware of assembling with them that are perishing in
the theatre, which is the assembly of the heathen, of error
and of destruction. For he who enters an assembly of the
gentiles shall be accounted as one of them, and shall receive
the Woe. For to such the Lord God said by Isaiah: Woe, woe

to them that come from the spectacle. And again He saith: Ye
women that come from the spectacle, come: for it is a people
without understanding. 'Women' then, He called the
Churches, which He called and redeemed and brought forth
from the spectacle of the theatre, and took and received; and
He taught us from henceforth to go thither no more. For He
saith in Jeremiah: Ye shall not learn according to the ways of
the gentiles. And He saith again in the Gospel: In the way of
the gentiles ye shall not go; {and into the cities of the
Samaritans ye shall not enter}. Here then He commands and
warns us wholly to avoid all heresies, which are the cities of
the Samaritans; and furthermore, that we should keep far
away from the assemblies of the gentiles, and not enter
strange congregations; and that we should utterly avoid the
theatre, and their fairs which are held for the sake of idols. A
believer must not even come near to a fair, except to buy him
nourishment for body ?and soul?. Therefore, avoid all vain
shows of the idols, and the festivals of their fairs.

And let those who are young in the Church be ministering
diligently, without sloth, in all things that are needful, with
much reverence and modesty. Do you the faithful therefore,
all of you, daily and hourly, whenever you are not in the
Church, devote yourselves to your work; so that in all the
conduct of your life you may either be occupied in the things
of the Lord or engaged upon your work, and may never be
idle. For the Lord has said: Imitate the ant, O sluggard, and
emulate her ways, and be wiser than she. For she hath no
husbandry, nor any to compel her, nor is she under authority:
yet she gathereth her bread in summer, and storeth up for her
much food in the harvest. And again He saith: Go to the bee,
and learn how she worketh. For her work she performeth in
wisdom: band there is brought of her labour to be food for
rich and poor. Beloved and praiseworthy is she: and albeit
she is little in strength, she honoureth wisdom, and is
commended (thereby). How long wilt thou sleep, thou
sluggard? When wilt thou arise from thy sleep? Thou shalt
slumber a little, and sleep a little, and sit a little, and lay thy
hand upon thy bosom a little: and poverty shall overtake
thee as a runner, and want as a lusty man. But if thou wilt
not be slothful, thine increase shall abound and overflow as a
fountain; and poverty as a feeble runner shall depart from
thee. Therefore, be always working, for idleness is a blot for
which there is no cure. But if any man among you will not
work, let him not eat: for the Lord God also hateth
sluggards; for it is not possible for a sluggard to be a believer.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 14

On the time for the appointment of Widows.

Appoint as a widow one that is not under fifty years old,
who in some sort, by reason of her years, shall be remote
from the suspicion of taking a second husband. But if you
appoint one who is young to the widows' order, and she
endure not widowhood because of her youth, and marry, she
will bring a reproach upon the glory of widowhood; and she
shall render an account to God, first, because she has married
a second husband; and again, because she promised to be a

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

widow unto God, and was receiving (alms) as a widow, but
did not continue in widowhood. But if there be one who is
young, who has been a short time with her husband, and her
husband die, or for any other cause there be a separation,
and she continue by herself alone, having the honour of
widowhood: she shall be blessed of God; for she is likened to
the widow of Sarepta of Sidon with whom rested the holy
angel, the prophet of God. Or again, she shall be like Anna,
who hailed the coming of Christ and received a (good)
testimony; and she shall be honoured for her virtue, winning
honour on earth from men, and praise from God in heaven.

But let not young widows be appointed to the widows'
order:? yet let them be taken care of and helped, lest by
reason of their being in want they be minded to marry a
second time, and some harmful matter ensue. For this you
know, that she who marries one husband may lawfully marry
also a second; but she who goes beyond this is a harlot.
Wherefore, assist those who are young, that they may
persevere in chastity unto God. And do thou accordingly, O
bishop, bestow care upon these. And be mindful also of the
poor, and assist and support them, even though there be
among them those who are not widowers or widows, yet are
in need of help through want or sickness or the rearing of
children, and are in distress. It behoves thee to be careful of
all and heedful of all. And hence it is that they who give gifts
do not themselves with their own hands give them to the
widows, but bring them to thee, that thou who art well
acquainted of those who are in distress mayest, like a good
steward, make distribution to them of those things which are
given to thee: for God knows who it is that gives, even
though he does not chance to be present. And when thou
makest distribution, tell them the name of him who gave,
that they may pray for him by name. For in all the Scriptures
the Lord makes mention of the poor, and gives command
concerning them; ...and even if they be married persons. And
he adds further by Isaiah and says thus: Break thy bread to
the hungry: and the poor man, that hath no roof, bring into
thine house; and when thou seest the naked, cover him: and
thou shalt not despise one that is of thine own flesh. By all
means therefore be careful of the poor.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 15

How Widows ought to deport themselves.

Every widow therefore ought to be meek and quiet and
gentle. And let her also be without malice and without anger;
and let her not be talkative or clamorous, or forward in
tongue, or quarrelsome. And when she sees anything
unseemly done, or hears it, let her be as though she saw and
heard it not. For a widow should have no other care save to
be praying for those who give, and for the whole Church.
And when she is asked a question by anyone, let her not
straightway give an answer, except only concerning
righteousness and faith in God; but let her send them that
desire to be instructed to the rulers. And to those who
question them let them (the widows) make answer only in
refutation of idols and concerning the unity of God. But

concerning punishment and reward, and the kingdom of the
name of Christ, and His dispensation, neither a widow nor a
layman ought to speak; for when they speak without the
knowledge of doctrine, they will bring blasphemy upon the
word. For our Lord likened the word of His tidings to
mustard; but mustard, unless it be skilfully tempered, is
bitter and sharp to those who use it. Wherefore our Lord
said in the Gospel, to widows and to all the laity: Cast not
your pearls before swine, lest they trample upon them and
turn against you and rend you. For when the Gentiles who
are being instructed hear the word of God not fittingly
spoken, as it ought to be, unto edification of eternal life --
and all the more in that it is spoken to them by a woman --
how that our Lord clothed Himself in a body, and
concerning the passion of Christ: they will mock and scoff,
instead of applauding the word of doctrine; and she shall
incur a heavy judgement for sin.

It is neither right nor necessary therefore that women
should be teachers, and especially concerning the name of
Christ and the redemption of His passion. For you have not
been appointed to this, (p. 64) O women, and especially
widows, that you should teach, but that you should pray and
entreat the Lord God. For He the Lord God, Jesus Christ
our Teacher, sent us the Twelve to instruct the People and
the Gentiles; and there were with us women disciples, Mary
Magdalene and Mary the daughter of James and the other
Mary; but He did not send them to instruct the people with
us. For if it were required that women should teach, our
Master Himself would have commanded these to give
instruction with us. But let a widow know that she is the
altar of God; and let her sit ever at home, and not stray or
run about among the houses of the faithful to receive. For
the altar of God never strays or runs about anywhere, but is
fixed in one place.

A widow must not therefore stray or run about among the
houses. For those who are gadabouts and without shame
cannot be still even in their houses; for they are no widows,
but wallets, and they care for nothing else but to be making
ready to receive. And because they are gossips and chatterers
and murmurers, they stir up quarrels; and they are bold and
shameless. Now they that are such are unworthy of Him who
called them; for neither in the common assembly of rest of the
Sunday, when they have come, are such women or men
watchful, but they either fall asleep or prate about some
other matter: so that through them others also are taken
captive by the enemy Satan, who suffers not such persons to
be watchful unto the Lord. And they who are such, coming
in empty to the Church, go out more empty still, since they
hearken not to that which is spoken or read to receive it with
the ears of their hearts. Such persons, then, are like those of
whom Isaiah said: Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not
understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not see. For the
heart of this people is waxed gross, and with their ears they
hear heavily, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time
they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears. So
in like manner the ears of such widows' hearts are stopped,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

because they will not sit beneath the roof of their houses and
pray and entreat the Lord, but are impatient to be running
after gain; and by their chattering they execute the desires of
the Enemy. Now such a widow does not conform to the altar
of Christ; for it is written in the Gospel: If two shall agree
together, and shall ask concerning any thing whatsoever, it
shall be given them. And if they shall say to a mountain that
it be removed and fall into the sea, it shall so be done.

Now we see that there are widows who esteem the matter as
one of traffic, and receive greedily; and instead of doing good
(works) and giving to the bishop for the entertainment of
strangers and the refreshment of those in distress, they lend
out on bitter usury; and they care only for Mammon, whose
god is their purse and their belly:? for where their treasure is,
there is also their heart. For she who is in the habit of
roaming abroad and running about to receive takes no
thought for good works, but serves Mammon and ministers
to filthy lucre. And she cannot please God, nor is she
obedient to His ministry, so as to be constantly praying and
making intercession, because her mind is quite taken captive
by the greed of avarice. And when she stands up to pray, she
remembers whither she may go to receive somewhat; or else
that she has forgotten to tell some matter to her friends. And
when she stands (in prayer), her mind is not upon her prayer,
but upon that thought which has occurred to her mind. Now
the prayer of such a one is not heard in regard to any thing.
But she soon interrupts her prayer by reason of the
distraction of her mind; for she does not offer prayer to God
with all her heart, but goes off with the thought suggested by
the Enemy, and talks with her friends about some
unprofitable matter. For she knows not ?how she has
believed?, or of what order she has been accounted worthy.

But a widow who wishes to please God sits at home and
meditates upon the Lord day and night, and without ceasing
at all times offers intercession and prays with purity before
the Lord. And she receives whatever she asks, because her
whole mind is set upon this. For her mind is not greedy to
receive, nor has she much desire to make large expenses; nor
does her eye wander, that she should see aught and desire it,
and her mind be withdrawn; nor does she hear evil words to
give heed to them, because she does not go forth and run
about abroad. Therefore her prayer suffers no hindrance
from any thing; and thus her quietness and tranquillity and
modesty are acceptable before God, and whatsoever she asks
of God, she presently receives her request. For such a widow,
not loving money or filthy lucre, and not avaricious nor
greedy, but constant in prayer, and meek and unperturbed,
and modest and reverent, sits at home and works at (her)
wool, that she may provide somewhat for those who are in
distress, or that she may make a return to others, so that she
receive nothing from them. For she bethinks her of that
widow of whom our Lord gave testimony in the Gospel, who

came and cast into the treasury two mites, which is one dinar:

whom when our Lord and Teacher, the trier of hearts, saw,
He said to us: O my disciples, this poor widow hath cast in
more alms than anyone; for everyone hath cast in of that

which was superfluous to him: but this, of all that she
possessed she hath laid her up treasure.

Widows ought then to be modest, and obedient to the
bishops and the deacons, and to reverence and respect and
fear the bishop as God. And let them not act after their own
will, nor desire to do any thing apart from that which is
commanded them, or without counsel to speak with any one
by way of making answer, or to go to anyone to eat or drink,
or to fast with anyone, or to receive aught of anyone, or to
lay hand on and pray over anyone without the command of
the bishop or the deacon. But if she do aught that is not
commanded her, let her be rebuked for having acted without
discipline. For whence knowest thou, O woman, from whom
thou receivest, or from what ministry thou art nourished, or
for whom thou fastest, or upon whom thou layest hand? For
knowest thou not that concerning everyone of these thou
shalt render an account to the Lord in the day of judgement,
seeing that thou communicatest in their works? But thou, O
widow who art without discipline, seest thy fellow widows or
thy brethren in sickness, and hast no care to fast and pray
over thy members, and to lay hand upon them and to visit
them, but feignest thyself'to be not in health, or not at leisure;
but to others, who are in sins or are gone forth from the
Church, because they give much, thou art ready and glad to
go and to visit them. You then who are such ought to be
ashamed; for you wish to be wiser and to know better, not
only than the men, but even than the presbyters and the
bishops. Know then, sisters, that whatsoever the pastors with
the deacons command you, and you obey them, you obey
God; and with whomsoever you communicate by the
command of the bishop, you are without blame before God;
and so is every brother of the laity who obeys the bishop and
submits to him:? for they (the bishops) are to render an
account for all. But if you obey not the mind of the bishops
and deacons, they indeed will be quit of your offences, but
you shall render an account of all that you do of your own
will, whether men or women.

Now whosoever prays or communicates with one that is
expelled from the Church, must rightly be reckoned with him;
for these things lead to the undoing and destruction of souls.
For if one communicate and pray with him who is expelled
from the Church, and obey not the bishop, he obeys not God;
and he is defiled with him (that is expelled). And moreover he
suffers not that man to repent. For if no one communicate
with him, he will feel compunction and weep, and will ask
and beseech to be received (again); and he will repent of what
he has done, and will be saved.

That a woman should baptise, or that one should be
baptised by a woman, we do not counsel, for it is a
transgression of the commandment, and a great peril to her
who baptises and to him who is baptised. For if it were
lawful to be baptised by a woman, our Lord and Teacher
Himself would have been baptised by Mary His mother,
whereas He was baptised by John, like others of the people.
Do not therefore imperil yourselves, brethren and sisters, by
acting beside the law of the Gospel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

But concerning envy or jealousy, or slander and fault-
finding, or contention and ill-will, and carping or rivalry,
we have already told you that these things ought not to be
found in a Christian; but among widows it is not fitting that
anyone of them should so much as be named. Yet because the
author of evil has many wiles and devices, he enters into
those who are no widows and boasts himself in them. For
there are some indeed who profess themselves widows, but do
not works worthy of their name. For not for the name of
widowhood are they found worthy to enter into the kingdom,
but for faith and works. For if one practise good works, she
shall be praised and accepted; but if she practise evil works
and do the works of the Evil One, she shall be blamed and
cast out of the kingdom everlasting: because she has left the
things eternal and desired and loved those that are temporal.
Now we see and hear that there are widows in whom there is
envy one towards another. For when thy fellow aged woman
has been clothed, or has received somewhat from some one,
thou oughtest, O widow, on seeing thy sister refreshed -- if
thou be a widow of God -- to say: 'Blessed be God, who hath
refreshed my fellow aged woman,' and to praise God; and
afterwards (to praise) him that ministered, and say: 'May his
work be acceptable in truth,’ and: 'Remember him, Lord, for
good in the day of Thy recompense, and my bishop who hath
ministered well before Thee and hath dispensed the alms
fairly; for my fellow aged woman was naked, and hath been
provided: and add unto him glory, and give him also a crown
of glory in the day of the manifestation of Thy coming.’ And
likewise also the widow who has received an alms of the Lord,
let her pray for him that provided this ministration,
suppressing his name like a wise woman, that his
righteousness may be with God and not with men, -- as He
said in the Gospel: When thou doest an alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy rtght hand doeth -- lest, when thou
pronounce and reveal his name in praying for him that gave,
his name be disclosed and come to the ears of a heathen, and
the heathen, being a man of the left hand, know it. Or it may
even chance that one of the faithful, hearing thee, will go out
and talk:? and it is not expedient that those things which are
done or spoken in the Church should come abroad and be
revealed; for he that divulges and speaks of them disobeys
God, and becomes a betrayer of the Church. But do thou in
praying for him suppress his name; and so shalt thou fulfil
that which is written, thou and the widows who are such (as
thou): for you are the holy altar of God, (even of) Jesus
Christ.

But now we hear that there are widows who do not behave
according to the commandment, but care only for this, that
they may stray and run about asking questions. And
moreover she who has received an alms of the Lord -- being
without sense, in that she discloses (the matter) to her that
asks her -- has revealed and declared the name of the giver;
and the other, hearing it, murmurs and finds fault with the
bishop who has dispensed, or with the deacon, or with him
who has made some gift, saying: 'Knewest thou not that I
was nearer to thee and in more distress than she?’ And she

knows not that it was not by man's will that this was done,
but by the command of God. For if thou protest and say to
him: 'I was nearer to thee, and thou knewest that I was more
naked than she:' it behoved thee to know who it was that
commanded, and to be silent and not find fault with him that
ministered, but to go into thy house and fall upon thy face
and give thanks to God for thy fellow widow; and to pray
likewise for him that gave and for him that ministered, and
to beseech the Lord that He would open to thee also the door
of His favour. And the Lord would presently have heard thy
prayer bountifully, and have sent thee more favour than thy
fellow widow, from whence thou never thoughtest to receive
a ministry; and (such) proof of thy patience would have been
praiseworthy. Or know you not that it is written in the
Gospel: When thou doest an alms, sound not the trumpet
before men to be seen of them, as the hypocrites do. For
verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.

Now if God has commanded that a ministry be ministered
in secret, and he that ministered did so minister: why then
dost thou, who hast received in secret, proclaim it openly? Or
thou, again (who hast not received), why dost thou question
it? For thou not only findest fault and murmurest, as one
who is no widow, but even utterest a curse like the heathen.
Or hast thou not heard what the Scripture saith: Everyone
that blesseth, is blessed; and everyone that curseth, is cursed.
And again in the Gospel He saith: Bless them that curse you;
and again: When ye enter into a house, say: Peace be in this
house. And if that house be worthy of peace, your peace shall
come upon it; but ifit be not worthy, your peace shall return
unto you. If then peace returns to them that send it, much
more will a curse return upon those who utter it idly: because
that he upon whom it was sent does not merit to receive a
curse. For everyone who curses a man idly, curses himself,
since it is written in Proverbs: As birds and fowl fly, so do
idle curses return. And again He saith: They that utter curses
are void of understanding. For we are set forth in a parable
by the example of the bee, as the Lord saith: Go to the bee,
and learn how she worketh. For her work she performeth in
wisdom; and there is brought of her labour to be food for
rich and poor. Beloved and praiseworthy is she, albeit she is
little in strength. As then the bee is little in strength, and
when she has stung a man she loses her sting, and becomes
barren and presently dies; so also we the faithful in like
manner: whatever evil we do to another, we do it to ourselves;
for, Whatsoever thou hatest that it should be done to thee,
thou shalt not do to another. Wherefore, everyone that
blesseth is blessed.

Do you therefore admonish and rebuke those (widows) who
are undisciplined and likewise exhort and encourage and help
forward those who conduct themselves rightly. And let
widows keep themselves from cursing, for they have been
appointed to bless. Wherefore, let not the bishop, nor a
presbyter, nor a deacon, nor a widow utter a curse out of
their mouth, that they may not inherit a curse but a blessing.
And let this also be thy care, O bishop, that not even one of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the laity utter from his mouth a curse: for thou hast the care
of all.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 16
On the appointment of Deacons and Deaconesses.
Wherefore, O bishop, appoint thee workers of

righteousness as helpers who may co-operate with thee unto

salvation. Those that please thee out of all the people thou

shalt choose and appoint as deacons:? a man for the

performance of the most things that are required, but a

woman for the ministry of women. For there are houses

whither thou canst not send a deacon to the women, on

account of the heathen, but mayest send a deaconess. Also,

because in many other matters the office of a woman deacon

is required. In the first place, when women go down into the

water, those who go down into the water ought to be

anointed by a deaconess with the oil of anointing; and where

there is no woman at hand, and especially no deaconess, he

who baptises must of necessity anoint her who is being

baptised. But where there is a woman, and especially a

deaconess, it is not fitting that women should be seen by men:?
but with the imposition of hand do thou anoint the head

only. As of old the priests and kings were anointed in Israel,

do thou in like manner, with the imposition of hand, anoint

the head of those who receive baptism, whether of men or of
women; and afterwards -- whether thou thyself baptise, or

thou command the deacons or presbyters to baptise -- let a

woman deacon, as we have already said, anoint the women.

But let a man pronounce over them the invocation of the

divine Names in the water.? And when she who is being

baptised has come up from the water, let the deaconess

receive her, and teach and instruct her how the seal of
baptism ought to be (kept) unbroken in purity and holiness.

For this cause we say that the ministry of a woman deacon is

especially needful and important. For our Lord and Saviour

also was ministered unto by women ministers, Mary

Magdalene, and Mary the daughter of James and mother of
Jose, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with other

women beside. And thou also hast need of the ministry of a

deaconess for many things; for a deaconess is required to go

into the houses of the heathen where there are believing

women, and to visit those who are sick, and to minister to

them in that of which they have need, and to bathe those who

have begun to recover from sickness.

And let the deacons imitate the bishops in their
conversation: nay, let them even be labouring more than he.
And let them not love filthy lucre; but let them be diligent in
the ministry. And in proportion to the number of the
congregation of the people of the Church, so let the deacons
be, that they may be able to take knowledge (of each)
severally and refresh all; so that for the aged women who are
infirm, and for brethren and sisters who are in sickness -- for
every one they may provide the ministry which is proper for
him.

But let a woman rather be devoted to the ministry of
women, and a male deacon to the ministry of men. And let

him be ready to obey and to submit himself to the command
of the bishop. And let him labour and toil in every place
whither he is sent to minister or to speak of some matter to
anyone. For it behoves each one to know his office and to be
diligent in executing it. And be you (bishop and deacon) of
one counsel and of one purpose, and one soul dwelling in two
bodies. And know what the ministry is, according as our
Lord and Saviour said in the Gospel: Whoso among you
desireth to be chief, let him be your servant: even as the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a ransom for many. So ought you the deacons
also to do, if it fall to you to lay down your life for your
brethren in the ministry which is due to them. For neither
did our Lord and Saviour Himself disdain (to be) ministering
to us, as it is written in Isaiah: To justify the righteous, who
hath performed well a service for many. If then the Lord of
heaven and earth performed a service for us, and bore and
endured everything for us, how much more ought we to do
the like for our brethren, that we may imitate Him. For we
are imitators of Him, and hold the place of Christ. And again
in the Gospel you find it written how our Lord girded a linen
cloth about his loins and cast water into a wash-basin, while
we reclined (at supper), and drew nigh and washed the feet of
us all and wiped them with the cloth. Now this He did that
He might show us (an example of) charity and brotherly love,
that we also should do in like manner one to another. If then
our Lord did thus, will you, O deacons, hesitate to do the
like for them that are sick and infirm, you who are workmen
of the truth, and bear the likeness of Christ? Do you
therefore minister with love, and neither murmur nor
hesitate; otherwise you will have ministered as it were for
men's sake and not for the sake of God, and you will receive
your reward according to your ministry in the day of
judgement. It is required of you deacons therefore that you
visit all who are in need, and inform the bishop of those who
are in distress; and you shall be his soul and his mind; and in
all things you shall be taking trouble and be obedient to him.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 17

On the upbringing of Orphan Children

Now if anyone of the children of Christians be an orphan,
whether boy or girl, it is well that, if there be one of the
brethren who has no children, he should adopt the child in
the place of children. And whoever has a son, let him adopt a
girl; and when her time is come, let him give her to him to
wife, that his work may be completed in the ministry of God.
But if there be any who are unwilling to do thus because they
would please men, and by reason of their riches are ashamed
of orphan members: they who are such shall arrive at this
very pass, and therein shall spend what they have spared; and
that which the saints have not eaten, the Assyrians shall eat:
and their land strangers shall devour before their eyes.

Do you therefore, O bishops, take pains over their
upbringing, so that nothing may be wanting to them. And
when a virgin's time is come, give her in marriage to one of
the brethren. But when a boy is being brought up, let him

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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learn a craft; and when he is become a man, let him receive
the wage that is worthy of his craft, and let him fashion for
himself the implements required for his craft, and not
henceforth be a burden upon the love of the brethren, which
was shown him without guile and without partiality.

And truly blessed is every one that is able to help himself,
and shall not straiten the place of the orphan and the widow
and the stranger. For woe from God to them that have, and
receive in falsehood, {or are able to help themselves and (yet)
receive;} for everyone of those who receive shall give an
account to the Lord God in the day of judgement, how he
received. If a man has received on account of a fatherless
childhood, or on account of indigence in old age, or on
account of infirmity and sickness, or on account of the
rearing of children, he shall even be praised: for he is
esteemed as the altar of God, therefore shall he be honoured
of God. For he did not receive idly; because he was praying
diligently (and) unremittingly at all times for those who give;
for his prayer, which is his strength, he offered as his
payment. Those then who are such shall be declared blessed
by God in the life everlasting.

But those who have, and receive under pretence, or else are
slothful, and instead of working and helping others rather
themselves receive, shall be held to account for that which
they receive, because they have straitened the place of the
faithful poor. For everyone who has some possession, and
neither gives to others nor uses it himself, lays up for himself
a perishable treasure on earth; and he has inherited the place
of the snake lying upon the treasure, and will come in danger
of being reckoned with him. For whoever has, and receives in
falsehood, puts his faith not in God but in the Mammon of
iniquity; and for the gain of avarice he holds the word in
hypocrisy, and he is fulfilled in unbelief. Now such a one will
come in danger of being reckoned with the unbelievers. But
he who gives simply to every man, does well in giving, and he
is innocent. He also who receives on account of distress, and
uses sparingly those things which he has received, has
received well; and he shall be praised by God in the life and
rest everlasting.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 18

That it is not right to receive gifts of alms from
reprehensible persons.

Do you the bishops and the deacons be constant therefore in
the ministry of the altar of Christ, -- we mean the widows
and the orphans, -- so that with all care and with all
diligence you make it your endeavour to search out
concerning the things that are given, (and to learn) of what
manner is the conversation of him, or of her, who gives for
the nourishment -- we say again -- of 'the altar.' For when
widows are nourished from (the fruits of) righteous labour,
they will offer a holy and acceptable ministry before
Almighty God through His beloved Son and His holy Spirit:?
to whom be glory and honour for evermore.

Make it your care and endeavour therefore to minister to
widows out of the ministry of a clean conscience, that what

they ask and request may be granted them at once upon their
praying for it. But if there be bishops who are careless and
give no heed to these matters, through respect of persons, or
for the sake of filthy lucre, or because they neglect to mak
inquiry; they shall render no ordinary account. For they
receive, forsooth, to administer for the nourishment of
orphans and widows, from rich persons who keep men shut
up in prison, or ill-treat their slaves, or behave with cruelty
in their cities, or oppress the poor; or from the lewd, and
those who abuse their bodies; or from evildoers; or from
forgers; or from dishonest advocates, or false accusers; or
from hypocritical lawyers; or from painters of pictures; or
from makers of idols; or from workers of gold and silver and
bronze (who are) thieves; or from dishonest tax-gatherers; or
from spectators of shows; or from those who alter weights or
measure deceitfully; or from inn-keepers who mingle water
(with their wine); or from soldiers who act lawlessly; or from
murderers; or from spies who procure condemnations; or
from any Roman officials, who are defiled with wars and
have shed innocent blood without trial:? perverters of
judgement who, in order to rob them, deal unjustly and
deceitfully with the peasantry and with all the poor; and
from idolaters; or from the unclean; or from those who
practise usury, and extortioners. Now they who nourish
widows from these (sources) shall be found guilty in
judgement in the day of the Lord; for the Scripture has said:
Better is a supper of herbs with love and amity than the
slaughter of fatted oxen with hatred. For if a widow be
nourished with bread only from the labour of righteousness,
it shall even be abundant for her; but if much be given her
from (the proceeds) of iniquity it shall be insufficient for her.
But again, if she be nourished from (the proceeds) of iniquity,
she cannot offer her ministry and her intercession with purity
before God; and even though she be righteous and pray for
the wicked, her intercession for them will not be heard, but
that for herself alone; for God makes trial of the hearts in
judgement, and receives intercessions with discernment. But
if they pray for those w ho have sinned and repent, their
prayers will be heard. But those who are in sin, and do not
repent, not only are they not heard when they pray, but they
even call to remembrance their transgressions before the
Lord.

Wherefore, a bishops, fly and avoid such ministrations; for
it is written:There shall not go up upon the altar of the Lord
(that which cometh) of the price of a dog, or of the hire ofa
harlot. For if widows pray for fornicators and transgressors
through your blindness, and be not heard, not receiving
their requests, you will perforce bring blasphemy upon the
word through your evil management, as though God were
not good and ready to give.

Take good heed therefore that you minister not to the altar
of God out of the ministrations of transgression. For you
have no pretext to say, 'We do not know;' for you have heard
that which the Scripture saith:? Depart from an evil man,
and thou shalt not fear; and trembling shall not come nigh
unto thee. But if you say: 'These are they alone who give alms;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and if we receive not of them, from whence shall the orphans
and widows and those in distress be provided?' God saith to
you: 'To this end did you receive the gifts of the Levites, the
first fruits and offerings of your people, that you might be
sustained and even have over and above, that you might not
be constrained to receive from evil persons.' But if the
Churches are so poor that those in want must needs be
supported by such, it were better for you rather to be wasted
with famine than to receive from evil persons.

Search out and make trial, therefore, that you may be
receiving from the faithful, who communicate with the
Churches and conduct themselves well, (wherewithal) to
nourish those in distress, and may not receive from those who
are expelled from the Church until they are found worthy to
be members of the Church. But if you are in want, tell the
brethren, and let them treat together and give; and thus
perform your ministrations in righteousness. And teach your
people and tell them that it is written: Honour the Lord with
(the fruits of) righteous labour, and with the chiefest of all
your increase. Wherefore, nourish and clothe those in want
from the righteous labour of the faithful; and those things
which are given by them, as we have already said, bestow for
the ransom of the faithful; and redeem slaves and captives
and prisoners, and those who are treated with violence, and
those condemned by the mob, and those sentenced to fight
with beasts, or to the mines, or to exile, and those
condemned to the games. And let the deacons go in to those
who are in distress, and let them visit each one and provide
him with what he lacks.

But if ever it should happen that you are constrained and
receive unwillingly some pieces of money from any evil
person, you shall not employ them for (the purchase of) food;
but if they be few, spend them on firewood for yourselves and
for the widows, lest a widow, receiving of them, be forced to
buy her some food with them. And so, unsullied by iniquity,
the widows will pray and receive from God all good things
for which they ask and make petition, all of them together
and each one severally: and you also will not be reproached
with these sins.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 19

That it is a duty to take care of those who for the name of
Christ suffer affliction as Martyrs.

You shall not turn away your eyes from a Christian who for
the name of God and for His faith and love is condemned to
the games, or to the beasts, or to the mines; but of your
labour and of the sweat of your face do you send to him for
nourishment, and for a payment to the soldiers that guard
him, that he may have relief and that care may be taken of
him, so that your blessed brother be not utterly afflicted. For
let him that is condemned for the name of the Lord God be
esteemed of by you as a holy martyr, an angel of God, or God
upon earth, even one that is spiritually clothed with the Holy
Spirit of God; for through him you see the Lord our Saviour,
inasmuch as he has been found worthy of the incorruptible
crown, and has renewed again the witness of (His) passion.

To those therefore who are bearing witness it is the duty of
all you the faithful to minister with care, and to refresh them
out of your possessions through your bishop. But if there be
a man who has nothing, let him fast, and that which would
have been spent by him that day let him give for his brethren.
But if thou art rich, thou must minister to them according to
thy power, or even give thy whole possession and redeem
them from bonds; for they it is who are worthy of God, and
the sons who perform His will; as the Lord has said: Every
one that shall confess me before men, I also will confess him
before my Father. And you shall not be ashamed to go to
them where they are imprisoned. And when you do these
things, you shall inherit everlasting life, for you become
sharers of their martyrdom. For let us learn how our Lord
said in the Gospel: Come unto me, all ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom which was prepared for you from before
the foundations of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave
me to eat; and I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink. I was a
stranger, and ye gathered me; and I was naked, and ye
covered me. I was sick, and ye visited me; and I was in prison,
and ye came unto me. Then will the righteous answer and say:
Our Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and gave thee to eat or
thirsty, and gave thee to drink or naked, and covered thee or
sick, and did visit thee or a stranger, and gathered thee or in
prison, and came unto thee. And he will answer and say to
them: All that ye did to one of these little and mean ones, ye
did it to me. And then shall they go into life everlasting.

But if there be one who is called a Christian, and he fall
away and be tempted by Satan, and be convicted of evil deeds
and condemned for (his) deeds, whether of theft or murder:
avoid such persons, lest anyone of you be put on trial by
those who seize him. For if one seize thee and question thee,
and say to thee: 'Art thou also a Christian, like this man?"
thou canst not deny that thou art a Christian, but must needs
confess it. But thou wilt not be condemned as a Christian,
but punished as a malefactor. For he asks thee whether thou
art ‘like this man:' and thy confession is rendered void. But if
thou deny, thou hast also denied the Lord. Therefore avoid
them, that you may be without offence. But the faithful who
are violently and unjustly seized and imprisoned as evildoers,
or even bound, help (as) your members with abundant care
and with much pains, that you may deliver them from the
hand of evil men. But if any man come near to them and be
seized with them, and for no offence suffer affliction for his
brother's sake, blessed is he in being called a Christian; for he
has confessed the Lord, and he shall live before God. For ifa
man come near to those who are bound for the name of the
Lord and be seized with them, he shall be blessed in being
found worthy of such company.

And those again who are persecuted for the faith and pass
from city to city, according to the Lord's command, do you
receive and refresh; and when you receive them, rejoice, for
you are made sharers of their persecution, For our Lord
spoke concerning them in the Gospel thus: Blessed are ye,
when they shall persecute you and revile you for my name's
sake. For when a Christian is persecuted and bears witness

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and is slain for the faith, he becomes a man of God; and he is
now no more persecuted by any man, for he has won him
approval of the Lord. But if he deny, and say that he is not a
Christian, he shall be called an offence; and (though) not
persecuted by men, yet is he cast off by God for his denial;
and he shall receive henceforth no portion with the saints in
the kingdom everlasting, according to the Lord's promise,
but his inheritance shall be with the ungodly. For the Lord
God has said: Whosoever shall deny me and my words before
men, or shall be ashamed of me: I also will be ashamed of him,
and will deny him before my Father who is in heaven, when I
come with power and glory to judge the dead and the living.
And again you find it written: Every one that loveth his
father or his mother more than me, is not worthy of me" and
everyone that loveth his son or his daughter more than me, is
not worthy of me; and every one that taketh not up his cross
rejoicing and glad and cometh after me, is not worthy of life;
and every one that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it;
and every one that shall save his life, by denying, shall lose it.
For what shall a man be profited if he acquire the whole
world, and forfeit his soul? or what shall he give in exchange
for his soul? And again: Fear not them that kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul; but fear me rather, that am able
to destroy soul and body in hell.

Now everyone who learns any craft watches his master and
sees how by his skill and his knowledge he executes the work
of his craft; and he himself copies him and executes the work
which he has set him, that he may not be ill spoken of by him.
But if he abate anything of the (tasks) set him, he is not
perfect. We, then, who have our Lord for master and teacher,
why do not we imitate His teaching and His conversation?
For He left riches and favour, and power and glory, and
came thus in poverty; and moreover He parted with Mary
His blessed mother, and with His brethren, and with His life
itself, and endured persecution even unto the cross. And these
things He endured for our sake, that He might redeem us,
who are of the People, from the bonds of the Second
Legislation, of which we have already spoken, and might
redeem you also, who are of the Gentiles, from the worship
of idols and from all ungodliness, and get you for an
inheritance. If then He suffered thus for our sake, to redeem
us who believe in Him, and was not ashamed, why do not we
also imitate His sufferings, while He gives us endurance? --
and this for our own sake, that we may be delivered from the
death of fire. For He endured for our sake, but we for our
own sake. Or has our Lord any need that we should suffer for
Him? Rather it is this alone that He desires, to make proof of
the love of our faith, and of our free will. Let us then part
with our parents and our kinsfolk, and with all that is in this
world, and even with our life.

We must indeed pray that we come not into temptation; yet
if we be called to martyrdom, let us confess when we are
interrogated, and when we suffer let us endure, and when we
are afflicted let us rejoice, and when we are persecuted let us
not grieve; for so doing, not only shall we deliver ourselves
from hell, but we shall also teach those who are young in the

faith, and the hearers, to do the like:? and they shall live
before God. But if we fail in faith towards the Lord, and
deny through the infirmity of the body -- as our Lord said:?
The spirit is willing and ready, but the body is weak -- we
shall not only destroy ourselves, but shall kill also our
brethren with us. For when they see our denial, they will
think that they have been made disciples of an erring
doctrine; and when they stumble, we shall render an account
for them as well as for ourselves, everyone of us, to the Lord
in the day of judgement.

But if thou be taken and brought before the authority, and
deny the hope that thou hast towards the Lord by thy holy
faith, and thou be set at large to-day, but to-morrow fall sick
of a fever and take to thy bed; or if thy stomach ail thee and
retain no food, but vomit it out with grievous pains; or thou
be afflicted with a disease of the belly, or with a disease in one
of thy members; or thou bring up blood and bile from within
thee by reason of dire disorders; or thou have an ulcer in one
of thy members and be cut by the hands of physicians, and die
in manifold afflictions and torments: what then will thy
denial have availed thee which thou hast denied, O man? For
behold, thy soul has inherited pains and afflictions, and thou
hast destroyed thy life for ever before God; and thou shalt
burn and be tormented without respite everlastingly: even as
the Lord has said: Everyone that loveth his life, shall lose it;
and everyone that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.
Now a Christian who denies, loves his life for a little while in
this world, that he may not die for the name of the Lord God;
but he has destroyed himself for ever in fire, for he has fallen
of himself into Gehenna. For Christ has denied him, as He
said in the Gospel: Whosoever shall deny me before men, I
also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven; but
those whom the Lord has denied they put forth and cast into
the outer darkness: and there is their weeping and their
gnashing of teeth. For He said: Everyone that loveth his life
more than me, is not worthy of me.

Let us be earnest then to commit ourselves to the Lord God;
and if any man be found worthy of martyrdom, let him
accept of it with joy, seeing that he has been counted worthy
of so great a crown, and that his departure from this world is
by martyrdom. For the Lord our Saviour has said: There is
no disciple better than his master: but everyone shall be
perfected as his master. Now our Lord consented to all these
His sufferings that He might save us; and He submitted to be
beaten, and that men should blaspheme Him and spit in His
face, and to drink vinegar and gall; and at last He endured
even to be hanged upon the cross. Let us therefore, who are
His disciples, be also His imitators. For if He bore and
endured all things for us, even to the sufferings (of His
passion), how much more ought we, for our own sakes, to be
patient when we suffer? And we ought not to doubt; for so
He has promised us, that if we should be burned with coals of
fire, while we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in God His
Father, the Lord God Almighty, and in His Holy Spirit, -- to
whom be glory and honour for evermore, Amen. --

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 20

Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead.

God Almighty will raise us up through God our Saviour, as
He has promised. And He will raise us up from the dead even
as we are -- in this form in which we now are, but in the great
glory of everlasting life, with nothing wanting to us. For
though we be cast into the depths of the sea, or be scattered
by the winds like chaff, we are still within the world; and the
whole world itself is inclosed beneath the hand of God. From
within His hand therefore will He raise us up: as the Lord
our Saviour has said: A hair of your head shall not perish;
but in your patience ye shall possess your souls.

Now concerning the resurrection, and concerning the glory
of the martyrs, the Lord spoke in Daniel thus: Many that
sleep in the breadth of the earth shall rise up in that day:
some unto life everlasting, and some unto reproach and
shame and dispersion. But they that understand shall shine as
the luminaries which are in the heaven; and they that have
been strengthened by the word, as the stars of heaven. As (of)
the sun, then, and the moon, the luminaries of heaven, (such)
glorious light has He promised to give to them that
understand, and confess His holy name, and bear witness.

But not to the martyrs alone has He promised the
resurrection, but to all men; for He speaks thus in Ezekiel:
The hand of the Lord came upon me: and the Lord brought
me forth in the spirit, and set me in the midst of a valley: and
it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass over against
them: and they were many, and they were exceeding dry. And
he said unto me: Son of man, shall these bones live? And I
said: Thou knowest, Lord Adonai. And the Lord said unto
me: Prophesy unto these bones, and say to them: Ye dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord
Adonai unto these bones: Behold, I will cause the spirit to
enter into you, and ye shall live; and I will put sinews upon
you, and will build up flesh upon you, and will clothe you
with skin; and I will give the spirit in you, and ye shall live:
and ye shall know that Iam the Lord. And I prophesied as he
spake unto me. And as I prophesied, there was made a sound
and a movement; and the bones drew nigh, bone unto bone.
And I saw that there came upon them sinews and flesh, and
skin was stretched over them above: but there was no spirit
in them. And the Lord said unto me: Prophesy unto the
spirit, and say: Thus saith the Lord Adonai: Come, spirit,
from the four winds, and enter into these dead, and they shalt
live. And I prophesied, as he spake unto me: and the spirit
entered into them, and they lived: and they stood upon their
feet in a great army. And the Lord said unto me: Son of man,
these bones are the house of Israel; for they say: Our bones
are dried up, and our hope is perished, and we are not. Thus
saith the Lord Adonai: Behold, I open your graves, and I will
bring you forth from thence, O my people, and wilt bring
you in to the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the
Lord, when I shall open your graves, to bring up my people
from the graves. And I will give my spirit in you, and ye shall
live. And I will cause you to dwell in your land: and ye shall

know that I am the Lord, that have spoken and have
performed it.

And all the inhabitants of the earth shall be silent, saith the
Lord. And again by Isaiah He said: All they that sleep and
are dead shall rise; and all they that are in the graves shall
awake: for thy dew is a dew of healing unto them. But the
land of the wicked shalt perish. And many other things also
He said by Isaiah and by all the prophets concerning the
resurrection and the life everlasting, and concerning the
glory of the righteous; and as touching the wicked also,
concerning their dishonour and exposure and downfall, and
concerning their undoing and overthrow and condemnation.
For that which He said, the land of the wicked shall fall, He
speaks concerning their body; because it is of the earth, and
shall be reckoned unto the earth in dishonour. Because they
served not God, they shall fall into fire and torment. And in
the Twelve Prophets again He speaks thus: Behold, ye wicked,
and see, and understand marvels: and return to corruption.
For I do a work in your days, the which if a man recount it
unto you, ye will not believe. Now these things, and many
more than these, are spoken concerning those who believe
not in the resurrection, and concerning those who deny God,
and those who serve not God, and concerning transgressors
of the law and the heathen; and when they shall see the glory
of the faithful, they will be turned back to be destroyed in
fire, because they believed not.

But we have learned and have believed; and by our Lord's
resurrection from the dead is made sure to us the resurrection
which God, who lies not, has promised us. For our Saviour,
by rising Himself first, was made an earnest also of our
resurrection. And those also who are called from the Gentiles,
and even the heathen, read and hear concerning the
resurrection that which is spoken and proclaimed to them by
the Sibyl thus: When all things have been made dust and
ashes, God Most High will allay the fire, even he that kindled
it. And then again will God himself raise up the bones and
the ashes of men, and will clothe them with their form. For
he will raise up men as they were before: and then shall be the
judgement, wherein God will judge in the world to come.
And the wicked and the ungodly the earth will cover again;
(but) the just and the righteous shall live in the living world.
And God will give them spirit and grace and life: and then
shall they all see one another. And not only by the Sibyl,
brethren, was the resurrection preached to the Gentiles, but
by the holy Scriptures also our Lord proclaimed beforehand,
to the Jews and the heathen and Christians at once, and
announced the resurrection of the dead which is to be for
men; and even by a dumb bird, we mean the Phoenix. which
is but one alone, by means whereof God gives us again
abundant demonstration of the resurrection. For if he had a
mate, many would be seen by men; but now one only is seen,
once in five hundred years. which enters Egypt and comes to
the altar which is called 'of the Sun' bringing cinnamon. And
as he prays toward the East, a fire is kindled of itself and
burns him up, and he is reduced to ashes. And from the ashes
again there is formed a worm; and it grows in his form and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

becomes a perfect Phoenix. And then he departs and goes
away whence he came.? If then by means of a dumb animal
God shows us concerning the resurrection, we who believe in
the resurrection and in the promise of God ought much more,
as men deemed worthy of so great glory that we should
receive an incorruptible crown in the life everlasting, to
rejoice, if martyrdom come to us, in the great grace and in
the honour and glory of martyrdom for God, and to accept
of it joyfully with all our soul, and to believe in the Lord
God who will raise us up in glorious light. As in the
beginning God commanded by a word, and the world was
made, and said: Let there be light, and night and day, and
heaven and earth and sea, and birds and living creatures of
the sea, and creeping things of the earth and fourfooted
beasts, and trees; and everything was made by His word and
established in its nature, as the Scripture has said: these
works themselves, which came into being through the
obedience which they rendered Him, bear witness to God
who made them that by Him they were made from that which
was not; and they also show a sign of the resurrection. As
then He made every thing, so will He the more rather
quicken and raise up man, who is of His own forming. For if
from that which was not He fashioned and established the
world, much easier is this, that from that which is He should
quicken and raise up man, who is the formation of His hands:
even as also, in the human seed, He clothes man in the womb
with a form and causes him to grow.

If then He raises up all men, -- as He said by Isaiah: All flesh
shall see the salvation of God, -- much more will He quicken
and raise up the faithful; and (yet more) again will He
quicken and raise up the faithful of the faithful, who are the
martyrs, and establish them in great glory and make them
His counsellors. For to mere disciples, those who believe in
Him, He has promised a glory as of the stars; but to the
martyrs He has promised to give an everlasting glory, as of
the luminaries which fail not, with more abundant light, that
they may be shining for all time.

As disciples of Christ, therefore, let us believe that we shall
receive from Him all the good things which He has promised
us in the life everlasting; and so let us imitate all His teaching
and His patience. For as touching His birth from a virgin,
and His coming, and the will of His passion, we have
assurance through His holy Scriptures, even as the prophets
foreannounced and foretold all things concerning His
coming, and all have been accomplished and established in
our hearts: for even the demons, trembling before His name,
lauded His advent. Concerning those, therefore, which have
come to pass of the things we have already mentioned, you
also have believed and have been fully assured; but we yet
more, who were with Him and have seen Him with our eyes,
and have eaten with Him, and have been made the associates
and witnesses of His coming. As touching also His great and
unspeakable gifts which He is yet to give us, according as He
has promised, let us believe and hope that we shall receive
them; for (by this) is all our faith put to the proof, if we
believe in (those) His promises which are yet to be (fulfilled).

If then we are called to martyrdom for His name, and go
forth from the world confessing (Him), we shall be pardoned
all sins and offences, and shall be found pure. For He spoke
in David concerning the martyrs thus: Blessed are they whose
iniquity is forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord shall not impute his sins. Blessed
therefore are the martyrs, and clear of all offences; for they
have been removed and taken away from all iniquity: as He
said in Isaiah of Christ and of His martyrs: Behold, the
righteous (man) is perished, and there is none that
understandeth; and godly men are taken away, and no man
layeth it to heart. For the righteous is gathered up from the
presence of evil: and his burial shall be in peace. Now these
things are said of those who bear witness for the name of
Christ.

But again, sins are forgiven by baptism also to those who
from the Gentiles draw near and enter the holy Church of
God. Let us inquire also, to whom sins are not imputed. To
such as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs,
as also to the martyrs. Let us hear then, brethren, for the
Scripture saith: Who shall boast himself and say: I am clear
of sins? Or who shall be confident and say: I am innocent?
And again: There is no man pure of defilement: not though
his life be but one day. To everyone therefore who believes
and is baptised his former sins have been forgiven; but after
baptism also, provided that he has not sinned a deadly sin
nor been an accomplice (thereto), but has heard only, or seen,
or spoken, and is thus guilty of sin. But if a man go forth
from the world by martyrdom for the name of the Lord,
blessed is he; for brethren who by martyrdom have gone
forth from this world, of these the sins are covered.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 21

Concerning the Pascha and the Resurrection of Christ our
Saviour.

Wherefore, a Christian ought to keep himself from vain
speech and from words of levity and profanity. For not even
on Sundays, in which we rejoice and make good cheer, is it
permitted to anyone to speak a word of levity or one alien to
religion: as our Lord also teaches us in the Psalm by David,
saying thus: And now, ye kings, understand; and be
instructed, all ye judges of the earth, Serve the Lord with
fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling. Give ye heed to
discipline, lest the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the way
of justice: for his wrath will shortly be kindled against you.
Blessed are all they that trust on him. We must conduct our
festivals and our rejoicings, then, with fear and trembling;
for a faithful Christian, it saith, must not sing the songs of
the heathen, nor have anything to do with the laws and
doctrines of strange assemblies; for it may happen that
through (their) songs he will make mention also of the name
of idols, which God forbid that it should be done by the
faithful; for the Lord by Jeremiah upbraids certain folk and
speaks thus: They have left me, and have sworn by them that
be no gods. And again He saith: If Israel will return, let him
return unto me, saith the Lord; and if he will put away his

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abominations out of his mouth, and will fear before my face,
and swear, As the Lord liveth. And again He saith: I will
take away the name of idols out of your mouth. And by
Moses again He saith to them: They have provoked me to
jealousy by that which is no god; and with their idols they
have angered me. And in all the Scriptures He speaks of these
things.

And not by idols only is it not lawful for the faithful to
swear, but neither by the sun, nor by the moon; for the Lord
God speaks by Moses thus: My people, if ye shall see the sun
and the moon, ye shall not be led astray by them, and ye shall
not serve them: for these have been given you for light upon
the earth. And by Jeremiah again He saith: Ye shall not learn
according to the ways of the gentiles; and ye shall not fear
the signs of heaven. And by Ezekiel He speaks thus: And he
brought me in to the court of the house of the Lord, between
the porch and the altar. And I saw there men whose backs
were toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward
the east: and they were worshipping the sun. And the Lord
said unto me: Son of man, is this a light thing to the house of
Judah to do these abominations which they do here, that
they have filled the earth with iniquity, and have turned
again to provoke me to anger? And they are become as
scoffers: but I will deal (with them) in wrath; and mine eye
shall not spare, and I will not have mercy. And they shall cry
in mine ears with a loud voice, and I will not hear them. You
see, our beloved, how sternly and bitterly sentence is passed
on those who worship the sun or swear thereby, that the
Lord should deal in His wrath. Therefore it is not lawful for
a believer to swear, neither by the sun nor by any other of the
signs of heaven or the elements; nor to make mention with
his mouth of the name of idols; nor to utter a curse out of his
mouth, but rather blessings and psalms and (words from) the
dominical and divine Scriptures, which are the firm
foundation of our faith: and especially in the days of the
Pascha, wherein all the faithful throughout the world fast; as
our Lord and Teacher said when they asked Him: Why do
John's disciples fast, but thine fast not? And he answered and
said to them: The sons of the bridechamber cannot fast, as
long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days will come
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them: and
then they shall fast in those days. But now by His working is
He with us, but visibly He is absent, because He has ascended
to the heights of heaven and sat at the right hand of His
Father.

Wherefore, when you fast, pray and intercede for them that
are lost; as we also did when our Saviour suffered. For while
He was yet with us before He suffered, as we were eating the
Passover with Him, He said to us: To-day, in this night, one
of you will betray me. And we said unto Him, each one of us:
Is it I, Lord? And he answered and said to us: He that putteth
forth his hand with me into the dish. And Judas Iscariot, who
was one of us, rose up and went his way to betray Him. Then
our Lord said to us: Verily I say unto you, a little while and
ye will leave me; for it is written: I will strike the shepherd,
and the lambs of his flock shall be scattered. And Judas came

with the scribes and with the priests of the people, and
betrayed our Lord Jesus.

Now this was done on the fourth day of the week. For when
we had eaten the passover on the third day of the week at
even, we went forth to the Mount of Olives; and in the night
they seized our Lord Jesus. And the next day, which was the
fourth of the week, He remained in ward in the house of
Caiaphas the high priest. And on the same day the chiefs of
the people were assembled and took counsel against Him.
And on the next day again, which was the fifth of the week,
they brought Him to Pilate the governor. And He remained
again in ward with Pilate the night after the fifth day of the
week. But when it drew on (towards day) on the Friday, they
accused him much before Pilate; and they could show
nothing that was true, but gave false witness against Him.
And they asked Him of Pilate to be put to death; and they
crucified Him on the same Friday.

He suffered, then, at the sixth hour on Friday. And these
hours wherein our Lord was crucified were reckoned a day.
And afterwards, again, there was darkness for three hours;
and it was reckoned a night. And again, from the ninth hour
until evening, three hours, (reckoned) a day. And afterwards
again, (there was) the night of the Sabbath of the Passion. --
But in the Gospel of Matthew it is thus written: At even on
the sabbath, when the first day of the week drew on, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb. And
there was a great earthquake: for an angel of the Lord came
down and rolled away the stone. -- And again (there was) the
day of the Sabbath; and then three hours of the night after
the Sabbath, wherein our Lord slept. And that was fulfilled
which He said: The Son of man must pass three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth, as it is written in the
Gospel. And again it is written in David: Behold, thou hast
set my days in measure. Now because those days and nights
came short, it was so written.

In the night, therefore, when the first day of the week drew
on, He appeared to Mary Magdalene and to Mary the
daughter of James; and in the morning of the first day of the
week He went in to (the house of) Levi; and then He appeared
also to us ourselves. And He said to us, teaching us: Are ye
fasting for Me these days? or have I any need that ye should
afflict yourselves? But it is for your brethren that ye have
done this; and do ye the same in these days when ye fast, and
on the fourth of the week and on the Friday always, as it is
written in Zechariah: The fourth fast, and the fifth fast,
which is the Friday. For it is not lawful to you to fast on the
first of the week, because it is My resurrection; wherefore the
first of the week is not counted in the number of the days of
the Fast of the Passion, but they are counted from the second
day of the week, and are five days. Wherefore, The fourth fast,
and the fifth fast, and the seventh fast, and the tenth fast shall
be to the house of Israel. Fast then from the second day of the
week, six days wholly, until the night after the Sabbath; and
it shall be reckoned to you as a week. But the tenth, --
because the beginning of My name is Yod, -- wherein was
made the inception of the fasts. But (fast) not after the

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custom of the former People, but according to the new
testament which I have appointed you: that you may be
fasting for them on the fourth day of the week, because on
the fourth of the week they began to destroy their souls, and
apprehended Me. -- For the night after the third of the week
belongs to the fourth of the week, as it is written: There was
evening and there was morning, one day. The evening
therefore belongs to the following day: for on the third of
the week at even I ate My Pascha with you, and in the night
they apprehended Me. -- But fast for them also on the Friday,
because thereon they crucified Me, in the midst of their
festival of unleavened bread, as it is said of old in David: In
the midst of their festivals they set their signs, and they knew
not.

"And be ye constant in fasting during these days always, and
especially you who are of the Gentiles. For because the
People was not obedient, I delivered them (the Gentiles)
from blindness and from the error of idols and received them:
that through your fast and theirs who are of the Gentiles,
and your service during those days, when you pray and
intercede for the error and destruction of the People, your
prayer and intercession may be accepted before My Father
who is in heaven, as though from one mouth of all the
faithful on earth; and (that) all things which they did unto
Me may be forgiven them. For this cause also I have already
said to you in the Gospel: Pray for your enemies, and:
Blessed are they that mourn, over the destruction of them
that believe not.'

Know therefore, our brethren, that (as regards) our fast
which we fast in the Pascha, it is on account of the
disobedience of our brethren that you are to fast. For even
though they hate you, yet ought we to call them brethren;
for we have it written in Isaiah thus: Call them brethren that
hate and reject you, that the name of the Lord may be
glorified, For their sake therefore, and for the judgement
and destruction of the (holy) place, we ought to fast and to
mourn, that we may be glad and take our pleasure in the
world to come; as it is written in Isaiah: Rejoice, all ye that
mourn over Zion; and again He saith: To comfort all them
that mourn over Zion: instead of ashes, the oil of gladness;
and instead of a spirit afflicted with pain, a vesture of glory.

We ought then to take pity on them, and to have faith and
to fast and to pray for them. For when our Lord came to the
People, they did not believe Him when He taught them, but
put away His teaching from their ears. Therefore, because
this People was not obedient, He received you, the brethren
who are of the Gentiles, and opened your ears that your
heart might hear; as our Lord and Saviour Himself said by
the prophet Isaiah: I appeared unto them that asked not after
me, and I was found of them that sought me not; and I said,
Behold, I am here, to a people that called not (upon) my
name. Now of whom did He speak thus? Was it not of the
Gentiles, because that they had never known God, and
because that they were serving idols? But when our Lord
came to the world and taught you, you believed, you who
have believed in Him, that God is one; and they also who are

worthy shall believe, until the number is filled up of them
that are to be saved, a thousand thousand, and ten thousand
times ten thousand, as it is written in David.

But concerning the People, who believed not in Him, He
said thus: I spread forth my hands all the day long to a
people that obey not and resist, and walk in a way that is not
good, and go after their sins: a people that is provoking
before me. See, then, that the People provoked our Lord in
that they believed not in Him. Wherefore he saith: They
provoked the holy Spirit; and he was turned to enmity unto
them. And again He speaks otherwise of them by Isaiah the
prophet: Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, the way of the
sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations, a people that
sitteth in darkness: ye have seen a great light; and they that
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, light is risen upon
them. They that sit in darkness He said concerning those who
have believed in our Lord Jesus from (among) the People.
For by reason of the blindness of the People a great darkness
was round about them. For they saw Jesus, but that He is the
Christ they knew not; and they understood Him not, neither
from the writings of the prophets nor from His works and
His healings. But to you of the People who have believed in
Jesus we say: Learn how the Scripture bears witness to us and
saith, they have seen a great light. You then who have
believed in Him have seen a great light, even Jesus Christ our
Lord; and they also shall see who are (yet) to believe in Him,
But they that sit in the shadow of death are you who are of
the Gentiles; for you were in the shadow of death, because
you had set your hope on the worship of idols, and knew not
God. But when Jesus Christ our Lord and Teacher appeared
to us, light rose upon you, for you beheld and set your hope
on the promise of the kingdom everlasting; and you have
departed from the customs and practices of (your) former
error, and no more serve idols as you were wont to serve
them, but have already believed and been baptised in Him:
and a great light is risen upon you.

Thus then, because the People were not obedient, they were
made darkness; but the hearing of the ear of you who are of
the Gentiles was made light. Wherefore, do you pray and
intercede for them, and especially in the days of the Pascha,
that by your prayers they may be found worthy of forgiveness,
and may return to our Lord Jesus Christ.

It behoves you then, our brethren, in the days of the Pascha
to make inquiry with diligence and to keep your fast with all
care. And do you make a beginning when your brethren who
are of the People keep the Passover. For when our Lord and
Teacher ate the Passover with us, He was betrayed by Judas
after that hour; and immediately we began to be sorrowful,
because He was taken from us. By the number of the moon, as
we count according to the reckoning of the believing
Hebrews, on the tenth of the moon, on the second day of the
week, the priests and elders of the people assembled and came
to the court of Caiaphas the high priest; and they took
counsel to apprehend Jesus and put him to death: but they
feared, saying: Not in the festival, lest the people make a
tumult; for all men were hanging upon Him, and they held

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him for a prophet on account of His miracles of healing
which He did among them. But Jesus was that day in the
house of Simon the leper, and we together with Him, and He
related to us that which was about to happen to Him. But
Judas went out privily from us, thinking that he would evade
our Lord, and went to the house of Caiaphas where the chief
priests and elders were assembled, and said to them: What
will ye give me, and I will betray Him to you when I have
found an occasion? But they appointed and gave him thirty
pieces of silver. And he said to them: 'Make ready young men
armed, because of His disciples, that if He go forth by night
to a desert place I may come and lead you.' And they made
ready the young men and prepared to seize Him. And Judas
was watching, when he might find him an occasion to betray
him.

But by reason of the multitudes of all the people, from every
city and from all the villages, who were coming up to the
temple to keep the Passover in Jerusalem, the priests and
elders took counsel and commanded and appointed that they
should keep the festival straightway, that they might seize
Him without disturbance. For the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were engaged with the sacrifice and the eating of the
Passover; and moreover, all the people that were without
were not yet come, for they had deceived them as to the days.
That they might be convicted before God of erring utterly in
all things, therefore they anticipated the Passover by three
days, and kept it on the eleventh of the moon, on the third
day of the week. For they said: 'Because the whole people is
gone astray after Him, now that we have an occasion let us
seize Him; and then, when all the people are come, let us put
Him to death before all, that this may be known openly, and
all the people may turn back from after Him."

And so in the night when the fourth day of the week drew
on, (Judas) betrayed our Lord to them. But they made the
payment to Judas on the tenth of the month, on the second
day of the week; wherefore they were accounted by God as
though on the second day of the week they had seized Him,
because on the second of the week they had taken counsel to
seize Him and put Him to death; and they accomplished their
malice on the Friday: as Moses had said concerning the
Passover, thus: It shall be kept by you from the tenth until
the fourteenth: and then all Israel shall sacrifice the passover.

Therefore you shall fast in the days of the Pascha from the
tenth, which is the second day of the week; and you shall
sustain yourselves with bread and salt and water only, at the
ninth hour, until the fifth day of the week. But on the Friday
and on the Sabbath fast wholly, and taste nothing. You shall
come together and watch and keep vigil all the night with
prayers and intercessions, and with reading of the Prophets,
and with the Gospel and with Psalms, with fear and
trembling and with earnest supplication, until the third hour
in the night after the Sabbath; and then break your fasts. For
thus did we also fast, when our Lord suffered, for a testimony
of the three days; and we were keeping vigil and praying and
interceding for the destruction of the People, because that
they erred and confessed not our Saviour. So do you also

pray that the Lord may not remember their guilt against
them unto the end for the guile which they used against our
Lord, but may grant them a place of repentance and
conversion, and forgiveness of their wickedness.

For he who was a heathen and of a foreign people, Pilate
the judge, did not consent to their deeds of wickedness, but
took water and washed his hands, and said: I am innocent of
the blood of this man. But the People answered and said: His
blood be upon us, and upon our children; and Herod
commanded that He should be crucified; and our Lord
suffered for us on the Friday. Especially incumbent on you
therefore is the fast of the Friday and of the Sabbath; and
likewise the vigil and watching of the Sabbath, and the
reading of the Scriptures, and psalms, and prayer and
intercession for them that have sinned, and the expectation
and hope of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, until the
third hour in the night after the Sabbath. And then offer
your oblations; and thereafter eat and make good cheer, and
rejoice and be glad, because that the earnest of our
resurrection, Christ, is risen. And this shall be a law to you
for ever, unto the end of the world. For to those who have
not believed in our Saviour He is dead, because their hope in
Him is dead; but to you who believe, our Lord and Saviour is
risen, because your hope in Him is immortal and living for
ever.

Fast then on the Friday, because thereon the People killed
themselves in crucifying our Saviour; and on the Sabbath
also, because it is the sleep (p. 94) of our Lord; for it is a day
which ought especially to be kept with fasting: even as
blessed Moses also, the prophet of all (things touching) this
matter, commanded. For because he knew by the Holy Spirit
and it was commanded him by Almighty God, who knew
what the People were to do to His Son and His beloved Jesus
Christ, -- as even then they denied Him in the person of
Moses, and said: Who hath appointed thee head and judge
over us? -- therefore he bound them beforehand with
mourning perpetually, in that he set apart and appointed the
Sabbath for them. For they deserved to mourn, because they
denied their Life, and laid hands upon their Saviour and
delivered Him to death. Wherefore, already from that time
there was laid upon them a mourning for their destruction.

But let us observe and see, brethren, that most men in their
mourning imitate the Sabbath; and they likewise who keep
Sabbath imitate mourning. For he that mourns kindles no
light: neither do the People on the Sabbath, because of the
commandment of Moses; for so it was commanded them by
him. He that mourns takes no bath: nor yet the People on the
Sabbath. He that mourns does not prepare a table: neither do
the People on the Sabbath, but prepare and lay for
themselves the evening before; because they have a
presentiment of mourning, seeing that they were to lay hands
on Jesus. He that mourns does no work, and does not speak,
but sits in sorrow: so too the People on the Sabbath; for it
was said to the People concerning the mourning of the
Sabbath thus: Thou shalt not lift thy foot to do any work,
and thou shalt speak no word out of thy mouth. Now who

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testifies that the Sabbath is a mourning for them? The
Scripture testifies, and saith: Then shall the people lament,
family over against family: the family of the house of Levi
apart, and their women apart; the house of Judah apart, and
their women apart: even as, after the mourning of Christ
until now, on the ninth of the month of Ab (August) they
come together and read the Lamentations of Jeremiah? and
wail and lament. Now nine represents Theta; but Theta
denotes God. For God therefore they lament, even for Christ
who suffered -- rather, on account of God our Saviour, but
over themselves and their own destruction. Does any man
lament, brethren, except he have a grief? Therefore do you
also mourn for them on the day of the Sabbath of the Pascha
until the third hour in the night following; and thereafter, in
the Resurrection of Christ, rejoice and make good cheer for
their sake, and break your fast; and the surplus of your fast
of six days offer to the Lord God, And let those of you who
have abundance or worldly possessions minister diligently to
those who are poor and needy and refresh them, that the
reward of your fast may be received.

Wherever, then, the Fourteenth of the Pascha falls, so keep
it; for neither the month nor the day squares with the same
season every year, but is variable. When therefore that
People keeps the Passover, do you fast; and be careful to
perform your vigil within their (feast of) unleavened bread.
But on the first day of the week make good cheer at all times;
for he is guilty of sin, whosoever afflicts his soul on the first
of the ac week. And hence it is not lawful, apart from the
Pascha, for anyone to fast during those three hours of the
night between the Sabbath and the first of the week, because
that night belongs to the first of the week; but in the Pascha
alone you are to fast these three hours of that night, being
assembled together, you who are Christians, in the Lord.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 22

That Children should be taught Crafts.

And teach your children crafts that are agreeable and
befitting to religion, lest through idleness they give
themselves to wantonness. For if they are not corrected by
their parents, they will do those things that are evil, like the
heathen. Therefore spare not to rebuke and correct and teach
them; for you will not kill them by chastising them, but
rather save them alive: as our Lord also teaches us in Wisdom,
saying thus: Chasten thy son, that there may be hope for him:
for thou shalt strike him with a rod, and deliver his soul from
Sheol. And He saith again: Whosoever spareth his rod,
hateth his son. Now our rod is the Word of God, Jesus Christ:
even as Jeremiah also saw Him (as) an almond rod. Every
man accordingly who spares to speak a word of rebuke to his
son, hates his son. Therefore teach your sons the word of the
Lord, and punish them with stripes, and bring them into
subjection from their youth by your word of religion. And
give them no liberty to set themselves up against you their
parents; and let them do nothing without your counsel, lest
they go with those of their own age and meet together and
carouse; for in this way they learn mischief, and are caught

and fall into fornication. Now, whether this happen to them
without their parents, their parents themselves will be
accountable before God for the judgement of their souls; or
whether again by your licence they are undisciplined and sin,
you their parents will likewise be guilty on their account
before God. Therefore be careful to take wives for them, and
have them married when their time is come, lest in their early
age by the ardour of youth they commit fornication like the
heathen, and you have to render an account to the Lord God
in the day of judgement.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 23

On Heresies and Schisms.

Before all things beware of all abominable and evil and
bitter heresies, and fly from them as from a blazing fire, and
from those who adhere to them. For if when a man makes a
schism, he condemns himself to fire together with those who
go astray after him, how much more if one go and sink
himself in the heresies. For know this, that if any of you
covet the primacy and dare to make a schism, he shall inherit
the place of Korah and Dathan and Abiram, he and they that
are with him, and with them he shall be condemned to fire.
For even the adherents of Korah were Levites, and
ministered in the tabernacle of witness; but they coveted the
primacy, and desired the high priesthood; and they began to
speak evil of the great Moses, because, said they, he is
married to a heathen woman -- for he had an Ethiopian wife
-- and is defiled with her; and many others, and they of the
following of Zimri, who committed fornication with the
Midianite women, are with him. And the people, said they,
that are with him are defiled; and his brother Aaron, too,
was the author of idolatry, who made for his people the
molten and graven image.

And they spoke evil of Moses, who wrought so many
mighty works and signs from God for the People; who did
these excellent and marvellous works for their benefit; who
brought the ten plagues upon the Egyptians; who divided the
Red Sea that the waters stood up as a wall on this side and on
that, and caused the People to pass over as in the dry desert,
and drowned their enemies and them that evil entreated them,
and all that were with them; who made sweet for them the
fountain of water, and brought them forth streams from the
flinty rock, so that they drank and were satisfied; who
brought them down manna from heaven, and with the manna
gave them also flesh ; who gave them a pillar of fire by night
for light and guidance, and a cloud by day for a covert, and
in the desert stretched forth the hand to them for the
dispensation of the Law, and gave them the Ten Words of
God. And they spoke evil against the friend and good servant
of the Lord God, as men glorying in righteousness, and
boasting of holiness, and making a show of purity, and in
hypocrisy making a display of service.

And thus, as puritans and sticklers for holiness, they said:
"Let us not be polluted with Moses and the people that is
with him, because they are defiled.' And there rose up two
hundred and fifty men, and they (Korah, &c.) led them astray

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to forsake the great Moses, that (men) might suppose
concerning them that they were giving God more glory and
ministering to Him more zealously. For among that
multitude of the people aforesaid but one censer of incense
was offered to the Lord God; but they who were in the
schism, two hundred and fifty men with their leaders, offered
each one a censer of incense, two hundred and fifty censers, as
though forsooth they were far more religious and pure and
zealous than Moses and Aaron and the people that was with
them. But the more numerous ministry of those in the schism
availed them nothing, but fire was kindled from before the
Lord, and devoured them; and those two hundred and fifty
men were burned up, holding the censers in their hands. And
the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah and
Dathan and Abiram, and their tents and their vessels, and all
that were with them: and they went down alive to Sheol unto
punishment. And thus were the error-leaders of the schism
swallowed up by the earth; and those two hundred and fifty
men who went astray were burned with fire while the whole
people beheld it. But the most of the people the Lord spared,
among whom were many sinners, whom the Lord would
judge each according to his works. And the most of the
people He spared; but those who supposed that they were
pure and holy, and performing a better ministry, the fire
devoured, because that they were in the schism. And the Lord
said to Moses and to Aaron: Take the censers of brass from
the midst of the burning, and make (of) them fine plates, and
overlay the altar therewith; that the children of Israel may
see, and no more do so. And scatter the strange fire there;
because it hath sanctified the censers of (them that were)
sinners in their souls.

Let us regard therefore and see, beloved, the end of the
schismatics, what befell them. For though they should
appear pure and holy and chaste, their last end is given unto
fire and burning everlasting. Let this then inspire you with

fear, that even the fire of the schismatics was judged with fire:

not because it sanctified the censers, but because they in their
souls sanctified them; that is, forasmuch as the fire was
performing its work, they also supposed in their heart, and
in their souls, that their censers were holy. For it behoved
the fire, which was employed for the ministry of
transgression and the provocation of God, not to obey them
but to cease from its operation, or to be quenched, and not to
devour or burn or consume that which was put upon it. But
now, because it did not the will of the Lord God, but obeyed
the schismatics, therefore it was said: And scatter also the
strange fire there; that is, with fire the Lord judgeth the fire.
If therefore upon those schismatics, who supposed that they
were glorifying God, this threat and judgement was laid,
what will happen to these heretics who blaspheme Him? Do
you then, when you see from the Scriptures with the eyes of
faith the plates of brass laid over the altar, beware of making
schisms. For the adherents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram
were made a monument and example of the destruction of
schismatics; and everyone who imitates them shall perish
even as they. As men therefore who believe and know, keep

yourselves far from schisms, and go not near them in any wise:
as Moses said concerning them to the people: Separate
yourselves from among these stubborn men, and come not
near to any thing that is theirs, lest ye perish with them in all
their sins. And when the anger of the Lord had burned
against the schismatics, it is written that the people fled from
them, and said: Lest the earth swallow us also with them. So
then do you also, as men contending for their lives, flee from
schisms; and those who would do any such thing reject, for
you know the place of their condemnation.

But as for heresies, be unwilling even to hear their names,
and defile not your ears (with them); for not only do they in
no wise glorify God, but they verily blaspheme against Him.
Wherefore, the heathen are judged because they have not
known, but the heretics are condemned because they
withstand God: as also our Lord and Saviour Jesus said:
There shall be heresies and schisms: and again: Woe unto the
world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals
and schisms come: yet woe to the man by whom they come.

Then indeed we did but hear, but now we have also seen,
even as the Scripture declares by Jeremiah saying: Defilement
is gone forth in all the earth. Now these defilements, of
heresies, are gone forth; and they have come about for the
persuasion of our hearts, and for the confirming of our belief
that those things which were foretold are true; for behold,
they have come to pass and are accomplished. For all the
working of the Lord our God has passed from the People to
the Church through us the Apostles; and He has withdrawn
Himself and left the People, as it is written in Isaiah: He hath
left his people the house of Jacob; and: Jerusalem is deserted,
and Judah is fallen. And their tongues are (busy) with
iniquity, and they obey not the Lord; and: I will leave (my)
vineyard; and: Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

He has left that People, therefore, and has filled the Church;
and He has accounted her a mountain of habitation, and
throne of glory, and lofty house, as He said in David: The
mount of the Lord is a mountain of fatness, a mountain of
peaks. What think ye of the mountain of peaks? It is the
mountain which the Lord hath chosen him to dwell therein:
the Lord shall abide therein for ever. You see then how He
saith to others: What think ye? even to those who err (in
thinking) that there are other churches: for one is she that is
the mountain of God's sanctuary. And by Isaiah He said
again: In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord,
the God of Jacob, shall be established on the top of the
mountains, and higher than the hills; and all nations shall
look unto it; and many peoples shall go and say: Come, let us
go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he shall teach us his way, and we will go
therein. And again He said: There shall be signs and wonders
in the midst of the people from the Lord of Sabaoth, and him
that dwelleth in Mount Zion. And again by Jeremiah He said:
A high throne is our sanctuary. As then He left the People, so
did He leave their temple to them desolate; and He rent the
veil, and took away from it the Holy Spirit, and shed Him
upon them that believed from among the Gentiles, as He said

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by Joel: I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. For He
took away the Holy Spirit, and the power of the word, and
all the ministry from that People, and set it in His Church.
Now in like manner did Satan also, the tempter, depart from
that People and come against the Church. And he now no
longer tempts that People, because by their evil works they
have fallen into his hands, but he has set about to tempt the
Church and to exercise his agency in her. And he has raised
up against her afflictions and persecutions, and blasphemies
and heresies and schisms.

Formerly indeed, in that time, there were heresies and
schisms in that People; but now Satan by his evil agency has
driven forth (some) that were of the Church, and has made
heresies and schisms.

Now the beginning of heresies was on this wise. Satan
clothed himself in a certain Simon, one that was a magician
and his minister of old; and when we, by the gift of the Lord
our God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, were working
miracles of healing in Jerusalem, and by the laying on of our
hand the fellowship of the Holy Spirit was given to those
who drew nigh (to the faith), then he offered us much money,
and desired that, as he had deprived Adam of the knowledge
of life through eating of the tree, so by the gift of money he
might deprive us also of the gift of God, and might take
captive our minds with the bestowal of possessions, to the
end that we should barter away and give to him for money
the power of the Holy Spirit. Hereupon were we all stirred
up; then Peter looked upon Satan, who was dwelling in
Simon, and said to him: Thy money go with thee to perdition:
but thou shalt have no part in this word.

But when we had divided the whole world into twelve parts,
and were gone forth among the Gentiles into all the world to
preach the word, then Satan set about and stirred up the
People to send after us false apostles for the undoing of the
word. And he sent out from the People one whose name was
Cleobius, and joined him to Simon, and others also after
them.

Now the party of Simon followed hard upon me Peter, and
came to corrupt the word. And when he was in Rome he
disturbed the Church much and subverted many; and he even
made a show as though he would fly. And he was capturing
the Gentiles, moving them by the power and agency of his
magic arts. And on a certain day I went and saw him flying in
the air; then I stood still, and said: 'By the power of the name
of Jesus I cut off thy powers.' And he fell and broke the ankle-
bone of his foot. And then many turned back from him; but
others, worthy of him, continued with him. And thus was
that his heresy first established. And by other false prophets
beside was the enemy working.

And they all had one law upon earth, that they should not
employ the Torah and the Prophets, and that they should
blaspheme God Almighty, and should not believe in the
resurrection. And in other respects they were teaching and
disturbing (men) with many opinions. For many of them
taught that a man should not marry, saying that if one did
not marry, this was holiness; and in the name of holiness they

were commending the tenets of their heresies. Others again of
them taught that a man might not eat flesh, saying that no
one might eat any thing wherein there is a soul. But others
said that one was bound to abstain from swine's flesh only,
but might eat those things which the Law pronounces clean,
and that he should be circumcised according to the Law. And
some taught this, and some that, causing contentions and
disturbing the Churches.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 24

On the ordering of the Church: showing also that the
Apostles came together for the correction of abuses. Now
already we had rightly preached the holy word of the
Catholic Church; and we returned once more to come to the
Churches, and found men occupied with other opinions. For
some forsooth were observing holiness; and some abstained
from flesh and from wine, and some from swine's flesh; and
they were observing (some or other) of all the bonds which
are in the Second Legislation.

When therefore the whole Church was in peril of falling
into heresy, all we the twelve Apostles came together to
Jerusalem and took thought what should be done. And it
seemed good to us, being all of one accord, to write this
Catholic Didascalia for the confirming of you all. And we
have established and set down therein that you worship God
Almighty and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; that you
employ the holy Scriptures, and believe in the resurrection of
the dead; and that you make use of all His creatures with
thanksgiving; and that men should marry: for He saith in
Proverbs: Of God is a woman betrothed to a man; and in the
Gospel again our Lord saith: He that created from the
beginning the male, said that he created also the female.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave to his wife: and they two shall be one body. What
therefore God hath coupled, let not man separate. But
sufficient for the faithful is the circumcision of the heart,
(which is) spiritual, as He said by Jeremiah: Light you a lamp,
and sow not among thorns. Be circumcised unto the Lord
your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart, ye men
of Judah. And again in Joel He saith: Rend your hearts, and
not your garments. And as for baptism also, one is enough
for you, even that which has perfectly forgiven you your sins.
For Isaiah said not (only) Wash, but Wash, and be cleansed.

Now we had much questioning, as men contending for life;
and not we the Apostles only, but also the people, together
with James the bishop of Jerusalem, who is our Lord's
brother after the flesh, and with his presbyters and deacons
and all the Church. For also some days before, certain men
had come down from Judaea to Antioch, and were teaching
the brethren, (saying): Except ye be circumcised and conduct
yourselves according to the law of Moses, and keep
yourselves clean from meats, and all the rest, ye cannot be
saved; and they had much conflict and questioning, And
when the brethren of Antioch knew that we were all
assembled and come to make inquiry of these matters, they
sent to us certain men (that were) believers and had

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knowledge of the Scriptures to learn concerning this
question, And when they were come to Jerusalem, they
related to us the controversy which they had in the Church of
Antioch, And there rose up certain (men) who had believed
from the sect of the Pharisees, saying: Ye ought to be
circumcised and to keep the law of Moses. And others also
were crying out and saying in like manner. Then I Peter rose
up and said to them:? 'Men, brethren, ye yourselves know
that from the first days when I was among you, God made
choice that by my hands the gentiles should hear the gospel
and believe. And God, who proveth the hearts, gave witness
of them; for to Cornelius, a certain centurion, there had
appeared an angel and told him of me; and he sent for me.
But when I was ready to go to him, it was shown me
concerning the Gentiles that they were about to believe, and
concerning all meats. For I had gone up to a housetop to
pray; and I saw the heavens opened, and a certain vessel, that
was tied by its four corners, being lowered and let down
upon the earth; and there were therein all manner of
fourfooted beasts and creeping things of the earth and fowls
of the heaven.? And there came to me a voice? saying: Simon,
arise, slay and eat. But I said: God forbid, Lord, for I have
never eaten any thing defiled and profane.

And there came to me again another voice, the second time,
saying: W hat God hath made clean, do not thou make
profane. 16Now this was done thrice: and the vessel was
taken up to heaven. Thereupon I bethought me, and
understood the word of the Lord, how that He had said:
Rejoice, ye gentiles, with the people, and that everywhere He
had spoken of the calling of the Gentiles; and I rose up and
went my way. And when I was entered into his house and had
begun to speak the word of the Lord, the Holy Spirit lighted
down upon him and upon all the Gentiles that were there
present. God, then, hath given the Holy Spirit to them even
as to us, and hath made no distinction between us and them
in the faith, and he hath cleansed their hearts. Now therefore,
why tempt ye God, that ye should lay a yoke upon the necks
of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to
bear? But by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we believe
that we shall be saved even as they also. For our Lord came
and released us from those bonds, and said: Come unto me,
all ye that toil and are laden with heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am gentle and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is pleasant, and my burden is light. If
then our Lord has released and unburdened us, why will ye
lay snares for your own selves?"

Then all the people was silent; and I James answered and
said: Men, brethren, hear me. Simon hath told how formerly
God said that he would choose him out a people from the
gentiles to his name: |Swhereunto agree the words of the
prophets, as it is written: Hereafter will I raise up and build
the tabernacle of David, that is fallen; and the ruins thereof
will I build and raise up; that the residue of men may seek the
Lord, and all the gentiles upon whom my name is called,
saith the Lord who maketh known these things from

everlasting. Wherefore I say, that no man vex them that turn
to God from among the gentiles, but that word be sent them
on this wise: that they abstain from evil (practices), and from
idols, and from that which is sacrificed, and from that which
is strangled, and from blood. Then we the apostles and the
bishops and the elders, together with the whole church,
thought it well to choose out men front amongst them and
send them (to Antioch) in company with Barnabas and Paul,
who were come thence. And we chose and appointed Judas,
who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, notable men among the
brethren, and wrote by them as followeth: --The apostles and
elders and brethren to the brethren who are of the gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting. Forasmuch as we
have heard that some have troubled you with words, that
they might corrupt your souls, whom we sent not: we have
determined, being all assembled together, to choose out and
send men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and his
companions, whom ye sent (hither). And we have sent Judas
and Silas, who themselves will tell you of these things by
word (of mouth). For it hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit,
and to us, that no further burden be laid upon you, save that
ye abstain from (these) necessary things: from that which is
sacrificed, and from blood, and from that which is strangled,
and from fornication. And from these keep yourselves, and
do well. Fare ye well. Now the epistle we sent; but we
ourselves remained in Jerusalem many days; and we were
consulting and ordering together those things which were
for the advantage of all the people, and writing also this
Catholic Didascalia.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 25

Showing that the Apostles returned once more to the
Churches and set them in order.

Now the decision which we reached with counsel and
thought concerning those who have already gone astray, we
have thus affirmed and established. And we will return yet
again and go to the Churches a second time, as in the
beginning of the preaching, and will confirm the faithful that
they may avoid the offences aforesaid, and may not receive
those who come deceitfully in the name of apostles, but may
know them by the changeableness of their words and by the
performance of their works. For these are they of whom our
Lord said: There shall come unto you men having on the
clothing of lambs, but inwardly ravening wolves: and by
their fruits ye shall know them. Beware of them therefore.
Now there shall arise false Christs and lying prophets, and
lead many astray; and by reason of manifold iniquity the love
of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end,
the same shall be saved.

Now let those who have not erred, and those also who
repent of their error, be left in the Church. But as for those
who are still held fast in error and repent not, we have
decreed and enjoined that they be put forth from the Church
and be separated and removed from the faithful, because they
are become heretics; and that the faithful be commanded
wholly to avoid them, and not to communicate with them

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either in speech or in prayer. For these are enemies and
spoilers of the Church; for concerning these our Lord
commanded us and said to us: Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees; and: Into the cities of the
Samaritans ye shall not enter. Now the cities of the
Samaritans are those of the heresies, which go in a perverse
way, concerning which He said in Proverbs: There is a way
which men think right: but the end thereof leadeth to the
bottom of Sheol. These are they concerning whom our Lord
sternly and bitterly gave sentence and said: It shall not be

forgiven them, neither in this world nor in the world to come.

For as regards the People, who believed not in Christ and
laid hands upon Him, it is against the Son of Man, on whom
they laid hands, that they blaspheme; and our Lord said: It
shall be forgiven them; and again our Lord said of them: My
Father, they know not what they have done, nor what they
speak: if it be possible, forgive them. And as for the Gentiles
again, it is against the Son of Man also that they blaspheme,
by reason of the cross; and for these there shall come forth
forgiveness. For to those w ho have believed, from the People
or from the Gentiles, forgiveness of their evil works has been
granted through baptism; as the Lord Christ said: Wherefore
I say unto you: All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to
men: but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be
forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come. And
everyone that shall say a word against the Son of Man, it
shall be forgiven him; but everyone that shall say (it) against
the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world nor in the world to come. But those who blaspheme
the Holy Spirit, those who lightly and in hypocrisy
blaspheme God Almighty, those heretics who receive (not)
His holy Scriptures, or receive them ill, in hypocrisy with
blaspheming, who with evil words blaspheme the Catholic
Church which is the receptacle of the Holy Spirit: it is they
who, before the judgement to come and before ever they can
make a defence, are already condemned by Christ. For that
which He said, It shall not be forgiven them, is the stern
sentence of condemnation which goes forth for them.

And when we had ordained and affirmed and set down
(these things) together with one accord, we set forth to go
each one to his former province, confirming the Churches.
For those things which were foretold have been fulfilled, and
the hidden wolves are come, the false Christs and lying
prophets have appeared. And this is evident and manifest,
that when the times draw near and the Advent is at hand,
there will be yet many more and worse than these: from
whom the Lord God will deliver you.

Those then who have repented of the error of (their) godless
apostasy we have healed with much admonition and with the
word of doctrine (and) exhortation, and have made them
whole and have suffered them to remain in the Churches; but
those who are smitten unto death with the perverse word of
error, and for whom there is no cure, we have driven out,
that they may not contaminate the holy Catholic Church, the
pure Church of God: that (the evil) may not creep like a
leprosy and travel to all like a putrid gangrene, but that pure

and without stain or blemish or scar the Church may remain
sound unto the Lord God. And these things we so do in every
place and in every city, and throughout the whole world; and
we have given (our) testimony, and have left this Catholic
Didascalia justly and rightly to the Catholic Church for a
memorial and for the confirming of the faithful.

DIDASCALIA CHAPTER 26

On the bonds of the Second Legislation of God.

But you who have been converted from the People to
believe in God our Saviour Jesus Christ, do not henceforth
continue in your former conversation, brethren, that you
should keep vain obligations, purifications and sprinklings
and baptisms and distinction of meats; for the Lord has said
to you: Remember not the former things; and: Behold, I
make all things new: the which I now declare, that ye may
know them. And I will make in the desert a way. Now deserts
the Churches formerly were, in which there is now a highway
and the knowledge of religion, (a way) wherein there is no
erring, but new and evident, even Jesus Christ and all His
dispensation which was from the beginning. For you know
that He gave a simple and pure and holy law, (a law) of life,
wherein our Saviour set His name. For whereas He spoke the
Ten Words, He signified Jesus: for Ten represents Yod; but
Yod is the beginning of the name of Jesus. Now concerning
the Law the Lord testifies in David, saying thus: The law of
the Lord is without blemish, and converting souls. And
many other things are said on this wise everywhere; for in
completion of the writings of the Prophets the Lord spoke at
the end by Malachi the Angel and said thus: Remember the
law of Moses the servant of the Lord, how he commanded
you commandments and judgements. And our Saviour also,
when He cleansed the leper, sent him to the Law, and said to
him : Go, show thyself to the high priests, and offer the gifts
of thy cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto
them; that He might show that He does not undo the Law,
but teaches what is the Law and what the Second Legislation.
For He said thus: I am not come to undo the law, nor the
prophets, but to fulfil them. The Law therefore is
indissoluble; but the Second Legislation is temporary, and is
dissoluble. Now the Law consists of the Ten Words and the
Judgements; to which (Law) Jesus bore witness and said thus:
One Yod letter shall not pass away from the law. Now it is
the Yod which passes not away from the Law, even that
which may be known from the Law itself through the Ten
Words, which is the name of Jesus. But the letter is the
extension of the wood of the cross. And in the mount also
Moses and Elias appeared with our Lord: that is, the Law
and the Prophets.

The Law then consists of the Ten Words and the
Judgements, which God spoke before that the People made
the calf and served idols. For also that it is called the Law, (is)
truly on account of the Judgements. This is the simple and
light Law, wherein is no burden, nor distinction of meats,
nor incensings, nor offerings of sacrifices and burnt offerings.
In this Law accordingly He shows concerning the

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dispensation of the Church and concerning the
uncircumcision of the flesh only. For He spoke concerning
sacrifices thus:? If thou shalt make me an altar, make it of
earth: but if of stones, thou shalt make it of whole and
unwrought, and not of wrought stones. Forasmuch as thou
hast laid an iron (tool) upon it, thou hast also polluted it:
not (as speaking) concerning (the axe, but concerning) the
iron of the knife which is the physician's knife, with which he
circumcises the foreskin. Wherefore He does not say, 'Make
for me' but, If thou shalt make an altar. He did not impose
this as a necessity, but showed what was about to be. For
God had no need of sacrifices; as neither of old was it
commanded Cain and Abel, but they of their own accord
presented offerings: and their offering achieved a brother's
murder. And Noah likewise offered, and was blamed.
Wherefore He signified here: 'If thou desire to sacrifice,
whereas I need it not thou sacrificest unto me.' So then the
Law is easy and light, ?of no weak voice?. But when the
People denied God, who by Moses visited them in their
afflictions, who wrought signs by his hand and through his
rod, who smote the Egyptians with the ten plagues and
divided the Red Sea in two, who led them in the midst of the
sea on dry land as in the desert, who drowned their enemies
and them that hated them, who with wood made sweet the
fountain of the bitter waters of Marah, who made water to
flow for them in abundance from the rock that they might be
satisfied, who with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire
overshadowed and guided them, who brought them down
manna from heaven, and gave them flesh from the sea, who
ordained the Law for them in the mount: Him they denied
and said : We have no God to go before us; and they made
them a molten calf and worshipped it and sacrificed to a
graven image. Therefore the Lord was angry; and in His hot
anger -- (yet) with the mercy of His goodness -- He bound
them with the Second Legislation, and laid heavy burdens
upon them, and a hard yoke upon their neck. And He says
now no longer: If thou shalt make, as formerly; but He said:
"Make an altar, and sacrifice continually’ as though He had
need of these things. Wherefore He laid upon them continual
burnt offerings with a necessity, and caused them to abstain
from meats by means of distinctions of meats. For from that
time were animals discerned, and clean and unclean flesh;
from that time were separations, and purifications, and
baptisms, and sprinklings; from that time were sacrifices, and
offerings, and tables; from that time were burnt offerings,
and oblations, and shewbread, and the offering up of
sacrifices, and firstlings, and redemptions, and he-goats for
sin, and vows, and many other things marvellous. For
because of manifold sins there were laid upon them customs
unspeakable; but by none of them did they abide, but they
again provoked the Lord. Wherefore He yet added to them
by the Second Legislation a blindness worthy of their works,
and spoke thus: If there be found in a man sins worthy of
death, and he die, and ye hang him upon a tree; his body
shall not remain the night upon the tree, but ye shall surely
bury him the same day: for cursed is every one that is hanged

upon a tree; that when Christ should come they might not be
able to help Him, but might suppose that He was guilty of a
curse. For their blinding therefore was this spoken, as Isaiah
said: Behold, I show my righteousness, and thine evils: and
they shall not help thee at all. For the Lord judged them
with a just judgement, and dealt thus with them because of
their wickedness, and hardened their heart like Pharaoh's; as
the Lord said to them by Isaiah: Hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not
know. For the heart of this people is waxed gross; and their
eyes they have shut, and their ears they have stopped, that
they may not be converted: lest at any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears. And in the Gospel
again He said: This people's heart is waxed gross; and their
eyes they have shut, and their ears they have stopped, lest at
any time they should be converted. But blessed are your eyes
that see, and your ears that hear. For you have been released
from the bonds, and relieved of the Second Legislation, and
set free from bitter slavery, and the curse has been taken off
and put away from you.

For the Second Legislation was imposed for the making of
the calf and for idolatry. But you through baptism have been
set free from idolatry, and from the Second Legislation,
which was (imposed) on account of idols, you have been
released. For in the Gospel He renewed and fulfilled and
affirmed the Law; but the Second Legislation He did away
and abolished. For indeed it was to this end that He came,
that He might affirm the Law, and abolish the Second
Legislation, and fulfil the power of men's liberty, and show
forth the resurrection of the dead. For even before His
coming He foretold His coming through the prophets, and
together with His coming He signified also the disobedience
of the People, and preached the undoing of the Second
Legislation; as He said by Jeremiah: Why bring ye me
frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable unto me, and your
sacrifices delight me not, And again He said: Bring together
your burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I
gave you no command, when I brought you out from the
land of Egypt, neither concerning burnt offerings nor
concerning sacrifices. Yea, verily, in the Law He gave no
command, but in the bonds of the Second Legislation, after
that they had served idols. And again by Isaiah also He said:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?
saith the Lord, I am sated with burnt offerings of rams; and
the fat of lambs and the blood of oxen I desire not. And when
ye come to see my face, who hath required these things at
your hands? Trample my courts no more. If ye will bring me
fine flour, it is a vain oblation; and your new moons and
your sabbaths and solemn days are rejected of me: your fasts
and your restings are not acceptable unto me, and your
festivals my soul hateth. And in all the Scriptures He speaks
thus; and through the sacrifices He abolishes the Second
Legislation; for, as we have already said, it is in the Second
Legislation that sacrifices are prescribed. If, then, even
before His coming He made known and revealed His coming,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and the disobedience of the People, and spoke of the
abolition of the Second Legislation, much more, being come,
did He fully and completely abolish the Second Legislation.
For He did not use sprinklings, or baptisms, or other wonted
rites; nor did He offer sacrifices or burnt offerings, or any
thing that it is written in the Second Legislation to offer.
And what else did He (hereby) signify but the abolition of the
Second Legislation? as also He loosed you and called you
from the bonds, and said: Come unto me, all ye that toil and
are laden with heavy burdens; and I will give you rest. Now
we know that our Saviour did not say (this) to the Gentiles,
but He said it to us His disciples from among the Jews, and
brought us out from burdens and a heavy load.

Those therefore who do not obey Him, that He may lighten
and deliver them from the bonds of the Second Legislation,
obey not God, who has called them to come forth unto
release and rest and refreshment; and they bind themselves
with the heavy burdens of the Second Legislation, which are
of no avail.

For our Lord and Saviour Himself, who gave the Law and
the Second Legislation, bears witness concerning the Law
that it is life to them that keep it; (but) concerning the
Second Legislation He testifies and shows that it is a bond
and a blindness. For He everywhere makes a distinction; and
He bears witness to the Law, and admonishes and commands
us that we be under the Law: for every one who is not under
law is lawless. And therefore He thus bears witness to the
Law: In the law of the Lord shall be his pleasure, and in his
law will he meditate day and night. Not so the wicked. We
see then, beloved, how the righteous are declared blessed on
account of righteousness and the keeping of the Law. But not
so the wicked; for they have no pleasure either in the
righteous or in the Law, and they do not mediate therein.
Wherefore He calls 'the wicked’ those who do not converse
according to the Law. For in the Gospel also He affirms the
Law, and calls and brings us out from (the burden of the
bonds and from the Second) Legislation. But that the Law is
other than the Second Legislation, in David likewise He
shows by a distinction, speaking thus: Let us sever their
cords, and loose their yoke from us. You see how the Holy
Spirit speaks as it were out of the mouth of the world and
reveals its thought, and says that the Law is a 'yoke' but the
Second Legislation 'cords.' For the Law is a yoke, because
like the plough-yoke of oxen it is laid upon the former
People and upon the present Church of God; even as now in
the Church it is upon us who are called from the People, and

upon you who from among the Gentiles have obtained mercy:

it has? gathered and held us both together in one accord. But
He well calls the Second Legislation 'bonds;’ for when the
People served idols, there was added to them the weight of
the Second Legislation. For the bonds were justly imposed,
as it befell the People then; but the Church has not been
bound. For to Ezekiel He explains and makes known that the
Law of life is one, but the second Law, of death, is another;
for He spoke thus: I brought them forth from the land of
Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness, and gave them

my commandments, and made known to them my judgements:
that if a man should do them, he might live by them. And
afterwards, upbraiding them because they had sinned and
had not kept the Law of life, He repeats to them and saith
thus: I have given them commandments that are not good,
and judgements whereby they may not live. Now the
judgements which do not give life are those of the bonds.
Hence also the word aforesaid in the Second Legislation was
for the blinding of a blind people, to wit: Cursed is everyone
that is hanged upon a tree. For thus did they think of Him
who gives and distributes blessings to them that are worthy,
that He is under a curse. Wherefore, (because) they knew
Him not, even after the signs that were done by Him in the
world: when He suffered, justly in accordance with their
works that word was set down for the blinding of the People;
and it was a bar that they might not believe and be saved.
Whence also by Isaiah He speaks thus: Who is blind, but my
servants? and the servants of God are blinded. And I have
brought out a blind people, that have eyes, and see not: and
their ears also are deaf. For by this word, because of their
works, their eyes were blinded, and their ears made deaf like
Pharaoh's. Hence with this word the Second Legislation also
was imposed, which Moses appointed. And it is the Second
Legislation that He called judgements that are not good; and
it cannot save alive.

They therefore who bring upon themselves those things
which were imposed for the worship of idols, shall inherit the
Woes; for Woe to them that prolong their sins as a long rope,
and their iniquity as the band of a heifer's yoke. For the yoke
of the bonds is the heifer's yoke -- the bonds of the (Second)
Legislation (now) upon the People, which like a long rope is
laid upon them by reason of other men's sins which from
former times and generations they bring upon themselves.
Everyone who strives to be under the (Second) Legislation
becomes guilty of the calf-worship; for the Second
Legislation was imposed for nothing else but for idolatry.
For the bonds were decreed because of idolatry; they
therefore who regard them are bondsmen and idolaters.
Wherefore, every one who binds himself becomes guilty of
the Woe, and ought likewise to profess idolatry. Now one
who is such asserts also the curse against our Saviour; for if
thou uphold the Second Legislation, thou also assertest the
curse against our Saviour, and thou art held fast in the bonds
and made guilty of the Woe -- an enemy of the Lord God.

Cease therefore, beloved brethren, you who from among
the People have believed, yet desire (still) to be tied with the
bonds, and say that the Sabbath is prior to the first day of
the week because that the Scripture has said: In six days did
God make all things; and on the seventh day he finished all
his works, and he sanctified it. We ask you now, which is first,
Alaf or Tau? For that (day) which is the greater is that which
is the beginning of the world, even as the Lord our Saviour
said by Moses: In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth. But the earth was invisible and unshapen. And
again He said: And there was one day: and as yet the seventh
day was unknown. But what say you? Which is greater, that

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which had come into being, and existed, or that which was
yet unknown, and of which there was no expectation that it
should come to be? But again we ask you: Are your last
children blessed, or the firstborn? as the Scripture also saith:
Jacob shall be blessed among the firstborn; and: My son, my
firstborn (is) Israel; and: Every male that openeth the womb
of his mother is blessed to the Lord.

But that we may make you firm in the faith, hear ye. The
first day and the last are equal; for learn how you find it
written, that In his kingdom the day of the Lord is as a
thousand years: the day of yesterday which is past; and as a
watch of the night. {One day therefore is a thousand years in
the kingdom of Christ, wherein also will be the judgement.
For a watch of the night} He said concerning the judgement,
which is a dark prison to them that are condemned. A day
therefore is to be revealed in which the sun will stand in his
mid-course, and the moon likewise, following the sun. For
He said: Behold, I make the first things as the last, and the
last as the first; and: The last shall be first, and the first last;
and: Remember no more the former things, and let them not
come to your mind. Behold, I make things new, which now
shall be revealed; and: In those days and in that time they
shall no more say: The ark of the covenant; neither shall it
come to mind, nor be visited, nor any more be made. But the
Sabbath itself is counted even unto the Sabbath, and it
becomes eight (days); thus an ogdoad is (reached), which is
more than the Sabbath, even the first of the week.

Wherefore, brethren, every day is the Lord's; for the
Scripture has said: The earth is the Lord's with the fullness
thereof: the world that is under heaven, and all that dwell
therein. For if God willed that we should be idle one day for
six, first of all the patriarchs and righteous men, and all they
that were before Moses, would have remained idle (upon it),
and God Himself also with all His creatures. But now all the
governance of the world is carried on ever continually; and
the spheres do not cease even for a moment from their course,
but at God's command (their universal and perpetual motion
proceeds.) For if He would say: Thou shalt be idle, and thy
son, and thy servant, and thy maidservant, and thine ass,
how does He (continue to) work, causing to generate, and
making? the winds to blow?, and fostering and nourishing us
His creatures? On the Sabbath day He causes (the winds) to
blow, and (the waters) to flow, and (thus) works. But this
(the Sabbath) has been set as a type for the times, even as
many other things have been set for a type. The Sabbath
therefore is a type of the (final) rest, signifying the seventh
thousand (-years), But the Lord our Saviour, when He was
come, fulfilled the types and explained the parables, and He
showed those things that are life-giving, and those that
cannot help He did away, and those that cannot give life He
abolished.

And not only in His own person did He show this, but He
wrought also by the Romans; and He overthrew the temple,
and caused the altar to cease, and made an end of sacrifices,
and all the commands and bonds that are in the Second
Legislation He abolished, For the Romans also hold the Law,

but they refuse the Second Legislation: therefore is their
dominion strong. Thou, therefore, who desirest to-day to be
under the Second Legislation, whilst the Romans rule thou
canst not perform aught that is written in the Second
Legislation. For thou canst not stone the wicked, nor kill
idolaters, nor discharge the ministry of sacrifices, nor
perform the libations and sprinklings (with the ashes) of a
heifer; nor canst thou fulfil aught else of those things which
are in the Second Legislation, nor observe them. For it is
written: Cursed is every one that keepeth not these words to
do them; and this is a thing impossible, to fulfil the Second
Legislation while dispersed among the Gentiles. Wherefore,
everyone that touches it falls under a curse, and binds himself,
and inherits a Woe; and he asserts the curse against our
Saviour, and as an enemy of God he is condemned.

But if thou follow Christ, thou shalt inherit the blessings.
For there is no disciple better than his master: but when thou
conformest to Him, through the Gospel thou conformest to
the Law, and thou wilt entirely avoid the Second Legislation:
even as the Lord Himself, who gave the kingdom to men,
declared also that His commands ought justly to be kept; for
in every age there is of right a legislation (given). Now
having the Gospel, [thou conformest to the Law,] the
renewal of the Law and the seal, beyond the Law and the
Prophets seek nothing else. For the Second Legislation is
undone, but the Law is made firm. And those who would be
without the Law, against their will come under the Law; for
He said in the Law: Thou shalt not kall; but if a man all, he
is condemned by the law of the Romans, and he comes under
the Law. But if you follow and conform to the truth of the
Church and the power of the Gospel, your hope in the Lord
shall not be frustrated.

Do you therefore avoid all heretics, who follow not the
Law and the Prophets, and obey not Almighty God, but are
His enemies; and who abstain from meats, and forbid to
marry, and believe not in the resurrection of the body; who
moreover will not eat and drink, but would fain rise up
demons, unsubstantial spirits, who shall be damned
everlastingly and punished in unquenchable fire. Fly and
avoid them therefore, that you may not perish with them.

But if there be any who are precise and desire, after the
Second Legislation, to observe the wonted courses of nature
and issues and marriage intercourse: first let them know that,
as we have already said, together with the Second Legislation
they affirm the curse against our Saviour and condemn
themselves to no purpose. And again, let them tell us, in
what days or in what hours they keep themselves from prayer
and from receiving the Eucharist, or from reading the
Scriptures -- let them tell us whether they are void of the
Holy Spirit. For through baptism they receive the Holy
Spirit, who is ever with those that work righteousness, and
does not depart from them by reason of natural issues and the
intercourse of marriage, but is ever and always with those
who possess Him, and keeps them; as the Lord said in
Proverbs: If thou sleep. he keepeth thee; and when thou
awakest, he will speak with thee. And in the Gospel also our

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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Lord said: Everyone that hath, there shall be given to him,
and shall be added unto him; but from him that hath not,
even that which he thinketh he hath shall be taken away. To
those therefore who have, yea, it shall be added unto them;
but from those who think that they have not, even that which
they think they have shall be taken away.

For if thou think, O woman, that in the seven days of thy
flux thou art void of the Holy Spirit; if thou die in those days,
thou wilt depart empty and without hope. But if the Holy
Spirit is always in thee, without (just) impediment dost thou
keep thyself from prayer and from the Scriptures and from
the Eucharist. For consider and see, that prayer also is heard
through the Holy Spirit, and the Eucharist through the Holy
Spirit is accepted and sanctified, and the Scriptures are the
words of the Holy Spirit, and are holy. For if the Holy Spirit
is in thee, why dost thou keep thyself from approaching to
the works of the Holy Spirit? as those who say: Whosoever
sweareth by the altar, sinneth not; but whosoever sweareth
by the gift that is upon it, sinneth. As our Lord said: Fools
and blind, whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that
sanctifieth the gift? Everyone therefore that sweareth by the
altar, sweareth by it, and by all that is upon it, And every
one that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him
that dwelleth therein. And every one that sweareth by the
heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that
sitteth thereon. If therefore thou possess the Holy Spirit, but
keep thyself from His fruits so that thou approach not to
them, thou also shalt hear from our Lord Jesus Christ: 'Fool
and blind, whether is greater, the bread, or the Spirit that
{sanctifieth the bread?’ Therefore, if the Holy Spirit} thou
possessest: fool, thou keepest vain observances. But if the
Holy Spirit is not in thee, how canst thou work righteousness?
For the Holy Spirit continues ever with those who possess
Him; but from whom He departs, to him an unclean spirit
joins himself. For the unclean spirit, when he is gone out
from a man, departeth and goeth about in waterless places --
that is, men who go not down into the water (of baptism) --
and when he hath found him no rest, he saith: I will return to
my former house, whence I came out. If therefore he come
and find it empty and swept and garnished, then he goeth
and taketh with him seven other spirits worse than himself,
and they come and dwell in that man; and his last state is
made worse than the first.

Learn now, why, when the unclean spirit is gone out, he
finds him no rest in any place: because every man soever is
filled with a spirit, one with the Holy Spirit, and one with an
unclean spirit. A believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, and
an unbeliever with an unclean spirit: and his nature does not
receive an alien spirit. He therefore who has withdrawn and
separated himself and departed from the unclean spirit by
baptism, is filled with the Holy Spirit; and if he do good
works, the Holy Spirit continues with him, and he remains
fulfilled; and the unclean spirit finds no place with him, for
he who is filled with the Holy Spirit does not receive him.
For all men are filled with their own spirit; and the unclean
spirits depart not even a little from the heathen, while yet

they are heathens, even though they imagine that they do
good works; for there is no other power whereby the unclean
spirit may depart save by the pure and holy Spirit of God.
Thus, then, when he has nowhere found him a place to enter,
he returns and comes to him from whom he went forth;
because one who is filled with the Holy Spirit does not
receive him.

Thou then, O woman, according as thou sayest, (if) in the
days of thy flux thou art void, thou shalt be filled with
unclean spirits. For when the unclean spirit returns to thee
and finds him a place, he will enter and dwell in thee always:
and then will there be entering in of the unclean spirit and
going forth of the Holy Spirit, and perpetual warfare.
Wherefore, O foolish (women), these misfortunes befall you
because of your imaginings; and because of the observances
which you keep, and on account of your imaginings, you are
emptied of the Holy Spirit and filled with unclean spirits:
and you are cast out from life into the burning of everlasting
fire. But again I will say to thee, O woman: In the seven days
of thy flux thou accountest thyself unclean according to the
Second Legislation: after seven days, therefore, how canst
thou be cleansed without baptism? But if thou be baptised
for that which thou supposest, thou wilt undo the perfect
baptism of God which wholly forgave thee thy sins, and wilt
be found in the evil plight of thy former sins; and thou shalt
be delivered over to eternal fire. But if thou be not baptised,
according to thine own supposition thou remainest unclean,
and the vain observing of the seven days has availed thee
nothing, but is rather hurtful to thee; for according to thy
supposition thou art unclean, and as unclean thou shalt be
condemned.

Be thus minded therefore concerning all those who observe
issues and the intercourse of marriage; for all these
observances are foolish and hurtful. For if, when a man use
matrimony, or a blood come forth from him, he be baptised,
let him also wash his couch: and he will have this labour and
vexation incessantly; he will be baptizing and will be
washing his clothes and his couch, and will be able to do
nothing else. Now if thou be baptised from an issue and from
marriage intercourse according to the Second Legislation,
thou owest it also to be baptised when thou treadest upon a
mouse: and thou shalt never be clean. For even as to the shoes
of thy feet, with the skin of dead (animals) and with the hides
of those that are sacrificed thou art shod; and as to clothes
also, with the wool of the like (animals) thou art clothed.
And if thou tread upon a bone, or enter a tomb, thou
oughtest to be baptised: and thou shalt never be clean. And
thou wilt undo the baptism of God, and thou renewest thy
offences, and art found in thy former sins, and affirmest the
Second Legislation, and takest upon thee the idolatry of the
calf, -- for if thou take upon thee the Second Legislation,
take also idolatry, for because of idolatry the Second
Legislation was imposed, -- and the former sins of others, as
a long rope, and as the band of a heifer; thou drawest and
bringest upon thee. Moreover, thou bringest upon thee the
Woe; for when thou affirmest the Second Legislation, thou

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

consentest to the curse against our Saviour; and thou settest
at naught Christ the King, who distributes blessings to them
that are worthy. Wherefore thou shalt inherit a curse; for
every one that shall curse a man is cursed [and every one that
blesseth is blessed]. To what curses, therefore, and to what
judgement or to what condemnation shall they be delivered
who affirm a curse against our Saviour and our Lord and our
God!

Wherefore, beloved, flee and avoid such observances: for
you have received release, that you should no more bind
yourselves; and do not load yourselves again with that which
our Lord and Saviour has lifted from you. And do not
observe these things, nor think them uncleanness; and do not
refrain yourselves on their account, nor seek after sprinklings,
or baptisms, or purification for these things. For in the
Second Legislation, if one touch a dead man or a tomb, he is
baptised; but do you, according to the Gospel and according
to the power of the Holy Spirit, come together even in the
cemeteries, and read the holy Scriptures, and without demur
perform your ministry and your supplication to God; and
offer an acceptable Eucharist, the likeness of the royal body
of Christ, both in your congregations and in your cemeteries
and on the departures of them that sleep -- pure bread that is
made with fire and sanctified with invocations -- and without
doubting pray and offer for them that are fallen asleep. For
they who have believed in God, according to the Gospel,
even though they should sleep, they are not dead; as our
Lord said to the Sadducees: Concerning the resurrection of
the dead, have ye not read that which is written: I am the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
And he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And
Elisha the prophet also, after he had slept and was a long
while (dead), raised up a dead man; for his body touched the
body of the dead and quickened and raised it up. But this
could not have been were it not that, even when he was fallen
asleep, his body was holy and filled with the Holy Spirit.

For this cause therefore do you approach without restraint
to those who are at rest, and hold them not unclean. In like
manner also you shall not separate those (women) who are in
the wonted courses; for she also who had the flow of blood
was not chidden when she touched the skirt of our Saviour's
cloak, but was even vouchsafed the forgiveness of all her sins.
And when (your wives) suffer those issues which are
according to nature, have a care that, in a manner that is
right, you cleave to them; for you know that they are your
members, and do you love them as your soul: as it is written
in the Twelve Prophets, (in) Malachi who was called the
Angel: The Lord hath borne witness between thee and the
wife of thy youth, whom thou hast left, thy partner, and she
the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make her and they
(fem.) are the residue of his spirit. And ye have said: What
else doth God seek but pure seed? Give heed in your spirits:
and the wife of thy youth thou shalt not leave. Wherefore, a
woman when she is in the way of women, and a man when an
issue comes forth from him, and a man and his wife when
they consort and rise up one from another: let them assemble

without restraint, without bathing, for they are clean. But if
a man should corrupt and defile another's wife after baptism,
or be polluted with a harlot, and rising up from her should
bathe in all the seas and oceans and be baptised in all the
rivers, he cannot be made clean.

Do you therefore, our beloved, avoid all such foolish
observances, and come not near them. And be careful to
abide in the wedded company of one wife, and to keep your
bodies unspotted and unsullied; that you may receive life,
that you may be partakers of the kingdom of God, and that
you may receive that which the Lord God has promised, and
may have rest for evermore.

Now with many other demonstrations similar to these we
might the more clearly declare to you the Didascalia; but not
to extend and prolong the writing, already we conclude the
discourse and lay it aside, lest by reason of the severity of the
truth the teaching of our discourse should remain but a short
time with you. Wherefore, take not amiss those things which
have been said; for our Lord and Saviour also spoke with
severity to those who were worthy of condemnation, and said:
Take and cast them into the outer darkness: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth ; and: Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father hath prepared
for the evil one and his angels. That the word is likened to
fire and a sword, He has said also in Jeremiah: Behold, my
words go forth as fire, and as iron that cutteth stone -- yet
sword and fire and constraint, not to those who hearken to
the truth, but (He means) that word which the People heard
not with pleasure when our Lord and Teacher reproved them;
for they were unwilling to hearken to it because they
esteemed it hard like iron. For they hearkened not to that
which He said to them, for He appeared to them to speak
harshly and severely. Wherefore He said to them: Why call ye
me Lord, Lord, and that which I say ye do not? And so in
like manner this our writing also appears to some to speak
harshly and severely by reason of its truth. For if we had
written indulgently for the gratification of men, many would
grow weak and melt away from the faith, and we should be
guilty of their blood. For as a physician, when he has not
been able to conquer and heal an ulcer with drugs and
fomentations, comes to a severer remedy and to surgical
cuttings, that is to iron and cauteries, by which alone the
physician is able to overcome and conquer (the sore) and
presently heal the sick man: even so is the word; to those who
hear and do it it is as a compress and an emollient and a
plaster, but by those who hear and do it not it is esteemed as
iron and fire.

Now to Him who is able to open the ears of your hearts to
receive the incisive words of the Lord through the Gospel
and the teaching of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, who was
crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and slept, that He
might announce to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and
to all His saints the end of the world and the resurrection
that is to be for the dead; and rose from the dead, that He
might show and give to us, that we might know Him, a
pledge of the resurrection; and was taken up to heaven by the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH
power of God His Father and of the Holy Spirit, and sat on
the right hand of the throne of God Almighty upon the
Cherubim; to Him who cometh with power and glory to
judge the dead and the living: to Him (be) dominion and
glory and majesty and kingdom, and to His Father and to
the Holy Spirit: who was, and is, and abideth, both now and
unto all generations and ages.
Amen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

CREED
The Vow of Allegiance

A Creed (somestimes also called "symbol" from Greek
sumbolon, "sign") is an authoritative formulation of the
beliefs of a religious community (or, by transference, of
individuals). The word creed comes from Latin credo, "I
believe" and is related to words such as credit, give credit,
credible, credential, creditor, etc. A creed is a vow of
allegiance and is therefore also a legal act. In other words:
The creed is an orally performed signature. A creed or sign
can take many different forms. It is a matter of identity. To
disregard creed (a signature of allegiance) leads to
devaluation and dissolution of not only the religious or
cultural community but in the long run also to the suicide of
the social and political fabric of the society as a whole.

It was only a few hundred years ago that leaving a faith,
called "apostacy" or "religious treason," was considered a
capital crime in Europe. It is still a capital crime in Islam
today, is considered treason towards the Umma, the whole
nation of Islam, and therefore it carries the death penalty
(Koran [Medina] 9:65-66). The terms “creed” and
“confession of faith” are sometimes used interchangeably,
but when distinguished “creed” refers to a brief affirmation
of faith employed in public worship or initiation rites, while
“confession of faith” is generally used to refer to a longer,
more detailed, and systematic doctrinal declaration. The
latter term is usually restricted to such declarations within
the Christian faith and is especially associated with churches
of the Protestant Reformation. Both creeds and confessions
of faith were historically called "symbols," and the teachings
they contain are termed "articles of faith" or, sometimes,
"dogmas."

The role of belief within religion is interpreted differently
in the various empirical disciplines and by the proponents of
particular theological or philosophical positions.
Traditionally, it has been considered the primary factor in
religion, but some modern scholars often regard beliefs as
rationales for ritual, that is to say, as secondary expressions
of religious experience or as a posteriori ideological
sanctions for social and cultural patterns. The present article
follows a current anthropological and sociological tendency
to define religion as a symbolic system in which ideas and
their concomitant attitudinal aspects and actions provide to
an individual or group a model of itself and its world. From
this perspective, every religion involves distinctive views or
beliefs regarding the nature of ultimate reality.

Origins and functions of creeds
These beliefs, however, need not be explicitly articulated
but may be wholly embedded and transmitted in rituals,

myths, and social structures and practices. This is especially
true in primitive religions. Even when differentiated from
other factors, beliefs are frequently not stated in creedal form
but are diffusely expressed in sacred writings, legal codes,
liturgical formulas, and theological and philosophical
reflection. This was true in the ancient cultural religions of
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, and in traditional
Hinduism, Confucianism, and Daoism. When, however, a
religion is transmitted from one culture to another (as from
Semitic to Hellenistic; i.e., Palestine to Rome) or claims
some degree of universal or exclusive truth, formal creeds
often develop as aids in maintaining continuity and identity.
They serve this purpose because the relative abstractness,
comprehensiveness, and concentration of the verbal
expressions of beliefs enable them to serve better than most
other forms of religious symbolism as stable identifying
marks in pluralistic, changing, proselytizing, and missionary
situations.

Creeds in the full sense are therefore found only in so-called
universal religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and certain modern Hindu
movements (e.g., Brahmo Samaj). Even here they are of
variable importance, with some groups rejecting all formal
creeds. Confessions are less common. They function to define
the distinctive beliefs of opposing or uniting groups within a
given religion or to formulate doctrines appropriate to new
circumstances, and are chiefly a Christian phenomenon
during the period from the Reformation to the present.

CREED IN JUDAISM

In Judaism, the central affirmations of belief are parts of
worship; e.g., the confessions of the oneness of God in the
Shema (Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one
Lord”) and of the resurrection of the dead in the amidah
(standing prayer). Of the various medieval attempts to
formulate creeds, the most enduring has been Maimonides'
Thirteen Principles of Faith, but these have never become
formally binding. The Reform movement's doctrinal
declarations, such as the Pittsburgh Platform (1885), have
been without lasting influence. The reason for this paucity of
creeds is that Jewish identity has been chiefly defined in terms
of the observance of the commandments and of the Oral Law,
not the acceptance of doctrines.

Text of the 13 Jewish Principles of Faith

There is no established formulation of principles of faith
that are recognised by all branches of Judaism. Central
authority in Judaism is not vested in any one person or group
- although the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish religious court,
would fulfill this role if it were re-established - but rather in
Judaism's sacred writings, laws, and traditions.

Judaism affirms the existence and uniqueness of God, and
stresses performance of deeds or commandments alongside
adherence to a strict belief system. In contrast to traditions
such as Christianity which demand a more explicit
identification of God, faith in Judaism requires one to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

honour God through a constant struggle with God's
instructions (Torah) and the practice of their mitzvot.

Orthodox Judaism stresses a number of core principles in its
educational programs, most importantly a belief that there is
one single, omniscient, transcendent, non-compound God,
who created the universe, and continues to be concerned with
its governance. Traditional Judaism maintains that God
established a covenant with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai,
and revealed his laws and 613 commandments to them in the
form of the Written and Oral Torah. In Rabbinic Judaism,
the Torah consists of both the written Torah (Pentateuch)
and a tradition of oral law, much of it later codified in sacred
writings (see: Mishna, Talmud).

Traditionally, the practice of Judaism has been devoted to
the study of Torah and observance of its laws and
commandments. In normative Judaism, the Torah, and hence
Jewish law itself, is unchanging, but interpretation of the
law is more open. It is considered a mitzvah (commandment)
to study and understand the law.

Judaism is based on a strict monotheism, and a belief in one
single, indivisible, non-compound God. Judaism
emphatically rejects any concept of plurality with respect to
God, explicitly rejecting polytheism, dualism, and
trinitarianism, which are incompatible with monotheism as
Judaism understands it.

The unity of God is stated many times in Jewish tradition.
It is the second of Maimonides's 13 principles of faith;
Maimonides wrote that, "This God is One, not two or more
than two, but One whose unity is different from all other
unities that there are. He is not one as a genus, which
contains many species, is one. Nor is He one as a body,
containing parts and dimensions, is one. But His is a unity
that which there is no other anywhere" (Yad, Yesode Ha-
Torah 1:7). In Jewish tradition, dualistic and trinitarian
conceptions of God are generally referred to as Shituf
("partnership"), meaning an incorrect, but not an idolatrous,
view.

Moses ben Maimon (c. 1138-1204 AD), commonly known
as Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam,
was a Sephardic Jewish rabbi, physician, astronomer and
philosopher who became the personal physician of Saladin.
Born in Cordoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain) he
worked in Morocco and Egypt and he was one of the most
prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.
His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries significant
canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law. Under
influence of Christianity and Islam, Maimonides formulated
his 13 Principles of Faith, here presented in its summary:

1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, is the Creator and Guide of everything that has
been created; He alone has made, does make, and will make
all things.

2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, is One, and that there is no unity in any manner
like His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is, and
will be.

3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, has no body, and that He is free from all the
properties of matter, and that there can be no (physical)
comparison to Him whatsoever.

4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, is the first and the last.

5. [believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, and to Him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is
not right to pray to any being besides Him.

6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the
prophets are true.

7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses
our teacher, peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the
chief of the prophets, both those who preceded him and those
who followed him.

8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is
now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses
our teacher, peace be upon him.

9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be
exchanged, and that there will never be any other Torah
from the Creator, Blessed be His Name.

10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, knows all the deeds of human beings and all their
thoughts, as it is written, "Who fashioned the hearts of them
all, Who comprehends all their actions" (Psalms 33:15).

11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be
His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and
punishes those that transgress them.

12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah;
and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day
for his coming.

13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of
the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed
be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for ever and
ever.-Maimonides [See Birnbaum at p. 157]

CREED IN CHRISTIANITY

The actual purpose of a creed is to provide a doctrinal
statement of correct belief or orthodoxy. In Christianity,
there are over 150 officially recognised creeds and
confessions. In part this is because the church was from the
beginning doctrinally oriented, making the acceptance of a
specific kerygma (proclamation) a condition for membership.
The faith of the community was expressed in acclamations
such as “Jesus is Lord” (e.g., Rom. 10:9, I Cor. 12:3) and in
longer, partly stereotyped summaries of essential beliefs (e.g.,
I Cor. 15:3 ff.) For the New Testament community, in
contrast to some Christian groups in later times, a creedless
Christianity was inconceivable.

Fully formed creeds first developed for use in baptismal
rites and catechetical instruction. They generally had three
sections concerned with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Spirit, but were variable in wording and content
and only gradually became standardised.

This process culminated in the West in the Apostles' Creed,
which is now almost universally recognized by Western

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

churches, and is still used in baptismal rites as well as public
worship by Catholics and most Protestants. This creed is
wholly derived from New Testament affirmations, but the
Sth-century legend that the Twelve Apostles were its authors
is without foundation. Not until the 8th century is it quoted
in its present wording. Its sources, however, are to be found
in earlier baptismal creeds, most probably in the Old Roman
Symbol, which appears to go back in its essentials to the 2nd
century. As is true of other creeds, it is in part intended to
exclude heretical views. For example, against Gnosticism and
Marcionism (dualistic heresies), it emphasizes that God, not
an evil demiurge, is the creator of the world, and against
docetic views that Jesus was a heavenly being with a phantom
body, it insists that he was born of the Virgin Mary and
actually suffered and died and was buried.

The Nicene Creed, 325 AD

The Nicene Creed or the Creed of Nicaea, 325 AD, was
created during a vicious power struggle in which the Pauline
Christians, i.e., the Roman Christians fought for gaining the
upper hand in political power against Arians, Nestorians,
Gnostics, Jewish Christians [Ebionites], Mandaeans,
Manichaeans, and others.

Arianism is a doctrine that came from Arius (c. 260-336
AD), an influential priest who taught in Alexandria, Egypt.
Arius lived as an ascetic, in a lifestyle that was similar to
Jesus’ lifestyle which was characterised by abstinence from
sensual pleasures, mainly for the purpose of pursuing
redemption, salvation or spirituality.

Arianism simply teaches that Jesus was not God. For this
reason, Arianism opposes the dogma of the Holy Trinity. In
325 AD, the Nicene Creed was made, which the early
Christians used to defeat Arianism, with the statement: "We
believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . begotten,
not made, consubstantial with the Father."

The trinity developed out of the process of deification of a
deceased Roman leader before the Roman Senate. Augustus
used a formula like "in the name of Caesar my father, of me
the son of a god, and of the Roman Pantheon (the divine
Spririts), a proposal to deify Caesar, the father of the nation,
is brought forward to the honourable Senate of Rome to its
benevolent consideration." The succeeding emperors of
Rome persuaded the Senate to do the same to them. When
Christianity came along, this kind of petition had become a
tradition and common knowledge as it could be read on the
walls of temples, triumphal arches as well as on surfaces of
coins like this: DIVI F or DV F for Divi Filius or Divi Filia,
son or daughter of the god or the divine. It is the trinity as
well as titles like Pontifex Maximus (chief of the Roman
Imperial Cult, the ministry of religion, ancestor of the
Roman church) held by Caesar, Augustus and most emperors
up to the 4th century AD, that identifies Christianity clearly
as Roman.

In the Christian religion, the Trinity is an idea used to
explain that three different persons are called God: "God the
Father", "God the Son", and "God the Holy Spirit" (also

called the Holy Ghost). The Trinity says that each of these
three entities be forms of the same God. The Apostle Paul
and his gentile [non-Jewish] followers wanted to make Jesus
devine and copied the Roman Imperial Cult whose leader, the
Roman emperor, was recognised as God and his son and heir
as the "son of god". The Jews, under the first bishop of
Jerusalem, James the brother of Jesus, were furious.
Knowing that this concept is blasphemy against God, the
early Pauline Christians have tried to disguise their
deification of Jesus in a weird explanation to which they have
added also the so-called "Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost" that
would have been represented the entire Pantheon of the
empire's Roman Imperial Cult, the Ministry of Religion.

Due to Jesus deification, Jews have looked down on
Christians as heretics, blasphemers, liers and traitors. They
found it revolting that Christians were violating the first 3 of
the 10 Commandments: 1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt
have no other gods before me [You must not worship any
other gods except me.]; 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image [Do not worship or serve idols of any kind.]; 3.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
[You must not use the name of the Lord your God to make
empty promises.]. The 3rd Commandment points to the
concept of salvation only by believing in Jesus alone. Most
Christians have not been aware that this concept is taken
from Mithraism, a cult of Persian origin; this includes also
the Eucharist.

Judaism and Gnosticism still oppose the heretic teachings
of the Trinity. And so does Islam which teaches that God can
not be divided. For this reason, the Islamic scripture, the
Koran, the Sira and the Hadith is bashing the doctrine of
Trinity as blasphemous (against God) and as heretic. And
therefore Christians are viewed as spiritually unclean

Text of the Nicene Creed of 325 AD

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all
things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of
the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the
Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

By whom all things were made [both in heaven and on
earth];

Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was
incarnate and was made man;

He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into
heaven;

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

And in the Holy Ghost.

[But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and
"He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of
nothing,' or 'He is of another substance' or 'essence,' or "The
Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable'Y— they
are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The Old Roman Creed, 340 AD

The Old Roman Creed or Old Roman Symbol (Latin: vetus
symbolum romanum), is an earlier and shorter version of the
Apostles’ Creed. It was based on the 2nd-century Rule of
Faith and the interrogatory declaration of faith for those
receiving Baptism (3rd century or earlier), which by the 4th
century was everywhere tripartite in structure, following
Matthew 28:19 ("baptising them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"), which is part of the
Great Commission.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church, the first text attesting it is a letter to Pope Julius I in
340 or 341, and it has recently been argued that it developed
in the context of the Arian controversy. Bettenson and
Maunder further comment on this that Marcellus had been
exiled from his diocese through Arian influence, thus
spending two years at Rome, and finally left his creed with
Julius, Bishop of Rome.

Additionally, at c. 400 AD, Rufinus, a priest of Aquileia,
left a Latin version in his Commentarius in Symbolum
Apostolorum (P.L. xxi. 335B). He believed this to be the
Roman creed as the "rule of faith" written by the Apostles at
Jerusalem. About at the same time also Nicetas of Remesiana
wrote an Explanatio Symboli (P.L. Lii. 865-874B) based on
the Old Roman Symbol, but including also the communion
of saints.

The Old Roman Creed, English translation

I believe in God the Father almighty;

and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord,

Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
Who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried,
on the third day rose again from the dead,

ascended to heaven,

sits at the right hand of the Father,

whence He will come to judge the living and the dead;
and in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Church,

the remission of sins,

the resurrection of the flesh

(the life everlasting).

The Creed Of Constantnople, 381 AD

In 381, it was amended at the First Council of
Constantinople, and the amended form is referred to as the
Nicene or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The
Apostles' Creed is also used in the Latin West, but not in the
Eastern liturgies. On Sundays and solemnities, one of these

two creeds is recited in the Roman Rite Mass after the homily.

The Nicene Creed is also part of the profession of faith
required of those undertaking important functions within
the Catholic Church. In the Eastern Roman Rite, the Nicene
Creed is sung or recited at the Divine Liturgy, immediately
preceding the Anaphora (Eucharistic Prayer), and is also
recited daily at compline.

The Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches use this
profession of faith with the verbs in the original plural ("we
believe"), but the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches
convert those verbs to the singular ("I believe"). The
Anglican and many Protestant denominations generally use
the singular form, sometimes the plural.

What is known as the "Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed"
or the "Nicene—Constantinopolitan Creed" received this
name because of a belief that it was adopted at the Second
Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381 as a
modification of the original Nicene Creed of 325. In that
light, it also came to be very commonly known simply as the
"Nicene Creed". It is the only authoritative ecumenical
statement of the Christian faith accepted by the Catholic
Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy,
the Church of the East, much of Protestantism including the
Anglican communion. (The Apostles' and Athanasian creeds
are not as widely accepted.)

Text of the Creed of Constantinople, 381 AD

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of
(heaven and earth, and of) all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the (only-begotten) Son of
God, begotten of the Father (before all worlds (eons), Light
of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being
of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were
made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down
(from heaven,) and was incarnate (by the Holy Ghost and of
the Virgin Mary,) and was made man; he (was crucified for us
under Pontius Pilate, and) suffered, (and was buried,) and
the third day he rose again, (according to the Scriptures,)
and ascended) into heaven, (and sitteth on the right hand of
the Father;) from thence he shall come (again, with glory,)
to judge the quick and the dead; (whose kingdom shall have
no end.)

And in the Holy Ghost, (the Lord and Giver of life, who
proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the
Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the
prophets.

In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge
one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.)

Comparison between creed of 325 and creed of 381

Although church officials seem to downplay it, the
difference between the text of 325 and the text of 381 is quite
significant. The following comparison makes that clear. The
square brackets [ . . ] of the following Necene Creed,
indicates portions of the 325 text that were omitted or
moved in the Creed of Constantinople from 381 AD, and uses
round brackets (. . ) to indicate what phrases, absent in the
text from 325 AD, were added in the text from 381 AD.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Differences between the Latin and the Greek text

The Latin (Rufinus) and the Greek (Marcellus) versions are
faithful, literal, verbatim translations of each other. The
only outstanding difference is the concluding clause in the
Greek text, "life everlasting", which has no equivalent in the
Latin text. This clause is present in the Apostles’ Creed.

The Latin version of Nicetas of Remesiana also follows
quite closely the version of Rufinus (usually verbatim) but
also includes the vitam eternam, as Marcellus, and the
communionem sanctorum, omitted by the other two.

Apostles' Creed, 390 AD

The Apostles’ Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum or
Symbolum Apostolicum), sometimes titled the Apostolic
Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of
Christian belief—a creed or "symbol" [a] It is widely used by
a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and
catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of
Western tradition, including the Roman Catholic Church,
Lutheranism and Anglicanism. It is also used by
Presbyterians, Moravians, Methodists and
Congregationalists.

The Apostles’ Creed is trinitarian in structure with sections
affirming belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit. The Apostles' Creed was based on Christian
theological understanding of the canonical gospels, the
letters of the New Testament and to a lesser extent the Old
Testament. Its basis appears to be the old Roman Creed
known also as the Old Roman Symbol.

Because of the early origin of its original form, it does not
address some Christological issues defined in the Nicene and
other Christian creeds. It thus says nothing explicitly about
the divinity of either Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Nor does it
address many other theological questions which became
objects of dispute centuries later.

The earliest known mention of the expression "Apostles'
Creed" occurs in a letter of AD 390 from a synod in Milan
and may have been associated with the belief, widely accepted
in the 4th century, that, under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, each of the Twelve Apostles contributed an article to
the twelve articles of the creed.

Though the name "Apostles’ Creed" appears in a letter of
Saint Ambrose (c. 390), what is now known as the Apostles’
Creed is first quoted in its present form in the early 8th
century. It developed from the Old Roman Symbol, and
seems to be of Hispano-Gallic origin, being accepted in
Rome some time after Charlemagne imposed it throughout
his dominions.

Text of the Apostles' Creed, International Consultation

on English Texts

The International Consultation on English Texts (ICET), a
first inter-church ecumenical group that undertook the
writing of texts for use by English-speaking Christians in
common, published Prayers We Have in Common (Fortress

Press, 1970,1971,1975). Its version of the Apostles’ Creed
was adopted by several churches.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

Text of the Apostles' Creed, English Language

Liturgical Consultation

The English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), a
successor body to the International Consultation on English
Texts (ICET), published in 1988 a revised translation of the
Apostles' Creed. It avoided the word "his" in relation to God
and spoke of Jesus Christ as "God's only Son" instead of "his
only Son". In the fourth line, it replaced the personal
pronoun "he" with the relative "who", and changed the
punctuation, so as no longer to present the Creed as a series
of separate statements. In the same line it removed the words
"the power of". It explained its rationale for making these
changes and for preserving other controverted expressions in
the 1988 publication Praying Together, with which it
presented its new version:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OTHER DIFFERENCES

The Filioque clause, affirming that the Spirit proceeds
“from the Son” as well as the Father, was inserted into the
text in Spain during the 6th century and gradually spread to
all Western churches, but was probably not used in Rome
itself until 1014. Eastern Christians continue to reject this
addition, though now they do not generally regard it as
heretical, especially if it is understood in the sense of
“through the Son.”

The term Filioque is not in the original text of the Creed,
attributed to the First Council of Constantinople (381 AD),
the second ecumenical council, which says that the Holy
Spirit proceeds "from the Father", without additions of any
kind, such as "and the Son" or "alone". Eastern [Orthodox]
Christians have argued that this interpolation is a violation
of Canon VII of the Council of Ephesus, since the words were
not included in the text by either the Council of Nicaea or
that of Constantinople. This was incorporated into the
liturgical practice of Rome in 1014, but was rejected by
Eastern Christianity. Differences over this doctrine and the
question of papal primacy have been and remain primary
causes of schism between the Eastern Orthodox and Western
churches.

The Athanasian Creed, also called the Quicumque vult
from its initial words, is the last of what in the West are
regarded as the three catholic or ecumenical creeds. It has
received some slight recognition in the East, but only since
the 16th century. While officially accepted in the Roman
Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran communions, its liturgical
use has greatly declined in recent centuries. In part this is
because it is in form more a theological exposition than a
creed, and in part because of the damnatory clauses that
exclude from salvation all those who do not accept every
detail of its teaching. The main themes are the nature of
Christ and the Trinity, and these are developed in opposition
not only to Arianism but also apparently to later heresies
such as Nestorianism and Eutychianism. While its doctrine
can in general be attributed to the 4th-century Church
Father Athanasius, he was not its author. It probably
originated in southern France about 450-500, although
there is no scholarly consensus on this point.

Text of the Athanasian Creed, 6th century AD:

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary
that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith unless every one
do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish
everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: that we worship
one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither
confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence. For there
is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another
of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the
Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and
such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated; the Son

uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father
unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited.
The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost
eternal. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal.
As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but
one uncreated; and one infinite. So likewise the Father is
Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty. So
the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is
God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. So
likewise the Father is Lord; the Son Lord; and the Holy
Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords; but one Lord. For like
as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge
every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we
forbidden by the catholic religion; to say, There are three
Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of none; neither
created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not
made, nor created; but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the
Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor
begotten; but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three
Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three
Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before, or after
another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole
three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all
things, as aforesaid; the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in
Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved,
let him thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation; that
he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess;
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the Substance [Essence] of the Father; begotten
before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance [Essence] of his
Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of
a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the
Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father
as touching his Manhood. Who although he is God and Man;
yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of
the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood
into God. One altogether; not by confusion of Substance
[Essence]; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul
and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ; Who
suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again the
third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, he sitteth
on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence
he will come to judge the living and the dead. At whose
coming all men will rise again with their bodies; And shall
give account for their own works. And they that have done
good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done
evil, into everlasting fire. This is the catholic faith; which
except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

MODERN TEXT SAMPLES

Text of the Creed of the Roman Catholic Church

The initial (1970) English official translation of the Roman
Missal of the Roman Catholic Church adopted the ICET
version, as did catechetical texts such as the Catechism of the
Catholic Church.

In 2008 the Catholic Church published a new English
translation of the texts of the Mass of the Roman Rite, use of
which came into force at the end of 2011. It included the
following translation of the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting.

Amen.

Text of the Traditional Twelve Articles of the Creed

In its discussion of the contents of the Creed, the Catechism
of the Catholic Church presents it in the traditional division
into twelve articles:

1. I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven
and earth.

2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and
born of the Virgin Mary.

4. Under Pontius Pilate, He was crucified, died, and was
buried.

5. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.

6. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand
of the Father.

7. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

8. I believe in the Holy Spirit,

9. the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,

10. the forgiveness of sins,

11. the resurrection of the body,

12. and the life everlasting.

Text of the Cewwd of the Church of England

In the Church of England there are currently two
authorised forms of the creed: that of the Book of Common
Prayer (1662) and that of Common Worship (2000).

Book of Common Prayer, 1662:

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, [b]

Born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

Was crucified, dead, and buried:

He descended into hell;

The third day he rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;

The holy Catholick Church;

The Communion of Saints;

The Forgiveness of sins;

The Resurrection of the body,

And the Life everlasting.

Amen.

Text of the Creed during Common Worship:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Text of the Creed of the Lutheran Church

The publication Evangelical Lutheran Worship published
by Augsburg Fortress, is the primary worship resource for
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest
Lutheran denomination in the United States, and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. It presents the
official ELCA version, footnoting the phrase "he descended
to the dead" to indicate an alternative reading: "or ‘he

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

descended into hell,’ another translation of this text in
widespread use".

The text is as follows:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.*

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Text of the Creed of the United Methodist Church

The United Methodists commonly incorporate the
Apostles' Creed into their worship services. The version
which is most often used is located at No. 881 in the United
Methodist Hymnal, one of their most popular hymnals and
one with a heritage to brothers John Wesley and Charles
Wesley, founders of Methodism. It is notable for omitting the
line "he descended into hell", but is otherwise very similar to
the Book of Common Prayer version. The 1989 Hymnal has
both the traditional version and the 1988 ecumenical
version,[40] which includes "he descended to the dead."

The Apostles' Creed as found in The Methodist Hymnal of
1939 also omits the line "he descended..." The Methodist
Hymnal of 1966 has the same version of the creed, but with a
note at the bottom of the page stating, "Traditional use of
this creed includes these words: 'He descended into hell."

However, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was
organized in the United States in 1784, John Wesley sent the
new American Church a Sunday Service which included the
phrase "he descended into hell" in the text of The Apostles’
Creed. It is clear that Wesley intended American Methodists
to use the phrase in the recitation of the Creed.

The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989 also contains (at
#882) what it terms the "Ecumenical Version" of this creed
which is the ecumenically accepted modern translation of the
International Committee on English Texts (1975) as
amended by the subsequent successor body, the English
Language Liturgical Consultation (1987). This form of the
Apostles' Creed can be found incorporated into the
Eucharistic and Baptismal Liturgies in the Hymnal and in
The United Methodist Book of Worship, and hence it is
growing in popularity and use. The word "catholic" is

intentionally left lowercase in the sense that the word
catholic applies to the universal and ecumenical Christian
church.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting. Amen.[45]

Liturgical use in Western Christianity

The Apostles' Creed is used in its direct form or in
interrogative forms by Western Christian communities in
several of their liturgical rites, in particular those of baptism
and the Eucharist.

Rite of Baptism

The Apostles' Creed, whose present form is similar to the
baptismal creed used in Rome in the third and fourth
centuries, actually developed from questions addressed to
those seeking baptism. The Catholic Church still today uses
an interrogative form of it in the Rite of Baptism (for both
children and adults). In the official English translation
(ICEL, 1974) the minister of baptism asks:

Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of
heaven and earth?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and
was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right
hand of the Father?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

To each question, the catechumen, or, in the case of an
infant, the parents and sponsor(s) (godparent(s)) in his or
her place, answers "I do." Then the celebrant says:

This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are
proud to profess it, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And all respond: Amen.

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand uses the
Apostles' Creed in its baptism rite in spite of the reservations

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

of some of its members regarding the phrase "born of the
virgin Mary".

The Episcopal Church in the United States of America uses
the Apostles' Creed as part of a Baptismal Covenant for those
who are to receive the Rite of Baptism. The Apostles' Creed is
recited by candidates, sponsors and congregation, each
section of the Creed being an answer to the celebrant's
question, "Do you believe in God the Father (God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit)?" It is also used in an interrogative
form at the Easter Vigil in The Renewal of Baptismal Vows.

The Church of England likewise asks the candidates,
sponsors and congregation to recite the Apostles’ Creed in
answer to similar interrogations, in which it avoids using the
word "God" of the Son and the Holy Spirit, asking instead:
"Do you believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ?", and "Do
you believe and trust in the Holy Spirit?" Moreover, "where
there are strong pastoral reasons", it allows use of an
alternative formula in which the interrogations, while
speaking of "God the Son" and "God the Holy Spirit", are
more elaborate but are not based on the Apostles' Creed, and
the response in each case is: "I believe and trust in him."[50]
The Book of Common Prayer may also be used, which in its
rite of baptism has the minister recite the Apostles' Creed in
interrogative form. asking the godparents or, in the case "of
such as are of Riper Years", the candidate: "Dost thou
believe in God the Father ..." The response is: "All this I
stedfastly believe."

Lutherans following the Lutheran Service Book (Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church—Canada),
like Catholics and Anglicans, use the Apostles' Creed during
the Sacrament of Baptism:

Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of
heaven and earth?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and
was buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose
again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sits at the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will
come to judge the living and the dead?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian
Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?

Following each question, the candidate answers: "Yes, I
believe". If the candidates are unable to answer for
themselves, the sponsors are to answer the questions.

For ELCA Lutherans who use the Evangelical Lutheran
Worship book, the Apostles' Creed appears during the
Sacrament of Holy Baptism Rite on p. 229 of the hardcover
pew edition.

Methodists use the Apostles' Creed as part of their
baptismal rites in the form of an interrogatory addressed to
the candidate(s) for baptism and the whole congregation as a
way of professing the faith within the context of the Church's

sacramental act. For infants, it is the professing of the faith
by the parents, sponsors, and congregation on behalf of the
candidate(s); for confirmands, it is the professing of the faith
before and among the congregation. For the congregation,
it is a reaffirmation of their professed faith.

Do you believe in God?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven
and earth.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was
buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose
again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of
the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the
dead.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting.

Christians without creeds

Some Christian denominations do not profess a creed. This
stance is often referred to as "non-creedalism". The Religious
Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, consider that
they have no need for creedal formulations of faith. The
Church of the Brethren and other Schwarzenau Brethren
churches also espouse no creed, referring to the New
Testament, as their "rule of faith and practice." Jehovah's
Witnesses contrast "memorizing or repeating creeds" with
acting to "do what Jesus said". Unitarian Universalists do
not share a creed.

CREED IN ISLAM AND WHAT IT REALLY MEANS

The intensely anti-non-Muslim faith of Islam is summed up
in the Shahada (or shahadah). Recitation of the Shahada is
the most common statement of faith for all Mohammedans.
This is proclaimed in the daily calls to prayer from every
mosque, and every Muslim must recite it aloud with full
comprehension and assent at least once in his life, and profess
it without hesitation until his death. It is considered as the
first of the Five Pillars of Islam (which are: Ist: Shahada
(Profession of Faith), 2nd: Salat (Prayer), 3rd: Zakat
(paying tax), 4th: Sawm (Fasting), Sth: Hajj (Pilgrimage).

Learn the entire following Arabic text: Ash hadu an: "La
ilaha ill Allah". Wa ash hadu an: "Muhammadun rasul
Allah" Meaning: I testify, that: "There is no god but Allah”.
And I testify, that: "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah".

Another form of the Shahada sounds like: “Ash-hadu an:
"La ilaha ill-Allah". Wa ash hadu an na "Muhammadan
‘abd-ullahi wa rasolah." Meaning: I testify that there is no
true god except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is His
slave and Messenger.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Arabic is the national language of the Umma (the nation of
all Mohammedans / Muslims). Arabic, as most Semitic
languages, has only 3 vowels: a, 1, u. Pronunciation always: a
as in father, i as in beat, u as in boot. Do not link the words.
Consonants (never silent) in transcriptions, otherwise like in
English except: q = k, kh = ch in Scots loch, r = 'rolled' r in
Scots. Advice: practise and speak clearly; do not mumble!

This text may be important for you one day as it can safe
your life when you are captured or threatened by islamo-
fascist terrorists because the Recitation of the Shahada in
front of witnesses is the first and only formal step in
conversion to Islam. To harm such a convert is considered the
worst crime in the Islamic world and muslims believe that the
soul of such a criminal will burn in hell for all eternity. In
addition, the perpetrator of such a crime is liable to the
harshest punishment the Islamic law (the Sharia) can offer.

Why do we find in ths place the Islamic creed? When we
talk in this book about Judaism and Christianity, we must
also briefly mention the main adversary of them, and that is
Islam. What is Islam? The word Islam means "submission"
which makes non-Muslims feel uncomfortable. And that has
its reason in the actions of Muslims that we perceive. One
mundane answer to the question above could be "it is a
monotheistic religion from Arabia." A biblical and koranic
scholar might answer more enigmatically "the Koran and
Mohammed" or "Allah and Mohammed." These answers
refer to the 3 sacred books of Islam: Koran (the notebook or
recital of the prophet Mohammed), the Sira (the biography
of Mohammed, and the Hadith (the explained laws of
Mohammed briefly outlined in the Koran). In other words:
In order to understand the Koran and the actions of Muslims,
we first have to read the Sira, and then the Hadith, because
Muslims are required to emulate Mohammed and his actions.
Over 50% of these 3 books together do not talk about
Muslims but about YOU if you are not a Muslim! This alone
ought to be a good reason to be interested in that what Islam
has to say about non-Muslims (disbelievers, unbelievers,
infidels, idolaters, kafirs).

Islam is dualistic, just as the biography of Mohammed. In
the mind of Muslims there is not one humanity but two
humanities: believers (Muslims), and infidels (the Kafirs, all
non-Muslims and Islam-rejectors who are therefore not
innocent.); the House of Islam (dar al-Islam, Muslims) and
the House of War (sar al-harb, non-Muslims). There is no
equality between them as much as there is no equality
between man and woman (who is legally just half worth a
man in Islam (Koran 4:11-12 [inheritance]; 4:34 [wife
beating], 2:282 [witness].). These legal fact cannot be altered
by new laws because one cannot challenge the devine words
of Allah and Mohammed!

As Islam has not undergone the process of secularisation
(banning religion from political power), like Christianity
and some other belief systems. We must therefore understand
that Islam is not just a religion for private purposes. Islam is

always encompassing all matters of society, it is, as Islamic
teachers emphasise, a "comprehesive system of civilisation",
or to be more precise, a "totalitarian system of law" that
every Muslim [and every non-Muslim in Islamic ruled regions]
has to submit unto. Foremore, the Sharia law is the tool with
which Islam and its Muslims constantly and relentlessly
desintegrate the non-Muslim host societies. Sharia begins
already by demanding halal food, prayer places and times.
The non-Muslim complies and so has accepted Sharia. Not to
know the Islamic doctrines has proved deadly for any society
that has experienced Islamic immigration during the last
1,400 years. No exceptions!

Western people try to make a difference between Islam and
Islamism, in their illusion that one day an imagined
"peaceful Islam" may come to terms with the West or East
Asia one day. As all Muslims emphasise that Islam, the
Koran and Mohammed are perfect as they are, these illusion
will remain wishful thinking. Islamism is just putting Islam,
all Islamic doctrines and laws into practice. There is no
escape - neither for Muslims, nor for non-Muslims!

It is vital to know the contents of the Islamic Trilogy
[Koran, Sira, Hadith]. All Islamic states and organisations
are explicily based on it; and also the violence of Muslims.
Koran, Sira, Hadith are primarily books of law! There can
be no doubt about it. Here some snippets to think about:

The Constitution Of Saudi Arabia (from 1992 with
Amendments through 2005)

Article 1 (§2): Religion: Islam;

Constitution (and books of law): The Holy Koran and the
Prophet's Sunna (two explanatory books called "Sira,"
biography of Mohammed, and "Hadith," his laws.)

Constitution Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran 1979 (rev.
1989)

Preamble: ... The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of
Tran sets forth the cultural, social, political, and economic
institutions of Iranian society on the basis of Islamic
principles and norms, which represent the earnest aspiration
of the Islamic Ummah (the Islamic nation consists of 56
Islamic countries, the largest voting block in the UN).

Section 5: ... In creating, on the basis of ideological
outlook, the political infrastructures and institutions that
are the foundation of society, the righteous will assume the
responsibility of governing and administering the country
(in accordance with the Koranic verse "Verily My righteous
servants shall inherit the earth" [Koran 21:105]).
Legislation setting forth regulations for the administration
of society will revolve around the Koran and the Sunnah.

Article 2: The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief
in:

§1. the One God (as stated in the phrase "There is no god
except Allah"), His exclusive sovereignty and the right to
legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands;

§2. Divine revelation (Koran, Sira, Hadith) and its
fundamental role in setting forth the laws;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Article 4: All civil, penal, financial, economic,
administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws
and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria (as outlined
in Koran, Sira, Hadith).

Article 11: In accordance with the sacred verse of the
Koran ("This your community is a single community, and I
am your Lord, so worship Me" [21:92]), all Muslims (of the
World) form a single nation (the Ummah), and the
government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the duty of
formulating its general policies with a view to cultivating the
friendship and unity of all Muslim peoples, and it must
constantly strive to bring about the political, economic, and
cultural unity of the Islamic world.

Hamas Covenant; The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance
Movement, 18 August 1988

Article 1: The Islamic Resistance Movement: The
Movement's programme is Islam. From it, it draws its ideas,
ways of thinking and understanding of the universe, life and
man. It resorts to it for judgement in all its conduct, and it is
inspired by it for guidance of its steps.

The Islamic Resistance Movement's Relation With the
Moslem Brotherhood Group:

Article 2: The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the
wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem
Brotherhood Movement is a universal Organisation which
constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It
is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate
comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic
concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics,
economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the
spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of
the occult and conversion to Islam.

Article 8: Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the
Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the
sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.

Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum, 1991

Original title: "An Explanatory Memorandum On The
General Strategic Goal For The Group In North America:
5/22/1991" Government Exhibit 003-0085 3:04-CR-240-G
USS. v. HLF, et al. Original language and script: Arabic

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Thanks be to God, Lord of the Two Worlds [Dar al-Islam /
House of Islam = Muslim territory) and Dar al-Harb / House
of War = non-Muslim territory] And Blessed are the Pious
[devout Muslim]

ONE: The Memorandum Is Derived From:

1. The general strategic goal of the Group in America
which was approved by the Shura Council and the
Organizational Conference for the year [1987] is
"Enablement of Islam in North America"... .

TWO: An Introduction To The Explanatory Memorandum:

In order to begin with the explanation, we must “summon”
the following question and place it in front of our eyes as its
relationship is important and necessary with the strategic
goal and the explanation project we are embarking on. The
question we are facing is: “How do you like to see the Islam
Movement in North America in ten years?”, or “taking
along” the following sentence when planning and working,
“Islamic Work in North America in the year (2000): A
Strategic Vision”.

Also, we must summon and take along “elements” of the
general strategic goal of the Group in North America and I
will intentionally repeat them in numbers. They are:

[1. Establishing an effective and stable Islamic Movement
led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

2. Adopting Muslims' causes domestically and globally.

3. Expanding the observant Muslim base.

4. Unifying and directing Muslims' efforts.

5. Presenting Islam as a civilization alternative

6. Supporting the establishment of the global Islamic State
wherever it is].

¢ It must be stressed that it has become clear and
emphatically known that all is in agreement that we must
“settle” or “enable” Islam and its Movement in this part of
the world.

¢ Therefore, a joint understanding of the meaning of
settlement or enablement must be adopted, through which
and on whose basis we explain the general strategic goal with
its six elements for the Group in North America.

THREE: The Concept Of Settlement:

This term was mentioned in the Group’s “dictionary” and
documents with various meanings in spite of the fact that
everyone meant one thing with it. We believe that the
understanding of the essence is the same and we will attempt
here to give the word and its “meanings” a practical
explanation with a practical Movement tone, and not a
philosophical linguistic explanation, while stressing that this
explanation of ours is not complete until our explanation of
“the process” of settlement itself is understood which is
mentioned in the following paragraph. We briefly say the
following:

Settlement: “That Islam and its Movement become a part of
the homeland it lives in”.

Establishment: “That Islam turns into firmly-rooted
organizations on whose bases civilization, structure and
testimony are built”.

Stability: “That Islam is stable in the land on which its
people move”.

Enablement: “That Islam is enabled within the souls, minds
and the lives of the people of the country in which it moves”.

Rooting: “That Islam is resident and not a passing thing,
or rooted “entrenched” in the soil of the spot where it moves
and not a strange plant to it”.

[When Muslims talk about "Settlement," they mean "civil
conquest by immigration,” infiltration of all social

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

structures of the host country to subjugate and paralyse the
indigenous people and their institutions by Sharia law which
begins always with the Muslims' demand for halal food,
getting rid of non-halal food from kindergartens and schools,
demand 5 prayer times a day and demand prayer places,
mosques, and own Islam schools (preferably paid for by the
host country, of course).|

FOUR: The Process Of Settlement:

¢ In order for Islam and its Movement to become “a part of
the homeland” in which it lives, “stable” in its land,
“rooted” in the spirits and minds of its people, “enabled” in
the live of its society and has firmly-established
“organizations” on which the Islamic structure is built and
with which the testimony of civilization is achieved, the
Movement must plan and struggle to obtain “the keys” and
the tools of this process in carry out this grand mission as a
“Civilization Jihadist” responsibility which lies on the
shoulders of Muslims and - on top of them - the Muslim
Brotherhood in this country. Among these keys and tools are
the following:

.... We will suffice here with mentioning the title for each
of these stages [The title expresses the prevalent characteristic
of the stage] [Details maybe mentioned in another future
study]. Most likely, the stages are:

A.) The stage of searching for self and determining the
identity.

B.) The stage of inner build-up and tightening the
organization.

C.) The stage of mosques and the Islamic centers.

D.) The stage of building the Islamic organizations - the
first phase.

E.) The stage of building the Islamic schools - the first
phase.

F.) The stage of thinking about the overt Islamic
Movement - the first phase.

G.) The stage of openness to the other Islamic movements
and attempting to reach a formula for dealing with them -
the first phase.

H.) The stage of reviving and establishing the Islamic
organizations - the second phase. We believe that the Group
is embarking on this stage in its second phase as it has to
open the door and enter as it did the first time.

All these plans and demands are according to Koran, Sira,
Hadith, Islamic Constitutions, and Islamic jurisprudence by
Dawa (Islamic propaganda), Jihad (of Islamic encroachment,
infiltration of the host's institutions, gaining political power
over the host, the Zakat or money collected from Muslims
and non-Muslims, intimidation of host and unwilling
Muslims, violence, honour killings, terror attacks and the
Sharia law.).

The mentioned writings, and the worries they cause, are not
unfounded. Since 11 September 2001, and up to mid-2024,
about 45,000 Islamic terrorist attacks have been carried out.
300,000 people have been murdered by Muslims, and

360,000 have been injured by Muslims; this equals to
650,000 direct victims of Islam in total. (Look up for a
complete and constantly updated and detailed list of all
terrorist attacks: thereligionofpeace.com)

This is an equivalent of the explosion of 4 Hiroshima-size
atomic bombs. Interestingly, over 90% of the victims are
Muslims. According to their murderers, these were not "real
Muslims" but "collaborators with the non-Muslim West."
Sobering realisation: Islam is not only bad for non-Muslims
but especially bad for Muslims! 99.9% of all terror attacks in
the World are being committed by Muslims!

(For the complete texts and more information, please see
the Grand Bible, 6th edition 2024. Contents of Islamic
(historical and modern) documents (plus page numbers):

¢ The Basic Islamic Glossary, 4362

¢ Martin Luther on Islam and the Koran; 2 Prefaces , 4367

¢ Islam: What the West Needs to Know, 4369

¢ The Logic of Islam / Lecture by Carl Goldberg, 4374

¢ Clash of Civilzations? by Samuel P. Huntington, 4379

¢ Dawa, Islamic Proselytisation, 4384

¢ The Koran, The Recitation (Chronological Order), 4388

¢ The Life of Mohammed / Sira / Sirat Rasul Allah, 4453

¢ The Constitution of Medina, 4591

¢ The Edict of Umar / The Pact of Umar, 4591

¢ The Hadith, The Sahth al-Bukhari, 4597

¢ Statistics on Islamic Scripture (verses as evidence), 4896

¢ Misconceptions and Lies about Islam, 5029

¢ Manual to Sharia Law/ Reliance of the Traveller, 5032

* Constitution of Saudi Arabia, 1992, 5122

¢ Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979, 5125

¢ The Hizballah Program (Manifesto), 1985, 8064

¢ The New Hizballah Manifesto, 2009, 8066

¢ The Hamas Covenant, 1988 (18 August 1988), 5132

¢ The Hamas Charter, 2017, 5136

¢ The Islamic Declaration on Human Rights, 1990, 5137

¢ The Arab Charter on Human Rights, 2004, 5139

¢ The Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum, 5141

¢ UN Declaration and Programme of Action, 5144

With the obligatory perfomance of the Shahada, each and
every Muslim swaers a legal oath of allegiance towards Allah
and Mohammed, towards the Koran, the Sira, and the
Hadith, towards the Umma, the One Nation of all Muslims
on Earth. To act against this oath 1s treason and apostacy.
That 1s why both carry the death penalty.

Ignoring the Islamic doctrine of migration®, Islam's
ruthlessness, relentlessness and the will to succeed politically,
Is fatal for all non-Muslims. (* the Islamic calendar 1s based
on the migration of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.)

1,400 years of Islamic history with the cry of roughly 250
million dead victims clearly should make the zealous wrath of
Mohammed and hus Allah audible to all of us.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

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Che sacred Scriptures
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Translated out of the Hebrew Language into
Basic English by Professor S. H. Hooke
and published in 1949
Edited and arranged
by Lord Henfield

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE OLD TESTAMENT

or The Tanakh, The Migqra, The Hebrew Bible
Translation: Basic English Version, 1949
which is based on translations from Hebrew by
William Tyndale, John Rogers, and others.
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 800-200 B.C.

(The Hebrew Bible, also called Hebrew Scriptures, Old
Testament, Tanakh or Migqra, 1s a collection of writings that
was first compiled and preserved as the sacred books of the
Jewish people. Tanakh is an acronym (T-N-K), made from
the first Hebrew letter of each of the three traditional
divisions: Torah (‘Teaching of the Law,' the Five Books of
Moses), Nevi'tm (‘The Prophets'), and Ketuvim (‘The
Writings')—hence TaNaKh. Each of these 3 text groups Is
further subdivided. The Hebrew canon contains 24 books,
one for each of the scrolls on which these works were written
in ancient times.

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of Jewish accounts in
which God is dealing with the Jews as his chosen people, who
collectively called themselves Children of Israel. After an
account of the world’s creation by God and the emergence of
human civilisation, the first six books narrate not only the
lustory but the genealogy of the people of Israel to the
conquest and settlement of the Promised Land under the
terms of God's covenant with Abraham [who came from Ur
in Sumer, perhaps c. 1900 BC], whom God promised to make
the progenitor of a great nation. This covenant was
subsequently renewed by Abraham's son Isaac and grandson
Jacob (whose byname Israel became the collective name of his
descendants and whose sons, according to legend, fathered
the 12 Israelite tribes). The Exodus (Hebrew: Yezi'at
Mizrayim: Iit. ‘Departure from Egypt’) is another founding
myth of the Israelites. It narrates the story of Moses [Mose is
Egyptian for ‘Son’, an obvious reminder of Dedumose I & IT
(c. 1600 BC), Kamose (c. 1555-1550 BC), Ahmose I (1550-
1525 BC), or Thutmose IT (1493-1479 BO)]] and his people
leaving Egypt while receiving the Ten Commandments from
God at Mount Sinai on their way to Canaan, about four
centuries after Abraham. The following seven books continue
their story in the Promised Land, describing the people's
constant apostasy and breaking of the covenant; the
establishment and development of the monarchy in order to
counter this; and the warnings by the prophets both of
impending divine punishment and exile and of Israel's need to
repent. The last 11 books contain poetry, theology, and
some additional history.

The Hebrew Bible's profoundly monotheistic interpretation
of human life and the universe as creations of God provides
the basic structure of ideas that gave rise not only to Judaism
and Christianity but also to Islam, which emerged from

Jewish and Christian tradition and which views Abraham as
a patriarch. Most of these scriptures were written originally
in Hebrew during the period from 1200 to 200 BC, some
were written in Aramaic, the daily language of the Jews.

The Torah contains narratives combined with rules and
instructions 1n Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. The books of the Nevi'im are categorised
among either the Former Prophets—which contain
anecdotes about major Hebrew persons and include Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, and Kings—or the Latter Prophets—which
exhort Israel to return to God and are named (because they
are either attributed to or contain stories about them) for
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and (together in one book known
as “The Book of the Twelve”) the 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggat, Zechariah, Malachi). The last of the
three divisions, the Ketuvim, contains poetry (devotional
and erotic), theology, and drama in Psalms, Proverbs, Job,
Song of Songs (attributed to King Solomon), Ruth,
Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah,
and Chronicles.

The Tanakh 1s also the first and larger portion of the
Christian Bible. name Old Testament was devised by a
Christian, Melito of Sardis, about 170 AD to distinguish this
part of the Bible from the New Testament, which recounts
the ministry and gospel of Jesus and presents the history of
the early Christian church. Many Christians refer to the
Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament, the "prophecy
foretelling the advent of Jesus Christ as God's appointed
Messiah". The Old Testament 1s longer than the Hebrew
Bible, in part because Christian editors divided particular
works into two sections (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles) but also
because different Christian groups consider as canonical
some texts not found in the Hebrew Bible.

The Bibles of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, and some Protestant churches were derived
initially from the Septuagint, the Hebrew Bible in its Greek
translation produced in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. This
included some books deemed noncanonical by Orthodox
Judaism and most Protestant churches (see also Apocrypha),
slightly longer versions of Daniel and Esther, and one
additional psalm. Moreover, the Ethiopian Tewahdo
Orthodox Church, one of the Oriental Orthodox churches,
also includes within its Old Testament two works considered
by other Christian churches to be pseudepigraphical (both
noncanonical and dubtously attributed to a biblical figure):
the apocalyptic First Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees.

The Old Testament 1s largely identical with the Hebrew
Bible as interpreted among the various branches of
Christianity. In Judaism the Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh) 1s
not only the primary text of instruction for a moral life but
also the historical record of God's promise, first articulated
in his covenant with Abraham (who came from "Erech", the
Mesopotamian City of Urfuk]), to consider the Jews as Israel,
lus chosen people. That Abraham came from Uruk or Ur in
Sumer 1s in so far important as it explains why we find so

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

many texts from Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylonia, Akkad:
the Instructions of Shuruppak, the Gilgamesh Epic, the
Flood Story, the Code of Hammurabi etc.) in the Old
Testament.

The first five books — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of
Numbers and Deuteronomy — reached their present form in
the Persian period (538-332 BC), and their authors were the
elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that
time. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow,
forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to
the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC. There is a broad consensus
among scholars that these originated as a single work (the
so-called "Deuteronomistic history") during the Babylonian
exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles
cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and
Deuterononustic history and probably date from the 4th
century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra—Nehemiah, were probably
finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox
Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to
four (Orthodox) Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and
Ist centuries BC.

These history books make up around half the total content
of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the
various prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the
twelve "minor prophets" — were written between the 8th and
6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel,
which were written much later. The "wisdom" books — Job,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon — have
various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by the
Hellenistic time (332-198 BC), though containing much
older material as well; Job completed by the 6th Century BC;
Ecclesiastes by the 3rd Century BC. The entire Hebrew Bible
probably reached its current form when it was translated
into Greek in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

Marcion, a critic and therefore heretic of Roman
Christianity, was clearly opposed to include the Hebrew
Bible into the Christian canon. And he had very good
reasons. His teaching made a radical distinction between the
God of the Old Testament (the Creator, a wrathful and
punishing god) and the Father of Jesus on the one side, and
Jesus (the son of God, the Saviour and Christ) as the God of
Love on the other side. According to Marcion, that
distinction had been obscured at the very earliest stages of
the Christian movement, and, among the Apostles, only Paul
had understood it. Because the corruptions that had
consequently been introduced into the life and message of the
church and into the very text of the New Testament had to be
expunged, Marcion edited his own versions of the biblical
books. His collection of those books that he regarded as
authoritative: the Gospel of Matthew and five letters of Paul.
His actions led to a battle inside the Roman Church that
lasted for 150 years and was finally solved in 325 AD at the
Council of Nicaea by accepting the Hebrew Bible also as
Christian Scripture.

Some Christian scholars talk about an Old Testamental
Period, an Inter-Testamental Period (c. 500 years between c.

420 BC and c. 70 AD, in which was written nothing), and a
New Testamental Period. The Inter-Testamental Period was
actually created by the Romans as they have destroyed most
Jewish texts created between c. 200 BC and 68 AD. These
texts have been found again in 1947 when archaeologists
rescued the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Qumran caves. The
texts contained a lot of anti-Roman propaganda of the
ancient Jewish Messianic Movement that led to the
catastrophic Roman-Jewish war (66-73 AD). They show
clearly what the fight was all about: a clash of two
civilisations that had a fundamental difference in law: The
(Jewish) Law of God, also called "the Covenant of Moses",
and the (Roman) Law of Man.

The Covenant of Moses is most likely based on the 100
"Instructions of Shuruppak" from Mesopotamia and the
Maxims of Ptah-Hotep from Egypt. A Covenant - and the
Covenant of Moses especially so - 1s a binding promise of far-
reaching importance in the relations between individuals,
groups, and nations. It has soctal, legal, religious, and other
aspects. This discussion 1s concerned primarily with the term
in its special religious sense and especially with its role in
Judaism and Christianity; and to some extant in Islam as it
devolved from descendants of the Messianic Movement (the
authors of the Messianic texts such as the War Scroll, the
Messianic Scroll, the Community Rule, found in the Dead
Sea Scrolls of Qumran).

Covenants in the ancient world were solemn agreements by
which societies attempted to regularise the behaviour of both
individuals and social organisations, particularly in those
contexts in which social control was either inadequate or
nonexistent. Though ancient Greek civilisations apparently
never developed a descriptive theory of covenants, analysis of
covenant forms and the ancient use of language yields a
definition that essentially 1s the same as that found in modern
law. It is a promise or agreement under consideration,
usually under seal or guarantee between two parties, and the
seal or symbol of guarantee is that which distinguishes
covenant from modern contract.

The concept of covenant has been of enormous importance
in the biblical tradition; from it there 1s derived the long
traditional division of the Bible into the Old and New Testa-
ments (Covenants). In postbiblical Judaism and sporadically
in Christianity, the concept of covenant has been a major
source and foundation of religious thought and especially of
the concept of the religious community, but the nature and
content of covenant ideas have undergone an extremely
complex history of change, adaptation, and elaboration.

Though both covenant and Jaw in the ancient world were
means by which obligation was both established and
sanctioned, and are often virtually identified with each other
in modern scholarly literature, there are, nevertheless, very
important contrasts between the two that should not be
obscured. A covenant is a promise that 1s sanctioned by an
oath. This promise in turn was accompanied by an appeal to
a deity or deities to “see” or “watch over” the behaviour of
the one who has sworn, and to punish any violation of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

covenant by bringing into action the curses stipulated or
implied in the swearing of the oath. Legal procedure, on the
other hand, may be entirely secular, for law characteristically
does not require that each member of the legal community
voluntarily swear an oath to obey the law. Further, in
ordinary legal procedure the sanctions of the law are carried
out by appropriate agencies of the society itself, not by
transcendent powers beyond the control of man and society.

It is the knowledge of the Law of God that can make us
understand why the Old Testament has served as
legitimisation of Christianity and even more as solid
foundation of Mohammed's Islam, which is nothing else than
a shadow of the ancient Messianic Movement that might have
survived outside of the Roman sphere of influence in oral
traditions and is hanging now over us like the sword of
Damocles.

Lifespans of characters in the Genesis: In Genesis 5:5, we
can read: "And all the days that Adam lived were nine
hundred and thirty years: and he died". The Torah (the five
books of Moses) mentiones the lifespan of its characters.
Methuselah was the oldest man ever recorded in the Bible
and he lived to be 969 years old. It was after the flood that
God said that he would shorten man's days upon the earth. It
Is very interesting to look at this chart and realise who might
have lived long enough to meet some of the important
characters mentioned in the Bible.

Lifespans from Adam to Noah:

Name Lifespan | Age When Son was Born

Adam 930 130

Seth 912 105

Enosh 905 90

Kenan 910 70

Mahalalel 895 65

Jared 962 162

Enoch 365 65

Methuselah 969 187

Lamech 777 182

Noah (Flood) | 950 600 (at time of flood)
1656 Total Years

LifeSpans of Shem's Children

Name Lifespan | Age When Son was Born
Arpachshad 438 E 2)

Shelah 433 30

Eber 464 34

Peleg 239 30

Reu 239 32

Serug 230 30

Nahor 148 29

Terah 205 130

Abraham 175 100

450 Total Years

The are four possible ezplanations for such numbers:

1. The writers wanted to elevate the Characters because high
age meant high authority.

2. The writers wrote one digit too many

3. The writers meant months instead of years*

4. The writers refered to the lifespan of the house / dynasty of
the mentioned person

[* Adam's alleged age of 930 years, just for instance, divided
by 12 mornths would result in 77.5. This number as ‘years of
reign' would be much more feasible in a biological sense;
especially when we talk about years of the lunar calendar
which are shorter than the years of the solar calendar. Just a
reminder of biological reality: The oldest persons who ever
lived died at the age of roughly 120 years. ]

Genealogy Data:

There were 1656 years from Adam to the Flood.

There were 427 years from the flood to the time Abraham
entered the land of Canaan.

There were 450 years from the flood to the birth of Isaac.
Adams lifespan overlapped Methuselah by 243 years.
Methuselah’s lifespan overlapped Noah by 600 years, and
Shem by 98 years.

Methuselah's name means "when he dies it shall be sent"
probably meaning the flood.

There were 126 years between the death of Adam and the
birth of Noah.

Noah lived for 350 years after the flood, and he died two
years before the birth of Abraham.

Shem lived from 98 years before the flood until 502 years
after the flood.

Shem lived until 75 years after Abraham entered the land of
Canaan.

Adam would've lived long enough to meet his great great
great great great grandchildren.

Noah lived through to the ninth generation of his own
descendants.

The age of man gradually reduces afer the flood.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE TORAH

The Instructions or Teachings of God's Laws
or The Pentateuch or The Five Books of Moses
or The Bible Canon of the Samaritans
Oldest surviving copy: Dead Sea Scrolls
from Qumran, 3rd - 2nd centuries B.C.
Estimated Range of Dating: 8th - Sth centuries B.C.

(The Torah 1s the definite and ultimate Hebrew "Book of
Law." The name Torah is a Hebrew synonym for "teaching,
instruction, law, pentateuch, sefer torah or the Five Books of
Moses." What these terms really mean 1s the "Teaching of the
Law," and therefore, the name Torah has the same meaning
as the Hindu word Sutra (in Sanskrit) or Sutta (in Pali).

The Torah, or Pentateuch (Five Scrolls), traditionally the
most revered portion of the Hebrew Bible canon, comprises a
series of narratives, interspersed with law codes, providing
an account of events from the beginning of the world to the
death of Moses. Among Samaritans (or Samaritan Hebrews),
the Five Books of Moses are the only canon of the Bible; all
other Biblical books are allowed but not part of the Bible
canon. Modern critical scholarship tends to hold that there
were originally four books by Biblical scholars called "The
Jahwist Source," "The Elohist Source," "The Priestly
Source," and "The Deuteronomist Source."

The final Torah is widely seen as a product of the Persian
period 450-350 BC. A minority of scholars would place the
final formation of the Pentateuch somewhat later, in the
Hellenistic (333-164 BC) or even Hasmonean (140-37 BC)
periods. The finalisation of the Torah in Hellenistic times
seems to be a possibility. The Elephantine papyri, the records
of a Hebrew colony in Egypt dating from the last quarter of
the 5th century BC, make no reference to a written Torah,
the Exodus, or to any other biblical event.

The Talmud holds that the Torah was written by Moses,
with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy,
describing his death and burial, being written by Joshua. By
contrast, modern scholars are certain that the Torah has
multiple authors and that its composition took place over
centuries. The precise process by which the Torah was
composed, the number of authors involved, and the date of
each author remain debated.

The Torah had been made out of probably four distinct
manuscripts that were re-arranged into five books later. In
the mid-18th century, some scholars started a critical study
of doublets (parallel accounts of the same incidents),
inconsistencies, and changes in style and vocabulary in the
Torah. Text analyses by German-speaking scientists result in
the "documentary hypothesis" (DH). They identified 4
independent sources, which were later compiled together
according to topic. The sources are named: J [the Jahwist

source], E [the Elohist source], P [the Priestly source], and D
[the Deuteronomist source]. The earliest of these sources, J,
would have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century
BC, with the latest source, P, being composed around the Sth
century BC. These source names are based what 1s actually
written in the Torah texts.

I. The Yahwist source’ (J) 1s so named because of its
characteristic use of the term Yahweh (German: Jahwe) for
God.

2. The 'Elohist source’ (E) 1s so named because of its
pervasive use of the word Elohim to refer to the Israelite god.

3. The ‘Priestly source’ (P) is both stylistically and
theologically distinct from other matertal in the Torah, and
includes a set of claims that are contradicted by non-Priestly
passages and therefore uniquely characteristic: no sacrifice
before the institution 1s ordained by Yahweh (God) at Sinai,
the exalted status of Aaron and the priesthood, and the use of
the divine title El Shaddai before God reveals his name to
Moses, to name a few. In general, the Priestly source is
concerned with priestly matters — religious law, the origins
of shrines and rituals, and genealogies — all expressed in a
formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of
worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding
considerably on the role given to Aaron (all Levites are
priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron
were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary).

The history of Judah ts little known when we look at the
time its elite was taken captive to Babylonia. We also do not
know much of the time after their return. A summary of
current theories can be made as follows:

¢ Religion in monarchic Judah centred around ritual
sacrifice in the Temple. There, worship was in the hands of
priests known as Zadokites (meaning that they traced their
descent from an ancestor called Zadok, who, according to the
Hebrew Bible, was the high priest appointed by Samuel.)
There was also a lower order of religious officials called
Levites, who were not permitted to perform sacrifices and
were restricted to mental functions.

¢ While the Zadokites* were the only priests in Jerusalem,
there were other priests at other centres. One of the most
important of these was a temple at Bethel, north of Jerusalem.
Bethel, the centre of the "golden calf" cult, was one of the
main religious centres of the northern kingdom of Israel and
had royal support until Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians
in 721. Aaron was in some way associated with Bethel.

(* Saducees’, a Greek word corruption of the Hebrew word
Z-D-K' by transliteration, which in turn came back to the
Aramaic speaking Jews as ‘Sedukim'. Z-D-K means "the just"
or "the righteous" one, as in "James the Just", who was the
brother of Jesus and is refered to as "the Teacher of
Righteousness" in the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran)

¢ In 587 the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and took
most of the Zadokite priesthood into exile, leaving behind
the Levites, who were too poor and marginalised to
represent a threat to their interests. The temple at Bethel
now assumed a major role in the religious life of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

inhabitants of Judah, and the non-Zadokite priests, under
the influence of the Aaronite priests of Bethel, began calling
themselves "sons of Aaron" to distinguish themselves from
the "sons of Zadok".

¢ When the Zadokite priests returned from exile after c. 538
and began re-establishing the temple in Jerusalem they came
into conflict with the Levite priests. The Zadokites won the
conflict but adopted the Aaronite name, whether as part of a
compromise or in order to out-flank their opponents by co-
opting their ancestor.

¢ The Zadokites simultaneously found themselves in conflict
with the Levites, who objected to their subordinate position.
The priests also won this battle, writing into the Priestly
document stories such as the rebellion of Korah, which
paints the challenge to priestly prerogative as unholy and
unforgivable. This conflict grew to a full-scale civil war
envolving several messianic movements (Zealots, Sadusees,
Pharisees, etc.) and Jthadist terror organisations such as the
Sicari. In 66 AD, this civil war culminated to the Roman-
Jewish War that engulfed the entire eastern half of the
Roman Empire. Titus Flavius Vespasianus had no other
option but wiping out all messianic movements, distroying
the "Temple of Jerusalem", killing the Messianic Army that
brought 60.000 soldiers onto the battlefields. Titus Flavius
Josephus, the adopted son of Titus Flavius Vespasianus,
reported later these event in great detail in his book The
Jewish War and gave a total death toll of 1.1 million.
Vespasianus was hailed as the "Saviour" or "Messiah" of the
Roman Empire.

4. The 'Deuteronomust source’ (D) may refer either to the
source document underlying the core chapters (12-26) of the
Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that
produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deuteronomistic
history of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings and also the
book of Jeremiah. In general, the Deuteronomist source 1s
concerned with Civil Law and rules for the daily life. This
kind of law is commonly refered to as "The Law of Moses"
but might better be called "The Law of God" as it refers to
the tablets with their 10 Commandments. Those
Deuterononust Commandmends have in turn their origin in
the tablets of the 100 "Instructions of Shuruppak" from
Mesopotamia (c. 2600-2500 BC). Even the title is the very
same, because "Torah" means "Instruction".

The "School of Deuteronomism" is usually described in a
narrative such as follows:

¢ Following the destruction of Israel (the northern
kingdom) by Assyria in 721 BC, refugees came south to
Judah, bringing with them traditions, notably the concept of
Yahweh as the only god who should be served, which had not
previously been known. Among those influenced by these
new ideas were the landowning aristocrats (called "people of
the land" in the Bible) who provided the administrative elite
in Jerusalem.

¢ In 640 BC there was a crisis in Judah when king Amon
was murdered. The aristocrats suppressed the attempted

coup, putting the ringleaders to death and placing Amon’s
eight-year-old son, Josiah, on the throne.

¢ Judah at this time was a vassal of Assyria, but Assyria now
began a rapid and unexpected decline in power, leading to a
resurgence of nationalism in Jerusalem. In 622 BC Josiah
launched his reform program, based on an early form of
Deuteronomy 5—26, framed as a covenant (treaty) between
Judah and Yahweh in which Yahweh replaced the Assyrian
king.

¢ By the end of the 7th century BC Assyria had been
replaced by a new imperial power, Babylon. The trauma of
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC,
and the exile which followed, led to much theological
reflection on the meaning of the tragedy, and the
Deuterononustic history was written as an explanation:
Israel had been unfaithful to Yahweh, and the exile was
God's punishment.

¢ By about 540 BC Babylon was also in rapid decline as the
next rising power, the Achaemenid Empire, steadily ate away
at it. With the end of the Babylonian oppression becoming
ever more probable, Deuteronomy was given a new
introduction and attached to the history books as an overall
theological introduction.

¢ The final stage was the addition of a few extra laws
following the Fall of Babylon to the Persians in 539 BC and
the return of some (in practice only a small fraction) of the
exiles to Jerusalem.)

NOTICE

For reasons of identification, we shall display
the book title but also all known alternative book titles.
Furthermore, we shall give information on
provenance, manuscript, author, language, script,
edition, archaeology, history, science,
any other findings and estimated range of dating.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

GENESIS
The First Book of Moses
Hebrew Title: Bereshit ("In the Beginning")

(The original name of this Jewish book is Bereshit in
Hebrew which means "In the Beginning". As usual in Semitic
writings, the initial words of the text serves also as title. The
First Book of Moses is in Greek called Genesis. It is the first
book of the Hebrew Bible. It means "creation, origin, or
birth" as the book begins with the creation of the Universe.
It ends with the death of Joseph.

Contents or Torah portions:

¢ Bereshit, on Genesis 1-6: Creation, Eden, Adam and Eve,
Cain and Abel, Lamech, wickedness

¢ Noach, on Genesis 6-11: Noah's Ark, the Flood, Noah's
drunkenness, the Tower of Babel

¢ Lech-Lecha, on Genesis 12-1 Abraham, Sarah, Lot,
covenant, Hagar and Ishmael, circumcision

¢ Vayeira, on Genesis 18—22: Abraham's visitors,
Sodomites, Lot's visitors and flight, Hagar expelled, binding
of Isaac

¢ Chayei Sarah, on Genesis 23-25: Sarah burted, Rebekah
for Isaac

¢ Toledot, on Genesis 25—28: Esau and Jacob, Esau's
birthright, Isaac's blessing

¢ Vayetze, on Genesis 28—32: Jacob flees, Rachel, Leah,
Laban, Jacob's children and departure

¢ Vayishlach, on Genesis 32-36: Jacob's reunion with Esau,
the rape of Dinah

¢ Vayeshev, on Genesis 37-40: Joseph's dreams, coat, and
slavery, Judah with Tamar, Joseph and Potiphar

¢ Miketz, on Genesis 41-44: Pharaoh's dream, Joseph in
government, Joseph's brothers visit Egypt

¢ Vayigash, on Genesis 44—4 Joseph reveals himself, Jacob
moves to Egypt

¢ Vaychi, on Genesis 47-50: Jacob's blessings, death of
Jacob and of Joseph)

GENESIS CHAPTER |

1 At the first God made the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was waste and without form; and it was
dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was
moving on the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good: and
God made a division between the light and the dark,

5 Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there
was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over
the waters, parting the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the arch for a division between the waters
which were under the arch and those which were over it: and
it was so.

8 And God gave the arch the name of Heaven. And there
was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven come
together in one place, and let the dry land be seen: and it was
sO.

10 And God gave the dry land the name of Earth; and the
waters together in their place were named Seas: and God saw
that it was good.

11 And God said, Let grass come up on the earth, and
plants producing seed, and fruit-trees giving fruit, in which
is their seed, after their sort: and it was so.

12 And grass came up on the earth, and every plant
producing seed of its sort, and every tree producing fruit, in
which is its seed, of its sort: and God saw that it was good.

13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third
day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the arch of heaven,
for a division between the day and the night, and let them be
for signs, and for marking the changes of the year, and for
days and for years:

15 And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give
light on the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to
be the ruler of the day, and the smaller light to be the ruler of
the night: and he made the stars.

17 And God put them in the arch of heaven, to give light
on the earth;

18 To have rule over the day and the night, and for a
division between the light and the dark: and God saw that it
was good.

19 And there was evening and there was morning, the
fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters be full of living things,
and let birds be in flight over the earth under the arch of
heaven.

21 And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living
and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every
sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God gave them his blessing, saying, Be fertile and
have increase, making all the waters of the seas full, and let
the birds be increased in the earth.

23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth
day.

24 And God said, Let the earth give birth to all sorts of
living things, cattle and all things moving on the earth, and
beasts of the earth after their sort: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after its sort, and
the cattle after their sort, and everything moving on the face
of the earth after its sort: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us:
and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and
over every living thing which goes flat on the earth.

27 And God made man in his image, in the image of God he
made him: male and female he made them.

28 And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be
fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be
masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the
earth.

29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant
producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree
which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food:

30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the
air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I
have given every green plant for food: and it was so.

31 And God saw everything which he had made and it was
very good. And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day.

GENESIS CHAPTER 2

1 And the heaven and the earth and all things in them were
complete.

2 And on the seventh day God came to the end of all his
work; and on the seventh day he took his rest from all the
work which he had done.

3 And God gave his blessing to the seventh day and made it
holy: because on that day he took his rest from all the work
which he had made and done.

4 These are the generations of the heaven and the earth
when they were made.

5 In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven
there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass
had come up: for the Lord God had not sent rain on the
earth and there was no man to do work on the land.

6 But a mist went up from the earth, watering all the face of
the land.

7 And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth,
breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a
living soul.

8 And the Lord God made a garden in the east, in Eden;
and there he put the man whom he had made.

9 And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come,
delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of
the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden giving water to the garden;
and from there it was parted and became four streams.

11 The name of the first is Pishon (Indus), which goes
round about all the land of Havilah (northwestern India)
where there is gold.

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and
the onyx stone (sard, carnelian).

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon (Nile): this
river goes round all the land of Cush (from Napata to Meroe).

14 And the name of the third river is Tigris, which goes to
the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to do work in it and take care of it.

16 And the Lord God gave the man orders, saying, You
may freely take of the fruit of every tree of the garden:

17 But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it,
death will certainly come to you.

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be
by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him

19 And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of
the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man
to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he
gave to any living thing, that was its name.

20 And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of
the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one
like himself'as a help.

21 And the Lord God sent a deep sleep on the man, and
took one of the bones from his side while he was sleeping,
joining up the flesh again in its place:

22 And the bone which the Lord God had taken from the
man he made into a woman, and took her to the man.

23 And the man said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh: let her name be Woman because she was taken
out of Man.

24 For this cause will a man go away from his father and
his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one
flesh.

25 And the man and his wife were without clothing, and
they had no sense of shame.

GENESIS CHAPTER 3

1 Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God
truly said that you may not take of the fruit of any tree in the
garden?

2 And the woman said, We may take of the fruit of the trees
in the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden,
God has said, If you take of it or put your hands on it, death
will come to you.

4 And the snake said, Death will not certainly come to you:

5 For God sees that on the day when you take of its fruit,
your eyes will be open, and you will be as gods, having
knowledge of good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise,
she took of its fruit, and gave it to her husband.

7 And their eyes were open and they were conscious that
they had no clothing and they made themselves coats of
leaves stitched together.

8 And there came to them the sound of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the evening wind: and the man and
his wife went to a secret place among the trees of the garden,
away from the eyes of the Lord God.

9 And the voice of the Lord God came to the man, saying,
Where are you?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And he said, Hearing your voice in the garden I was full
of fear, because I was without clothing: and I kept myself
from your eyes.

11 And he said, Who gave you the knowledge that you were
without clothing? Have you taken of the fruit of the tree
which I said you were not to take?

12 And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be
with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it.

13 And the Lord God said to the woman, What have you
done? And the woman said, I was tricked by the deceit of the
snake and I took it.

14 And the Lord God said to the snake, Because you have
done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast
of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be
your food all the days of your life:

15 And there will be war between you and the woman and
between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be
crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.

16 To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in
childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still
your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your
master.

17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice
of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you
were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain
you will get your food from it all your life.

18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of
the field will be your food;

19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your
bread till you go back to the earth from which you were
taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.

20 And the man gave his wife the name of Eve because she
was the mother of all who have life.

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats
of skins for their clothing.

22 And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like
one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he
puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he
will go on living for ever.

23 So the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to
be a worker on the earth from which he was taken.

24 So he sent the man out; and at the east of the garden of
Eden he put winged ones and a flaming sword turning every
way to keep the way to the tree of life.

GENESIS CHAPTER 4

1 And the man had connection with Eve his wife, and she
became with child and gave birth to Cain, and said, I have
got aman from the Lord.

2 Then again she became with child and gave birth to Abel,
his brother. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a
farmer.

3 And after a time, Cain gave to the Lord an offering of the
fruits of the earth.

4 And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock
and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's
offering;

5 But in Cain and his offering he had no pleasure. And Cain
was angry and his face became sad.

6 And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? and why
is your face sad?

7 If you do well, will you not have honour? and if you do
wrong, sin is waiting at the door, desiring to have you, but
do not let it be your master.

8 And Cain said to his brother, Let us go into the field: and
when they were in the field, Cain made an attack on his
brother Abel and put him to death.

9 And the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel?
And he said, I have no idea: am I my brother's keeper?

10 And he said, What have you done? the voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the earth.

11 And now you are cursed from the earth, whose mouth is
open to take your brother's blood from your hand;

12 No longer will the earth give you her fruit as the reward
of your work; you will be a wanderer in flight over the earth.

13 And Cain said, My punishment is greater than my
strength.

14 You have sent me out this day from the face of the earth
and from before your face; I will be a wanderer in flight over
the earth, and whoever sees me will put me to death.

15 And the Lord said, Truly, if Cain is put to death, seven
lives will be taken for his. And the Lord put a mark on Cain
so that no one might put him to death.

16 And Cain went away from before the face of the Lord,
and made his living-place in the land of Nod on the east of
Eden.

17 And Cain had connection with his wife and she became
with child and gave birth to Enoch: and he made a town, and
gave the town the name of Enoch after his son.

18 And Enoch had a son Irad: and Irad became the father of
Mehujael: and Mehujael became the father of Methushael:
and Methushael became the father of Lamech.

19 And Lamech had two wives; the name of the one was
Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

20 And Adah gave birth to Jabal: he was the father of such
as are living in tents and keep cattle.

21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of
all players on instruments of music.

22 And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, who is the father of
every maker of cutting instruments of brass and iron: and the
sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

23 And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, give ear
to my voice; you wives of Lamech, give attention to my
words, for I would put a man to death for a wound, and a
young man for a blow;

24 If seven lives are to be taken as punishment for Cain's
death, seventy-seven will be taken for Lamech's.

25 And Adam had connection with his wife again, and she
gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name of Seth: for

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

she said, God has given me another seed in place of Abel,
whom Cain put to death.

26 And Seth had a son, and he gave him the name of Enosh:
at this time men first made use of the name of the Lord in
worship.

GENESIS CHAPTER 5

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day
when God made man, he made him in the image of God;

2 Male and female he made them, naming them Man, and
giving them his blessing on the day when they were made.

3 Adam had been living for a hundred and thirty years
when he had a son like himself, after his image, and gave him
the name of Seth:

4 And after the birth of Seth, Adam went on living for
eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

5 And all the years of Adam's life were nine hundred and
thirty: and he came to his end.

6 And Seth was a hundred and five years old when he
became the father of Enosh:

7 And he went on living after the birth of Enosh for eight
hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters:

8 And all the years of Seth's life were nine hundred and
twelve: and he came to his end.

9 And Enosh was ninety years old when he became the
father of Kenan:

10 And after the birth of Kenan, Enosh went on living for
eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters:

11 And all the years of Enosh were nine hundred and five:
and he came to his end.

12 And Kenan was seventy years old when he became the
father of Mahalalel:

13 And after the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan went on living
for eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and
daughters:

14 And all the years of Kenan's life were nine hundred and
ten; and he came to his end.

15 And Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when he became
the father of Jared:

16 And after the birth of Jared, Mahalalel went on living
for eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and
daughters:

17 And all the years of Mahalalel's life were eight hundred
and ninety-five: and he came to his end.

18 And Jared was a hundred and sixty-two years old when
he became the father of Enoch:

19 And Jared went on living after the birth of Enoch for
eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

20 And all the years of Jared's life were nine hundred and
sixty-two: and he came to his end.

21 And Enoch was sixty-five years old when he became the
father of Methuselah:

22 And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in
God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and
daughters:

23 And all the years of Enoch's life were three hundred and
sixty-five:

24 And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen
again, for God took him.

25 And Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven years
old when he became the father of Lamech:

26 And after the birth of Lamech, Methuselah went on
living for seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons
and daughters:

27 And all the years of Methuselah's life were nine hundred
and sixty-nine: and he came to his end.

28 And Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two years old
when he had a son:

29 And he gave him the name of Noah, saying, Truly, he
will give us rest from our trouble and the hard work of our
hands, because of the earth which was cursed by God.

30 And after the birth of Noah, Lamech went on living for
five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and
daughters:

31 And all the years of Lamech's life were seven hundred
and seventy-seven: and he came to his end.

32 And when Noah was five hundred years old, he became
the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

GENESIS CHAPTER 6

1 And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth,
and had daughters,

2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair;
and they took wives for themselves from those who were
pleasing to them.

3 And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever,
for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred
and twenty years.

4 There were men of great strength and size on the earth in
those days; and after that, when the sons of God had
connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to
children: these were the great men of old days, the men of
great name.

5 And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the
earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.

6 And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on
the earth, and grief was in his heart.

7 And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have
made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that
which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have
sorrow for having made them.

8 But Noah had grace in the eyes of God.

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright
man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of
God.

10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 And the earth was evil in God's eyes and full of violent
ways.

12 And God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for
the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the
earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end
to them with the earth.

14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in
it, and make it safe from the water inside and out.

15 And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three
hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

16 You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the
roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with
a lower and second and third floors.

17 For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the
earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh
in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will
come to an end.

18 But with you I will make an agreement; and you will
come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your
sons’ wives with you.

19 And you will take with you into the ark two of every
sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be
male and female.

20 Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of
living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you
to keep them from destruction.

21 And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and
them.

22 And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did.

GENESIS CHAPTER 7

1 And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go
into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be
upright.

2 Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven
females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male
and his female;

3 And of the birds of the air, seven males and seven females,
so that their seed may still be living on the face of the earth.

4 For after seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty
days and forty nights, for the destruction of every living
thing which I have made on the face of the earth.

5 And Noah did everything which the Lord said he was to
do.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the waters
came flowing over all the earth.

7 And Noah, with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives,
went into the ark because of the flowing of the waters.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts which are not clean, and of
birds, and of everything which goes on the earth,

9 In twos, male and female, they went into the ark with
Noah, as God had said.

10 And after the seven days, the waters came over all the
earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the
fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the
windows of heaven were open;

12 And rain came down on the earth for forty days and
forty nights.

13 On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark;

14 And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every
sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird.

15 They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all
flesh in which is the breath of life.

16 Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said,
and the ark was shut by the Lord.

17 And for forty days the waters were over all the earth;
and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up
high over the earth.

18 And the waters overcame everything and were increased
greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of
the waters.

19 And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and
all the mountains under heaven were covered.

20 The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the
mountains were covered.

21 And destruction came on every living thing moving on
the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which
went on the earth, and every man.

22 Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of
life, came to its end.

23 Every living thing on the face of all the earth, man and
cattle and things moving on the face of the earth, and birds
of the air, came to destruction: only Noah and those who
were with him in the ark, were kept from death.

24 And the waters were over the earth a hundred and fifty
days.

GENESIS CHAPTER 8

1 And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things
and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent
a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

2 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven
were shut, and the rain from heaven was stopped.

3 And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at
the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower.

4 And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Urartu).

5 And still the waters went on falling, till on the first day of
the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

6 Then, after forty days, through the open window of the
ark which he had made,

7 Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till
the waters were gone from the earth.

8 And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from
the face of the earth;

9 But the dove saw no resting-place for her foot, and came
back to the ark, for the waters were still over all the earth;
and he put out his hand, and took her into the ark.

10 And after waiting another seven days, he sent the dove
out again;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And the dove came back at evening, and in her mouth
was an olive-leaf broken off: so Noah was certain that the
waters had gone down on the earth.

12 And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again,
but she did not come back to him.

13 And in the six hundred and first year, on the first day of
the first month, the waters were dry on the earth: and Noah
took the cover off the ark and saw that the face of the earth
was dry.

14 And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the
earth was dry.

15 And God said to Noah,

16 Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and
your sons' wives.

17 Take out with you every living thing which is with you,
birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so
that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased
on the earth.

18 And Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his
sons’ wives;

19 And every beast and bird and every living thing of every
sort which goes on the earth, went out of the ark.

20 And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every
clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar.

21 And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said
in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because
of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his
earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living
things as I have done.

22 While the earth goes on, seed time and the getting in of
the grain, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,
will not come to an end.

GENESIS CHAPTER 9

1 And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said,
Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full.

2 And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the
earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the
land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands.

3 Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give
them all to you as before I gave you all green things.

4 But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for
food.

5 And for your blood, which is your life, will I take
payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man
will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man.

6 Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken;
because God made man in his image.

7 And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on
the earth and become great in number.

8 And God said to Noah and to his sons,

9 Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your
seed after you,

10 And with every living thing with you, all birds and
cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark
with you.

11 And I will make my agreement with you; never again
will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the
waters come over all the earth for its destruction.

12 And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I
make between me and you and every living thing with you,
for all future generations:

13 I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of
the agreement between me and the earth.

14 And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the
bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and
you and every living thing; and never again will there be a
great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh.

16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I
will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and
every living thing on the earth.

17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement
which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were
Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the
earth was peopled.

20 In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a
vine-garden.

21 And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink;
and he was uncovered in his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father
unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on
their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it
over their father so that they might not see him unclothed.

24 And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his
youngest son had done to him, and he said,

25 Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his
brothers.

26 And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let
Canaan be his servant.

27 May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be
in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

28 And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years
after the great flow of waters;

29 all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and
he came to his end.

GENESIS CHAPTER 10

1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem,
Ham, and Japheth: these are the sons which they had after
the great flow of waters

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and
Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.

3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and
Togarmah.

4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim
and the Dodanim.

5 From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their
different families and languages.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And the sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim and Put and
Canaan.

7 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and
Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and
Dedan.

8 And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of
the great men of the earth.

9 He was a very great bowman, so that there is a saying,
Like Nimrod, a very great bowman.

10 And at the first, his kingdom was Babel and Erech and
Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11 From that land he went out into Assyria, building
Nineveh with its wide streets and Calah,

12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is a very
great town.

13 And Mizraim was the father of the Ludim and Anamim
and Lehabim and Naphtuhim;

14 And Pathrusim and Casluhim and Caphtorim, from
whom came the Philistines.

15 And Canaan was the father of Zidon, who was his oldest
son, and Heth,

16 And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite,

17 And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite,

18 And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite;
after that the families of the Canaanites went far and wide in
all directions;

19 Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the
direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom
and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.

20 All these, with their different families, languages, lands,
and nations, are the offspring of Ham.

21 And Shem, the older brother of Japheth, the father of
the children of Eber, had other sons in addition.

22 These are the sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and
Arpachshad and Lud and Aram.

23 And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash.

24 And Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and
Shelah became the father of Eber.

25 And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,
because in his time the peoples of the earth became separate;
and his brother's name was Joktan.

26 And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and
Hazarmaveth and Jerah

27 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah

28 And Obal and Abimael and Sheba

29 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the
sons of Joktan.

30 And their country was from Mesha, in the direction of
Sephar, the mountain of the east.

31 These, with their families and their languages and their
lands and their nations, are the offspring of Shem.

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, in the order
of their generations and their nations: from these came all
the nations of the earth after the great flow of waters.

GENESIS CHAPTER 11

1 And all the earth had one language and one tongue.

2 And it came about that in their wandering from the east,
they came to a stretch of flat country in the land of Shinar,
and there they made their living-place.

3 And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks,
burning them well. And they had bricks for stone, putting
them together with sticky earth.

4 And they said, Come, let us make a town, and a tower
whose top will go up as high as heaven; and let us make a
great name for ourselves, so that we may not be wanderers
over the face of the earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the town and the tower
which the children of men were building.

6 And the Lord said, See, they are all one people and have
all one language; and this is only the start of what they may
do: and now it will not be possible to keep them from any
purpose of theirs.

7 Come, let us go down and take away the sense of their
language, so that they will not be able to make themselves
clear to one another.

8 So the Lord God sent them away into every part of the
earth: and they gave up building their town.

9 So it was named Babel, because there the Lord took away
the sense of all languages and from there the Lord sent them
away over all the face of the earth.

10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred
years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two
years after the great flow of waters;

11 And after the birth of Arpachshad, Shem went on living
for five hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

12 And Arpachshad was thirty-five years old when he
became the father of Shelah:

13 And after the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad went on
living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and
daughters:

14 And Shelah was thirty years old when he became the
father of Eber:

15 And after the birth of Eber, Shelah went on living for
four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters:

16 And Eber was thirty-four years old when he became the
father of Peleg:

17 And after the birth of Peleg, Eber went on living for
four hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters:

18 And Peleg was thirty years old when he became the
father of Reu:

19 And after the birth of Reu, Peleg went on living for two
hundred and nine years, and had sons and daughters:

20 And Reu was thirty-two years old when he became the
father of Serug:

21 And after the birth of Serug, Reu went on living for two
hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters:

22 And Serug was thirty years old when he became the
father of Nahor:

23 And after the birth of Nahor, Serug went on living for
two hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And Nahor was twenty-nine years old when he became
the father of Terah:

25 And after the birth of Terah, Nahor went on living for a
hundred and nineteen years, and had sons and daughters:

26 And Terah was seventy years old when he became the
father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 These are the generations of Terah: Terah was the father
of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of
Lot.

28 And death came to Haran when he was with his father
Terah in the land of his birth, Ur of the Chaldees.

29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: the
name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's
wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah
and Iscah.

30 And Sarai had no child.

31 And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of
Haran, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son
Abram and they went out from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to
the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and were there
for some time.

32 And all the years of Terah's life were two hundred and
five: and Terah came to his end in Haran.

GENESIS CHAPTER 12

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country
and from your family and from your father's house, into the
land to which I will be your guide:

2 And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and
making your name great; and you will be a blessing:

3 To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on
him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will
become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

4 So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot
went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he
went away from Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's
son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got
in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.

6 And Abram went through the land till he came to
Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the
Canaanites were still living in the land.

7 And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this
land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the
Lord who had let himself be seen by him.

8 And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of
Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai
on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to
the name of the Lord.

9 And he went on, journeying still to the South.

10 And because there was little food to be had in that land,
he went down into Egypt.

11 Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his
wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;

12 And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you,
they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death
and keep you.

13 Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well
with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your
account.

14 And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the
men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.

15 And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in
praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's
house.

16 And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had
sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-
servants, and camels.

17 And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house
because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

18 Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you
done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took
her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

20 And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him
on his way, with his wife and all he had.

GENESIS CHAPTER 13

1 And Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and all he
had, and Lot with him, and they came in to the South.

2 Now Abram had great wealth of cattle and silver and
gold.

3 And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to
the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and
Ai;

4 To the place where he had made his first altar, and there
Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord.

5 And Lot, who went with him, had flocks and herds and
tents;

6 So that the land was not wide enough for the two of them:
their property was so great that there was not room for them
together.

7 And there was an argument between the keepers of
Abram's cattle and the keepers of Lot's cattle: at that time
the Canaanites and Perizzites were still living in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no argument
between me and you, and between my herdmen and your
herdmen, for we are brothers.

9 Is not all the land before you? then let us go our separate
ways: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; or if you
take the right, I will go to the left.

10 And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of
Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the
Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was
like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the
way to Zoar.

11 So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and
went to the east, and they were parted from one another.

12 Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot
went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners
before the Lord.

14 And the Lord had said to Abram, after Lot was parted
from him, From this place where you are take a look to the
north and to the south, to the east and to the west:

15 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to
your seed for ever.

16 And I will make your children like the dust of the earth,
so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will
your children be numbered.

17 Come, go through all the land from one end to the other
for I will give it to you.

18 And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-
place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and
made an altar there to the Lord.

GENESIS CHAPTER 14

1 Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch,
king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal,
king of Goiim,

2 They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with
Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and
Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (which is
Zoat).

3 All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is
the Salt Sea).

4 For twelve years they were under the rule of
Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his
control.

5 And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings
who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-
karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-
kiriathaim,

6 And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as
far as El-paran, which is near the waste land.

7 Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh),
making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the
Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.

8 And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and
the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of
Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position
in the valley of Siddim,

9 Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of
Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of
Ellasar: four kings against the five.

10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth;
and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight
and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the
mountain.

11 And the four kings took all the goods and food from
Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way.

12 And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son,
who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.

13 And one who had got away from the fight came and
gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the

holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and
Aner, who were friends of Abram.

14 And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been
made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three
hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went
after them as far as Dan.

15 And separating his forces by night, he overcame them,
putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah,
which is on the north side of Damascus.

16 And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's
son, with his goods and the women and the people.

17 And when he was coming back after putting to flight
Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the
king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's
Valley.

18 And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most
High God, took bread and wine,

19 And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most
High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram:

20 And let the Most High God be praised, who has given
into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram
gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken.

21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the
prisoners and take the goods for yourself.

22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an
oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and
earth,

23 That I will not take so much as a thread or the cord of a
shoe of yours; so that you may not say, I have given wealth to
Abram:

24 Give me nothing but the food which the fighting-men
who went with me have had; but let Aner and Eshcol and
Mamre have their part of the goods.

GENESIS CHAPTER 15

1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram
in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe,
and great will be your reward.

2 And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no
child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth
after me.

3 And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a
servant in my house will get the heritage.

4 Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage,
but a son of your body will have your property after you.

5 And he took him out into the open air, and said to him,
Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be
numbered; even so will your seed be.

6 And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his
account as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur
of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.

8 And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it
will be mine?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a
she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old,
and a dove and a young pigeon.

10 All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one
half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

11 And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent
them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came
on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.

13 And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in
a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be
cruel to them for four hundred years;

14 But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants
they are, and they will come out from among them with great
wealth.

15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the
end ofa long life you will be put in your last resting-place.

16 And in the fourth generation they will come back here;
for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

17 Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a
smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the
parts of the bodies.

18 In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram,
and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of
Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

20 And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

21 And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite,
and the Jebusite.

GENESIS CHAPTER 16

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children; and
she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar.

2 And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me
have children; go in to my servant, for I may get a family
through her. And Abram did as Sarai said.

3 So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of
Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave
her to Abram for his wife.

4 And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and
when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any
respect for her master's wife.

5 And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I
gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she
was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the
Lord be judge between you and me.

6 And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with
her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her,
so that she went running away from her.

7 And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of
water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.

8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come
from and where are you going? And she said, I am running
away from Sarai, my master's wife.

9 And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself
under her authority.

10 And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly
increased so that it may not be numbered.

11 And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child
and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name
Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your
sorrow.

12 And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand
will be against every man and every man's hand against him,
and he will keep his place against all his brothers.

13 And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this
name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not
even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still
living?

14 So that fountain was named, Fountain of Life and
Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered.

15 And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to
whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael.

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth
to Ishmael.

GENESIS CHAPTER 17

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to
him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be
upright in all things,

2 And I will make an agreement between you and me, and
your offspring will be greatly increased.

3 And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the
Lord God went on talking with him, and said,

4 As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will
be the father of nations without end.

5 No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I
have made you the father of a number of nations.

6 I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come
from you and kings will be your offspring.

7 And I will make between me and you and your seed after
you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a
God to you and to your seed after you.

8 And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land
in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal
heritage; and I will be their God.

9 And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep
the agreement, you and your seed after you through all
generations.

10 And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me,
you and your seed after you: every male among you is to
undergo circumcision.

11 In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it,
as a mark of the agreement between me and you.

12 Every male among you, from one generation to another,
is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with
every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for
whom you gave money to someone of another country, and
not of your seed.

13 He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made
yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all
time.

14 And any male who does not undergo circumcision will
be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by
him.

15 And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her
name will be not Sarai, but Sarah.

16 And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son
by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the
mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring.

17 Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing,
said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child?
will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth?

18 And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might
be your care!

19 And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a
son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make
my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.

20 As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I
have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and
give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs,
and I will make him a great nation.

21 But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah
will give birth a year from this time.

22 And having said these words, God went up from
Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth
had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he
had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that
very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their
private parts as God had said to him.

24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent
circumcision.

25 And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he
underwent circumcision.

26 Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision
on that very day.

27 And all the men of his house, those whose birth had
taken place in the house and those whom he had got for
money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision
with him.

GENESIS CHAPTER 18

1 Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre,
when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle
of the day;

2 And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and
seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the
tent, and went down on his face to the earth;

3 And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do
not go away from your servant:

4 Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest
under the tree:

5 And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength,
and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you
have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so.

6 Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to
Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make
cakes.

7 And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat,
and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready;

8 And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he
had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them
under the tree while they took food.

9 And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he
said, She is in the tent.

10 And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the
spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words
came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-
door.

11 Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was
past the time for giving birth.

12 And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am
used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being
old?

13 And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying,
Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child?

14 Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At
the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and
Sarah will have a child.

15 Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of
fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.

16 And the men went on from there in the direction of
Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.

17 And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the
knowledge of what I do;

18 Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and
strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of
the earth as a blessing?

19 For Ihave made him mine so that he may give orders to
his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways
of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord
may do to Abraham as he has said.

20 And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom
and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,

21 I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as
they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they
are not, I will see.

22 And the men, turning from that place, went on to
Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.

23 And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let
destruction come on the upright with the sinners?

24 If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will
you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it
because of the fifty upright men?

25 Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to
death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do
right?

26 And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the
town, I will have mercy on it because of them.

27 And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only
dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men,
will you give up all the town to destruction because of these
five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are
forty-five.

29 And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty
there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty.

30 And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if J say,
What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if
there are thirty.

31 And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my
thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there?
And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty.

32 And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say
only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And
he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.

33 And the Lord went on his way when his talk with
Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.

GENESIS CHAPTER 19

1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot
was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them
he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to
the earth.

2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's
house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet

be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way.

And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the
street.

3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with
him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made
unleavened bread, of which they took.

4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all
the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old,
from every part of the town;

5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who
came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that
we may take our pleasure with them.

6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the
door after him.

7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.

8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send
them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems
good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why
they have come under the shade of my roof.

9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said,
came here from a strange country, and will he now be our
judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and
pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door
broken in.

10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the
house to them, shutting the door again.

11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind,
all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with
looking for the door.

12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your
family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all
out of this place;

13 For we are about to send destruction on this place,
because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of
the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.

14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were
married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place,
for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But
his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.

15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their
power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your
wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear
that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.

16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife
and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on
them, and put them outside the town.

17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your
life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go
quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.

18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;

19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and
great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I
am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil
overtakes me and death;

20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me
go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.

21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this
one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.

22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till
you have come there. For this reason, the town was named
Zoar.

23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down
from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.

25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the
lowland and all the people of those towns and every green
thing in the land.

26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to
the place where he had been talking with the Lord:

28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah
and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like
the smoke of an oven.

29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the
towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent
Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he
was living.

30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was
living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from
living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-
place in a hole in the rock.

31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is
old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural
way:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go
into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,

33 And that night they made their father take much wine;
and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no
knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the
younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him
take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so
that we may have offspring by our father.

35 And that night again they made their father take much
wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he
had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went
away.

36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by
their father.

37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the
name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-
ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.

GENESIS CHAPTER 20

1 And Abraham went on his way from there to the land of
the South, and was living between Kadesh and Shur, in
Gerar.

2 And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister: and
Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and
said to him, Truly you are a dead man because of the woman
whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife.

4 Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord,
will you put to death an upright nation?

5 Did he not say to me himself, She is my sister? and she
herself said, He is my brother: with an upright heart and
clean hands have I done this.

6 And God said to him in the dream, I see that you have
done this with an upright heart, and I have kept you from
sinning against me: for this reason I did not let you come
near her.

7 So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet,
and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but
if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come
to you and all your house.

8 So Abimelech got up early in the morning and sent for all
his servants and gave them word of these things, and they
were full of fear.

9 Then Abimelech sent for Abraham, and said, What have
you done to us? what wrong have I done you that you have
put on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done
to me things which are not to be done.

10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you do this
thing?

11 And Abraham said, Because it seemed to me that there
was no fear of God in this place, and that they might put me
to death because of my wife.

12 And, in fact, she is my sister, the daughter of my father,
but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife:

13 And when God sent me wandering from my father's
house, I said to her, Let this be the sign of your love for me;
wherever we go, say of me, He is my brother.

14 Then Abimelech gave to Abraham sheep and oxen and
men-servants and women-servants, and gave him back his
wife Sarah.

15 And Abimelech said, See, all my land is before you; take
whatever place seems good to you.

16 And he said to Sarah, See, I have given to your brother a
thousand bits of silver so that your wrong may be put right;
now your honour is clear in the eyes of all.

17 Then Abraham made prayer to God, and God made
Abimelech well again, and his wife and his women-servants,
so that they had children.

18 For the Lord had kept all the women of the house of
Abimelech from having children, because of Sarah,
Abraham's wife.

GENESIS CHAPTER 21

1 And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her
as he had undertaken.

2 And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son
when he was old, at the time named by God.

3 And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given
birth, the name Isaac.

4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham
made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him.

5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of
Isaac took place.

6 And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing,
and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.

7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that
Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given
him a son now when he is old.

8 And when the child was old enough to be taken from the
breast, Abraham made a great feast.

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing
with Isaac.

10 So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her
son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the
heritage with my son Isaac.

11 And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son.

12 But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the
boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says
to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its
name.

13 And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-
woman, because he is your seed.

14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave
Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her
back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the
waste land of Beer-sheba.

15 And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put
the child down under a tree.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight,
and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter
weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.

17 And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel
of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you
weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears
of God.

18 Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of
him a great nation.

19 Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-
spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a
drink.

20 And God was with the boy, and he became tall and
strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land.

21 And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother
got him a wife from the land of Egypt.

22 Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of
his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all
you do.

23 Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that
you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as
Thave been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land
where you have been living.

24 And Abraham said, I will give you my oath.

25 But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a
water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force.

26 But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this
thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge
of it till this day.

27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to
Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together.

28 And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one
side by themselves.

29 Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which
you have put on one side?

30 And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness
that I have made this water-hole.

31 So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there
the two of them had given their oaths.

32 So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and
Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to
the land of the Philistines.

33 And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba,
gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.

34 And Abraham went on living in the land of the
Philistines as in a strange country.

GENESIS CHAPTER 22

1 Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and
said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I.

2 And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved
only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as
a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will
give you knowledge.

3 And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made
ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and
Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had
been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had
given him word.

4 And on the third day, Abraham, lifting up his eyes, saw
the place a long way off.

5 Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass;
and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back
again to you.

6 And Abraham put the wood for the burned offering on
his son's back, and he himself took the fire and the knife in
his hand, and the two of them went on together.

7 Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here
am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but
where is the lamb for the burned offering?

8 And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the
burned offering: so they went on together.

9 And they came to the place of which God had given him
knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the
wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round
Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar.

10 And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to
put his son to death.

11 But the voice of the angel of the Lord came from heaven,
saying, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Let not your hand be stretched out against
the boy to do anything to him; for now I am certain that the
fear of God is in your heart, because you have not kept back
your son, your only son, from me.

13 And lifting up his eyes, Abraham saw a sheep fixed by its
horns in the brushwood: and Abraham took the sheep and
made a burned offering of it in place of his son.

14 And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh:
as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen.

15 And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham
asecond time from heaven,

16 Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord,
because you have done this and have not kept back from me
your dearly loved only son,

17 That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed
will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the
seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against
them;

18 And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the
earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.

19 Then Abraham went back to his young men and they
went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was
living.

20 After these things, Abraham had news that Milcah, the
wife of his brother Nahor, had given birth to children;

21 Uz the oldest, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel, the
father of Aram,

22 And Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and
Bethuel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 Bethuel was the father of Rebekah: these eight were the
children of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham's brother.

24 And his servant Reumah gave birth to Tebah and
Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

GENESIS CHAPTER 23

1 Now the years of Sarah's life were a hundred and twenty-
seven.

2 And Sarah's death took place in Kiriath-arba, that is,
Hebron, in the land of Canaan: and Abraham went into his
house, weeping and sorrowing for Sarah.

3 And Abraham came from his dead and said to the children
of Heth,

4 I am living among you as one from a strange country:
give me some land here as my property, so that I may put my
dead to rest.

5 And in answer the children of Heth said to Abraham,

6 My lord, truly you are a great chief among us; take the
best of our resting-places for your dead; not one of us will
keep back from you a place where you may put your dead to
rest.

7 And Abraham got up and gave honour to the children of
Heth, the people of that land.

8 And he said to them, If you will let me put my dead to rest
here, make a request for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar,

9 That he will give me the hollow in the rock named
Machpelah, which is his property at the end of his field; let
him give it to me for its full price as a resting-place for my
dead among you.

10 Now Ephron was seated among the children of Heth:
and Ephron the Hittite gave Abraham his answer in the
hearing of the children of Heth, and of all those who came
into his town, saying,

11 No, my lord, I will give you the field with the hollow in
the rock; before all the children of my people will I give it to
you for a resting-place for your dead.

12 And Abraham went down on his face before the people
of the land.

13 And Abraham said to Ephron, in the hearing of the
people of the land, If only you will give ear to me, I will give
you the price of the field; take it, and let me put my dead to
rest there.

14 So Ephron said to Abraham,

15 My lord, give ear to me: the value of the land is four
hundred shekels; what is that between me and you? so put
your dead to rest there.

16 And Abraham took note of the price fixed by Ephron in
the hearing of the children of Heth, and gave him four
hundred shekels in current money.

17 So Ephron's field at Machpelah near Mamre, with the
hollow in the rock and all the trees in the field and round it,

18 Became the property of Abraham before the eyes of the
children of Heth and of all who came into the town.

19 Then Abraham put Sarah his wife to rest in the hollow
rock in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, that is, Hebron
in the land of Canaan.

20 And the field and the hollow rock were handed over to
Abraham as his property by the children of Heth.

GENESIS CHAPTER 24

1 Now Abraham was old and far on in years: and the Lord
had given him everything in full measure.

2 And Abraham said to his chief servant, the manager of all
his property, Come now, put your hand under my leg:

3 And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the
God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son
Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I
am living;

4 But that you will go into my country and to my relations
and get a wife there for my son Isaac.

5 And the servant said, If by chance the woman will not
come with me into this land, am I to take your son back
again to the land from which you came?

6 And Abraham said, Take care that you do not let my son
go back to that land.

7 The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's
house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me,
saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his
angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

8 And if the woman will not come with you, then you are
free from this oath; only do not take my son back there.

9 And the servant put his hand under Abraham's leg, and
gave him his oath about this thing.

10 And the servant took ten of his master's camels, and all
sorts of good things of his master's, and went to
Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor.

11 And he made the camels take their rest outside the town
by the water-spring in the evening, at the time when the
women came to get water.

12 And he said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham,
let me do well in what I have undertaken this day, and give
your mercy to my master Abraham.

13 See, I am waiting here by the water-spring; and the
daughters of the town are coming out to get water:

14 Now, may the girl to whom I say, Let down your vessel
and give me a drink, and who says in answer, Here is a drink
for you and let me give water to your camels: may she be the
one marked out by you for your servant Isaac: so may I be
certain that you have been good to my master Abraham.

15 And even before his words were ended, Rebekah, the
daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of
Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water-vessel
on her arm.

16 She was a very beautiful girl, a virgin, who had never
been touched by a man: and she went down to the spring to
get water in her vessel.

17 And the servant came running to her and said, Give me a
little water from your vessel.

18 And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting
down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink.

19 And having done so, she said, I will get water for your
camels till they have had enough.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 And after putting the water from her vessel into the
animals' drinking-place, she went quickly back to the spring
and got water for all the camels.

21 And the man, looking at her, said nothing, waiting to
see if the Lord had given his journey a good outcome.

22 And when the camels had had enough, the man took a
gold nose-ring, half a shekel in weight, and two ornaments
for her arms of ten shekels weight of gold;

23 And said to her, Whose daughter are you? is there room
in your father's house for us?

24 And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the
son of Milcah, Nahor's wife.

25 And she said, We have a great store of dry grass and
cattle-food, and there is room for you.

26 And with bent head the man gave worship to the Lord;

27 And said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master
Abraham, who has given a sign that he is good and true to
my master, by guiding me straight to the house of my
master's family.

28 So the girl went running and took the news of these
things to her mother's house

29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he came
out quickly to the man at the water-spring.

30 And when he saw the nose-ring and the ornaments on his
sister's hands, and when she gave him word of what the man
had said to her, then he went out to the man who was
waiting with the camels by the water-spring.

31 And he said to him, Come in, you on whom is the
blessing of the Lord; why are you waiting outside? for I have
made the house ready for you, and a place for the camels.

32 Then the man came into the house, and Laban took their
cords off the camels and gave them dry grass and food, and he
gave to him and the men who were with him water for
washing their feet.

33 And meat was put before him, but he said, I will not take
food till I have made my business clear to you. And they said,
Do so.

34 And he said, Iam Abraham's servant.

35 The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has
become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver
and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels
and asses.

36 And when Sarah, my master's wife, was old, she gave
birth to a son, to whom he has given all he has.

37 And my master made me take an oath, saying, Do not
get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites
among whom I am living;

38 But go to my father's house and to my relations for a
wife for my son.

39 And I said to my master, What if the woman will not
come with me?

40 And he said, The Lord, whom I have ever kept before me,
will send his angel with you, who will make it possible for
you to get a wife for my son from my relations and my
father's house;

41 And you will be free from your oath to me when you
come to my people; and if they will not give her to you, you
will be free from your oath.

42 And I came today to the water-spring, and I said, O
Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if it is your purpose
to give a good outcome to my journey,

43 Let it come about that, while I am waiting here by the
water-spring, if a girl comes to get water and I say to her,
Give me a little water from your vessel, and she says,

44 Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels; let
her be the woman marked out by the Lord for my master's
son.

45 And even while I was saying this to myself, Rebekah
came out with her vessel on her arm; and she went down to
the spring to get water; and I said to her, Give me a drink.

46 And straight away she took down her vessel from her
arm, and said, Take a drink, and I will get water for your
camels.

47 And questioning her, I said, Whose daughter are you?
And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, and
Milcah his wife. Then I put the ring on her nose and the
ornaments on her hands.

48 And with bent head I gave worship and praise to the
Lord, the God of my master Abraham, by whom I had been
guided in the right way, to get the daughter of my master's
brother for his son.

49 And now, say if you will do what is good and right for
my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I
have to do.

50 Then Laban and Bethuel said in answer, This is the
Lord's doing: it is not for us to say Yes or No to you.

51 See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be
your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said.

52 And at these words, Abraham's servant went down on
his face and gave praise to the Lord.

53 Then he took jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fair
robes and gave them to Rebekah: and he gave things of value
to her mother and her brother.

54 Then he and the men who were with him had food and
drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the
morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my
master.

55 But her brother and her mother said, Let the girl be
with us a week or ten days, and then she may go.

56 And he said, Do not keep me; the Lord has given a good
outcome to my journey; let me now go back to my master.

57 And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her
make the decision.

58 And they sent for Rebekah and said to her, Are you
ready to go with this man? And she said, I am ready.

59 So they sent their sister Rebekah and her servant with
Abraham's servant and his men.

60 And they gave Rebekah their blessing, saying, O sister,
may you be the mother of thousands and ten thousands; and
may your seed overcome all those who make war against
them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

61 So Rebekah and her servant-women went with the man,
seated on the camels; and so the servant took Rebekah and
went on his way.

62 Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-
lahai-roi; for he was living in the South.

63 And when the evening was near, he went wandering out
into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming.

64 And when Rebekah, looking up, saw Isaac, she got down
from her camel,

65 And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us
through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then
she took her veil, covering her face with it.

66 Then the servant gave Isaac the story of all he had done.

67 And Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and she became his
wife; and in his love for her, Isaac was comforted after his
father's death.

GENESIS CHAPTER 25

1 And Abraham took another wife named Keturah.

2 She became the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and
Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.

3 And Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And
from Dedan came the Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim.

4 And from Midian came Ephah and Epher and Hanoch
and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the offspring of
Keturah.

5 Now Abraham gave all his property to Isaac;

6 But to the sons of his other women he gave offerings, and
sent them away, while he was still living, into the east
country.

7 Now the years of Abraham's life were a hundred and
seventy-five.

8 And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years;
and he was put to rest with his people.

9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the
hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of
Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre;

10 The same field which Abraham got from the children of
Heth: there Abraham was put to rest with Sarah, his wife.

11 Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God
was with Isaac, his son.

12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of
Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the
servant of Sarah:

13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their
generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar
and Adbeel and Mibsam

14 And Mishma and Dumah and Massa,

15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:

16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names
in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their
peoples.

17 And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and
thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with
his people.

18 And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is
east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their
brothers.

19 Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac:

20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the
daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the
sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.

21 Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she
had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and
Rebekah became with child.

22 And the children were fighting together inside her, and
she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to
put her question to the Lord.

23 And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body,
and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be
stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of
the younger.

24 And when the time came for her to give birth, there were
two children in her body.

25 And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe
of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau.

26 And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's
foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when
she gave birth to them.

27 And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a
man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a
quiet man, living in tents.

28 Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was
greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob.

29 And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau
came in from the fields in great need of food;

30 And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red
soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason
he was named Edom.

31 And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright.

32 And Esau said, Truly, I am at the point of death: what
profit is the birthright to me?

33 And Jacob said, First of all give me your oath; and he
gave him his oath, handing over his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave him bread and soup; and he took food
and drink and went away, caring little for his birthright.

GENESIS CHAPTER 26

1 Then came a time of great need in the land, like that
which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac
went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

2 And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go
down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you
knowledge:

3 Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my
blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands,
giving effect to the oath which I made to your father
Abraham;

4 ] will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number,
and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a
blessing to all the nations of the earth;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my
words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.

6 So Isaac went on living in Gerar;

7 And when he was questioned by the men of the place
about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is
my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to
death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful.

8 And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac
playing with Rebekah his wife.

9 And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why
then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear
that I might be put to death because of her.

10 Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of
the people might well have had connection with your wife,
and the sin would have been ours.

11 And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone
touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.

12 Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same
year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the
Lord was on him.

13 And his wealth became very great, increasing more and
more;

14 For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great
numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.

15 Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had
made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with
earth by the Philistines.

16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you
are stronger than we are.

17 So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in
the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there.

18 And he made again the water-holes which had been
made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been
stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names
which his father had given them.

19 Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came
to a spring of flowing water.

20 But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's
herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the
spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it.

21 Then they made another water-hole, and there was a
fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.

22 Then he went away from there, and made another water-
hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the
name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room
for us, and we will have fruit in this land.

23 And from there he went on to Beer-sheba.

24 That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I
am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am
with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased
because of my servant Abraham.

25 Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the
name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his
servants made a water-hole.

26 And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with
Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army.

27 And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me,
seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you?

28 And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with
you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and
let us make an agreement with you;

29 That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand
on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in
peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.

30 Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and
drink.

31 And early in the morning they took an oath one to the
other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way
in peace.

32 And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him
word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him,
We have come to water.

33 And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that
town is Beer-sheba to this day.

34 And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives
Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the
daughter of Elon the Hittite:

35 And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of
them.

GENESIS CHAPTER 27

1 Now when Isaac was old and his eyes had become clouded
so that he was not able to see, he sent for Esau, his first son,
and said to him, My son: and he said, Here am I.

2 And he said, See now, I am old, and my death may take
place at any time:

3 So take your arrows and your bow and go out to the field
and get meat for me;

4 And make me food, good to the taste, such as is pleasing
to me, and put it before me, so that I may have a meal and
give you my blessing before death comes to me.

5 Now Isaac's words to his son were said in Rebekah's
hearing. Then Esau went out to get the meat.

6 And Rebekah said to Jacob, her son, Your father said to
your brother Esau in my hearing,

7 Go and get some roe's meat and make me a good meal, so
that I may be full, and give you my blessing before the Lord
before my death.

8 Now, my son, do what I say.

9 Go to the flock and get me two fat young goats; and I will
make of them a meal to your father's taste:

10 And you will take it to him, so that he may have a good
meal and give you his blessing before his death.

11 And Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, But Esau my
brother is covered with hair, while I am smooth:

12 If by chance my father puts his hand on me, it will seem
to him that I am tricking him, and he will put a curse on me
in place of a blessing.

13 And his mother said, Let the curse be on me, my son:
only do as I say, and go and get them for me.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 So he went and got them and took them to his mother:
and she made a meal to his father's taste.

15 And Rebekah took the fair robes of her oldest son,
which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her
younger son:

16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands
and on the smooth part of his neck:

17 And she gave into the hand of Jacob, her son, the meat
and the bread which she had made ready.

18 And he came to his father, and said, My father: and he
said, Here am I: who are you, my son?

19 And Jacob said, I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done
as you said: come now, be seated and take of my meat, so that
you may give me a blessing.

20 And Isaac said, How is it that you have got it so quickly,
my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God made it
come my way.

21 And Isaac said, Come near so that I may put my hand on
you, my son, and see if you are truly my son Esau or not.

22 And Jacob went near his father Isaac: and he put his
hands on him; and he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the
hands are the hands of Esau.

23 And he did not make out who he was, because his hands
were covered with hair like his brother Esau's hands: so he
gave him a blessing.

24 And he said, Are you truly my son Esau? And he said, I
am.

25 And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's
meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before
him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink.

26 And his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, my son,
and give me a kiss.

27 And he came near and gave him a kiss; and smelling the
smell of his clothing, he gave him a blessing, and said, See,
the smell of my son is like the smell of a field on which the
blessing of the Lord has come:

28 May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good
things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure:

29 Let peoples be your servants, and nations go down
before you: be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's
sons go down before you: a curse be on everyone by whom
you are cursed, and a blessing on those who give you a
blessing.

30 And when Isaac had come to the end of blessing Jacob,
and Jacob had not long gone away from Isaac his father,
Esau came in from the field.

31 And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it
to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take
of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

32 And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he
said, Iam your oldest son, Esau.

33 And in great fear Isaac said, Who then is he who got
meat and put it before me, and I took it all before you came,
and gave him a blessing, and his it will be?

34 And hearing the words of his father, Esau gave a great
and bitter cry, and said to his father, Give a blessing to me,
even to me, O my father!

35 And he said, Your brother came with deceit, and took
away your blessing.

36 And he said, Is it because he is named Jacob that he has
twice taken my place? for he took away my birthright, and
now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you
not kept a blessing for me?

37 And Isaac answering said, But I have made him your
master, and have given him all his brothers for servants; I
have made him strong with grain and wine: what then am I
to do for you, my son?

38 And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you
have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau
was overcome with weeping.

39 Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far
from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of
heaven on high will your living-place be:

40 By your sword will you get your living and you will be
your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his
yoke will be broken from off your neck.

41 So Esau was full of hate for Jacob because of his father's
blessing; and he said in his heart, The days of weeping for my
father are near; then I will put my brother Jacob to death.

42 Then Rebekah, hearing what Esau had said, sent for
Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, It seems that your
brother Esau is purposing to put you to death.

43 So now, my son, do what I say: go quickly to Haran, to
my brother Laban;

44 And be there with him for a little time, till your
brother's wrath is turned away;

45 Till the memory of what you have done to him is past
and he is no longer angry: then I will send word for you to
come back; are the two of you to be taken from me in one day?

46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me
because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from
among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of
this land, of what use will my life be to me?

GENESIS CHAPTER 28

1 Then Isaac sent for Jacob, and blessing him, said, Do not
take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

2 But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your
mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the
daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

3 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing,
giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an
army of peoples.

4 And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you
and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which
God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

5 So Isaac sent Jacob away: and he went to Paddan-aram,
to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of
Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing,
and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself
there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife
from among the women of Canaan;

7 And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said
and had gone to Paddan-aram;

8 It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the
women of Canaan,

9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the
daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth,
to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

10 So Jacob went out from Beer-sheba to go to Haran.

11 And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-
place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took
one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his
head he went to sleep in that place.

12 And he had a dream, and in his dream he saw steps
stretching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were
going up and down on them.

13 And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord,
the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will
give to you and to your seed this land on which you are
sleeping.

14 Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all
the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the
south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the
families of the earth.

15 And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you
wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I
will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.

16 And Jacob, awaking from his sleep, said, Truly, the
Lord is in this place and I was not conscious of it.

17 And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place;
this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of
heaven.

18 And early in the morning Jacob took the stone which
had been under his head, and put it up asa pillar and put oil
on it.

19 And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before
that time the town was named Luz.

20 Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with
me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and
clothing to put on,

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I
will take the Lord to be my God,

22 And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be
God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part
to you.

GENESIS CHAPTER 29

1 Then Jacob went on his journey till he came to the land of
the children of the East.

2 And there he saw a water-hole in a field, and by the side
of it three flocks of sheep, for there they got water for the
sheep: and on the mouth of the water-hole there was a great
stone.

3 And all the flocks would come together there, and when
the stone had been rolled away, they would give the sheep
water, and put the stone back again in its place on the mouth
of the water-hole.

4 Then Jacob said to the herdmen, My brothers, where do
you come from? And they said, From Haran.

5 And he said to them, Have you any knowledge of Laban,
the son of Nahor? And they said, We have.

6 And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, He is well,
and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.

7 Then Jacob said, The sun is still high and it is not time to
get the cattle together: get water for the sheep and go and
give them their food.

8 And they said, We are not able to do so till all the flocks
have come together and the stone has been rolled away from
the mouth of the water-hole; then we will get water for the
sheep.

9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with
her father's sheep, for she took care of them.

10 Then when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his
mother's brother, coming with Laban's sheep, he came near,
and rolling the stone away from the mouth of the hole, he
got water for Laban's flock.

11 And weeping for joy, Jacob gave Rachel a kiss.

12 And Rachel, hearing from Jacob that he was her father's
relation and that he was the son of Rebekah, went running to
give her father news of it.

13 And Laban, hearing news of Jacob, his sister's son, came
running, and took Jacob in his arms, and kissing him, made
him come into his house. And Jacob gave him news of
everything.

14 And Laban said to him, Truly, you are my bone and my
flesh. And he kept Jacob with him for the space of a month.

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother
are you to be my servant for nothing? say now, what is your
payment to be?

16 Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the older
was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

17 And Leah's eyes were clouded, but Rachel was fair in
face and form.

18 And Jacob was in love with Rachel; and he said, I will be
your servant seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.

19 And Laban said, It is better for you to have her than
another man: go on living here with me.

20 And Jacob did seven years' work for Rachel; and because
of his love for her it seemed to him only a very little time.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife so that I
may have her, for the days are ended.

22 And Laban got together all the men of the place and
gave a feast.

23 And in the evening he took Leah, his daughter, and gave
her to him, and he went in to her.

24 And Laban gave Zilpah, his servant-girl, to Leah, to be
her waiting-woman.

25 And in the morning Jacob saw that it was Leah: and he
said to Laban, What have you done to me? was I not working

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

for you so that I might have Rachel? why have you been false
to me?

26 And Laban said, In our country we do not let the
younger daughter be married before the older.

27 Let the week of the bride-feast come to its end and then
we will give you the other in addition, if you will be my
servant for another seven years.

28 And Jacob did so; and when the week was ended, Laban
gave him his daughter Rachel for his wife.

29 And Laban gave Rachel his servant-girl Bilhah to be her
waiting-woman.

30 Then Jacob took Rachel as his wife, and his love for her
was greater than his love for Leah; and he went on working
for Laban for another seven years.

31 Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was not loved, gave her
achild; while Rachel had no children.

32 And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to
whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has
seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me.

33 Then she became with child again, and gave birth to a
son; and said, Because it has come to the Lord's ears that I
am not loved, he has given me this son in addition: and she
gave him the name Simeon.

34 And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son;
and said, Now at last my husband will be united to me,
because I have given him three sons: so he was named Levi.

35 And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son:
and she said, This time I will give praise to the Lord: so he
was named Judah; after this she had no more children for a
time.

GENESIS CHAPTER 30

1 Now Rachel, because she had no children, was full of envy
of her sister; and she said to Jacob, If you do not give me
children I will not go on living.

2 But Jacob was angry with Rachel, and said, Am I in the
place of God, who has kept your body from having fruit?

3 Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go in to her, so
that she may have a child on my knees, and I may have a
family by her.

4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob
went in to her.

5 And Bilhah became with child, and gave birth to a son.

6 Then Rachel said, God has been my judge, and has given
ear to my voice, and has given me a son; so he was named
Dan.

7 And again Bilhah, Rachel's servant, was with child, and
gave birth to a second son.

8 And Rachel said, I have had a great fight with my sister,
and I have overcome her: and she gave the child the name
Naphtali.

9 When it was clear to Leah that she would have no more
children for a time, she gave Zilpah, her servant, to Jacob as
a wife.

10 And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a son.

11 And Leah said, It has gone well for me: and she gave him
the name Gad.

12 And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a second son.

13 And Leah said, Happy am I! and all women will give
witness to my joy: and she gave him the name Asher.

14 Now at the time of the grain-cutting, Reuben saw some
love-fruits in the field, and took them to his mother Leah.
And Rachel said to her, Let me have some of your son's love-
fruits.

15 But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have
taken my husband from me? and now would you take my
son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him
tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits.

16 In the evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah
went out to him and said, Tonight you are to come to me, for
I have given my son's love-fruits as a price for you. And he
went in to her that night.

17 And God gave ear to her and she became with child, and
gave Jacob a fifth son.

18 Then Leah said, God has made payment to me for giving
my servant-girl to my husband: so she gave her son the name
Issachar.

19 And again Leah became with child, and she gave Jacob a
sixth son.

20 And she said, God has given me a good bride-price; now
at last will I have my husband living with me, for I have
given him six sons: and she gave him the name Zebulun.

21 After that she had a daughter, to whom she gave the
name Dinah.

22 Then God gave thought to Rachel, and hearing her
prayer he made her fertile.

23 And she was with child, and gave birth to a son: and she
said, God has taken away my shame.

24 And she gave him the name Joseph, saying, May the
Lord give me another son.

25 Now after the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Let
me go away to my place and my country.

26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have
been your servant, and let me go: for you have knowledge of
all the work I have done for you.

27 And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go
away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been
good to me because of you.

28 Say then what your payment is to be and I will give it.

29 Then Jacob said, You have seen what I have done for you,
and how your cattle have done well under my care.

30 For before I came you had little, and it has been greatly
increased; and the Lord has given you a blessing in
everything I have done; but when am I to do something for
my family?

31 And Laban said, What am I to give you? And Jacob said,
Do not give me anything; but I will again take up the care of
your flock if you will only do this for me:

32 Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from
among them all the sheep which are marked or coloured or

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

black, and all the marked or coloured goats: these will be my
payment.

33 And so you will be able to put my honour to the test in
time to come; if you see among my flocks any goats which are
not marked or coloured, or any sheep which is not black, you
may take me for a thief.

34 And Laban said, Let it be as you say.

35 So that day he took all the he-goats which were banded
or coloured, and all the she-goats which were marked or
coloured or had white marks, and all the black sheep, and
gave them into the care of his sons;

36 And sent them three days' journey away: and Jacob took
care of the rest of Laban's flock.

37 Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the
skin so that the white wood was seen in bands.

38 And he put the banded sticks in the drinking-places
where the flock came to get water; and they became with
young when they came to the water.

39 And because of this, the flock gave birth to young which
were marked with bands of colour.

40 These lambs Jacob kept separate; and he put his flock in
a place by themselves and not with Laban's flock.

41 And whenever the stronger ones of the flock became
with young, Jacob put the sticks in front of them in the
drinking-places, so that they might become with young when
they saw the sticks.

42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put the sticks
before them; so that the feebler flocks were Laban's and the
stronger were Jacob's.

43 So Jacob's wealth was greatly increased; he had great
flocks and women-servants and men-servants and camels and
asses.

GENESIS CHAPTER 31

1 Now it came to the ears of Jacob that Laban's sons were
saying, Jacob has taken away all our father's property, and in
this way he has got all this wealth.

2 And Jacob saw that Laban's feeling for him was no longer
what it had been before.

3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your
fathers, and to your relations, and I will be with you.

4 And Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to him in the
field among his flock.

5 And he said to them, It is clear to me that your father's
feeling is no longer what it was to me; but the God of my
father has been with me

6 And you have seen how I have done all in my power for
your father,

7 But your father has not kept faith with me, and ten times
he has made changes in my payment; but God has kept him
from doing me damage.

8 If he said, All those in the flock which have marks are to
be yours, then all the flock gave birth to marked young; and
if he said, All the banded ones are to be yours, then all the
flock had banded young.

9 So God has taken away your father's cattle and has given
them to me.

10 And at the time when the flock were with young, I saw
in a dream that all the he-goats which were joined with the
she-goats were banded and marked and coloured.

11 And in my dream the angel of the Lord said to me, Jacob:
and I said, Here am I.

12 And he said, See how all the he-goats are banded and
marked and coloured: for I have seen what Laban has done to
you.

13 Tam the God of Beth-el, where you put oil on the pillar
and took an oath to me: now then, come out of this land and
go back to the country of your birth.

14 Then Rachel and Leah said to him in answer, What part
or heritage is there for us in our father's house?

15 Are we not as people from a strange country to him? for
he took a price for us and now it is all used up.

16 For the wealth which God has taken from him is ours
and our children's; so now, whatever God has said to you, do.

17 Then Jacob put his wives and his sons on camels;

18 And sending on before him all his cattle and his property
which he had got together in Paddan-aram, he made ready to
go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

19 Now Laban had gone to see to the cutting of the wool of
his sheep; so Rachel secretly took the images of the gods of
her father's house.

20 And Jacob went away secretly, without giving news of
his flight to Laban the Aramaean.

21 So he went away with all he had, and went across the
River in the direction of the hill-country of Gilead.

22 And on the third day Laban had news of Jacob's flight.

23 And taking the men of his family with him, he went after
him for seven days and overtook him in the hill-country of
Gilead.

24 Then God came to Laban in a dream by night, and said
to him, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.

25 Now when Laban overtook him, Jacob had put up his
tent in the hill-country; and Laban and his brothers put up
their tents in the hill-country of Gilead.

26 And Laban said to Jacob, Why did you go away secretly,
taking my daughters away like prisoners of war?

27 Why did you make a secret of your flight, not giving me
word of it, so that I might have sent you away with joy and
songs, with melody and music?

28 You did not even let me give a kiss to my sons and my
daughters. This was a foolish thing to do.

29 It is in my power to do you damage: but the God of your
father came to me this night, saying, Take care that you say
nothing good or bad to Jacob.

30 And now, it seems, you are going because your heart's
desire is for your father's house; but why have you taken my
gods?

31 And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that
you might take your daughters from me by force.

32 As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be
put to death: make search before us all for what is yours, and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

take it. For Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken
them.

33 So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent,
and into the tents of the two servant-women, but they were
not there; and he came out of Leah's tent and went into
Rachel's.

34 Now Rachel had taken the images, and had put them in
the camels’ basket, and was seated on them. And Laban,
searching through all the tent, did not come across them.

35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry
because I do not get up before you, for I am in the common
condition of women. And with all his searching, he did not
come across the images.

36 Then Jacob was angry with Laban, and said, What crime
or sin have I done that you have come after me with such
passion?

37 Now that you have made search through all my goods,
what have you seen which is yours? Make it clear now before
my people and your people, so that they may be judges
between us.

38 These twenty years I have been with you; your sheep and
your goats have had young without loss, not one of your he-
goats have I taken for food.

39 Anything which was wounded by beasts I did not take to
you, but myself made up for the loss of it; you made me
responsible for whatever was taken by thieves, by day or by
night.

40 This was my condition, wasted by heat in the day and by
the bitter cold at night; and sleep went from my eyes.

41 These twenty years I have been in your house; I was your
servant for fourteen years because of your daughters, and for
six years I kept your flock, and ten times was my payment
changed.

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the
Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me
away with nothing in my hands. But God has seen my
troubles and the work of my hands, and this night he kept
you back.

43 Then Laban, answering, said, These women are my
daughters and these children my children, the flocks and all
you see are mine: what now may I do for my daughters and
for their children?

44 Come, let us make an agreement, you and I; and let it be
for a witness between us.

45 Then Jacob took a stone and put it up asa pillar.

46 And Jacob said to his people, Get stones together; and
they did so; and they had a meal there by the stones.

47 And the name Laban gave it was Jegar-sahadutha: but
Jacob gave it the name of Galeed.

48 And Laban said, These stones are a witness between you
and me today. For this reason its name was Galeed,

49 And Mizpah, for he said, May the Lord keep watch on us
when we are unable to see one another's doings.

50 If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other
wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is
there to see, God will be the witness between us.

51 And Laban said, See these stones and this pillar which I
have put between you and me;

52 They will be witness that I will not go over these stones
to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to
me, for any evil purpose.

53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the
God of their father, be our judge. Then Jacob took an oath
by the Fear of his father Isaac.

54 And Jacob made an offering on the mountain, and gave
orders to his people to take food: so they had a meal and
took their rest that night on the mountain.

55 And early in the morning Laban, after kissing and
blessing his daughters, went on his way back to his country.

GENESIS CHAPTER 32

1 And on his way Jacob came face to face with the angels of
God.

2 And when he saw them he said, This is the army of God:
so he gave that place the name of Mahanaim.

3 Now Jacob sent servants before him to Esau, his brother,
in the land of Seir, the country of Edom;

4 And he gave them orders to say these words to Esau:
Your servant Jacob says, Till now I have been living with
Laban:

5 And I have oxen and asses and flocks and men-servants
and women-servants: and I have sent to give my lord news of
these things so that I may have grace in his eyes.

6 When the servants came back they said, We have seen your
brother Esau and he is coming out to you, and four hundred
men with him.

7 Then Jacob was in great fear and trouble of mind: and he
put all the people and the flocks and the herds and the camels
into two groups;

8 And said, If Esau, meeting one group, makes an attack on
them, the others will get away safely.

9 Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, the God
of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Go back to your
country and your family and I will be good to you:

10 I am less than nothing in comparison with all your
mercies and your faith to me your servant; for with only my
stick in my hand I went across Jordan, and now I have
become two armies.

11 Be my saviour from the hand of Esau, my brother: for
my fear is that he will make an attack on me, putting to
death mother and child.

12 And you said, Truly, I will be good to you, and make
your seed like the sand of the sea which may not be numbered.

13 Then he put up his tent there for the night; and from
among his goods he took, as an offering for his brother Esau,

14 Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two
hundred females and twenty males from the sheep,

15 Thirty camels with their young ones, forty cows, ten
oxen, twenty asses, and ten young asses.

16 These he gave to his servants, every herd by itself, and he
said to his servants, Go on before me, and let there be a space
between one herd and another.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 And he gave orders to the first, saying, When my
brother Esau comes to you and says, Whose servant are you,
and where are you going, and whose are these herds?

18 Then say to him, These are your servant Jacob's; they are
an offering for my lord, for Esau; and he himself is coming
after us.

19 And he gave the same orders to the second and the third
and to all those who were with the herds, saying, This is
what you are to say to Esau when you see him;

20 And you are to say further, Jacob, your servant, is
coming after us. For he said to himself, I will take away his
wrath by the offering which I have sent on, and then I will
come before him: it may be that I will have grace in his eyes.

21 So the servants with the offerings went on in front, and

he himself took his rest that night in the tents with his people.

22 And in the night he got up, and taking with him his two
wives and the two servant-women and his eleven children, he
went over the river Jabbok.

23 He took them and sent them over the stream with all he
had.

24 Then Jacob was by himself; and a man was fighting with
him till dawn.

25 But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome
Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so
that his leg was damaged.

26 And he said to him, Let me go now, for the dawn is near.
But Jacob said, I will not let you go till you have given me
your blessing.

27 Then he said, What is your name? And he said, Jacob.

28 And he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but
Israel: for in your fight with God and with men you have
overcome.

29 Then Jacob said, What is your name? And he said, What
is my name to you? Then he gave him a blessing.

30 And Jacob gave that place the name of Peniel, saying, I
have seen God face to face, and still I am living.

31 And while he was going past Peniel, the sun came up.
And he went with unequal steps because of his damaged leg.

32 For this reason the children of Israel, even today, never
take that muscle in the hollow of the leg as food, because the
hollow of Jacob's leg was touched.

GENESIS CHAPTER 33

1 Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming with his
four hundred men. So he made a division of the children
between Leah and Rachel and the two women-servants.

2 He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and
her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph at the back.

3 And he himself, going before them, went down on his face
to the earth seven times till he came near his brother.

4 Then Esau came running up to him, and folding him in
his arms, gave him a kiss: and the two of them were overcome
with weeping.

5 Then Esau, lifting up his eyes, saw the women and the
children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The
children whom God in his mercy has given to your servant.

6 Then the servants and their children came near, and went
down on their faces.

7 And Leah came near with her children, and then Joseph
and Rachel, and they did the same.

8 And he said, What were all those herds which I saw on the
way? And Jacob said, They were an offering so that I might
have grace in my lord's eyes.

9 But Esau said, I have enough; keep what is yours, my
brother, for yourself.

10 And Jacob said, Not so; but if I have grace in your eyes,
take them as a sign of my love, for I have seen your face as
one may see the face of God, and you have been pleased with
me.

11 Take my offering then, with my blessing; for God has
been very good to me and | have enough: so at his strong
request, he took it.

12 And he said, Let us go on our journey together, and I
will go in front.

13 But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are
only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds:
one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock.

14 Do you, my lord, go on before your servant; I will come
on slowly, at the rate at which the cattle and the children are
able to go, till I come to my lord at Seir.

15 And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you.
And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased
with me?

16 So Esau, turning back that day, went on his way to Seir.

17 And Jacob went on to Succoth, where he made a house
for himself and put up tents for his cattle: for this reason the
place was named Succoth.

18 So Jacob came safely from Paddan-aram to the town of
Shechem in the land of Canaan, and put up his tents near the
town.

19 And for a hundred bits of money he got from the
children of Hamor, the builder of Shechem, the field in which
he had put up his tents.

20 And there he put up an altar, naming it El, the God of
Israel.

GENESIS CHAPTER 34

1 Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had by Jacob, went
out to see the women of that country.

2 And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was
the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had
connection with her.

3 Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of
Jacob, and he said comforting words to her.

4 And Shechem said to Hamor, his father, Get me this girl
for my wife.

5 Now Jacob had word of what Shechem had done to his
daughter; but his sons were in the fields with the cattle, and
Jacob said nothing till they came.

6 Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, came out to have a
talk with Jacob.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they
had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry
because of the shame he had done in Israel by having
connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a
thing is not to be done.

8 But Hamor said to them, Shechem, my son, is full of
desire for your daughter: will you then give her to him for a
wife?

9 And let our two peoples be joined together; give your
daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

10 Go on living with us, and the country will be open to
you; do trade and get property there.

11 And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, If you
will give ear to my request, whatever you say I will give to
you.

12 However great you make the bride-price and payment, I
will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife.

13 But the sons of Jacob gave a false answer to Shechem and
Hamor his father, because of what had been done to Dinah
their sister.

14 And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister
to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause
of shame to us:

15 But on this condition only will we come to an agreement
with you: if every male among you becomes like us and
undergoes circumcision;

16 Then we will give our daughters to you and take your
daughters to us and go on living with you as one people.

17 But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then
we will take our daughter and go.

18 And their words were pleasing to Hamor and his son
Shechem.

19 And without loss of time the young man did as they said,
because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the
noblest of his father's house.

20 Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-
place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

21 It is the desire of these men to be at peace with us; let
them then go on living in this country and doing trade here,
for the country is wide open before them; let us take their
daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters.

22 But these men will make an agreement with us to go on
living with us and to become one people, only on the
condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision
as they have done.

23 Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their
beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so
that they may go on living with us.

24 Then all the men of the town gave ear to the words of
Hamor and Shechem his son; and every male in the town
underwent circumcision.

25 But on the third day after, before the wounds were well,
two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers,
took their swords and came into the town by surprise and
put all the males to death.

26 And Hamor and his son they put to death with the
sword, and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went
away.

27 And the sons of Jacob came on them when they were
wounded and made waste the town because of what had been
done to their sister;

28 They took their flocks and their herds and their asses
and everything in their town and in their fields,

29 And all their wealth and all their little ones and their
wives; everything in their houses they took and made them
waste.

30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have made
trouble for me and given me a bad name among the people of
this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and
because we are small in number they will come together
against me and make war on me; and it will be the end of me
and all my people.

31 But they said, Were we to let him make use of our sister
as a loose woman?

GENESIS CHAPTER 35

1 And God said to Jacob, Go up now to Beth-el and make
your living-place there: and put up an altar there to the God
who came to you when you were in flight from your brother
Esau.

2 Then Jacob said to all his people, Put away the strange
gods which are among you, and make yourselves clean, and
put on a change of clothing:

3 And let us go up to Beth-el: and there I will make an altar
to God, who gave me an answer in the day of my trouble, and
was with me wherever I went.

4 Then they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which they
had, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob put
them away under the holy tree at Shechem.

5 So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on
the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the
sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob came to Luz in the land of Canaan (which is
the same as Beth-el), he and all his people.

7 And there he made an altar, naming the place El-beth-el:
because it was there he had the vision of God when he was in
flight from his brother.

8 And Deborah, the servant who had taken care of Rebekah
from her birth, came to her end, and was put to rest near
Beth-el, under the holy tree: and they gave it the name of
Allon-bacuth.

9 Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God
came to him again and, blessing him, said,

10 Jacob is your name, but it will be so no longer; from
now your name will be Israel; so he was named Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be
fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations,
will come from you, and kings will be your offspring;

12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will
give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 Then God went up from him in the place where he had
been talking with him.

14 And Jacob put up a pillar in the place where he had been
talking with God, and put a drink offering on it, and oil.

15 And he gave to the place where God had been talking
with him, the name of Beth-el.

16 So they went on from Beth-el; and while they were still
some distance from Ephrath, the pains of birth came on
Rachel and she had a hard time.

17 And when her pain was very great, the woman who was
helping her said, Have no fear; for now you will have another
son.

18 And in the hour when her life went from her (for death
came to her), she gave the child the name Ben-oni: but his
father gave him the name of Benjamin.

19 So Rachel came to her end and was put to rest on the
road to Ephrath (which is Beth-lehem).

20 And Jacob put up a pillar on her resting-place; which is
named, The Pillar of the resting-place of Rachel, to this day.

21 And Israel went journeying on and put up his tents on
the other side of the tower of the flock.

22 Now while they were living in that country, Reuben had
connection with Bilhah, his father's servant-woman: and
Israel had news of it.

23 Now Jacob had twelve sons: the sons of Leah: Reuben,
Jacob's first son, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and
Issachar and Zebulun;

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali;

26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher; these
are the sons whom Jacob had in Paddan-aram.

27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at
Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had
been living.

28 And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old.

29 Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his
father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and
Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place.

GENESIS CHAPTER 36

1 Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say,
Edom.

2 Esau's wives were women of Canaan: Adah, the daughter
of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah,
the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,

3 And Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

4 Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of
Reuel;

5 Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah;
these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land
of Canaan.

6 Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and
all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and
all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan,
and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob.

7 For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide
enough for the two of them and all their cattle.

8 So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir
(Esau is Edom).

9 And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the
Edomites in the hill-country of Seir:

10 These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of
Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.

11 The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam,
and Kenaz.

12 And Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had connection with a
woman named Timna, who gave birth to Amalek: all these
were the children of Esau's wife Adah.

13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah,
Shammah, and Mizzah: they were the children of Esau's wife
Basemath.

14 And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the
daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the
mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

15 These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau: the sons of
Eliphaz, Esau's first son: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

16 Korah, Gatam, Amalek: all these were chiefs in the land
of Edom, the offspring of Eliphaz, the seed of Adah.

17 And these are the sons of Esau's son Reuel: Nahath,
Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah: these were the chiefs of Reuel in
the land of Edom, the children of Esau's wife Basemath.

18 And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Jeush,
Jalam, and Korah: these were the chiefs who came from
Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

19 These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these
were their chiefs.

20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in
that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the
Horites, offspring of Seir in the land of Edom.

22 The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's
sister was Timna.

23 And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath,
Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

24 And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah;
that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs
in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his
father Zibeon.

25 And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and
Oholibamah his daughter.

26 These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban,
Ithran, and Keran.

27 These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and
Akan.

28 These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

29 These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon,
Anah,

30 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Such were the Horite chiefs
in their order in the land of Seir.

31 And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of
Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of
his chief town was Dinhabah.

33 At his death, Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah, became
king in his place.

34 And at the death of Jobab, Husham, from the country of
the Temanites, became king in his place.

35 And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who
overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king;
his chief town was named Avith.

36 And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became
king.

37 And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the
River became king in his place.

38 And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor,
became king.

39 And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in
his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name
was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the
daughter of Me-zahab.

40 These are the names of the chiefs of Esau in the order of
their families and their places: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

41 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

43 Magdiel, Iram; these are the Edomite chiefs, in their
places in their heritage; this is Esau, the father of the
Edomites.

GENESIS CHAPTER 37

1 Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had
made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan.

2 These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy
seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together
with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's
wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

3 Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater
than his love for all his other children, because he got him
when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for
him.

4 And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to
his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him,
and would not say a kind word to him.

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an
account of it, which made their hate greater than ever.

6 And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my
dream.

7 We were in the field, getting the grain stems together,
and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went
down on the earth before mine.

8 And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will
you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his
words, their hate for him became greater than ever.

9 Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an
account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and
the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me.

10 And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers;
but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this?

am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our
faces to the earth before you?

11 And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept
his words in mind.

12 Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's
flock in Shechem.

13 And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with
the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he
said to him, Here am I.

14 And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are
well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word.
So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to
Shechem.

15 And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said
to him, What are you looking for?

16 And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give
me word of where they are keeping their flock.

17 And the man said, They have gone away from here, for
they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went
after them and came up with them at Dothan.

18 But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before
he came near them they made a secret design against him to
put him to death;

19 Saying to one another, See, here comes this dreamer.

20 Let us now put him to death and put his body into one
of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to
death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams.

21 But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their
hands, saying, Let us not take his life.

22 Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed
in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their
hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father
again.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his
long coat which he had on;

24 And they took him and put him in the hole: now the
hole had no water in it.

25 Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and
looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites,
coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and
perfumes on their camels.

26 And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in
putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?

27 Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let
us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our
flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him.

28 And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling
Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites
for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.

29 Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was
not there; and giving signs of grief,

30 He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone;
what am I to do?

31 Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the
blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 And they took the coat to their father, and said, We
came across this; is it your son's coat or not?

33 And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an
evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has
come to a cruel end.

34 Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and
went on weeping for his son day after day.

35 And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him
comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with
weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So
great was his father's sorrow for him.

36 And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to
Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house.

GENESIS CHAPTER 38

1 Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and
became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah.

2 And there he saw the daughter of a certain man of Canaan
named Shua, and took her as his wife.

3 And she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Er.

4 And again she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the
name Onan.

5 Then she had another son, to whom she gave the name
Shelah; she was at Chezib when the birth took place.

6 And Judah took a wife for his first son Er, and her name
was Tamar.

7 Now Er, Judah's first son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
so that he put him to death.

8 Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife
and do what it is right for a husband's brother to do; make
her your wife and get offspring for your brother.

9 But Onan, seeing that the offspring would not be his,
went in to his brother's wife, but let his seed go on to the
earth, so that he might not get offspring for his brother.

10 And what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that
he put him to death, like his brother.

11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Go
back to your father's house and keep yourself as a widow till
my son Shelah becomes a man: for he had in his mind the
thought that death might come to him as it had come to his
brothers. So Tamar went back to her father's house.

12 And after a time, Bath-shua, Judah's wife, came to her
end; and after Judah was comforted for her loss, he went to
Timnah, where they were cutting the wool of his sheep, and
his friend Hirah of Adullam went with him.

13 And when Tamar had news that her father-in-law was
going up to Timnah to the wool-cutting,

14 She took off her widow's clothing, and covering herself
with her veil, she took her seat near Enaim on the road to
Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was now a man, but she had
not been made his wife.

15 When Judah saw her he took her to be a loose woman of
the town, because her face was covered.

16 And turning to her by the roadside, he said to her, Let
me come in to you; for he had no idea that she was his

daughter-in-law. And she said, What will you give me as my
price?

17 And he said, I will give you a young goat from the flock.
And she said, What will you give me as a sign till you send it?

18 And he said, What would you have? And she said, Your
ring and its cord and the stick in your hand. So he gave them
to her and went in to her, and she became with child by him.

19 Then she got up and went away and took off her veil and
put on her widow's clothing.

20 Then Judah sent his friend Hirah with the young goat,
to get back the things which he had given as a sign to the
woman: but she was not there.

21 And he put questions to the men of the place, saying,
Where is the loose woman who was in Enaim by the wayside?
And they said, There was no such woman there.

22 So he went back to Judah, and said, I have not seen her,
and the men of the place say that there is no such woman
there.

23 And Judah said, Let her keep the things, so that we may
not be shamed; I sent the young goat, but you did not see the
woman.

24 Now about three months after this, word came to Judah
that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had been acting like a loose
woman and was with child. And Judah said, Take her out
and let her be burned.

25 And while she was being taken out, she sent word to her
father-in-law, saying, The man whose property these things
are, is the father of my child: say then, whose are this ring
and this cord and this stick?

26 Then Judah said openly that they were his, and said, She
is more upright than I am, for I did not give her to Shelah my
son. And he had no more connection with her.

27 And when the time came for her to give birth, it was
clear that there were two children in her body.

28 And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them
put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red
thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first.

29 But then he took his hand back again, and his brother
came first to birth: and the woman said, What an opening
you have made for yourself! So he was named Perez.

30 And then his brother came out, with the red thread
round his hand, and he was named Zerah.

GENESIS CHAPTER 39

1 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the
Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got
him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he
was living in the house of his master the Egyptian.

3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him, making
everything he did go well.

4 And having a high opinion of Joseph as his servant, he
made him the overseer of his house and gave him control over
all he had.

5 And from the time when he made him overseer and gave
him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the
Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field.

6 And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping
no account of anything, but only the food which was put
before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face.

7 And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph
with desire, said to him, Be my lover.

8 But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master
keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his
property in my control;

9 So that no one has more authority in this house than I
have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you
are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning
against God?

10 And day after day she went on requesting Joseph to
come to her and be her lover, but he would not give ear to
her.

11 Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and
not one of the men of the house was inside.

12 And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but
slipping out of his coat, he went running away.

13 And when she saw that he had got away, letting her keep
his coat,

14 She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See,
he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came
to my bed, and I gave a loud cry;

15 And hearing it he went running out without his coat.

16 And she kept his coat by her, till his master came back.

17 Then she gave him the same story, saying, The Hebrew
servant whom you have taken into our house came in to make
sport of me;

18 And when I gave a loud cry he went running out
without his coat.

19 And hearing his wife's account of what his servant had
done, he became very angry.

20 And Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, in
the place where the king's prisoners were kept in chains, and
he was there in the prison-house.

21 But the Lord was with Joseph, and was good to him,
and made the keeper of the prison his friend.

22 And the keeper of the prison put all the prisoners under
Joseph's control, and he was responsible for whatever was
done there.

23 And the keeper of the prison gave no attention to
anything which was under his care, because the Lord was
with him; and the Lord made everything he did go well.

GENESIS CHAPTER 40

1 Now after these things the chief servant who had the care
of the wine, and the chief bread-maker in Pharaoh's house,
did something against Pharaoh's orders;

2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, with the
chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker;

3 And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of
the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut

up.

4 And the captain put them in Joseph's care, and he did
what was needed for them; and they were kept in prison for
some time.

5 And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief
wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt,
who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a
special sense.

6 And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw
that they were looking sad.

7 And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in
prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

8 Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one
is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the
sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream?

9 Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his
dream, and said, In my dream J saw a vine before me;

10 And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if
it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes
ready for cutting.

11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the
grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup
into Pharaoh's hand.

12 Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the
three branches are three days;

13 After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put
you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as
you did before, when you were his wine-servant.

14 But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be
good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get
me out of this prison:

15 For truly I was taken by force from the land of the
Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put
in prison.

16 Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first
dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream;
and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on
my head;

17 And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for
Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets
on my head.

18 Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the
three baskets are three days;

19 After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison,
hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for
birds.

20 Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave
a feast for all his servants; and he gave honour to the chief
Wwine-servant and the chief bread-maker among the others.

21 And he put the chief wine-servant back in his old place;
and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

22 But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging,
as Joseph had said.

23 But the wine-servant did not keep Joseph in mind or
give a thought to him.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

GENESIS CHAPTER 41

1 Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream;
and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile;

2 And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and
fat, and their food was the river-grass.

3 And after them seven other cows came out of the Nile,
poor-looking and thin; and they were by the side of the other
cows.

4 And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows.
Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep.

5 But he went to sleep again and had a second dream, in
which he saw seven heads of grain, full and good, all on one
stem.

6 And after them came up seven other heads, thin and
wasted by the east wind.

7 And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads.
And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream.

8 And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent
for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put
his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the
sense of it.

9 Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory
of my sin comes back to me now;

10 Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and had put
me in prison in the house of the captain of the army, together
with the chief bread-maker;

11 And we had a dream on the same night, the two of us,
and the dreams had a special sense.

12 And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's
servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us
the sense of them.

13 And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place,
and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging.

14 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him
quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his
dress changed, he came before Pharaoh.

15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no
one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my
ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is
put before you.

16 Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer
of peace for Pharaoh.

17 Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the
Nile:

18 And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-
looking, and their food was the river-grass;

19 Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and
poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt;

20 And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who
came up first;

21 And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as
bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep.

22 And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and
good, coming up on one stem:

23 And then I saw seven other heads, dry, thin, and wasted
by the east wind, coming up after them:

24 And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good
heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one
of them was able to give me the sense of it.

25 Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense:
God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

26 The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good
heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense.

27 The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up
after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry
and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will
be no food.

28 As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him
what he is about to do.

29 Seven years are coming in which there will be great
wealth of grain in Egypt;

30 And after that will come seven years when there will not
be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go
from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad
years;

31 And men will have no memory of the good time because
of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter.

32 And this dream came to Pharaoh twice, because this
thing is certain, and God will quickly make it come about.

33 And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom
and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of
Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the
land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the
land in the good years.

35 And let them get together all the food in those good
years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for
the use of the towns, and let them keep it.

36 And let that food be kept in store for the land till the
seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land
may not come to destruction through need of food.

37 And this seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.

38 Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get
such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

39 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made
all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom
and good sense as you:

40 You, then, are to be over my house, and all my people
will be ruled by your word: only as king will I be greater
than you.

41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all
the land of Egypt.

42 Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it
on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen,
and put a chain of gold round his neck;

43 And he made him take his seat in the second of his
carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he
made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and
without your order no man may do anything in all the land
of Egypt.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

45 And Pharaoh gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-
paaneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-
phera, the priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph went
through all the land of Egypt.

46 Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before
Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before
the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

47 Now in the seven good years the earth gave fruit in
masses.

48 And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years,
and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the
fields round every town was stored up in the town.

49 So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the
sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it,
for it might not be measured.

50 And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to
whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On,
gave birth.

51 And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said,
God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and
of my father's house.

52 And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said,
God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow.

53 And so the seven good years in Egypt came to an end.

54 Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph
had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but
in the land of Egypt there was bread.

55 And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the
people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said
to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do
it.

56 And everywhere on the earth they were short of food;
then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of
Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the
land of Egypt.

57 And all lands sent to Egypt, to Joseph, to get grain, for
the need was great over all the earth.

GENESIS CHAPTER 42

1 Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to
his sons, Why are you looking at one another?

2 And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt:
go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death
may be ours.

3 So Joseph's ten brothers went down to get grain from
Egypt.

4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with
them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him.

5 And the sons of Israel came with all the others to get
grain: for they were very short of food in the land of Canaan.

6 Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who
gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's
brothers came before him and went down on their faces to
the earth.

7 And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him
who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and

talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from?
And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food.

8 Now though Joseph saw that these were his brothers, they
had no idea who he was.

9 Then the memory of his dreams about them came back to
Joseph, and he said to them, You have come secretly to see
how poor the land is.

10 And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants
have come with money to get food.

11 We are all one man's sons, we are true men; we have not
come with any secret purpose.

12 And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how
poor the land is.

13 Then they said, We your servants are twelve brothers,
sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest of us is
now with our father, and one is dead.

14 And Joseph said, It is as I said; you have come with some
secret purpose;

15 But in this way will you be put to the test: by the life of
Pharaoh, you will not go away from this place till your
youngest brother comes here.

16 Send one of your number to get your brother, and the
rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be
tested to see if you are true; if not, by the life of Pharaoh,
your purpose is certainly secret.

17So he put them in prison for three days.

18 And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if
you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man:

19 If you are true men, let one of you be kept in prison,
while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

20 And come back to me with your youngest brother, so
that your words may be seen to be true, and you will not be
put to death. This is what you are to do.

21 And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to
our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not
give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on
us.

22 And Reuben said to them, Did I not say to you, Do the
child no wrong? but you gave no attention; so now,
punishment has come on us for his blood.

23 They were not conscious that the sense of their words
was clear to Joseph, for he had been talking to them through
one who had knowledge of their language.

24 And turning away from them, he was overcome with
weeping; then he went on talking to them again and took
Simeon and put chains on him before their eyes.

25 Then Joseph gave orders for their bags to be made full of
grain, and for every man's money to be put back into his bag,
and for food to be given them for the journey: which was
done.

26 Then they put the bags of grain on their asses and went
away.

27 Now at their night's resting-place one of them, opening
his bag to give his ass some food, saw his money in the mouth
of the bag.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 And he said to his brothers, My money has been given
back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear,
and turning to one another they said, What is this which
God has done to us?

29 So when they came to Jacob their father, in the land of
Canaan, they gave him an account of all their experiences,
saying,

30 The man who is the ruler of the country was rough with
us and put us in prison, saying that we had come with a secret
evil purpose.

31 And we said to him, We are true men, we have no evil
designs;

32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is dead,
and the youngest is now with our father in the land of
Canaan.

33 And the ruler of the land said, In this way I may be
certain that you are true men; let one of you be kept here
with me, while you go and take grain for the needs of your
families;

34 And come back to me with your youngest brother: then I
will be certain that you are true men, and I will give your
brother back to you and let you do trade in the land.

35 And when they took the grain out of their bags, it was
seen that every man's parcel of money was in his bag; and
when they and their father saw the money, they were full of
fear.

36 And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my
children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and
now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have
come on me.

37 And Reuben said, Put my two sons to death if I do not
come back to you with him; let him be in my care and I will
give him safely back to you.

38 And he said, I will not let my son go down with you; for
his brother is dead and he is all I have: if evil overtakes him
on the journey, then through you will my grey head go down
to the underworld in sorrow.

GENESIS CHAPTER 43

1 Now the land was in bitter need of food.

2 And when the grain which they had got in Egypt was all
used up, their father said to them, Go again and get us a
little food.

3 And Judah said to him, The man said to us with an oath,
You are not to come before me again without your brother.

4 If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down
and get food:

5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down: for the
man said to us, You are not to come before me if your
brother is not with you.

6 And Israel said, Why were you so cruel to me as to say to
him that you had a brother?

7 And they said, The man put a number of questions to us
about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still
living? have you another brother? And we had to give him

answers; how were we to have any idea that he would say,
Come back with your brother?

8 Then Judah said to Israel, his father, Send the boy with
me, and let us be up and going, so that we and you and our
little ones may not come to destruction.

9 Put him into my care and make me responsible for him: if
I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for
ever.

10 Truly, if we had not let the time go by, we might have
come back again by now.

11 Then their father Israel said to them, If it has to be so,
then do this: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels
to give the man, perfumes and honey and spices and nuts:

12 And take twice as much money with you; that is to say,
take back the money which was put in your bags, for it may
have been an error;

13 And take your brother and go back to the man:

14 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you mercy before
the man, so that he may give you back your other brother
and Benjamin. If my children are to be taken from me; there
is no help for it.

15 So they took what their father said for the man, and
twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went
on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.

16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to his chief
servant, Take these men into my house, and make ready a
meal, for they will take food with me in the middle of the day.

17 And the servant did as Joseph said, and took the men
into Joseph's house.

18 Now the men were full of fear because they had been
taken into Joseph's house and they said, It is because of the
money which was put back in our bags the first time; he is
looking for something against us, so that he may come down
on us and take us and our asses for his use.

19 So they went up to Joseph's chief servant at the door of
the house,

20 And said, O my lord, we only came down the first time
to get food;

21 And when we came to our night's resting-place, on
opening our bags we saw that every man's money was in the
mouth of his bag, all our money in full weight: and we have
it with us to give it back;

22 As well as more money, with which to get food: we have
no idea who put our money in our bags.

23 Then the servant said, Peace be with you: have no fear:
your God, even the God of your father, has put wealth in
your bags for you: I had your money. Then he let Simeon
come out to them.

24 And the servant took them into Joseph's house, and gave
them water for washing their feet; and he gave their asses
food.

25 And they got ready the things for Joseph before he came
in the middle of the day: for word was given to them that
they were to have a meal there.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 And when Joseph came in, they gave him the things
which they had for him, and went down to the earth before
him.

27 And he said, How are you? is your father well, the old
man of whom you were talking to me? is he still living?

28 And they said, Your servant, our father, is well, he is
still living. And they went down on their faces before him.

29 Then, lifting up his eyes, he saw Benjamin, his brother,
his mother's son, and he said, Is this your youngest brother of
whom you gave me word? And he said, God be good to you,
my son.

30 Then Joseph's heart went out to his brother, and he went
quickly into his room, for he was overcome with weeping.

31 Then, after washing his face, he came out, and
controlling his feelings said, Put food before us.

32 And they put a meal ready for him by himself, and for
them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who were with
him by themselves; because the Egyptians may not take food
with the Hebrews, for that would make them unclean.

33 And they were all given their seats before him in order of
birth, from the oldest to the youngest: so that they were
looking at one another in wonder.

34 And Joseph sent food to them from his table, but he sent
five times as much to Benjamin as to any of the others. And
they took wine freely with him.

GENESIS CHAPTER 44

| Then he gave orders to the servant who was over his house,
saying, Put as much food into the men's bags as will go into
them, and put every man's money in the mouth of his bag;

2 And put my cup, my silver cup, in the youngest one's bag,
with his money. So he did as Joseph said.

3 And at dawn the men, with their asses, were sent away.

4 And when they had gone only a little way out of the town,
Joseph said to the servant who was over his house, Go after
them; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have
you done evil in reward for good?

5 Is not this the cup from which my lord takes wine and by
which he gets knowledge of the future? Truly, you have done
evil.

6 So he overtook them and said these words to them.

7 And they said to him, Why does my lord say such words
as these? far be it from your servants to do such a thing:

8 See, the money which was in the mouth of our bags we
gave back to you when we came again from Canaan: how
then might we take silver or gold from your lord's house?

9 If it comes to light that any of your servants has done this,
let him be put to death, and we will be your lord's servants.

10 And he said, Let it be as you say: he in whose bag it is
seen will become my servant; and you will not be responsible.

11 Then every man quickly got his bag down and undid it.

12 And he made a search, starting with the oldest and
ending with the youngest; and the cup was in Benjamin's bag.

13 Then in bitter grief they put the bags on the asses again
and went back to the town.

14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house; and
he was still there: and they went down on their faces before
him.

15 And Joseph said, What is this thing which you have done?
had you no thought that such a man as I would have power
to see what is secret?

16 And Judah said, What are we to say to my lord? how
may we put ourselves right in his eyes? God has made clear
the sin of your servants: now we are in your hands, we and
the man in whose bag your cup was seen.

17 Then he said, Far be it from me to do so: but the man
who had my cup will be my servant; and you may go back to
your father in peace.

18 Then Judah came near him, and said, Let your servant
say a word in my lord's ears, and let not your wrath be
burning against your servant: for you are in the place of
Pharaoh to us.

19 My lord said to his servants, Have you a father or a
brother?

20 And we said to my lord, We have an old father and a
young child, whom he had when he was old; his brother is
dead and he is the only son of his mother, and is very dear to
his father.

21 And you said to your servants, Let him come down to
me with you, so that I may see him.

22 And we said to my lord, His father will not let him go;
for if he went away his father would come to his death.

23 But you said to your servants, If your youngest brother
does not come with you, you will not see my face again.

24 And when we went back to your servant, our father, we
gave him an account of my lord's words.

25 And our father said, Go again and get us a little food.

26 And we said, Only if our youngest brother goes with us
will we go down; for we may not see the man's face again if
our youngest brother is not with us.

27 And our father said to us, You have knowledge that my
wife gave me two sons;

28 The one went away from me, and I said, Truly he has
come to a violent death; and from that time I have not seen
him,

29 If now you take this one from me, and some evil comes to
him, you will make my grey head go down in sorrow to the
underworld.

30 If then I go back to your servant, my father, without the
boy, because his life and the boy's life are one,

31 When he sees that the boy is not with us, he will come to
his death, and our father's grey head will go down in sorrow
to the underworld.

32 For I made myself responsible for the boy to my father,
saying, If I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the
sin for ever.

33 So now let me be my lord's servant here in place of the
boy, and let him go back with his brothers.

34 For how may I go back to my father without the boy,
and see the evil which will come on my father?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

GENESIS CHAPTER 45

1 Then Joseph, unable to keep back his feelings before those
who were with him, gave orders for everyone to be sent away,
and no one was present when he made clear to his brothers
who he was.

2 And so loud was his weeping, that it came to the ears of
the Egyptians and all Pharaoh's house.

3 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph: is my father
still living? But his brothers were not able to give him an
answer for they were troubled before him.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me. And
they came near, And he said, I am Joseph your brother,
whom you sent into Egypt.

5 Now do not be troubled or angry with yourselves for
sending me away, because God sent me before you to be the
saviour of your lives.

6 For these two years have been years of need, and there are
still five more years to come in which there will be no
ploughing or cutting of grain.

7 God sent me before you to keep you and yours living on
earth so that you might become a great nation.

8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God: and he
has made me as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house,
and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

9 Now go quickly to my father, and say to him, Your son
Joseph says, God has made me ruler over all the land of
Egypt: come down to me straight away:

10 The land of Goshen will be your living-place, and you
will be near me; you and your children and your children's
children, and your flocks and herds and all you have:

11 And there I will take care of you, so that you and your
family may not be in need, for there are still five bad years to
come.

12 Now truly, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother
Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which says these things to
you.

13 Give my father word of all my glory in Egypt and of all
you have seen; and come back quickly with my father.

14 Then, weeping, he took Benjamin in his arms, and
Benjamin himself was weeping on Joseph's neck.

15 Then he gave a kiss to all his brothers, weeping over
them; and after that his brothers had no fear of talking to
him.

16 And news of these things went through Pharaoh's house,
and it was said that Joseph's brothers were come; and it
seemed good to Pharaoh and his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Put
your goods on your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan;

18 And get your father and your families and come back to
me: and I will give you all the good things of Egypt, and the
fat of the land will be your food.

19 And say to them, This you are to do: take carts from the
land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and get
your father and come back.

20 And take no thought for your goods, for the best of all
the land of Egypt is yours.

21 And the children of Israel did as he said; and Joseph gave
them carts as had been ordered by Pharaoh, and food for
their journey.

22 To every one of them he gave three changes of clothing;
but to Benjamin he gave three hundred bits of silver and five
changes of clothing.

23 And to his father he sent ten asses with good things from
Egypt on their backs, and ten she-asses with grain and bread
and food for his father on the journey.

24 And he sent his brothers on their way, and said to them,
See that you have no argument on the road.

25 So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of
Canaan, to their father Jacob.

26 And they said to him, Joseph is living, and is ruler over
all the land of Egypt. And at this word Jacob was quite
overcome, for he had no faith in it.

27 And they gave him an account of everything Joseph had
said to them; and when he saw the carts which Joseph had
sent for them, his spirit came back to him:

28 And Israel said, It is enough: Joseph my son is still living;
I will go and see him before my death.

GENESIS CHAPTER 46

1 And Israel went on his journey with all he had, and came
to Beer-sheba, where he made offerings to the God of his
father Isaac.

2 And God said to Israel in a night-vision, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, Here am I.

3 And he said, I am God, the God of your father: go down
to Egypt without fear, for I will make a great nation of you
there:

4] will go down with you to Egypt, and I will see that you
come back again, and at your death Joseph will put his hands
on your eyes.

5 Then Jacob went on from Beer-sheba; and the sons of
Jacob took their father and their little ones and their wives in
the carts which Pharaoh had sent for them.

6 And they took their cattle and all the goods which they
had got in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, even
Jacob and all his seed:

7 His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his
daughters’ sons and all his family he took with him into
Egypt.

8 And these are the names of the children of Israel who
came into Egypt, even Jacob and all his sons: Reuben, Jacob's
oldest son;

9 And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron
and Carmi;

10 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad
and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of
Canaan;

11 And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari;

12 And the sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and
Perez and Zerah: but Er and Onan had come to their death in
the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and
Hamul.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puah and Job and
Shimron;

14 And the sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel;

15 All these, together with his daughter Dinah, were the
children of Leah, whom Jacob had by her in Paddan-aram;
they were thirty-three in number.

16 And the sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and
Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli;

17 And the sons of Asher: Jimnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and
Beriah, and Sarah, their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber
and Malchiel.

18 These are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to
his daughter Leah, and Jacob had these sixteen children by
her.

19 The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 And Joseph had Manasseh and Ephraim in the land of
Egypt, by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On.

21 And the sons of Benjamin were Belah and Becher and
Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and
Huppim and Ard.

22 All these were the children of Rachel whom Jacob had by
her, fourteen persons.

23 And the son of Dan was Hushim.

24 And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer
and Shillem.

25 These were the children of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to
his daughter Rachel, seven persons.

26 All the persons who came with Jacob into Egypt, the
offspring of his body, were sixty-six, without taking into
account the wives of Jacob's sons.

27 And the sons of Joseph whom he had in Egypt were two.
Seventy persons of the family of Jacob came into Egypt.

28 Now he had sent Judah before him to Goshen, to get
word from Joseph; and so they came to the land of Goshen.

29 And Joseph got his carriage ready and went to Goshen
for the meeting with his father; and when he came before him,
he put his arms round his neck, weeping.

30 And Israel said to Joseph, Now that I have seen you
living again, I am ready for death.

31 And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's
people, I will go and give the news to Pharaoh, and say to
him, My brothers and my father's people, from the land of
Canaan, have come to me;

32 And these men are keepers of sheep and owners of cattle,
and have with them their flocks and their herds and all they
have.

33 Now when Pharaoh sends for you and says, What is your
business?

34 You are to say, Your servants have been keepers of cattle
from our early days up to now, like our fathers; in this way
you will be able to have the land of Goshen for yourselves;
because keepers of sheep are unclean in the eyes of the
Egyptians.

GENESIS CHAPTER 47

1 Then Joseph went to Pharaoh, and said, My father and
my brothers with their flocks and their herds and all they
have, are come from Canaan, and are now in the land of
Goshen.

2 And he took five of his brothers to Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said to them, What is your business? And
they said, Your servants are keepers of sheep, as our fathers
were before us.

4 And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to make a living
in this land, because we have no grass for our flocks in the
land of Canaan; so now let your servants make a place for
themselves in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them have the land of
Goshen; and if there are any able men among them, put them
over my cattle.

6 And Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and
when word of it came to the ears of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
he said to Joseph, Your father and brothers have come to you;
all the land of Egypt is before you; let your father and your
brothers have the best of the land for their resting-place.

7 Then Joseph made his father Jacob come before Pharaoh,
and Jacob gave him his blessing.

8 And Pharaoh said to him, How old are you?

9 And Jacob said, The years of my wanderings have been a
hundred and thirty; small in number and full of sorrow have
been the years of my life, and less than the years of the
wanderings of my fathers.

10 And Jacob gave Pharaoh his blessing, and went out from
before him.

11 And Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers,
and gave them a heritage in the land of Egypt, in the best of
the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had given orders.

12 And Joseph took care of his father and his brothers and
all his father's people, giving them food for the needs of their
families.

13 Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that
all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food.

14 And all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan
which had been given for grain, came into the hands of
Joseph: and he put it in Pharaoh's house.

15 And when all the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone,
the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread;
would you have us come to destruction before your eyes? for
we have no more money.

16 And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will give you
grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone.

17 So they took their cattle to Joseph and he gave them
bread in exchange for their horses and flocks and herds and
asses, so all that year he gave them food in exchange for their
cattle.

18 And when that year was ended, they came to him in the
second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's
knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of
cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord
but our bodies and our land;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Are we to come to destruction before your eyes, we and
our land? take us and our land and give us bread; and we and
our land will be servants to Pharaoh; and give us seed so that
we may have life and the land may not become waste.

20 So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for
every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food,
because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he made servants of them, town
by town, from one end of Egypt to the other.

22 Only he did not take the land of the priests, for the
priests had their food given them by Pharaoh, and having
what Pharaoh gave them, they had no need to give up their
land.

23 Then Joseph said to the people, I have made you and
your land this day the property of Pharaoh; here is seed for
you to put in your fields.

24 And when the grain is cut, you are to give a fifth part to
Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours for seed and food, and
for your families and your little ones.

25 And they said to him, Truly you have kept us from death;
may we have grace in your eyes, and we will be Pharaoh's
servants.

26 Then Joseph made a law which is in force to this day,
that Pharaoh was to have the fifth part; only the land of the
priests did not become his.

27 And so Israel was living among the Egyptians in the
land of Goshen; and they got property there, and became
very great in numbers and in wealth.

28 And Jacob was living in the land of Goshen for seventeen
years; so the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven.

29 And the time of his death came near, and he sent for his
son Joseph and said to him, If now I am dear to you, put your
hand under my leg and take an oath that you will not put me
to rest in Egypt;

30 But when I go to my fathers, you are to take me out of
Egypt and put me to rest in their last resting-place. And he
said, I will do so.

31 And he said, Take an oath to me; and he took an oath to
him: and Israel gave worship on the bed's head.

GENESIS CHAPTER 48

1 Now after these things, word came to Joseph that his
father was ill: and he took with him his sons Manasseh and
Ephraim.

2 And when they said to Jacob, Your son Joseph is coming
to see you: then Israel, getting all his strength together, had
himself lifted up in his bed.

3 And Jacob said to Joseph, God, the Ruler of all, came to
me in a vision at Luz in the land of Canaan, and gave me his
blessing,

4 And said to me, Truly, I will make you fertile and give
you increase and will make of you a great family of nations:
and I will give this land to your seed after you to be their
heritage for ever.

5 And now your two sons who came to birth in Egypt
before I came to you here, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh
will be mine, in the same way as Reuben and Simeon are.

6 And any other offspring which you have after them, will
be yours, and will be named after their brothers in their
heritage.

7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, death overtook
Rachel on the way, when we were still some distance from
Ephrath; and I put her to rest there on the road to Ephrath,
which is Beth-lehem.

8 Then Israel, looking at Joseph's sons, said, Who are these?

9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom
God has given me in this land. And he said, Let them come
near me, and I will give them a blessing.

10 Now because Israel was old, his eyes were no longer clear,
and he was not able to see. So he made them come near to
him, and he gave them a kiss, folding them in his arms.

11 And Israel said to Joseph, I had no hope of seeing your
face again, but God in his mercy has let me see you and your
children.

12 Then Joseph took them from between his knees, and
went down on his face to the earth.

13 Then taking Ephraim with his right hand, Joseph put
him at Israel's left side, and with his left hand he put
Manasseh at Israel's right side, placing them near him.

14 And Israel, stretching out his right hand, put it on the
head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left hand on the head
of Manasseh, crossing his hands on purpose, for Manasseh
was the older.

15 And he gave Joseph a blessing, saying, May the God to
whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, gave worship, the
God who has taken care of me all my life till this day,

16 The angel who has been my saviour from all evil, send
his blessing on these children: and let my name and the name
of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, be given to them; and let
them become a great nation in the earth.

17 Now when Joseph saw that his father had put his right
hand on the head of Ephraim, it did not seem right to him;
and lifting his father's hand he would have put it on the head
of Manasseh.

18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this
is the older; put your right hand on his head.

19 But his father would not, saying, I am doing it on
purpose, my son; he will certainly become a nation and a
great one; but his younger brother will be greater than he,
and his seed will become a great family of nations.

20 So he gave them his blessing that day, saying, You will
be the sign of blessing in Israel, for they will say, May God
make you like Ephraim and Manasseh; and he put Ephraim
before Manasseh.

21 Then Israel said to Joseph, Now my death is near; but
God will be with you, guiding you back to the land of your
fathers.

22 And I have given you more than your brothers, even
Shechem as your heritage, which I took from the Amorites
with my sword and my bow.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

GENESIS CHAPTER 49

1 And Jacob sent for his sons, and said, Come together, all
of you, so that I may give you news of your fate in future
times.

2 Come near, O sons of Jacob, and give ear to the words of
Israel your father.

3 Reuben, you are my oldest son, the first-fruit of my
strength, first in pride and first in power:

4 But because you were uncontrolled, the first place will
not be yours; for you went up to your father's bed, even his
bride-bed, and made it unclean.

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; deceit and force are their
secret designs.

6 Take no part in their secrets, O my soul; keep far away, O
my heart, from their meetings; for in their wrath they put
men to death, and for their pleasure even oxen were wounded.

7 A curse on their passion for it was bitter; and on their
wrath for it was cruel. I will let their heritage in Jacob be
broken up, driving them from their places in Israel.

8 To you, Judah, will your brothers give praise: your hand
will be on the neck of your haters; your father's sons will go
down to the earth before you.

9 Judah is a young lion; like a lion full of meat you have
become great, my son; now he takes his rest like a lion
stretched out and like an old lion; by whom will his sleep be
broken?

10 The rod of authority will not be taken from Judah, and
he will not be without a law-giver, till he comes who has the
right to it, and the peoples will put themselves under his rule.

11 Knotting his ass's cord to the vine, and his young ass to
the best vine; washing his robe in wine, and his clothing in
the blood of grapes:

12 His eyes will be dark with wine, and his teeth white with
milk.

13 The resting-place of Zebulun will be by the sea, and he
will be a harbour for ships; the edge of his land will be by
Zidon.

14 Issachar is a strong ass stretched out among the flocks:

15 And he saw that rest was good and the land was pleasing;
so he let them put weights on his back and became a servant.

16 Dan will be the judge of his people, as one of the tribes
of Israel.

17 May Dan be a snake in the way, a horned snake by the
road, biting the horse's foot so that the horseman has a fall.

18 I have been waiting for your salvation, O Lord.

19 Gad, an army will come against him, but he will come
down on them in their flight.

20 Asher's bread is fat; he gives delicate food for kings.

21 Naphtali 1s a roe let loose, giving fair young ones.

22 Joseph is a young ox, whose steps are turned to the
fountain;

23 He was troubled by the archers; they sent out their
arrows against him, cruelly wounding him:

24 But their bows were broken by a strong one, and the
cords of their arms were cut by the Strength of Jacob, by the
name of the Stone of Israel:

25 Even by the God of your father, who will be your help,
and by the Ruler of all, who will make you full with blessings
from heaven on high, blessings of the deep stretched out
under the earth, blessings of the breasts and of the fertile
body:

26 Blessings of sons, old and young, to the father: blessings
of the oldest mountains and the fruit of the eternal hills: let
them come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of him who
was separate from his brothers.

27 Benjamin is a wolf, searching for meat: in the morning
he takes his food, and in the evening he makes division of
what he has taken.

28 These are the twelve tribes of Israel: and these are the
words their father said to them, blessing them; to every one
he gave his blessing.

29 And he gave orders to them, saying, Put me to rest with
my people and with my fathers, in the hollow of the rock in
the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30 In the rock in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the
land of Canaan, which Abraham got from Ephron the Hittite,
to be his resting-place.

31 There Abraham and Sarah his wife were put to rest, and
there they put Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I put
Leah to rest.

32 In the rock in the field which was got for a price from
the people of Heth.

33 And when Jacob had come to the end of these words to
his sons, stretching himself on his bed, he gave up his spirit,
and went the way of his people.

GENESIS CHAPTER 50

1 And Joseph put his head down on his father's face,
weeping and kissing him.

2 And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the
necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready,
folding it in linen with spices, and they did so.

3 And the forty days needed for making the body ready
went by: and there was weeping for him among the
Egyptians for seventy days.

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph
said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me,
say these words to Pharaoh:

5 My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead,
put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the
land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his
last resting-place, and I will come back again.

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as
you gave your oath to him.

7 So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-
place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the
chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt,

8 And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his
father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and
herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen.

9 And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great
army.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other
side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob,
with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for
seven days.

11 And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan,
at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is
the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-
mizraim, on the other side of Jordan.

12 So his sons did as he had given them orders to do:

13 For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him
to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which
Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron
the Hittite at Mamre.

14 And when his father had been put to rest, Joseph and his

brothers and all who had gone with him, went back to Egypt.

15 Now after the death of their father, Joseph's brothers
said to themselves, It may be that Joseph's heart will be
turned against us, and he will give us punishment for all the
evil which we did to him.

16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before
his death, gave us orders, saying,

17 You are to say to Joseph, Let the wrongdoing of your
brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you: now, if
it is your pleasure, let the sin of the servants of your father's
God have forgiveness. And at these words, Joseph was
overcome with weeping.

18 Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said,
Truly, we are your servants.

19 And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?

20 As for you, it was in your mind to do me evil, but God
has given a happy outcome, the salvation of numbers of
people, as you see today.

21 So now, have no fear: for I will take care of you and
your little ones. So he gave them comfort with kind words.

22 Now Joseph and all his father's family went on living in
Egypt: and the years of Joseph's life were a hundred and ten.

23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third
generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh,
came to birth on Joseph's knees.

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, The time of my death
has come; but God will keep you in mind and take you out of
this land into the land which he gave by his oath to Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob.

25 Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath,
saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you
are to take my bones away from here.

26 So Joseph came to his death, being a hundred and ten
years old: and they made his body ready, and he was put in a
chest in Egypt.

EXODUS
The Second Book of Moses
Hebrew Title: Shemot ("Names"); Greek: Exodos
Estimated Range of Dating: 6th to Sth centuries B.C.

(The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible.
Exodus is called Shemot in Hebrew, which means 'Names.'
Exodus means 'Going Out' in Latin. It 1s about how the
Hebrew people were led out of Egypt by Yahweh, the
revelations at biblical Mount Sinai, and the subsequent
"divine indwelling" of God with Israel. Exodus ends with
God's laws and his instructions on how to build a holy
container called the Ark of the Covenant. The Exodus is
traditionally ascribed to Moses, but modern scholars see its
initial composition as a product of the Babylonian exile (6th
century BC), with final revisions in the Persian post-exilic
period (5th century BC). The Exodus 1s by Jewish people
considered very important as it presents the defining features
of Israel's identity—memories of a past marked by hardship
and escape, a binding covenant with God.

Contents or Torah portions:

¢ Shemot, on Exodus 1—5: Affliction in Egypt, discovery of
baby Moses, Pharaoh

¢ Vatira, on Exodus 6—9: Plagues | to 7 of Egypt

¢ Bo, on Exodus 10-13: Last plagues of Egypt, first
Passover

¢ Beshalach, on Exodus 13-1 Parting the Sea, water,
manna, Amalek

¢ Yitro, on Exodus 18-20: Jethro’s advice, The Ten
Commandments

¢ Mishpatim, on Exodus 21—24: The Covenant Code

¢ Terumah, on Exodus 25—2 God's instructions on the
Tabernacle and furnishings

¢ Tetzaveh, on Exodus 27-30: God's instructions on the
first priests

¢ Ki Tissa, on Exodus 30-34: Census, anointing oil, golden
calf, stone tablets, Moses radiant

¢ Vayakhel, on Exodus 35—38: Israelites collect gifts, make
the Tabernacle and furnishings

¢ Pekudet, on Exodus 38—40: Setting up and filling of The
Tabernacle.)

EXODUS CHAPTER |

1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came
into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob.

2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5 All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and
Joseph had come to Egypt before them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all
that generation.

7 And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very
greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of
them.

8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no
knowledge of Joseph.

9 And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are
greater in number and in power than we are:

10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become
even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with
those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go
up out of the land.

11 So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order
to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And
they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.

12 But the more cruel they were to them, the more their
number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the
children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians.

13 And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to
do:

14 And made their lives bitter with hard work, making
building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in
the fields under the hardest conditions.

15 And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who
gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was
Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah),

16 When you are looking after the Hebrew women in
childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it
is a daughter, she may go on living.

17 But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as
the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living.

18 And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to
them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go
on living?

19 And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women
are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the
birth takes place before we come to them.

20 And the blessing of God was on these women: and the
people were increased in number and became very strong.

21 And because the women who took care of the Hebrew
mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.

22 And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying,
Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but
every daughter may go on living.

EXODUS CHAPTER 2

1 Now a man of the house of Levi took as his wife a
daughter of Levi.

2 And she became with child and gave birth to a Son; and
when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she kept him
secretly for three months.

3 And when she was no longer able to keep him secret, she
made him a basket out of the stems of water-plants, pasting
sticky earth over it to keep the water out; and placing the
baby in it she put it among the plants by the edge of the Nile.

4 And his sister took her place at a distance to see what
would become of him.

5 Now Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to take a
bath, while her women were walking by the riverside; and
she saw the basket among the river-plants, and sent her
servant-girl to get it.

6 And opening it, she saw the child, and he was crying. And
she had pity on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews'
children.

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, May I go and
get you one of the Hebrew women to give him the breast?

8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl
went and got the child's mother.

9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take the child away
and give it milk for me, and I will give you payment. And the
woman took the child and gave it milk at her breast.

10 And when the child was older, she took him to
Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son, and she gave him
the name Moses, Because, she said, I took him out of the
water.

11 Now when Moses had become a man, one day he went
out to his people and saw how hard their work was; and he
saw an Egyptian giving blows to a Hebrew, one of his people.

12 And turning this way and that, and seeing no one, he
put the Egyptian to death, covering his body with sand.

13 And he went out the day after and saw two of the
Hebrews fighting: and he said to him who was in the wrong,
Why are you fighting your brother?

14 And he said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
are you going to put me to death as you did the Egyptian?
And Moses was in fear, and said, It is clear that the thing has
come to light.

15 Now when Pharaoh had news of this, he would have put
Moses to death. But Moses went in flight from Pharaoh into
the land of Midian: and he took his seat by a water-spring.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they
came to get water for their father's flock.

17 And the keepers of the sheep came up and were driving
them away; but Moses got up and came to their help,
watering their flock for them.

18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How
is it that you have come back so quickly today?

19 And they said, An Egyptian came to our help against the
keepers of sheep and got water for us and gave it to the flock.

20 And he said to his daughters, Where is he? why have you
let the man go? make him come in and give hima meal.

21 And Moses was happy to go on living with the man; and
he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.

22 And she gave birth to a son, to whom he gave the name
Gershom: for he said, I have been living in a strange land.

23 Now after a long time the king of Egypt came to his end:
and the children of Israel were crying in their grief under the
weight of their work, and their cry for help came to the ears
of God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And at the sound of their weeping the agreement which
God had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob came to
his mind.

25 And God's eyes were turned to the children of Israel and
he gave them the knowledge of himself.

EXODUS CHAPTER 3

1 Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to
the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain
of God.

2 And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of
fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was
on fire, but it was not burned up.

3 And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why
the tree is not burned up,

4 And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see,
God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And
he said, Here am I.

5 And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from
your feet, for the place where you are is holy.

6 And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And
Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

7 And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in
Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come
to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;

8 And I have come down to take them out of the hands of
the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good
land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into
the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite
and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

9 For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come
to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians
to them.

10 Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you
may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and
take the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12 And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be
the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the
children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God
on this mountain.

13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of
Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me
to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to
say to them?

14 And God said to him, 1 AM WHAT I AM: and he said,
Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

15 And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of
Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is
my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

16 Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel,
and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and

has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is
done to you in Egypt;

17 And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of
Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the
Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite,
into a land flowing with milk and honey.

18 And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the
chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and
say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to
us: let us then go three days’ journey into the waste land to
make an offering to the Lord our God.

19 And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you
go without being forced.

20 But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all
the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he
will let you go.

21 And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the
Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with
your hands full.

22 For every woman will get from her neighbour and from
the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold,
and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your
daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the
Egyptians.

EXODUS CHAPTER 4

1 And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will
not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say,
You have not seen the Lord.

2 And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand?
And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it
down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went
running from it.

4 And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take
it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it
and it became a rod in his hand:)

5 So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of
their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,
has been seen by you.

6 Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside
your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when
he took it out it was like the hand ofa leper, as white as snow.

7 And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And
he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out
he saw that it had become like his other flesh.)

8 And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the
voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.

9 And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will
not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of
the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take
out of the river will become blood on the dry land.

10 And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of
words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what
you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and
Tam slow of tongue.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth?
who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him
seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

12 So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you
what to say.

13 And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of
anyone whom it seems good to you to send.

14 And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there
not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is
good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when
he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

15 Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my
words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with
his, teaching you what you have to do.

16 And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will
be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.

17 And take in your hand this rod with which you will do
the signs.

18 And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and
said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt
and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go
in peace.

19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to
Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take
your life.

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on
an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the
rod of God in his hand.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to
Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which
I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard
and he will not let the people go.

22 And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is
the first of my sons:

23 And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me
worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the
first of your sons to death.

24 Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the
Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.

25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the
skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it,
she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.

26 So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of
blood because of the circumcision.

27 And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and
you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the
mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.

28 And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of
the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs
which he had given him orders to do.

29 Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the
chiefs of the children of Israel:

30 And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said
to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.

31 And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the
Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had
seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

EXODUS CHAPTER 5

1 And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and
said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so
that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.

2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am
to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord
and I will not let Israel go.

3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us:
let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make
an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send
death on us by disease or the sword.

4 And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses
and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back
to your work.

5 And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are
increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from
their work.

6 The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and
those who were responsible for the work, saying,

7 Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making
as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for
themselves.

8 But see that they make the same number of bricks as
before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so
they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an
offering to our God.

9 Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let
them not give attention to false words.

10 And the overseers of the people and their responsible
men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will
give you no more dry stems.

11 Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able;
for your work 1s not to be any less.

12 So the people were sent in all directions through the
land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.

13 And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do
your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for
you.

14 And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom
Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows,
and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular
work, in making bricks as before?

15 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came
to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in
this way to your servants?

16 They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make
bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your
people who are in the wrong.

17 But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you
say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.

18 Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be
given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw
that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of
bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than
before.

20 And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who
were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:

21 And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you
and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his
servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands
for our destruction.

22 And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why
have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?

23 For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your
words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you
have given them no help.

EXODUS CHAPTER 6

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I am
about to do to Pharaoh; for by a strong hand he will be
forced to let them go, driving them out of his land because of
my outstretched arm.

2 And God said to Moses, Iam Yahweh:

3 Ilet myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God,
the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name
Yahweh.

4 And I made an agreement with them, to give them the
land of Canaan, the land of their wanderings.

5 And truly my ears are open to the cry of the children of
Israel whom the Egyptians keep under their yoke; and I have
kept in mind my agreement.

6 Say then to the children of Israel, Iam Yahweh, and I will
take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make
you safe from their power, and will make you free by the
strength of my arm after great punishments.

7 And I will take you to be my people and I will be your
God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God,
who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

8 And I will be your guide into the land which I made an
oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will
give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh.

9 And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, but
they gave no attention to him, because of the grief of their
spirit and the cruel weight of their work.

10 And the Lord said to Moses,

11 Go in and say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he is to
let the children of Israel go out of his land.

12 And Moses, answering the Lord, said, See, the children
of Israel will not give ear to me; how then will Pharaoh give
ear to me, whose lips are unclean?

13 And the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron,
with orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king
of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt.

14 These are the heads of their fathers’ families: the sons of
Reuben the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron
and Carmi: these are the families of Reuben.

15 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad
and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of
Canaan: these are the families of Simeon.

16 And these are the names of the sons of Levi in the order
of their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari: and
the years of Levi's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, in the order of
their families.

18 And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron
and Uzziel: and the years of Kohath's life were a hundred and
thirty-three.

19 And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi: these are the
families of the Levites, in the order of their generations.

20 And Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife;
and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses: and the years of
Amram's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

21 And the sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri.

22 And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri.

23 And Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of
Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon; and she gave birth to
Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

24 And the sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph:
these are the families of the Korahites.

25 And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the
daughters of Putiel; and she gave birth to Phinehas. These
are the heads of the families of the Levites, in the order of
their families.

26 These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord
said, Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in
their armies.

27 These are the men who gave orders to Pharaoh to let the
children of Israel go out of Egypt: these are the same Moses
and Aaron.

28 And on the day when the word of the Lord came to
Moses in the land of Egypt,

29 The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord: say to Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, everything I am saying to you.

30 And Moses said to the Lord, My lips are unclean; how is
it possible that Pharaoh will give me a hearing?

EXODUS CHAPTER 7

1 And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to
Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

2 Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your
brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of
Israel go out of his land.

3 And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and my signs and
wonders will be increased in the land of Egypt.

4 But Pharaoh will not give ear to you, and I will put my
hand on Egypt, and take my armies, my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt, after great punishments.

5 And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when my
hand is stretched out over Egypt, and I take the children of
Israel out from among them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did so: as the Lord gave them
orders, so they did.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three
years old, when they gave the Lord's word to Pharaoh.

8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

9 If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to
Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before
Pharaoh so that it may become a snake.

10 Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did
as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the
earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.

11 Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-
workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the
same with their secret arts.

12 For every one of them put down his rod on the earth,
and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their
rods.

13 But Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he did not give
ear to them, as the Lord had said.

14 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart
is unchanged; he will not let the people go.

15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the
water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile,
with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand;

16 And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has
sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may
give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have
not given ear to his words.

17 So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am
the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters
of the Nile will be turned to blood;

18 And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and
the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not
be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for
drinking.

19 And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your
hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the
rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch
of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will
be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood
and in vessels of stone.

20 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and
when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the
waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants,
all the water in the Nile was turned to blood;

21 And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad
smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not
able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and
there was blood through all the land of Egypt.

22 And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with
their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he
would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

23 Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take
even this to heart.

24 And all the Egyptians made holes round about the Nile
to get drinking-water, for they were not able to make use of
the Nile water.

25 And seven days went past, after the Lord had put his
hand on the Nile.

EXODUS CHAPTER 8

1 And this is what the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh
and say to him, The Lord says, Let my people go so that they
may give me worship.

2 And if you will not let them go, see, I will send frogs into
every part of your land:

3 The Nile will be full of frogs, and they will come up into
your house and into your bedrooms and on your bed, and
into the houses of your servants and your people, and into
your ovens and into your bread-basins.

4 The frogs will come up over you and your people and all
your servants.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in
your hand be stretched out over the streams and the
waterways and the pools, causing frogs to come up on the
land of Egypt.

6 And when Aaron put out his hand over the waters of
Egypt, the frogs came up and all the land of Egypt was
covered with them.

7 And the wonder-workers did the same with their secret
arts, making frogs come up over the land of Egypt.

8 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Make
prayer to the Lord that he will take away these frogs from me
and my people; and I will let the people go and make their
offering to the Lord.

9 And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying
when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and
your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and
your houses, and be only in the Nile.

10 And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you
say: so that you may see that there is no other like the Lord
our God.

11 And the frogs will be gone from you and from your
houses and from your servants and from your people and will
be only in the Nile.

12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and
Moses made prayer to the Lord about the frogs which he had
sent on Pharaoh.

13 And the Lord did as Moses said; and there was an end of
all the frogs in the houses and in the open spaces and in the
fields.

14 And they put them together in masses, and a bad smell
went up from the land.

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time,
he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the
Lord had said.

16 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let your rod
be stretched out over the dust of the earth so that it may
become insects through all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so; and Aaron, stretching out the rod in
his hand, gave a touch to the dust of the earth, and insects
came on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth was
changed into insects through all the land of Egypt.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 And the wonder-workers with their secret arts,
attempting to make insects, were unable to do so: and there
were insects on man and on beast.

19 Then the wonder-workers said to Pharaoh, This is the
finger of God: but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not
give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

20 And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the
morning and take your place before Pharaoh when he comes
out to the water; and say to him, This is what the Lord says:
Let my people go to give me worship.

21 For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send
clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your
people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians
and the land where they are will be full of flies.

22 And at that time I will make a division between your
land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no
flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord
over all the earth.

23 And I will put a division between my people and your
people; tomorrow this sign will be seen.

24 And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into
the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all
the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies.

25 And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Go
and make your offering to your God here in the land.

26 And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our
offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if
we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned.

27 But we will go three days' journey into the waste land
and make an offering to the Lord our God as he may give us
orders.

28 Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go to make an offering
to the Lord your God in the waste land; but do not go very
far away, and make prayer for me.

29 And Moses said, When I go out from you I will make
prayer to the Lord that the cloud of flies may go away from
Pharaoh and from his people and from his servants
tomorrow: only let Pharaoh no longer by deceit keep back
the people from making their offering to the Lord.

30 Then Moses went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to
the Lord.

31 And the Lord did as Moses said, and took away the
cloud of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from
his people; not one was to be seen.

32 But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let
the people go.

EXODUS CHAPTER 9

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and say
to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says:
Let my people go so that they may give me worship.

2 For if you will not let them go, but still keep them in
your power,

3 Then the hand of the Lord will put on your cattle in the
field, on the horses and the asses and the camels, on the herds
and the flocks, a very evil disease.

4 And the Lord will make a division between the cattle of
Israel and the cattle of Egypt; there will be no loss of any of
the cattle of Israel.

5 And the time was fixed by the Lord, and he said,
Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.

6 And on the day after, the Lord did as he had said, causing
the death of all the cattle of Egypt, but there was no loss of
any of the cattle of Israel.

7 And Pharaoh sent and got word that there was no loss of
any of the cattle of Israel. But the heart of Pharaoh was hard
and he did not let the people go.

8 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, Take in your
hand a little dust from the fire and let Moses send it in a
shower up to heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh.

9 And it will become small dust over all the land of Egypt,
and will be a skin-disease bursting out in wounds on man and
beast through all the land of Egypt.

10 So they took some dust from the fire, and placing
themselves before Pharaoh, Moses sent it out in a shower up
to heaven; and it became a skin-disease bursting out on man
and on beast.

11 And the wonder-workers were not able to take their
places before Moses, because of the disease; for the disease
was on the wonder-workers and on all the Egyptians.

12 And the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would
not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

13 And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the
morning and take your place before Pharaoh, and say to him,
This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my
people go so that they may give me worship.

14 For this time I will send all my punishments on yourself
and on your servants and on your people; so that you may see
that there is no other like me in all the earth.

15 For if I had put the full weight of my hand on you and
your people, you would have been cut off from the earth:

16 But, for this very reason, I have kept you from
destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my
name may be honoured through all the earth.

17 Are you still uplifted in pride against my people so that
you will not let them go?

18 Truly, tomorrow about this time I will send down an
ice-storm, such as never was in Egypt from its earliest days
till now.

19 Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you
have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has
not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on
them with destruction.

20 Then everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who had
the fear of the Lord, made his servants and his cattle come
quickly into the house:

21 And he who gave no attention to the word of the Lord,
kept his servants and his cattle in the field.

22 And the Lord said to Moses, Now let your hand be
stretched out to heaven so that there may be an ice-storm on
all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every
plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 And Moses put out his rod to heaven: and the Lord sent
thunder, and an ice-storm, and fire running down on the
earth; the Lord sent an ice-storm on the land of Egypt.

24 So there was an ice-storm with fire running through it,
coming down with great force, such as never was in all the
land of Egypt from the time when it became a nation.

25 And through all the land of Egypt the ice-storm came
down on everything which was in the fields, on man and on
beast; and every green plant was crushed and every tree of the
field broken.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel
were, there was no ice-storm.

27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to
them, I have done evil this time: the Lord is upright, and I
and my people are sinners.

28 Make prayer to the Lord; for there has been enough of
these thunderings of God and this ice-storm; and I will let
you go and will keep you no longer.

29 And Moses said, When I am gone outside the town, my
hands will be stretched out to the Lord; the thunders and the
ice-storm will come to an end, so that you may see that the
earth is the Lord's.

30 But as for you and your servants, I am certain that even
now the fear of the Lord God will not be in your hearts.

31 And the flax and the barley were damaged, for the barley
was almost ready to be cut and the flax was in flower.

32 But the rest of the grain-plants were undamaged, for
they had not come up.

33 So Moses went out of the town, and stretching out his
hands made prayer to God: and the thunders and the ice-
storm came to an end; and the fall of rain was stopped.

34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the ice-storm
and the thunders were ended, he went on sinning, and made
his heart hard, he and his servants.

35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hard, and he did not let
the people go, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Moses.

EXODUS CHAPTER 10

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have
made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I
may let my signs be seen among them:

2 And so that you may be able to give to your son and to
your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the
signs which I have done among them; so that you may see
that I am the Lord.

3 Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to
him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says:
How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let
my people go so that they may give me worship.

4 For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send
locusts into your land:

5 And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so
that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the
destruction of everything which up to now has not been
damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm,
and every tree still living in your fields.

6 And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of
your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than
anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day
when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he
went out from Pharaoh.

7 And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man
to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may
give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to
Egypt's danger?

8 Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh:
and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your
God: but which of you are going?

9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old,
with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our
herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord.

10 And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if] will
let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose
clearly is evil.

11 Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the
Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from
before him.

12 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched
out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up
on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the
land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm.

13 And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt,
and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and
all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with
the east wind.

14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt,
resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such
an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will
be again.

15 For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so
that the land was black; and every green plant and all the
fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they
took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to
be seen in all the land of Egypt.

16 Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and
said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against
you.

17 Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only,
and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take
away from me this death only.

18 So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the
Lord.

19 And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took
up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust
was to be seen in any part of Egypt.

20 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not
let the children of Israel go.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched
out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that
men will be feeling their way about in the dark.

22 And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night
came over all the land of Egypt for three days;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 They were not able to see one another, and no one got
up from his place for three days: but where the children of
Israel were living it was light.

24 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give
worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be
kept here: your little ones may go with you.

25 But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned
offerings to put before the Lord our God.

26 So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be
kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord
our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to
give till we come to the place.

27 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would
not let them go.

28 And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care
that you come not again before me; for the day when you see
my face again will be your last.

29 And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face
again.

EXODUS CHAPTER 11

1 And the Lord said to Moses, I will send one more
punishment on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let
you go; and when he does let you go, he will not keep one of
you back, but will send you out by force.

2 So go now and give orders to the people that every man
and every woman is to get from his or her neighbour
ornaments of silver and of gold.

3 And the Lord gave the people grace in the eyes of the
Egyptians. For the man Moses was highly honoured in the
land of Egypt, by Pharaoh's servants and the people.

4 And Moses said, This is what the Lord says: About the
middle of the night I will go out through Egypt:

5 And death will come to every mother's first male child in
all the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of
power, to the child of the servant-girl crushing the grain;
and the first births of all the cattle.

6 And there will be a great cry through all the land of
Egypt, such as never has been or will be again.

7 But against the children of Israel, man or beast, not so
much as the tongue of a dog will be moved: so that you may
see how the Lord makes a division between Israel and the
Egyptians.

8 And all these your servants will come to me, going down
on their faces before me and saying, Go out, and all your
people with you: and after that I will go out. And he went
away from Pharaoh burning with wrath.

9 And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not give ear to
you, so that my wonders may be increased in the land of
Egypt.

10 All these wonders Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh:
but the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let
the children of Israel go out of his land.

EXODUS CHAPTER 12

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of
Egypt,

2 Let this month be to you the first of months, the first
month of the year.

3 Say to all the children of Israel when they are come
together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take
a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for
every family:

4 And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let
that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between
them, taking into account the number of persons and how
much food is needed for every man.

5 Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year:
you may take it from among the sheep or the goats:

6 Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when
everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death
between sundown and dark.

7 Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of
the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to
be taken.

8 And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb,
cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread
and bitter-tasting plants.

9 Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water,
but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its
inside parts.

10 Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is
not used is to be burned with fire.

11 And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your
shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it
quickly: it is the Lord's Passover.

12 For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt,
sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast,
and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord.

13 And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are:
when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come
on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of
Egypt.

14 And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to
keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as
an order for ever.

15 For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from
the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever
takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh
day, will be cut off from Israel.

16 And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on
the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done
on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for
everyone's food.

17 So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very
day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this
day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an
order for ever.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth
day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the
twenty-first day of the month.

19 For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for
whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from
the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is
an Israelite by birth.

20 Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are
living let your food be unleavened cakes.

21 Then Moses sent for the chiefs of Israel, and said to them,
See that lambs are marked out for yourselves and your
families, and let the Passover lamb be put to death.

22 And take some hyssop and put it in the blood in the
basin, touching the two sides and the top of the doorway
with the blood from the basin; and let not one of you go out
of his house till the morning.

23 For the Lord will go through the land, sending death on
the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the two sides
and the top of the door, the Lord will go over your door and
will not let death come in for your destruction.

24 And you are to keep this as an order to you and to your
sons for ever.

25 And when you come into the land which the Lord will
make yours, as he gave his word, you are to keep this act of
worship.

26 And when your children say to you, What is the reason
of this act of worship?

27 Then you will say, This is the offering of the Lord's
Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel
in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our
families safe. And the people gave worship with bent heads.

28 And the children of Israel went and did so; as the Lord
had given orders to Moses and Aaron, so they did.

29 And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on
every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of
Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in
the prison; and the first births of all the cattle.

30 Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his
servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from
Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not
dead.

31 And he sent for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get
up and go out from among my people, you and the children
of Israel; go and give worship to the Lord as you have said.

32 And take your flocks and your herds as you have said,
and be gone; and give me your blessing.

33 And the Egyptians were forcing the people on, to get
them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead
men.

34 And the people took their bread-paste before it was
leavened, putting their basins in their clothing on their backs.

35 And the children of Israel had done as Moses had said;
and they got from the Egyptians ornaments of silver and of
gold, and clothing:

36 And the Lord had given the people grace in the eyes of
the Egyptians so that they gave them whatever was requested.
So they took away all their goods from the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel made the journey from
Rameses to Succoth; there were about six hundred thousand
men on foot, as well as children.

38 And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks
and herds in great numbers.

39 And they made unleavened cakes from the paste which
they had taken out of Egypt; it was not leavened, for they
had been sent out of Egypt so quickly, that they had no time
to make any food ready.

40 Now the children of Israel had been living in Egypt for
four hundred and thirty years.

41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the
very day, all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of
Egypt.

42 It is a watch-night before the Lord who took them out
of the land of Egypt: this same night is a watch-night to the
Lord for all the children of Israel, through all their
generations.

43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the law
of the Passover: no man who is not an Israelite is to take of it:

44 But every man's servant, whom he has got for money,
may take of it, when he has had circumcision.

45 A man from a strange country living among you, and a
servant working for payment, may not take part in it.

46 It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to
be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken.

47 All Israel is to keep the feast.

48 And if a man from another country is living with you,
and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all the
males of his family undergo circumcision, and then let him
come near and keep it; for he will then be as one of your
people; but no one without circumcision may keep it.

49 The law is the same for him who is an Israelite by birth
and for the man from a strange country who is living with
you.

50 So the children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to
Moses and Aaron.

51 And on that very day the Lord took the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

EXODUS CHAPTER 13

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Let the first male child of every mother among the
children of Israel be kept holy for me, even the first male
birth among man or beast; for it is mine.

3 And Moses said to the people, Let this day, on which you
came out of Egypt, out of your prison-house, be kept for ever
in memory; for by the strength of his hand the Lord has
taken you out from this place; let no leavened bread be used.

4 On this day, in the month Abib, you are going out.

5 And it will be that, when the Lord takes you into the land
of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the
Hivite and the Jebusite, the land which he made an oath to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

your fathers that he would give you, a land flowing with
milk and honey, you will do this act of worship in this month.

6 For seven days let your food be unleavened cakes; and on
the seventh day there is to be a feast to the Lord.

7 Unleavened cakes are to be your food through all the
seven days; let no leavened bread be seen among you, or any
leaven, in any part of your land.

8 And you will say to your son in that day, It is because of
what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.

9 And this will be for a sign to you on your hand and for a
mark on your brow, so that the law of the Lord may be in
your mouth: for with a strong hand the Lord took you out of
Egypt.

10 So let this order be kept, at the right time, from year to
year.

11 And when the Lord takes you into the land of Canaan,
as he made his oath to you and to your fathers, and gives it to
you,

12 You are to put on one side for the Lord every mother's
first male child, the first-fruit of her body, and the first
young one of every beast; every male is holy to the Lord.

13 And for the young of an ass you may give a lamb in
payment, or if you will not make payment for it, its neck is to
be broken; but for all the first sons among your children, let
payment be made.

14 And when your son says to you in time to come, What is
the reason for this? say to him, By the strength of his hand
the Lord took us out of Egypt, out of the prison-house:

15 And when Pharaoh made his heart hard and would not
let us go, the Lord sent death on all the first sons in Egypt, of
man and of beast: and so every first male who comes to birth
is offered to the Lord; but for all the first of my sons I give a
price.

16 And this will be for a sign on your hand and for a mark
on your brow: for by the strength of his hand the Lord took
us out of Egypt.

17 Now after Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not
take them through the land of the Philistines, though that
was near: for God said, If the people see war, they may have a
change of heart and go back to Egypt.

18 But God took the people round by the waste land near
the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up in fighting
order out of the land of Egypt.

19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for
Joseph had made the children of Israel take an oath, saying,
God will certainly keep you in mind; and you are to take my
bones away with you.

20 Then they went on their journey from Succoth, and put
up their tents in Etham at the edge of the waste land.

21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of
cloud, guiding them on their way; and by night in a pillar of
fire to give them light: so that they were able to go on day
and night:

22 The pillar of cloud went ever before them by day, and
the pillar of fire by night.

EXODUS CHAPTER 14

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel to go back and put
up their tents before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the
sea, in front of Baal-zephon, opposite to which you are to
put up your tents by the sea.

3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are
wandering without direction, they are shut in by the waste
land.

4 And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and he will come
after them and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and all his
army, so that the Egyptians may see that I am the Lord. And
they did so.

5 And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people:
and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the
people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go,
so that they will do no more work for us?

6 So he had his war-carriage made ready and took his
people with him:

7 And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of
Egypt, and captains over all of them.

8 And the Lord made the heart of Pharaoh hard, and he
went after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel had
gone out without fear.

9 But the Egyptians went after them, all the horses and
carriages of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and
overtook them in their tents by the sea, by Pihahiroth, before
Baal-zephon.

10 And when Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel,
lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians coming after them,
and were full of fear; and their cry went up to God.

11 And they said to Moses, Was there no resting-place for
the dead in Egypt, that you have taken us away to come to
our death in the waste land? why have you taken us out of
Egypt?

12 Did we not say to you in Egypt, Let us be as we are,
working for the Egyptians? for it is better to be the servants
of the Egyptians than to come to our death in the waste land.

13 But Moses said, Keep where you are and have no fear;
now you will see the salvation of the Lord which he will give
you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will
never see again.

14 The Lord will make war for you, you have only to keep
quiet.

15 And the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to
me? give the children of Israel the order to go forward.

16 And let your rod be lifted up and your hand stretched
out over the sea, and it will be parted in two; and the
children of Israel will go through on dry land.

17 And I will make the heart of the Egyptians hard, and
they will go in after them: and I will be honoured over
Pharaoh and over his army, his war-carriages, and his
horsemen.

18 And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I
get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his
horsemen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of
Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud,
moving from before them, came to rest at their back:

20 And it came between the army of Egypt and the army of
Israel; and there was a dark cloud between them, and they
went on through the night; but the one army came no nearer
to the other all the night.

21 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea,
the Lord with a strong east wind made the sea go back all
night, and the waters were parted in two and the sea became
dry land.

22 And the children of Israel went through the sea on dry
land: and the waters were a wall on their right side and on
their left.

23 Then the Egyptians went after them into the middle of
the sea, all Pharaoh's horses and his war-carriages and his
horsemen.

24 And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the
armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent
trouble on the army of the Egyptians;

25 And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that
they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let
us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is
fighting for them against the Egyptians.

26 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched
out over the sea, and the waters will come back again on the
Egyptians, and on their war-carriages and on their horsemen.

27 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, at
dawn the sea came flowing back, meeting the Egyptians in
their flight, and the Lord sent destruction on the Egyptians
in the middle of the sea.

28 And the waters came back, covering the war-carriages
and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh which went
after them into the middle of the sea; not one of them was to
be seen.

29 But the children of Israel went through the sea walking
on dry land, and the waters were a wall on their right side
and on their left.

30 So that day the Lord gave Israel salvation from the
hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on
the sea's edge.

31 And Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done
against the Egyptians, and the fear of the Lord came on the
people and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant
Moses.

EXODUS CHAPTER 15

1 Then Moses and the children of Israel made this song to
the Lord, and said, I will make a song to the Lord, for he is
lifted up in glory: the horse and the horseman he has sent
down into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my strong helper, he has
become my salvation: he is my God and I will give him praise;
my father's God and I will give him glory.

3 The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh's war-carriages and his army he has sent down
into the sea: the best of his captains have gone down into the
Red Sea.

5 They were covered by the deep waters: like a stone they
went down under the waves.

6 Full of glory, O Lord, is the power of your right hand; by
your right hand those who came against you are broken.

7 When you are lifted up in power, all those who come
against you are crushed: when you send out your wrath, they
are burned up like dry grass.

8 By your breath the waves were massed together, the
flowing waters were lifted up like a pillar; the deep waters
became solid in the heart of the sea.

9 Egypt said, I will go after them, I will overtake, I will
make division of their goods: my desire will have its way with
them; my sword will be uncovered, my hand will send
destruction on them.

10 You sent your wind and the sea came over them: they
went down like lead into the great waters.

11 Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? who is like
you, in holy glory, to be praised with fear, doing wonders?

12 When your right hand was stretched out, the mouth of
the earth was open for them.

13 In your mercy you went before the people whom you
have made yours; guiding them in your strength to your holy
place.

14 Hearing of you the peoples were shaking in fear: the
people of Philistia were gripped with pain.

15 The chiefs of Edom were troubled in heart; the strong
men of Moab were in the grip of fear: all the people of
Canaan became like water.

16 Fear and grief came on them; by the strength of your
arm they were turned to stone; till your people went over, O
Lord, till the people went over whom you have made yours.

17 You will take them in, planting them in the mountain of
your heritage, the place, O Lord, where you have made your
house, the holy place, O Lord, the building of your hands.

18 The Lord is King for ever and ever.

19 For the horses of Pharaoh, with his war-carriages and
his horsemen, went into the sea, and the Lord sent the waters
of the sea back over them; but the children of Israel went
through the sea on dry land.

20 And Miriam, the woman prophet, the sister of Aaron,
took an instrument of music in her hand; and all the women
went after her with music and dances.

21 And Miriam, answering, said, Make a song to the Lord,
for he is lifted up in glory; the horse and the horseman he has
sent into the sea.

22 Then Moses took Israel forward from the Red Sea, and
they went out into the waste land of Shur; and for three days
they were in the waste land where there was no water.

23 And when they came to Marah, the water was no good
for drinking, for the waters of Marah were bitter, which is
why it was named Marah.

24 And the people, crying out against Moses, said, What
are we to have for drink?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 And in answer to his prayer, the Lord made him see a
tree, and when he put it into the water, the water was made
sweet. There he gave them a law and an order, testing them;

26 And he said, If with all your heart you will give
attention to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is
right in his eyes, giving ear to his orders and keeping his laws,
I will not put on you any of the diseases which I put on the
Egyptians: for Iam the Lord your life-giver.

27 And they came to Elim where there were twelve water-
springs and seventy palm-trees: and they put up their tents
there by the waters.

EXODUS CHAPTER 16

1 And they went on their way from Elim, and all the
children of Israel came into the waste land of Sin, which is
between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second
month after they went out of the land of Egypt.

2 And all the children of Israel were crying out against
Moses and Aaron in the waste land:

3 And the children of Israel said to them, It would have
been better for the Lord to have put us to death in the land of
Egypt, where we were seated by the flesh-pots and had bread
enough for our needs; for you have taken us out to this waste
of sand, to put all this people to death through need of food.

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I will send down bread
from heaven for you; and the people will go out every day
and get enough for the day's needs; so that I may put them to
the test to see if they will keep my laws or not.

5 And on the sixth day they are to make ready what they get
in, and it will be twice as much as they get on the other days.

6 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel,
This evening it will be clear to you that it is the Lord who
has taken you out of the land of Egypt:

7 And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord; for
your angry words against the Lord have come to his ears:
and what are we that you are crying out against us?

8 And Moses said, The Lord will give you meat for your
food at evening, and in the morning bread in full measure;
for your outcry against the Lord has come to his ears: for
what are we? your outcry is not against us but against the
Lord.

9 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the people of Israel,
Come near before the Lord for he has given ear to your
outcry.

10 And while Aaron was talking to the children of Israel,
their eyes were turned in the direction of the waste land, and
they saw the glory of the Lord shining in the cloud.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 The outcry of the children of Israel has come to my ears:
say to them now, At nightfall you will have meat for your
food, and in the morning bread in full measure; and you will
see that I am the Lord your God.

13 And it came about that in the evening little birds came
up and the place was covered with them: and in the morning
there was dew all round about the tents.

14 And when the dew was gone, on the face of the earth was
asmall round thing, like small drops of ice on the earth.

15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one
another, What is it? for they had no idea what it was. And
Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given
you for your food.

16 This is what the Lord has said, Let every man take up as
much as he has need of; at the rate of one omer for every
person, let every man take as much as is needed for his family.

17 And the children of Israel did so, and some took more
and some less.

18 And when it was measured, he who had taken up much
had nothing over, and he who had little had enough; every
man had taken what he was able to make use of.

19 And Moses said to them, Let nothing be kept till the
morning.

20 But they gave no attention to Moses, and some of them
kept it till the morning and there were worms in it and it had
an evil smell: and Moses was angry with them.

21 And they took it up morning by morning, every man as
he had need: and when the sun was high it was gone.

22 And on the sixth day they took up twice as much of the
bread, two omers for every person: and all the rulers of the
people gave Moses word of it.

23 And he said, This is what the Lord has said, Tomorrow
is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord: what has to be
cooked may be cooked; and what is over, put on one side to
be kept till the morning.

24 And they kept it till the morning as Moses had said: and
no smell came from it, and it had no worms.

25 And Moses said, Make your meal today of what you have,
for this day is a Sabbath to the Lord: today you will not get
any in the fields.

26 For six days you will get it, but on the seventh day, the
Sabbath, there will not be any.

27 But still on the seventh day some of the people went out
to get it, and there was not any.

28 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you go
against my orders and my laws?

29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, he
gives you on the sixth day bread enough for two days; let
every man keep where he is; let no man go out of his place on
the seventh day.

30 So the people took their rest on the seventh day.

31 And this bread was named manna by Israel: it was white,
like a grain seed, and its taste was like cakes made with honey.

32 And Moses said, This is the order which the Lord has
given: Let one omer of it be kept for future generations, so
that they may see the bread which I gave you for your food in
the waste land, when I took you out from the land of Egypt.

33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put one omer
of manna in it, and put it away before the Lord, to be kept
for future generations.

34 So Aaron put it away in front of the holy chest to be
kept, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 And the children of Israel had manna for their food for
forty years, till they came to a land with people in it, till they
came to the edge of the land of Canaan.

36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

EXODUS CHAPTER 17

1 And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of
Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their
tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the
people.

2 So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us
water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with
me? and why do you put God to the test?

3 And the people were in great need of water; and they
made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken
us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our
cattle through need of water?

4 And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do
to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by
stoning.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and
take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your
hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and go.

6 See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb;
and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it,
and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the
eyes of the chiefs of Israel.

7 And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah,
because the children of Israel were angry, and because they
put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?

8 Then Amalek came and made war on Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said to Joshua, Get together a band of men for
us and go out, make war on Amalek: tomorrow I will take
my place on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my
hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and went to war
with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top
of the hill.

11 Now while Moses' hand was lifted up, Israel was the
stronger: but when he let his hand go down, Amalek became
the stronger.

12 But Moses’ hands became tired; so they put a stone
under him and he took his seat on it, Aaron and Hur
supporting his hands, one on one side and one on the other;
so his hands were kept up without falling till the sun went
down.

13 And Joshua overcame Amalek and his people with the
sword.

14 And the Lord said to Moses, Make a record of this in a
book, so that it may be kept in memory, and say it again in
the ears of Joshua: that all memory of Amalek is to be
completely uprooted from the earth.

15 Then Moses put up an altar and gave it the name of
Yahweh-nissi:

16 For he said, The Lord has taken his oath that there will
be war with Amalek from generation to generation.

EXODUS CHAPTER 18

1 Now news came to Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses'
father-in-law, of all God had done for Moses and for Israel
his people, and how the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt.

2 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses'
wife, after he had sent her away,

3 And her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for
he said, I have been living in a strange land:

4 And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, The
God of my father was my help, and kept me safe from the
sword of Pharaoh:

5 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and
his wife to where Moses had put up his tent in the waste land,
by the mountain of God.

6 And he said to Moses, I, your father-in-law, have come to
you, with your wife and your two sons.

7 And Moses went out to his father-in-law, and went down
on his face before him and gave him a kiss; and they said to
one another, Are you well? and they came into the tent.

8 And Moses gave his father-in-law an account of all the
Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians because of
Israel, and of all the troubles which had come on them by the
way, and how the Lord had given them salvation.

9 And Jethro was glad because the Lord had been good to
Israel, freeing them from the power of the Egyptians.

10 And Jethro said, Praise be to the Lord, who has taken
you out of the hand of Pharaoh and out of the hand of the
Egyptians; freeing the people from the yoke of the Egyptians.

11 Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods,
for he has overcome them in their pride.

12 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, made a burned
offering to God: and Aaron came, with the chiefs of Israel,
and had a meal with Moses' father-in-law, before God.

13 Now on the day after, Moses took his seat to give
decisions for the people: and the people were waiting before
Moses from morning till evening.

14 And when Moses' father-in-law saw all he was doing, he
said, What is this you are doing for the people? why are you
seated here by yourself, with all the people waiting before
you from morning till evening?

15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people
come to me to get directions from God:

16 And if they have any question between themselves, they
come to me, and I am judge between a man and his neighbour,
and I give them the orders and laws of God.

17 And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are
doing is not good.

18 Your strength and that of the people will be completely
used up: this work is more than you are able to do by
yourself.

19 Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with
you: you are to be the people's representative before God,
taking their causes to him:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in
the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work
they have to do.

21 But for the rest, take from among the people able men,
such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly
made; and put such men over them, to be captains of
thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens;

22 And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all
times: and let them put before you all important questions,
but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this
way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the
weight off you.

23 If you do this, and God gives approval, then you will be
able to go on without weariness, and all this people will go
to their tents in peace.

24 So Moses took note of the words of his father-in-law,
and did as he had said.

25 And he made selection of able men out of all Israel, and
made them heads over the people, captains of thousands,
captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens.

26 And they were judges in the causes of the people at all
times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every
small point they gave decisions themselves.

27 And Moses let his father-in-law go away, and he went
back to his land.

EXODUS CHAPTER 19

1 In the third month after the children of Israel went out
from Egypt, on the same day, they came into the waste land
of Sinai.

2 And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had
come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in
the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its
tents.

3 And Moses went up to God, and the voice of the Lord
came to him from the mountain, saying, Say to the family of
Jacob, and give word to the children of Israel:

4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I
took you, as on eagles’ wings, guiding you to myself.

5 If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my
agreement, you will be my special property out of all the
peoples: for all the earth is mine:

6 And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy
nation. These are the words which you are to say to the
children of Israel.

7 And Moses came and sent for the chiefs of the people and
put before them all these words which the Lord had given
him orders to say.

8 And all the people, answering together, said, Whatever
the Lord has said we will do. And Moses took back to the
Lord the words of the people.

9 And the Lord said to Moses, See, I will come to you ina
thick cloud, so that what I say to you may come to the ears of
the people and they may have belief in you for ever. And
Moses gave the Lord word of what the people had said.

10 And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and make
them holy today and tomorrow, and let their clothing be
washed.

11 And by the third day let them be ready: for on the third
day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai, before the eyes
of all the people.

12 And let limits be marked out for the people round the
mountain, and say to them, Take care not to go up the
mountain or near the sides of it: whoever puts his foot on the
mountain will certainly come to his death:

13 He is not to be touched by a hand, but is to be stoned or
have an arrow put through him; man or beast, he is to be put
to death: at the long sounding of a horn they may come up to
the mountain.

14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people,
and made the people holy; and their clothing was washed.

15 And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do
not come near a woman.

16 And when morning came on the third day, there were
thunders and flames and a thick cloud on the mountain, and
a horn sounding very loud; and all the people in the tents
were shaking with fear.

17 And Moses made the people come out of their tents and
take their places before God; and they came to the foot of the
mountain,

18 And all the mountain of Sinai was smoking, for the
Lord had come down on it in fire: and the smoke of it went
up like the smoke of a great burning; and all the mountain
was shaking.

19 And when the sound of the horn became louder and
louder, Moses' words were answered by the voice of God.

20 Then the Lord came down on to Mount Sinai, to the top
of the mountain, and the Lord sent for Moses to come up to
the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and give the
people orders to keep back, for fear that a great number of
them, forcing their way through to see the Lord, may come
to destruction.

22 And let the priests who come near to the Lord make
themselves holy, for fear that the Lord may come on them
suddenly.

23 And Moses said to the Lord, The people will not be able
to come up the mountain, for you gave us orders to put limits
round the mountain, marking it out and making it holy.

24 And the Lord said to him, Go down, and you and Aaron
may come up; but let not the priests and the people make
their way through to the Lord, or he will come on them
suddenly.

25 So Moses went down to the people and said this to them.

EXODUS CHAPTER 20

1 And God said all these words:

21 am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the prison-house.

3 You are to have no other gods but me.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 You are not to make an image or picture of anything in
heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth:

5 You may not go down on your faces before them or give
them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will
not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment
on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the
third and fourth generation of my haters;

6 And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on
those who have love for me and keep my laws.

7 You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your
God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on
his lips for an evil purpose will be judged a sinner by the
Lord

8 Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day.

9 On six days do all your work:

10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;
on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your
daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your
cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among
you:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the
sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the
seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to
the seventh day and made it holy.

12 Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that
your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is
giving you.

13 Do not put anyone to death without cause.

14 Do not be false to the married relation.

15 Do not take the property of another.

16 Do not give false witness against your neighbour.

17 Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house,
or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox
or his ass or anything which is his.

18 And all the people were watching the thunderings and
the flames and the sound of the horn and the mountain
smoking; and when they saw it, they kept far off, shaking
with fear.

19 And they said to Moses, To your words we will give ear,
but let not the voice of God come to our ears, for fear death
may come on us.

20 And Moses said to the people, Have no fear: for God has
come to put you to the test, so that fearing him you may be
kept from sin.

21 And the people kept their places far off, but Moses went
near to the dark cloud where God was.

22 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel,
You yourselves have seen that my voice has come to you from
heaven

23 Gods of silver and gods of gold you are not to make for
yourselves.

24 Make for me an altar of earth, offering on it your
burned offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and
your oxen: in every place where I have put the memory of my
name, I will come to you and give you my blessing.

25 And if you make me an altar of stone do not make it of
cut stones: for the touch of an instrument will make it
unclean.

26 And do not go up by steps to my altar, for fear that your
bodies may be seen uncovered.

EXODUS CHAPTER 21

1 Now these are the laws which you are to put before them.

2 If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your
servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let
him go free without payment.

3 If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself:
if he is married, let his wife go away with him.

4 If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or
daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the
property of the master, and the servant is to go away by
himself.

5 But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and
children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:

6 Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house,
and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in
his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his
servant for ever.

7 And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant,
she is not to go away free as the men-servants do.

8 If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for
himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free;
her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to
a strange land, because he has been false to her.

9 And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for
her as if she was his daughter.

10 And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing
and her married rights are not to be less.

11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she has
the right to go free without payment.

12 He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to
death.

13 But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave
him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go
in flight.

14 But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on
purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him
from my altar and put him to death.

15 Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is
certainly to be put to death.

16 Any man who gets another into his power in order to
get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in
the act.

17 Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to
death.

18 If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone,
or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him
keep in bed;

19 If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick,
the other will be let off; only he will have to give him

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for
till he is well.

20 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant
blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo
punishment.

21 But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a
day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the
servant is his property.

22 If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with
child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to
her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount
fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the
judges.

23 But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment
for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.

26 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a
blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go
free on account of the damage to his eye.

27 Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let
him go free on account of his tooth.

28 If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a
woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used
for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible.

29 But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past,
and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under
control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or
woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be
put to death.

30 If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of
whatever price is fixed.

31 If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused,
the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule.

32 If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is
caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty
shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned.

33 Ifa man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up,
and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death;

34 The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to
make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his.

35 And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox,
causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for
money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price
of the dead one.

36 But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently
done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it
under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead
beast will be his.

EXODUS CHAPTER 22

| Ifa man takes without right another man's ox or his sheep,
and puts it to death or gets a price for it, he is to give five
oxen for an ox, or four sheep for a sheep, in payment: the
thief will have to make payment for what he has taken; if he

has no money, he himself will have to be exchanged for
money, so that payment may be made.

2 Ifa thief is taken in the act of forcing his way into a house,
and his death is caused by a blow, the owner of the house is
not responsible for his blood.

3 But if it is after dawn, he will be responsible.

4 If he still has what he had taken, whatever it is, ox or ass
or sheep, he is to give twice its value.

5 Ifa man makes a fire in a field or a vine-garden, and lets
the fire do damage to another man's field, he is to give of the
best produce of his field or his vine-garden to make up for it.

6 If there is a fire and the flames get to the thorns at the
edge of the field, causing destruction of the cut grain or of
the living grain, or of the field, he who made the fire will
have to make up for the damage.

7 Ifa man puts money or goods in the care of his neighbour
to keep for him, and it is taken from the man's house, if they
get the thief, he will have to make payment of twice the value.

8 If they do not get the thief, let the master of the house
come before the judges and take an oath that he has not put
his hand on his neighbour's goods.

9 In any question about an ox or an ass or a sheep or
clothing, or about the loss of any property which anyone says
is his, let the two sides put their cause before God; and he
who is judged to be in the wrong is to make payment to his
neighbour of twice the value.

10 If a man puts an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast into
the keeping of his neighbour, and it comes to death or is
damaged or is taken away, without any person seeing it:

11 If he takes his oath before the Lord that he has not put
his hand to his neighbour's goods, the owner is to take his
word for it and he will not have to make payment for it.

12 But ifit is taken from him by a thief, he is to make up for
the loss of it to its owner.

13 But if it has been damaged by a beast, and he is able to
make this clear, he will not have to make payment for what
was damaged.

14 If a man gets from his neighbour the use of one of his
beasts, and it is damaged or put to death when the owner is
not with it, he will certainly have to make payment for the
loss.

15 If the owner is with it, he will not have to make payment:
if he gave money for the use of it, the loss is covered by the
payment.

16 Ifa man takes a virgin, who has not given her word to
another man, and has connection with her, he will have to
give a bride-price for her to be his wife.

17 Ifher father will not give her to him on any account, he
will have to give the regular payment for virgins.

18 Any woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to
be put to death.

19 Any man who has sex connection with a beast is to be
put to death.

20 Complete destruction will come on any man who makes
offerings to any other god but the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Do no wrong to a man from a strange country, and do
not be hard on him; for you yourselves were living in a
strange country, in the land of Egypt.

22 Do no wrong to a widow, or to a child whose father is
dead.

23 If you are cruel to them in any way, and their cry comes
up to me, I will certainly give ear;

24 And in the heat of my wrath I will put you to death with
the sword, so that your wives will be widows and your
children without fathers.

25 If you let any of the poor among my people have the use
of your money, do not be a hard creditor to him, and do not
take interest.

26 If ever you take your neighbour's clothing in exchange
for the use of your money, let him have it back before the sun
goes down:

27 For it is the only thing he has for covering his skin; what
is he to go to sleep in? and when his cry comes up to me, I
will give ear, for my mercy is great.

28 You may not say evil of the judges, or put a curse on the
ruler of your people.

29 Do not keep back your offerings from the wealth of your
grain and your vines. The first of your sons you are to give to
me.

30 In the same way with your oxen and your sheep: for
seven days let the young one be with its mother; on the
eighth day give it to me.

31 You are to be holy men to me: the flesh of no animal
whose death has been caused by the beasts of the field may be
used for your food; it is to be given to the dogs.

EXODUS CHAPTER 23

1 Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an
agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.

2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or
give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

3 But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is
right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.

4 If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no
friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back
to him.

5 If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent
down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you
are to come to its help, even against your desire.

6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

7 Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the
upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I
will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

8 Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those
who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright
false.

9 Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is
living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings
of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you
yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the
increase;

11 But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be
unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let
the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your
vine-gardens and your olive-trees.

12 For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep
the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest,
together with the son of your servant and the man from a
strange land living among you.

13 Take note of all these things which I have said to you,
and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or
from your lips.

14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.

15 You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven
days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders,
at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out
of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:

16 And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of
your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year,
when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.

17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the
Lord God.

18 Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened
bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till
the morning.

19 The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken
into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not
to be cooked in its mother's milk.

20 See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on
your way and to be your guide into the place which I have
made ready for you.

21 Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not
go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked
by him, because my name is in him.

22 But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I
say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting
those who are fighting you.

23 And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the
land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the
Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be
cut off by my hand.

24 Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their
gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and
let their pillars be broken down.

25 And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send
his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take
all disease away from among you.

26 All your animals will give birth without loss, not one
will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full
measure of life.

27 I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the
people to whom you come; all those who are against you will
go in flight, turning their backs before you.

28 I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite
and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

29 I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that
their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be
increased overmuch against you.

30 Little by little I will send them away before you, till
your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in
the land.

31 I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to
the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river
Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your
power; and you will send them out before you.

32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

33 Let them not go on living in your land, or they will
make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their
gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

EXODUS CHAPTER 24

1 And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and
Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of
Israel; and give me worship from a distance.

2 And Moses only may come near to the Lord; but the
others are not to come near, and the people may not come up
with them.

3 Then Moses came and put before the people all the words
of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with
one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do.

4 Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the
Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar
at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve
tribes of Israel.

5 And he sent some of the young men of the children of
Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen
to the Lord.

6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins;
draining out half of the blood over the altar.

7 And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the
hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the
Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws.

8 Then Moses took the blood and let it come on the people,
and said, This blood is the sign of the agreement which the
Lord has made with you in these words.

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy
of the chiefs of Israel went up:

10 And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there
was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens.

11 And he put not his hand on the chiefs of the children of
Israel: they saw God, and took food and drink.

12 And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the
mountain, and take your place there: and I will give you the
stones on which J have put in writing the law and the orders,
so that you may give the people knowledge of them.

13 Then Moses and Joshua his servant got up; and Moses
went up into the mountain of God.

14 And he said to the chiefs, Keep your places here till we
come back to you: Aaron and Hur are with you; if anyone
has any cause let him go to them.

15 And Moses went up into the mountain, and it was
covered by the cloud.

16 And the glory of the Lord was resting on Mount Sinai,
and the cloud was over it for six days; and on the seventh day
he said Moses’ name out of the cloud.

17 And the glory of the Lord was like a flame on the top of
the mountain before the eyes of the children of Israel.

18 And Moses went up the mountain, into the cloud, and
was there for forty days and forty nights.

EXODUS CHAPTER 25

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel that they are to make me an
offering; from every man who has the impulse in his heart
take an offering for me.

3 And this is the offering you are to take from them: gold
and silver and brass;

4 And blue and purple and red, and the best linen, and
goats' hair;

5 And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood;

6 Oil for the light, spices for the sweet-smelling oil, sweet
perfumes for burning;

7 Beryls and stones of value to be put on the ephod and on
the priest's bag.

8 And let them make me a holy place, so that I may be ever
present among them.

9 Make the House and everything in it from the designs
which I will give you.

10 And they are to make an ark of hard wood; two and a
half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide and high.

11 It is to be plated inside and out with the best gold, with
an edge of gold all round it

12 And make four rings of gold for it, to be fixed on its four
feet, two rings on one side of it and two on the other.

13 And make rods of the same wood, plating them with
gold.

14 And put the rods through the rings at the sides of the
ark, for lifting it.

15 The rods are to be kept in the rings, and never taken out.

16 Inside the ark you are to put the record which I will give
you.

17 And you are to make a cover of the best gold, two and a
half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

18 And at the two ends of the cover you are to make two
winged ones of hammered gold,

19 One at one end and one at the other; the winged ones are
to be part of the cover.

20 And their wings are to be outstretched over the cover,
and the winged ones are to be opposite one another, facing
the cover.

21 And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record
which I will give you.

22 And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of
the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to
you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 And you are to make a table of the same wood, two
cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high,

24 Plated with the best gold, with a gold edge all round it;

25 And make a frame all round it, as wide as a man's hand,
with a gold edge to the frame.

26 And make four gold rings and put them at the four
angles, on the four feet of the table;

27 The rings are to be fixed under the frame to take the
rods with which the table is to be lifted.

28 Make rods of the same wood, plated with gold, for
lifting the table.

29 And make the table-vessels, the spoons and the cups and
the basins for liquids, all of the best gold.

30 And on the table at all times you are to keep my holy
bread.

31 And you are to make a support for lights, of the best
gold; its base and its pillar are to be of hammered gold; its
cups, its buds, and its flowers are to be made of the same
metal.

32 It is to have six branches coming out from its sides; three
branches from one side and three from the other.

33 Every branch having three cups made like almond
flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower, on all the
branches.

34 And on the pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every
one with its bud and its flower:

35 And under every two branches a bud, made with the
branch, for all the six branches of it.

36 The buds and the branches are to be made of the same
metal; all together one complete work of hammered gold.

37 Then you are to make its seven vessels for the lights,
putting them in their place so that they give light in front of
it.

38 And the instruments and trays for use with it are all to
be of the best gold.

39 A talent of gold will be needed for it, with all these
vessels.

40 And see that you make them from the design which you
saw on the mountain.

EXODUS CHAPTER 26

1 And you are to make a House for me, with ten curtains of
the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs
of winged ones by a good workman.

2 Every curtain is to be twenty-eight cubits long and four
cubits wide, all of the same measure.

3 Five curtains are to be joined together, and the other five
are to be joined together.

4 And you are to put twists of blue cord on the edge of the
outside curtain of the first group of five, and on the edge of
the outside curtain of the second group of five;

5 Fifty twists on one curtain and fifty on the other, the
twists to be opposite one another.

6 Then make fifty gold hooks, joining the curtains together
by the hooks, and in this way the House will be made.

7 And you are to make curtains of goats' hair for a tent
over the House, eleven curtains.

8 Every curtain is to be thirty cubits long and four cubits
wide, all of the same measure.

9 Five of these curtains are to be joined together, and the
other six are to be joined together, the sixth being folded
over to make a hanging in front of the tent.

10 And you are to put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the
outside curtain of one group, and fifty twists on the edge of
the outside curtain of the other group.

11 Then make fifty brass hooks and put the hooks into the
twists, joining the tent together to make it one.

12 And the folded part which is over of the curtains of the
tent, the half-curtain which is folded back, will be hanging
down over the back of the House.

13 And the cubit which is over of the ten curtains at the
sides will be hanging over the two sides of the House as a
cover.

14 And then you are to make a cover for the tent, of
sheepskins coloured red, and a cover of leather over that.

15 And you are to make upright boards of hard wood for
the House.

16 Every board is to be ten cubits high and a cubit and a
half wide.

17 Every board is to be joined to the one nearest to it by
two tongues, and so for every board in the House.

18 These are the boards needed for the house; twenty
boards for the south side,

19 With forty silver bases under the twenty boards, two
bases under every board to take its tongues.

20 And twenty boards for the second side of the house on
the north,

21 With their forty silver bases, two under every board.

22 And six boards for the back of the House on the west,

23 With two boards for the angles of the House at the back.

24 The two are to be joined together at the base and at the
top to one ring, forming the two angles.

25 So there are to be eight boards, with their sixteen silver
bases, two bases under every board.

26 And make rods of the same wood, five for the boards on
the one side,

27 And five for the boards on the other side of the House,
and five for the west side of the House at the back.

28 And the middle rod is to go through the rings of all the
boards from end to end.

29 And the boards are to be plated with gold, having gold
rings for the rods to go through: and the rods are to be
plated with gold.

30 And you are to make the House from the design which
you saw on the mountain.

31 And you are to make a veil of the best linen, blue and
purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a
good workman:

32 Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood,
plated with gold and fixed in silver bases.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 And you are to put up the veil under the hooks, and put
inside it the ark of the law: the veil is to be a division between
the holy place and the most holy.

34 You are to put the cover on the ark of the law, inside the
most holy place.

35 And outside the veil you are to put the table, and the
support for the lights opposite the table on the south side of
the House; and the table is to be on the north side.

36 And you are to make a curtain for the doorway of the
Tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple
and red.

37 And make five pillars for the curtain, of hard wood
plated with gold; their hooks are to be of gold and their
bases of brass

EXODUS CHAPTER 27

1 And make an altar of hard wood, a square altar, five
cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high.

2 Put horns at the four angles of it, made of the same,
plating it all with brass.

3 And make all its vessels, the baskets for taking away the
dust of the fire, the spades and basins and meat-hooks and
fire-trays, of brass.

4 And make a network of brass, with four brass rings at its
four angles.

5 And put the network under the shelf round the altar so
that the net comes half-way up the altar.

6 And make rods for the altar, of hard wood, plated with
brass.

7 And put the rods through the rings at the two opposite
sides of the altar, for lifting it.

8 The altar is to be hollow, boarded in with wood; make it
from the design which you saw on the mountain.

9 And let there be an open space round the House, with
hangings for its south side of the best linen, a hundred cubits
long.

10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases are to be of
brass; the hooks of the pillars and their bands are to be of
silver.

11 And on the north side in the same way, hangings a
hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars of brass on bases of
brass; their hooks and their bands are to be of silver.

12 And for the open space on the west side, the hangings
are to be fifty cubits wide, with ten pillars and ten bases;

13 And on the east side the space is to be fifty cubits wide.

14 On the one side of the doorway will be hangings fifteen
cubits long, with three pillars and three bases;

15 And on the other side, hangings fifteen cubits long, with
three pillars and three bases.

16 And across the doorway, a veil of twenty cubits of the
best linen, made of needlework of blue and purple and red,
with four pillars and four bases.

17 All the pillars round the open space are to have silver
bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass.

18 The open space is to be a hundred cubits long, fifty
cubits wide, with sides five cubits high, curtained with the
best linen, with bases of brass.

19 All the instruments for the work of the House, and all its
nails, and the nails of the open space are to be of brass.

20 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clear
olive oil for the lights, so that a light may be burning there
at all times.

21 Let Aaron and his sons put this in order, evening and
morning, before the Lord, inside the Tent of meeting,
outside the veil which is before the ark; this is to be an order
for ever, from generation to generation, to be kept by the
children of Israel.

EXODUS CHAPTER 28

1 Now let Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, come
near from among the children of Israel, so that they may be
my priests, even Aaron, and Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and
Ithamar, his sons.

2 And make holy robes for Aaron your brother, so that he
may be clothed with glory and honour.

3 Give orders to all the wise-hearted workmen, whom I
have made full of the spirit of wisdom, to make robes for
Aaron, so that he may be made holy as my priest.

4 This is what they are to make: a priest's bag, an ephod,
and a robe, and a coat of coloured needlework, a head-dress,
and a linen band; they are to make holy robes for Aaron your
brother and for his sons, so that they may do the work of
priests for me.

5 They are to take the gold and blue and purple and red and
the best linen,

6 And make the ephod of gold and blue and purple and red
and the best linen, the work of a designer.

7 It is to have two bands stitched to it at the top of the arms,
joining it together.

8 And the beautifully worked band, which goes on it, is to
be of the same work and the same material, of gold and blue
and purple and red and twisted linen-work.

9 You are to take two beryl stones, on which the names of
the children of Israel are to be cut:

10 Six names on the one stone and six on the other, in the
order of their birth.

11 With the work of a jeweller, like the cutting of a stamp,
the names of the children of Israel are to be cut on them, and
they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold.

12 And the two stones are to be placed on the ephod, over
the arm-holes, to be stones of memory for the children of
Israel: Aaron will have their names on his arms when he goes
in before the Lord, to keep the Lord in mind of them.

13 And you are to make twisted frames of gold;

14 And two chains of the best gold, twisted like cords; and
have the chains fixed on to the frames.

15 And make a priest's bag for giving decisions, designed
like the ephod, made of gold and blue and purple and red and
the best linen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 It is to be square, folded in two, a hand-stretch long and
ahand-stretch wide.

17 And on it you are to put four lines of jewels; the first line
is to be acornelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald;

18 The second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx;

19 The third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

20 The fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they are to be
fixed in twisted frames of gold.

21 The jewels are to be twelve in number, for the names of
the children of Israel; every jewel having the name of one of
the twelve tribes cut on it as on a stamp.

22 And you are to make two chains of gold, twisted like
cords, to be fixed to the priest's bag.

23 And put two gold rings on the two ends of the bag.

24 Put the two gold chains on the two rings at the ends of
the bag;

25 Joining the other ends of the chains to the gold frames
and putting them on the front of the ephod, at the top of the
arms.

26 Then make two gold rings and put them on the lower
ends of the bag, at the edge of it on the inner side nearest to
the ephod.

27 And make two more gold rings and put them on the
front of the ephod at the top of the arms, at the join, over the
worked band:

28 So that the rings on the bag may be fixed to the rings of
the ephod by a blue cord and on to the band of the ephod, so
that the bag may not come loose from the ephod.

29 And so Aaron will have the names of the children of
Israel on the priest's bag over his heart whenever he goes into
the holy place, to keep the memory of them before the Lord.

30 And in the bag you are to put the Urim and Thummim,
so that they may be on Aaron's heart whenever he goes in
before the Lord; and Aaron may have the power of making
decisions for the children of Israel before the Lord at all
times.

31 The robe which goes with the ephod is to be made all of
blue;

32 With a hole at the top, in the middle of it; the hole is to
be edged with a band to make it strong like the hole in the
coat of a fighting-man, so that it may not be broken open.

33 And round the skirts of it put fruits in blue and purple
and red, with bells of gold between;

34 A gold bell and a fruit in turn all round the skirts of the
robe.

35 Aaron is to put it on for his holy work; and the sound of
it will be clear, when he goes into the holy place before the
Lord, and when he comes out, keeping him safe from death.

36 You are to make a plate of the best gold, cutting on it,
as on a stamp, these words: HOLY TO THE LORD.

37 Put a blue cord on it and put it on the front of the
twisted head-dress:

38 And it will be over Aaron's brow, so that Aaron will be
responsible for any error in all the holy offerings made by the
children of Israel; it will be on his brow at all times, so that
their offerings may be pleasing to the Lord.

39 The coat is to be made of the best linen, worked in
squares; and you are to make a head-dress of linen, and a
linen band worked in needlework.

40 And for Aaron's sons you are to make coats, and bands,
and head-dresses, so that they may be clothed with glory and
honour.

41 These you are to put on Aaron, your brother, and on his
sons, putting oil on them, separating them and making them
holy, to do the work of priests to me.

42 And you are to make them linen trousers, covering their
bodies from the middle to the knee;

43 Aaron and his sons are to put these on whenever they go
into the Tent of meeting or come near the altar, when they
are doing the work of the holy place, so that they may be free
from any sin causing death: this is to be an order for him and
his seed after him for ever.

EXODUS CHAPTER 29

1 This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the
work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep,
without any mark on them,

2 And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with
oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put,
made of the best bread-meal;

3 Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the
two sheep.

4 And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent
of meeting, and there let them be washed with water.

5 Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the
ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of
needlework round him,

6 And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy
crown on the head-dress.

7 Then take the oil and put it on his head.

8 And take his sons and put their robes on them;

9 And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and
the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order
for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me.

10 Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting:
and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

11 And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at
the door of the Tent of meeting.

12 Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the
horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest
of the blood at the base of the altar.

13 And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the
fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round
them, and let them be burned on the altar;

14 But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are
to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-
offering.

15 Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons
put their hands on its head.

16 Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar
are marked with its blood.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after
washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with
the parts and the head,

18 And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned
offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire
to the Lord.

19 Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons
have put their hands on its head,

20 You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its
blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the
right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands
and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the
blood on the sides of the altar.

21 Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil,
and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on
their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their
robes may be made holy.

22 Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat
covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two
kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the
offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests:

23 And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread
and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread
which is before the Lord:

24 And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons,
to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

25 Then take them from their hands, and let them be
burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell
before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

26 Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before
the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering.

27 So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is
waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the
sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons;

28 And it will be their part as a right for ever from the
children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of
Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering
lifted up to the Lord.

29 And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him;
they will put them on when they are made priests.

30 For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place
will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to
do the work of the holy place.

31 Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh
be cooked in water in a holy place.

32 And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the
bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting.

33 All those things which were used as offerings to take
away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have
for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for
they are holy food.

34 And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is
over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be
used for food, for it is holy.

35 All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I
have given you orders: for seven days the work of making
them priests is to go on.

36 Every day an ox is to be offered as a sin-offering, to take
away sins: and by this offering on it, you will make the altar
clean from sin; and you are to put oil on it and make it holy.

37 For seven days you are to make offerings for the altar
and make it holy, so that it may become completely holy, and
anything touching it will become holy.

38 Now this is the offering which you are to make on the
altar: two lambs in their first year, every day regularly.

39 One lamb is to be offered in the morning and the other
in the evening:

40 And with the one lamb, a tenth part of an ephah of the
best meal, mixed with a fourth part of a hin of clear oil; and
the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

41 And the other lamb is to be offered in the evening, and
with it the same meal offering and drink offering, for a sweet
smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

42 This is to be a regular burned offering made from
generation to generation, at the door of the Tent of meeting
before the Lord, where I will come face to face with you and
have talk with you.

43 There I will come face to face with the children of Israel,
and the Tent will be made holy by my glory

44 | will make holy the Tent of meeting and the altar: and
Aaron and his sons I will make holy, to be my priests

45 Among the children of Israel I will make my living-place,
and I will be their God.

46 And they will see that I am the Lord their God, who
took them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be ever
with them: I am the Lord their God.

EXODUS CHAPTER 30

1 And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume;
of hard wood let it be made.

2 The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide,
and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same.

3 It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the
sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it.

4 Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to
make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it.

5 And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with
gold.

6 And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of
the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will
come face to face with you.

7 And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron
every morning when he sees to the lights.

8 And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their
places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke
going up before the Lord from generation to generation for
ever.

9 No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering,
and no drink offering is to be offered on it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean:
with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once
every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to
the Lord.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 When you are taking the number of the children of Israel,
let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for
his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are
numbered.

13 And this is what they are to give; let every man who is
numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place:
(the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an
offering to the Lord.

14 Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and
over, is to give an offering to the Lord.

15 The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man
no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is
made to the Lord as the price for your lives.

16 And you are to take this money from the children of
Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep
the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to
be the price of your lives.

17 And the Lord said to Moses,

18 You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass
base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar,
with water in it;

19 That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing
their hands and feet;

20 Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to
be washed with water, to keep them from death; and
whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to
make an offering by fire to the Lord,

21 Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may
be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him
and his seed from generation to generation.

22 And the Lord said to Moses,

23 Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of
liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is,
two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty
shekels of sweet calamus,

24 And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by
the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin:

25 And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the
art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil.

26 This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the
ark of the law,

27 And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support
for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning
spices,

28 And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and
on the washing-vessel and its base.

29 And you are to make them most holy; anything touching
them will become holy.

30 And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them
holy to do the work of priests to me.

31 And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's
holy oil, from generation to generation.

32 It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be
made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy.

33 Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a
priest, will be cut off from his people.

34 And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte
and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in
equal weights;

35 And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the
art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and
holy.

36 And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the
ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face
with you; it is to be most holy.

37 You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves:
it is to be kept holy to the Lord.

38 Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be
cut off from his people.

EXODUS CHAPTER 31

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 [have made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, by name,
the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

3 And I have given him the spirit of God and made him wise
and full of knowledge and expert in every sort of handwork,

4 To do all sorts of delicate work in gold and silver and
brass;

5 In cutting stones for framing, and to do every form of
woodwork.

6 And I have made selection of Oholiab with him, the son of
Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who
are wise I have put the knowledge to make whatever I have
given you orders to have made;

7 The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover
which is on it, and all the things for the tent,

8 And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support
with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices,

9 And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and
the washing-vessel with its base,

10 And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron
and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests,

11 And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the
holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to
have done.

12 And the Lord said to Moses,

13 Say to the children of Israel that they are to keep my
Sabbaths; for the Sabbath day is a sign between me and you
through all your generations; so that you may see that I am
the Lord who makes you holy.

14 So you are to keep the Sabbath as a holy day; and
anyone not honouring it will certainly be put to death:
whoever does any work on that day will be cut off from his
people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any
work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

16 And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy,
from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement.

17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever;
because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on
the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.

18 And when his talk with Moses on Mount Sinai was
ended, he gave him the two stones of the law, two stones on
which was the writing made by the finger of God.

EXODUS CHAPTER 32

1 And when the people saw that Moses was a long time
coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and
said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this
Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no
idea what has become of him.

2 Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which
are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your
daughters, and give them to me.

3 And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and
gave them to Aaron.

4 And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with
an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox:
and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out
of the land of Egypt.

5 And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and
made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a
feast to the Lord.

6 So early on the day after they got up and made burned
offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast,
and then gave themselves to pleasure.

7 And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your
people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned
to evil ways;

8 Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them,
and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it
and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took
you up out of the land of Egypt.

9 And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this
people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people.

10 Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning
against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I
will make a great nation.

11 But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is
your wrath burning against your people whom you took out
of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength
of your hand?

12 Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil
fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off
from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them,
and send not this evil on your people.

13 Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,
to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed

like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I
give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

14 So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of
sending punishment on his people.

15 Then Moses came down the mountain with the two
stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their
two sides, on the front and on the back.

16 The stones were the work of God, and the writing was
the writing of God, cut on the stones.

17 Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to
the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in
the tents.

18 And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are
overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been
overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear.

19 And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the
ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the
stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of
the mountain.

20 And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in
the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water
and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

21 And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to
you that you let this great sin come on them?

22 And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have
seen how the purposes of this people are evil.

23 For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as
for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we
have no idea what has come to him.

24 Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take
it off; so they gave it to me, and IJ put it in the fire, and this
image of an ox came out.

25 And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for
Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters:

26 Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and
said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And
all the sons of Levi came together to him.

27 And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the
God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and
go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death
his brother and his friend and his neighbour.

28 And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three
thousand of the people were put to death that day.

29 And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the
Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of
his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you
this day.

30 And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great
has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I
may get forgiveness for your sin.

31 Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people
has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold;

32 But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not,
let my name be taken out of your book.

33 And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil
against me will be taken out of my book.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

34 But now, go, take the people into that place of which I
have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but
when the time of my judging has come, I will send
punishment on them for their sin.

35 And the Lord sent punishment on the people because
they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.

EXODUS CHAPTER 33

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go forward from this place,
you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land
of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it.

2 And I will send an angel before you, driving out the
Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite
and the Hivite and the Jebusite:

3 Go up to that land flowing with milk and honey; but I
will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people,
for fear that I send destruction on you while you are on the
way.

4 Hearing this bad news the people were full of grief, and
no one put on his ornaments.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel,
You are a stiff-necked people: if 1 come among you, even for a
minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your
ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you.

6 So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at
Mount Horeb, and did not put them on again.

7 Now it was Moses’ way to put up the Tent of meeting
outside the tent-circle, at some distance away; giving it the
name of The Tent of meeting. And everyone desiring to make
his prayer to the Lord went to the Tent of meeting outside
the tent-circle.

8 And whenever Moses went out to the Tent of meeting, all
the people got up and everyone went to the door of his tent,
looking after Moses till he went inside the Tent.

9 And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of
cloud came down, and took its place by the door of the Tent,
as long as the Lord was talking with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the cloud at the door of the Tent,
and they went down on their faces, everyone at the door of
his tent.

11 And the Lord had talk with Moses face to face, as a man
may have talk with his friend. And when Moses came back to
the tents, his servant, the young man Joshua, the son of Nun,
did not come away from the Tent.

12 And Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Be this
people's guide on their journey, but you have not made clear
to me whom you will send with me. But you have said, I have
knowledge of you by name, and you have grace in my eyes.

13 If then I have grace in your eyes, let me see your ways, so
that I may have knowledge of you and be certain of your
grace; and my prayer is that you will keep in mind that this
nation is your people.

14 And he said, I myself will go with you and give you rest.

15 And Moses said, If you yourself are not going with us,
do not send us on from here.

16 For is not the fact of your going with us the sign that I
and this people have grace in your eyes, so that we, that is, I
and your people, are separate from all other people on the
face of the earth?

17 And the Lord said to Moses, I will do as you say: for you
have grace in my eyes, and I have knowledge of you by your
name.

18 And Moses said, O Lord, let me see your glory.

19 And he said, I will make all the light of my being come
before you, and will make clear to you what I am; I will be
kind to those to whom I will be kind, and have mercy on
those on whom I will have mercy.

20 But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man
may see me and still go on living.

21 And the Lord said, See, there is a place near me, and you
may take your place on the rock:

22 And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in
the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past:

23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back:
but my face is not to be seen.

EXODUS CHAPTER 34

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like
the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on
the first stones, which were broken by you.

2 And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount
Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top
of the mountain.

3 No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen
anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near
to get their food at its foot.

4 So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the
morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with
the two stones in his hand.

5 And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place
by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of
the Lord.

6 And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord,
the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and
great in mercy and faith;

7 Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and
wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but
will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers,
and on their children's children to the third and fourth
generation.

8 Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship.

9 And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord
go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us
forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for
your heritage.

10 And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake:
before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have
not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your
people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to
do for you is greatly to be feared.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will
send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and
the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

12 But take care, and do not make any agreement with the
people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause
of sin to you.

13 But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars
broken and their images cut down:

14 For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the
Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another.

15 So see that you make no agreement with the people of
the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their
offerings, or be guests at their feasts,

16 Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their
daughters give worship before their gods, they will make
your sons take part with them.

17 Make for yourselves no gods of metal.

18 Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your
food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at
the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you
came out of Egypt.

19 Every first male child is mine; the first male birth of
your cattle, the first male of every ox and sheep.

20 A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass,
but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to
be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make
payment. No one is to come before me without an offering.

21 Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take
your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are
to have a day for rest.

22 And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in
the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the
year when you take in the produce of your fields.

23 Three times in the year let all your males come before the
Lord, the God of Israel.

24 For I will send out the nations before you and make
wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an
attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to
the Lord, three times in the year.

25 No leaven is to be offered with the blood of my offering,
and the offering of the Passover feast may not be kept till the
morning.

26 Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the
house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be
cooked in its mother's milk

27 And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in
writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will
make with you.

28 And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there
with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And
he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement,
the ten rules of the law.

29 Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with
the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face
was shining because of his talk with God.

30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses,
and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for
fear.

31 Then Moses sent for them; and Aaron, with the chiefs of
the people, came to him; and Moses had talk with them.

32 And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he
gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on
Mount Sinai.

33 And at the end of his talk with them, Moses put a veil
over his face.

34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have
talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And
whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what
he had been ordered to say;

35 And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses was
shining: so Moses put the veil over his face again till he went
to the Lord.

EXODUS CHAPTER 35

1 And Moses sent for all the children of Israel to come
together, and said to them, This is what the Lord has said
and these are his orders.

2 Six days let work be done, but the seventh day is to be a
holy day to you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does
any work on that day is to be put to death.

3 No fire is to be lighted in any of your houses on the
Sabbath day.

4 And Moses said to all the meeting of the children of Israel,
This is the order which the Lord has given:

5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord; everyone
who has the impulse in his heart, let him give his offering to
the Lord; gold and silver and brass;

6 And blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats'
hair,

7 And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood,

8 And oil for the lights, and spices for the holy oil and for
the sweet perfumes for burning.

9 And beryls and jewels to be cut for the ephod and for the
priest's bag.

10 And let every wise-hearted man among you come and
make whatever has been ordered by the Lord;

11 The House and its tent and its cover, its hooks and its
boards, its rods and its pillars and its bases;

12 The ark with its cover and its rods and the veil hanging
before it;

13 The table and its rods and all its vessels, and the holy
bread;

14 And the support for the lights, with its vessels and its
lights and the oil for the light;

15 And the altar for burning spices, with its rods, and the
holy oil and the sweet perfume, and the curtain for the door,
at the door of the House;

16 The altar of burned offerings, with its network of brass,
its rods, and all its vessels, the washing-vessel and its base;

17 The hangings for the open space, its pillars and their
bases, and the curtain for the doorway;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 The nails for the House, and the nails for the open space
and their cords;

19 The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place,
the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons
when acting as priests.

20 And all the children of Israel went away from Moses.

21 And everyone whose heart was moved, everyone who
was guided by the impulse of his spirit, came with his
offering for the Lord, for whatever was needed for the Tent
of meeting and its work and for the holy robes.

22 They came, men and women, all who were ready to give,
and gave pins and nose-rings and finger-rings and neck-
ornaments, all of gold; everyone gave an offering of gold to
the Lord.

23 And everyone who had blue and purple and red and the
best linen and goats' hair and sheepskins coloured red and
leather, gave them.

24 Everyone who had silver and brass gave an offering of
them to the Lord; and everyone who had hard wood, such as
was needed for the work, gave it.

25 And all the women who were expert with their hands,
made cloth, and gave the work of their hands, blue and
purple and red and the best linen.

26 And those women who had the knowledge, made the
goats' hair into cloth.

27 And the rulers gave the beryls and the cut jewels for the
ephod and the priest's bag;

28 And the spice and the oil for the light, and the holy oil
and the sweet perfumes.

29 The children of Israel, every man and woman, from the
impulse of their hearts, gave their offerings freely to the Lord
for the work which the Lord had given Moses orders to have
done.

30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, the Lord
has made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur,
of the tribe of Judah;

31 And he has made him full of the spirit of God, in all
wisdom and knowledge and art of every sort;

32 As an expert designer of beautiful things, working in
gold and silver and brass;

33 Trained in the cutting of stones and the ornamenting of
wood and in every sort of handwork.

34 And he has given to him, and to Oholiab, the son of
Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the power of training others.

35 To them he has given knowledge of all the arts of the
handworker, of the designer, and the expert workman; of the
maker of needlework in blue and purple and red and the best
linen, and of the maker of cloth; in all the arts of the designer
and the trained workman they are expert.

EXODUS CHAPTER 36

1 So let Bezalel and Oholiab get to work, with every wise-
hearted man to whom the Lord has given wisdom and
knowledge, to do whatever is necessary for the ordering of
the holy place, as the Lord has given orders.

2 Then Moses sent for Bezalel and Oholiab, and for all the
wise-hearted men to whom the Lord had given wisdom, even
everyone who was moved by the impulse of his heart to come
and take part in the work:

3 And they took from Moses all the offerings which the
children of Israel had given for the building of the holy place.
And still they went on giving him more free offerings every
morning.

4 Then the wise men, who were doing all the work of the
holy place, came from their work;

5 And said to Moses, The people are giving much more than
is needed for the work which the Lord has given us orders to
do.

6 So Moses made an order and had it given out through all
the tents, saying, Let no man or woman make any more
offerings for the holy place. So the people were kept from
giving more.

7 For the material they had was enough and more than
enough for all the work which had to be done.

8 Then all the expert workmen among them made the
House with its ten curtains; of the best linen, blue and purple
and red, they made them, with winged ones worked by expert
designers.

9 Every curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four
cubits wide, all of the same measure.

10 And five curtains were joined together, and the other
five curtains were joined together.

11 And they put twists of blue cord on the edge of the
outside curtain of the first group, and in the same way on the
outside curtain of the second group.

12 Fifty twists on the one curtain and fifty on the edge of
the curtain of the other group; the twists being opposite to
one another.

13 And they made fifty hooks of gold, joining the curtains
one to another with the hooks; and so the House was made.

14 And they made curtains of goats' hair for the tent; eleven
curtains were made.

15 Every curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits
wide, all of the same measure.

16 Five curtains were joined together to make one group,
and six curtains were joined together to make the other
group.

17 And they put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the
outside curtain of the first group, and fifty twists on the edge
of the outside curtain of the second group,

18 And fifty hooks of brass for joining them together to
make the tent.

19 And they made a cover of sheepskins coloured red, to go
over the tent, and a cover of leather over that.

20 And for the uprights of the House they made boards of
hard wood.

21 The boards were ten cubits long and one cubit and a half
wide.

22 Every board had two tongues fixed into it; all the
boards were made in this way.

23 They made twenty boards for the south side of the House:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And for these twenty boards, forty silver bases, two
bases under every board, to take its tongues.

25 And for the second side of the House, on the north, they
made twenty boards,

26 With their forty silver bases, two bases for every board.

27 And for the west side of the House, at the back, they
made six boards,

28 And two boards for the angles at the back.

29 These were joined together at the base and at the top to
one ring, so forming the two angles.

30 So there were eight boards with sixteen bases of silver,
two bases under every board.

31 And they made rods of hard wood; five for the boards on
one side of the House,

32 And five for the boards on the other side of the House,
and five for the boards at the back, on the west.

33 The middle rod was made to go right through the rings
of all the boards from one end to the other.

34 All the boards were plated with gold, and the rings
through which the rods went were of gold, and the rods were
plated with gold.

35 And he made the veil of the best linen, blue and purple
and red, worked with winged ones designed by expert
workmen.

36 And they made four pillars for it of hard wood plated
with gold: they had hooks of gold and four silver bases.

37 And they made a curtain for the door of the tent, of the
best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red;

38 And five pillars for the curtain, with their hooks; the
heads of the pillars were of gold and they were circled with
bands of gold; and their five bases were of brass.

EXODUS CHAPTER 37

1 And Bezalel made the ark of hard wood, two and a half
cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half
high;

2 Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting
an edge of gold all round it.

3 And he made four gold rings for its four angles, two on
one side and two on the other,

4 And rods of the same wood plated with gold.

5 These rods he put in the rings at the sides of the ark, for
lifting it.

6 And he made the cover all of gold, two and a half cubits
long and a cubit and a half wide.

7 And he made two winged ones, hammered out of one bit
of gold, for the two ends of the cover;

8 Placing one at one end and one at the other; the winged
ones were part of the cover.

9 And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the
faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and
facing the cover.

10 And he made the table of hard wood, two cubits long, a
cubit wide and a cubit and a half high;

11 Plating it with the best gold and putting a gold edge all
round it.

12 And he made a frame all round it about as wide as a
man's hand, edged with gold all round.

13 And he made four gold rings, and put the rings at the
angles of its four feet.

14 The rings were fixed under the frame to take the rods
with which the table was to be lifted.

15 The rods for lifting the table he made of hard wood
plated with gold.

16 And all the table-vessels, the plates and spoons and
basins and the cups for liquids, he made of the best gold.

17 Then he made the support for the lights, all of the best
gold; its base and its pillar were of hammered gold; its cups
and buds and flowers were all made out of the same metal:

18 It had six branches coming out from its sides, three from
one side and three from the other;

19 Every branch having three cups made like almond
flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower on all the
branches;

20 And on its pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every
one with its bud and its flower;

21 And under every two branches a bud, made with the
branch, for all six branches of it.

22 The buds and the branches were made of the same metal,
all together one complete work of the best hammered gold.

23 And he made the seven vessels for the lights, and all the
necessary instruments for it, of gold.

24 A talent of the best gold was used for the making of it
and its vessels.

25 And he made the altar for the burning of spices, using
the same hard wood; it was square, a cubit long and a cubit
wide and two cubits high; the horns made of the same.

26 The top and the sides and the horns were all plated with
the best gold; and he put an edge of gold all round it.

27 And he made two gold rings, placing them on the two
opposite sides under the edge, to take the rods for lifting it.

28 The rods he made of the same hard wood, plating them
with gold.

29 And he made the holy oil and the perfume of sweet spices
for burning, after the art of the perfume-maker.

EXODUS CHAPTER 38

1 The altar of burned offerings he made of hard wood; a
square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three
cubits high,

2 And he put horns at its four angles made of the same,
plating it all with brass;

3 And brass was used for all the vessels of the altar, the
baskets and the spades, the basins and the meat-hooks and
the fire-trays; all the vessels he made of brass

4 And he made a network of brass for the altar, under the
frame round it, stretching half-way up;

5 And four rings for the four angles of this network, to take
the rods.

6 The rods he made of hard wood plated with brass.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 He put the rods through the rings at the opposite sides of
the altar for lifting it; he made the altar hollow, boarded in
with wood.

8 And he made the washing-vessel of brass on a brass base,
using the polished brass looking-glasses given by the women
who did work at the doors of the Tent of meeting.

9 To make the open space, he put hangings on the south
side, of the best linen, a hundred cubits long:

10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were brass;
and the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.

11 And for the north side. hangings a hundred cubits long,
on twenty brass pillars in brass bases, with silver hooks and
bands.

12 And on the west side, hangings fifty cubits long, on ten
pillars in ten bases, with silver bands.

13 And on the east side, the open space was fifty cubits long.

14 The hangings on one side of the doorway were fifteen
cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases;

15 And the same on the other side of the doorway; on this
side and on that the hangings were fifteen cubits long, on
three pillars with their three bases.

16 All the hangings were of the best linen.

17 And the bases of the pillars were of brass; their hooks
and the bands round the tops of them were of silver; all the
pillars were ringed with silver.

18 And the curtain for the doorway of the open space was
of the best linen, with designs of blue and purple and red in
needlework; it was twenty cubits long and five cubits high,
to go with the hangings round the sides.

19 There were four pillars with their bases, all of brass, the
hooks being of silver, and their tops and their bands being
covered with silver.

20 All the nails used for the House and the open space
round it were of brass.

21 This is the price of the making of the House, even the
House of witness, as it was valued by the word of Moses, for
the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the
son of Aaron the priest.

22 Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of
Judah, made everything as the Lord had given orders to
Moses.

23 And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the
tribe of Dan; a designer and a trained workman, expert in
needlework of blue and purple and red and the best linen.

24 The gold used for all the different work done for the
holy place, the gold which was given, was twenty-nine talents,
and seven hundred and thirty shekels in weight, by the scale
of the holy place.

25 And the silver given by those who were numbered of the
people was a hundred talents, and a thousand, seven hundred
and seventy-five shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy
place.

26 A beka, that is, half a shekel by the holy scale, for
everyone who was numbered; there were six hundred and
three thousand, five hundred and fifty men of twenty years
old and over.

27 Of this silver, a hundred talents was used for making the
bases of the pillars of the holy place and of the veil; a talent
for every base.

28 And a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels
of silver was used to make the hooks for the pillars, and for
plating the tops of the pillars and for making their bands.

29 The brass which was given was seventy talents, two
thousand four hundred shekels;

30 From it he made the bases of the doorway of the Tent of
meeting and the brass altar and the network for it and all the
vessels for the altar,

31 And the bases for the open space all round and for its
doorway, and all the nails for the House and for the open
space.

EXODUS CHAPTER 39

1 And from the needlework of blue and purple and red they
made the robes used for the work of the holy place, and the
holy robes for Aaron, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

2 The ephod he made of gold and blue and purple and red
and the best linen;

3 Hammering the gold into thin plates and cutting it into
wires to be worked into the blue and the purple and the red
and the linen by the designer.

4 And they made two bands for joining its edges together at
the top of the arms.

5 And the beautifully worked band which went on it was of
the same design and the same material, worked in gold and
blue and purple and red and twisted linen-work, as the Lord
gave orders to Moses.

6 Then they made the beryl stones, fixed in twisted frames
of gold and cut like the cutting of a stamp, with the names of
the children of Israel.

7 These he put on the ephod, over the arm-holes, to be
stones of memory for the children of Israel, as the Lord had
said to Moses.

8 The priest's bag was designed like the ephod, of the best
linen worked with gold and blue and purple and red.

9 It was square and folded in two, as long and as wide as the
stretch of a man's hand;

10 And on it they put four lines of stones: in the first line
was a carnelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald;

11 In the second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx;

12 In the third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

13 In the fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they were
fixed in twisted frames of gold.

14 There were twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel;
on every one the name of one of the tribes of Israel was cut,
like the cutting of a stamp.

15 And on the bag they put gold chains, twisted like cords.

16 And they made two gold frames and two gold rings, the
rings being fixed to the ends of the priest's bag;

17 And they put the two twisted chains on the two rings at
the ends of the priest's bag;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 And the other two ends of the chains were joined to the
two frames and fixed to the front of the ephod over the arm-
holes.

19 And they made two rings of gold and put them on the
two lower ends of the bag, on the inner side nearest to the
ephod.

20 And two other gold rings were put on the front of the
ephod, over the arm-holes, at the join, and over the worked
band.

21 And the rings on the bag were fixed to the rings of the
ephod by a blue cord, keeping it in place over the band, so
that the bag might not get loose, as the Lord gave orders to
Moses.

22 The robe which went with the ephod was made all of
blue;

23 With a hole at the top in the middle, like the hole in the
coat of a fighting-man, edged with a band to make it strong.

24 The skirts of the robe were worked all round with fruits
in blue and purple and red made of twisted linen.

25 And between the fruits all round the skirt they put gold
bells, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

26 All round the skirt of the robe were bells and fruits in
turn.

27 The coats for Aaron and his sons they made of the best
linen;

28 And the twisted head-dress for Aaron, and beautiful
head-dresses of linen, and linen trousers,

29 And a linen band worked with a design of blue and
purple and red, as the Lord had said to Moses.

30 The plate for the holy crown was made of the best gold,
and on it were cut these words, HOLY TO THE LORD.

31 It was fixed to the head-dress by a blue cord, as the Lord
had given orders to Moses.

32 So all the work on the House of the Tent of meeting was
done; as the Lord had given orders to Moses, so the children
of Israel did it.

33 Then they took the House to Moses, the tent with all the
things for it; its hooks, its boards, its rods, its pillars, and its
bases;

34 The outer cover of sheepskins coloured red, and the
cover of leather, and the veil for the doorway;

35 The ark of the law, with its rods and its cover;

36 The table, with all its vessels and the holy bread;

37 The support for the lights, with the vessels for the lights
to be put in their places on it, and all its vessels, and the oil
for the lights;

38 And the gold altar, and the holy oil, and the sweet
perfume for burning, and the curtain for the doorway of the
tent;

39 And the brass altar, with its network of brass, and its
rods and all its vessels, and the washing-vessel and its base;

40 The hangings for the open space, with the pillars and
their bases, and the curtain for the doorway, and the cords
and nails, and all the instruments necessary for the work of
the House of the Tent of meeting;

41 The robes for use in the holy place, and the holy robes
for Aaron and his sons when acting as priests.

42 The children of Israel did everything as the Lord had
given orders to Moses.

43 Then Moses, when he saw all their work and saw that
they had done everything as the Lord had said, gave them his
blessing.

EXODUS CHAPTER 40

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 On the first day of the first month you are to put up the
House of the Tent of meeting.

3 And inside it put the ark of the law, hanging the veil
before it.

4 And put the table inside, placing all the things on it in
order; and put in the support for the lights, and let its lights
be burning.

5 And put the gold altar for burning perfumes in front of
the ark of the law, hanging the curtain over the doorway of
the House.

6 And put the altar of burned offerings before the doorway
of the House of the Tent of meeting.

7 And let the washing-vessel, with water in it, be put
between the Tent of meeting and the altar.

8 And put up the hangings forming the open space all
round it, with the curtain over its doorway.

9 And take the holy oil and put it on the House and
everything in it, and make it and everything in it holy:

10 And put oil on the altar of burned offering, and make it
and all its vessels holy; this altar is to be most holy.

11 And put oil on the washing-vessel and its base, and make
them holy.

12 Then let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the
Tent of meeting; and after washing them with water,

13 You are to put on Aaron the holy robes; and you are to
put oil on him, and make him holy, so that he may be my
priest.

14 And take his sons with him and put coats on them;

15 And put oil on them as you did on their father, so that
they may be my priests: the putting on of oil will make them
priests for ever, from generation to generation.

16 And Moses did this; as the Lord gave him orders, so he
did.

17 So on the first day of the first month in the second year
the House was put up.

18 Moses put up the House; placing its bases in position
and lifting up its uprights, putting in the rods and planting
the pillars in their places;

19 Stretching the outer tent over it, and covering it, as the
Lord had given him orders.

20 And he took the law and put it inside the ark, and put
the rods at its side and the cover over it;

21 And he took the ark into the House, hanging up the veil
before it as the Lord had given him orders.

22 And he put the table in the Tent of meeting, on the
north side outside the veil.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 And he put the bread on it in order before the Lord, as
the Lord had said.

24 The support for the lights he put in the Tent of meeting,
opposite the table, on the south side:

25 Lighting the lights before the Lord, as the Lord had
given him orders.

26 And he put the gold altar in the Tent of meeting, in
front of the veil:

27 Burning sweet perfumes on it, as the Lord had given him
orders.

28 And he put up the curtain at the doorway of the House.

29 And at the door of the House of the Tent of meeting, he
put the altar of burned offerings, offering on it the burned
offering and the meal offering, as the Lord had given him
orders.

30 And between the altar and the Tent of meeting he put
the vessel with water in it for washing.

31 In it the hands and feet of Moses and Aaron and his sons
were washed,

32 Whenever they went into the Tent of meeting, and when
they came near the altar, as the Lord had given orders to
Moses.

33 And he put up the hangings forming the open space
round the House and the altar, and put the curtain over the
doorway. So Moses made the work complete.

34 Then the cloud came down covering the Tent of meeting,
and the House was full of the glory of the Lord;

35 So that Moses was not able to go into the Tent of
meeting, because the cloud was resting on it, and the House
was full of the glory of the Lord.

36 And whenever the cloud was taken up from the House,
the children of Israel went forward on their journey:

37 But while the cloud was there, they made no move till it
was taken up.

38 For the cloud of the Lord was resting on the House by
day, and at night there was fire in the cloud, before the eyes
of all the people of Israel, and so it was through all their
journeys.

LEVITICUS
The Third Book of Moses
Hebrew Title: Vayikra ("And He Called")

(In Hebrew the book is called Vayikra, from the opening of
the book, va-yikra "And He [God] called." The name
Leviticus comes from the Latin Leviticus, which is in turn
from the Greek Leuitikon, referring to the Levites, the
Jewish priestly tribe or caste of Levi. The Greek expression 1s
in turn a variant of the rabbinic Hebrew "torat kohanim"
meaning "law of priests", as many of its laws relate to priests.
In principle, the Leviticus is the Basic Jewish Book of Law.

Contents or Structure:

SECTION 1: Laws on sacrifice (1:1—38)

A. Instructions for the laity on bringing offerings (1:1—6:7)

1-5. The types of offering: burnt, cereal, peace,
purification, reparation (or sin) offerings (ch. 1—5)

B. Instructions for the priests (6: 1-38)

1-6. The various offerings, with the addition of the priests’
cereal offering (6:1—36)

7. Summary (37-38)

Chapters 1—5 describe the various sacrifices from the
sacrificers' point of view, although the priests are essential
for handling the blood. Chapters 6—7 go over much the same
ground, but from the point of view of the priest, who, as the
one actually carrying out the sacrifice and dividing the
"portions", needs to know how to do this. Sacrifices are
between God, the priest, and the offerers, although in some
cases the entire sacrifice is a single portion to God—t.e.,
burnt to ashes.

SECTION 2: Institution of the priesthood (8: 1—10:20)

A. Ordination of Aaron and his sons (ch. 8)

B. Aaron makes the first sacrifices (ch. 9)

C. Judgement on Nadab and Abthu (ch. 10)

Chapters 8—10 describe how Moses consecrates Aaron and
his sons as the first priests, the first sacrifices, and God's
destruction of two of Aaron's sons for ritual offenses. The
purpose 1s to underline the character of altar priesthood (1.e.,
those priests with power to offer sacrifices to God) as an
Aaronite privilege, and the responsibilities and dangers of
their position.

SECTION 3: Uncleanliness and its treatment (11:1—15:33)

A. Unclean animals (ch. 11)

B. Childbirth as a source of uncleanliness (ch. 12)

C. Unclean diseases (ch. 13)

D. Cleansing of diseases (ch. 14)

E. Uncelean discharges (ch. 15)

With sacrifice and priesthood established, chapters 11—15
instruct the lay people on purity (or cleanliness). Eating
certain animals produces uncleanliness, as does giving birth;

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certain skin diseases (but not all) are unclean, as are certain
conditions affecting walls and clothing (mildew and similar
conditions); and genital discharges, including female menses
and male gonorrhea, are unclean. The reasoning behind the
food rules are obscure; for the rest the guiding principle
seems to be that all these conditions involve a loss of "life
force", usually but not always blood.

SECTION 4: Day of Atonement: purification of the
tabernacle (the tent of congregation or provisional temple)
from the effects of uncleanliness and sin (ch. 16)

Leviticus 16 concerns the Day of Atonement. This 1s the
only day on which the High Priest is to enter the holiest part
of the sanctuary, the holy of holies. He is to sacrifice a bull
for the sins of the priests, and a goat for the sins of the
laypeople. The priest is to send a second goat into the desert
to "Azazel", bearing the sins of the whole people. Azazel may
be a wilderness-demon, but its identity 1s mysterious.

SECTION 5: Prescriptions for practical holiness (the
Holiness Code, chs. 17-26)

A. Sacrifice and food (ch. 17)

B. Sexual behaviour (ch. 18)

C. Neighbourliness (ch. 19)

D. Grave crimes (ch. 20)

E. Rules for priests (ch. 21)

F. Rules for eating sacrifices (ch. 22)

G. Festivals (ch.23)

H.. Rules for the tabernacle (ch. 24: 1-9)

L Blasphemy (ch. 24:10—23)

J. Sabbatical and Jubilee years (ch. 25)

K. Exhortation to obey the law: blessing and curse (ch. 26)

Chapters 17-26 are the Holiness code. It begins with a
prohibition on all slaughter of animals outside the Temple,
even for food, and then prohibits a long list of sexual
contacts and also child sacrifice. The "holiness" injunctions
which give the code its name begin with the next section:
there are penalties for the worship of Molech, consulting
mediums and wizards, cursing one’s parents and engaging in
unlawful sex. Priests receive instruction on mourning rituals
and acceptable bodily defects. The punishment for blasphemy
is death, and there 1s the setting of rules for eating sacrifices;
there 1s an explanation of the calendar, and there are rules
for sabbatical and Jubilee years; there are rules for oil lamps
and bread in the sanctuary; and there are rules for slavery.
The code ends by telling the Israelites they must choose
between the law and prosperity on the one hand, or, on the
other, horrible punishments, the worst of which will be
expulsion from the land.

SECTION 6: Redemption of votive gifts (ch. 27).

Chapter 27 is a disparate and probably late addition telling
about persons and things serving as dedication to the Lord
and how one can redeem, instead of fulfill, vows.)

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 1
1 And the voice of the Lord came to Moses out of the Tent
of meeting, saying,

2 Give these orders to the children of Israel: When anyone
of you makes an offering to the Lord, you are to take it from
the cattle, from the herd or from the flock.

3 If the offering is a burned offering of the herd, let him
give a male without a mark: he is to give it at the door of the
Tent of meeting so that he may be pleasing to the Lord.

4 And he is to put his hand on the head of the burned
offering and it will be taken for him, to take away his sin.

5 And the ox is to be put to death before the Lord: then
Aaron's sons, the priests, are to take the blood and put some
of it on and round the altar which is at the door of the Tent
of meeting.

6 And the burned offering is to be skinned and cut up into
its parts.

7 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put fire on the altar
and put the wood in order on the fire:

8 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put the parts, the
head and the fat, in order on the wood which is on the fire on
the altar:

9 But its inside parts and its legs are to be washed with
water, and it will all be burned on the altar by the priest for
a burned offering, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell
to the Lord.

10 And if his offering is of the flock, a burned offering of
sheep or goats, let him give a male without a mark.

11 And he is to put it to death on the north side of the altar
before the Lord: and Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put
some of the blood on and round the altar.

12 And the offering is to be cut into its parts, with its head
and its fat; and the priest is to put them in order on the wood
which is on the fire on the altar:

13 But the inside parts and the legs are to be washed with
water; and the priest will make an offering of all of it,
burning it on the altar: it is a burned offering, an offering
made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

14 And if his offering to the Lord is a burned offering of
birds, then he is to make his offering of doves or of young
pigeons.

15 And the priest is to take it to the altar, and after its head
has been twisted off, it is to be burned on the altar, and its
blood drained out on the side of the altar:

16 And he is to take away its stomach, with its feathers, and
put it down by the east side of the altar, where the burned
waste is put:

17 And let it be broken open at the wings, but not cut in
two; and let it be burned on the altar by the priest on the
wood which is on the fire; it is a burned offering; an offering
made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 2

1 And when anyone makes a meal offering to the Lord, let
his offering be of the best meal, with oil on it and perfume:

2 And let him take it to Aaron's sons, the priests; and
having taken in his hand some of the meal and of the oil, with
all the perfume, let him give it to the priest to be burned on

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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the altar, as a sign, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell
to the Lord.

3 And the rest of the meal offering will be for Aaron and his
sons; it is most holy among the Lord's fire offerings.

4 And when you give a meal offering cooked in the oven, let
it be of unleavened cakes of the best meal mixed with oil, or
thin unleavened cakes covered with oil.

5 And if you give a meal offering cooked on a flat plate, let
it be of the best meal, unleavened and mixed with oil.

6 Let it be broken into bits, and put oil on it; it is a meal
offering.

7 And if your offering is of meal cooked in fat over the fire,
let it be made of the best meal mixed with oil.

8 And you are to give the meal offering made of these things
to the Lord, and let the priest take it to the altar.

9 And he is to take from the meal offering a part, for a sign,
burning it on the altar; an offering made by fire for a sweet
smell to the Lord.

10 And the rest of the meal offering will be for Aaron and
his sons; it is most holy among the Lord's fire offerings.

11 No meal offering which you give to the Lord is to be
made with leaven; no leaven or honey is to be burned as an
offering made by fire to the Lord.

12 You may give them as an offering of first-fruits to the
Lord, but they are not to go up as a sweet smell on the altar.

13 And every meal offering is to be salted with salt; your
meal offering is not to be without the salt of the agreement of
your God: with all your offerings give salt.

14 And if you give a meal offering of first-fruits to the Lord,
give, as your offering of first-fruits, new grain, made dry
with fire, crushed new grain.

15 And put oil on it and perfume: it is a meal offering.

16 And part of the meal of the offering and part of the oil
and all the perfume is to be burned for a sign by the priest: it
is an offering made by fire to the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 3

1 And if his offering is given for a peace-offering; if he gives
of the herd, male or female, let him give it without any mark
on it, before the Lord.

2 And he is to put his hand on the head of his offering and
put it to death at the door of the Tent of meeting; and
Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put some of the blood on and
round the altar.

3 And he is to give of the peace-offering, as an offering
made by fire to the Lord; the fat covering the inside parts
and all the fat on the inside parts,

4 And the two kidneys, and the fat on them, which is by the
top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the
kidneys, he is to take away;

5 That it may be burned by Aaron's sons on the altar, on
the burned offering which is on the wood on the fire: it is an
offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord.

6 And if what he gives for a peace-offering to the Lord is of
the flock, let him give a male or female, without any mark on
it.

7 If his offering is a lamb, then let it be placed before the
Lord:

8 And he is to put his hand on the head of his offering and
put it to death before the Tent of meeting; and Aaron's sons
are to put some of its blood on and round the altar.

9 And of the peace-offering, let him give an offering made
by fire to the Lord; the fat of it, all the fat tail, he is to take
away near the backbone; and the fat covering the inside parts
and all the fat on the inside parts,

10 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by
the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the
kidneys, he is to take away;

11 That it may be burned by the priest on the altar; it is the
food of the offering made by fire to the Lord.

12 And if his offering is a goat, then let it be placed before
the Lord,

13 And let him put his hand on the head of it and put it to
death before the Tent of meeting; and the sons of Aaron are
to put some of its blood on and round the altar.

14 And of it let him make his offering, an offering made by
fire to the Lord; the fat covering the inside parts and all the
fat on the inside parts,

15 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by
the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the
kidneys, let him take away;

16 That it may be burned by the priest on the altar; it is the
food of the offering made by fire for a sweet smell: all the fat
is the Lord's.

17 Let it be an order for ever, through all your generations,
in all your houses, that you are not to take fat or blood for
food.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 4

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the offerings of
anyone who does wrong through error, doing any of the
things which by the Lord's order are not to be done:

3 If the chief priest by doing wrong becomes a cause of sin
to the people, then let him give to the Lord for the sin which
he has done, an ox, without any mark, for a sin-offering.

4 And he is to take the ox to the door of the Tent of meeting
before the Lord; and put his hand on its head and put it to
death before the Lord.

5 And the chief priest is to take some of its blood and take it
to the Tent of meeting;

6 And the priest is to put his finger in the blood, shaking
drops of it before the Lord seven times, in front of the veil of
the holy place.

7 And the priest is to put some of the blood on the horns of
the altar on which perfume is burned before the Lord in the
Tent of meeting, draining out all the rest of the blood of the
ox at the base of the altar of burned offering which is at the
door of the Tent of meeting.

8 And he is to take away all the fat of the ox of the sin-
offering; the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat of
the inside parts,

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by
the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the
kidneys, he is to take away,

10 As it is taken from the ox of the peace-offering; and it is
to be burned by the priest on the altar of burned offerings.

11 And the skin of the ox and all its flesh, with its head and
its legs and its inside parts and its waste,

12 All the ox, he is to take away outside the circle of the
tents into a clean place where the burned waste is put, and
there it is to be burned on wood with fire.

13 And if all the people of Israel do wrong, without
anyone's knowledge; if they have done any of the things
which by the Lord's order are not to be done, causing sin to
come on them;

14 When the sin which they have done comes to light, then
let all the people give an ox for a sin-offering, and take it
before the Tent of meeting.

15 And let the chiefs of the people put their hands on its
head before the Lord, and put the ox to death before the
Lord.

16 And the priest is to take some of its blood to the Tent of
meeting;

17 And put his finger in the blood, shaking drops of the
blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil.

18 And he is to put some of the blood on the horns of the
altar which is before the Lord in the Tent of meeting; and all
the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the
altar of burned offering at the door of the Tent of meeting.

19 And he is to take off all its fat, burning it on the altar.

20 Let him do with the ox as he did with the ox of the sin-
offering; and the priest will take away their sin and they will
have forgiveness.

21 Then let the ox be taken away outside the tent-circle,
that it may be burned as the other ox was burned; it is the
sin-offering for all the people.

22 Ifa ruler does wrong, and in error does any of the things
which, by the order of the Lord his God, are not to be done,
causing sin to come on him;

23 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him, let
him give for his offering a goat, a male without any mark.

24 And he is to put his hand on the head of the goat and put
it to death in the place where they put to death the burned
offering before the Lord: it is a sin-offering.

25 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the
offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of
burned offering, draining out the rest of the blood at the
base of the altar of burned offering.

26 And all the fat of it is to be burned on the altar like the
fat of the peace-offering; and the priest will take away his sin
and he will have forgiveness.

27 And if any one of the common people does wrong in
error, doing any of the things which the Lord has given
orders are not to be done, causing sin to come on him;

28 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him,
then he is to give for his offering a goat, a female without any
mark, for the sin which he has done.

29 And he is to put his hand on the head of the sin-offering
and put it to death in the place where they put to death the
burned offering.

30 And the priest is to take some of the blood with his
finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering,
and all the rest of its blood is to be drained out at the base of
the altar.

31 And let all its fat be taken away, as the fat is taken away
from the peace-offerings, and let it be burned on the altar by
the priest for a sweet smell to the Lord; and the priest will
take away his sin and he will have forgiveness.

32 And if he gives a lamb as his sin-offering, let it be a
female without any mark;

33 And he is to put his hand on the head of the offering and
put it to death for a sin-offering in the place where they put
to death the burned offering.

34 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the
offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of
burned offering, and all the rest of the blood is to be drained
out at the base of the altar;

35 And let him take away all its fat, as the fat is taken away
from the lamb of the peace-offerings; and let it be burned by
the priest on the altar among the offerings made by fire to
the Lord: and the priest will take away his sin and he will
have forgiveness.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 5

1 And if anyone does wrong by saying nothing when he is
put under oath as a witness of something he has seen or had
knowledge of, then he will be responsible:

2 If anyone becomes unclean through touching
unconsciously some unclean thing, such as the dead body of
an unclean beast or of unclean cattle or of any unclean
animal which goes flat on the earth, he will be responsible:

3 Or if he becomes unclean through touching unconsciously
any unclean thing of man, whatever it may be, when it is
made clear to him he will be responsible:

4 Or if anyone, without thought, takes an oath to do evil or
to do good, whatever he says without thought, with an oath,
having no knowledge of what he is doing; when it becomes
clear to him, he will be responsible for any of these things.

5 And whoever is responsible for any such sin, let him make
a statement openly of his wrongdoing;

6 And take to the Lord the offering for the wrong which he
has done, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin-
offering, and the priest will take away his sin.

7 And if he has not money enough for a lamb, then let him
give, for his offering to the Lord, two doves or two young
pigeons; one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering.

8 And let him take them to the priest, who will first give
the sin-offering, twisting off its head from its neck, but not
cutting it in two;

9 And he is to put drops of the blood of the offering on the
side of the altar, and the rest of the blood is to be drained out
at the base of the altar; it is a sin-offering.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And the second is for a burned offering, in agreement
with the law; and the priest will take away his sin and he will
have forgiveness.

11 But if he has not enough money for two doves or two
young pigeons, then let him give, for the sin he has done, the
tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, for a sin-offering; let
him put no oil on it, and no perfume, for it is a sin-offering.

12 And let him come to the priest with it, and the priest
will take some of it in his hand, to be burned on the altar as a
sign, among the offerings of the Lord made by fire: it is a sin-
offering.

13 And the priest will take away his sin and he will have
forgiveness: and the rest of the offering will be the priest's, in
the same way as the meal offering.

14 And the Lord said to Moses,

15 If anyone is untrue, sinning in error in connection with
the holy things of the Lord, let him take his offering to the
Lord, a male sheep from the flock, without any mark, of the
value fixed by you in silver by shekels, by the scale of the holy
place.

16 And he is to make payment to the priest for what he has
done wrong in relation to the holy thing, together with a
fifth part of its value in addition; and the priest will take
away his sin by the sheep of his offering, and he will have
forgiveness.

17 And if anyone does wrong, and does any of the things
which the Lord has given orders are not to be done, though
he has no knowledge of it, still he is in the wrong and he is
responsible.

18 Let him come to the priest with a sheep, a male without
any mark out of the flock, of the value fixed by you, as an
offering for his error; and the priest will take away the sin
which he did in error, and he will have forgiveness.

19 It is an offering for his error: he is certainly responsible
before the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 6

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 If anyone does wrong, and is untrue to the Lord, acting
falsely to his neighbour in connection with something put in
his care, or something given for a debt, or has taken away
anything by force, or has been cruel to his neighbour,

3 Or has taken a false oath about the loss of something
which he has come across by chance; if a man has done any of
these evil things,

4 Causing sin to come on him, then he will have to give
back the thing he took by force or got by cruel acts, or the
goods which were put in his care or the thing he came on by
chance,

5 Or anything about which he took a false oath; he will
have to give it all back, with the addition of a fifth of its
value, to him whose property it is, when he has been judged
to be in the wrong.

6 Then let him take to the Lord the offering for his
wrongdoing; giving to the priest for his offering, a male

sheep from the flock, without any mark, of the value fixed by
you:

7 And the priest will take away his sin from before the Lord,
and he will have forgiveness for whatever crime he has done

8 And the Lord said to Moses,

9 Give orders to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the
law for the burned offering: the offering is to be on the fire-
wood on the altar all night till the morning; and the fire of
the altar is to be kept burning.

10 And the priest is to put on his linen robes and his linen
trousers, and take up what is over of the offering after it has
been burned on the altar, and put it by the side of the altar.

11 Then having taken off his linen robes and put on other
clothing, he is to take it away into a clean place, outside the
tent-circle.

12 The fire on the altar is to be kept burning; it is never to
go out; every morning the priest is to put wood on it, placing
the burned offering in order on it, and there the fat of the
peace-offering is to be burned.

13 Let the fire be kept burning on the altar at all times; it is
never to go out.

14 And this is the law for the meal offering: it is to be
offered to the Lord before the altar by the sons of Aaron.

15 The priest is to take in his hand some of the meal of the
meal offering and of the oil of it, and all the perfume on it,
burning it on the altar as a sign, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

16 And whatever is over Aaron and his sons may have for
their food, taking it without leaven in a holy place; in the
open space of the Tent of meeting they may take a meal of it.

17 It is not to be cooked with leaven. I have given it to them
as their part of the offerings made by fire to me; it is most
holy, as are the sin-offerings and the offerings for error.

18 Every male among the children of Aaron may have it for
food; it is their right for ever through all your generations,
from the offerings made by fire to the Lord: anyone touching
them will be holy.

19 And the Lord said to Moses,

20 This is the offering which Aaron and his sons are to
make to the Lord on the day when he is made a priest: the
tenth part of an ephah of the best meal for a meal offering for
ever; half of it in the morning and half in the evening.

21 Let it be made with oil on a flat plate; when it is well
mixed and cooked, let it be broken and taken in as a meal
offering, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

22 And the same offering is to be given by that one of his
sons who takes his place as priest; by an order for ever, all of
it is to be burned before the Lord.

23 Every meal offering offered for the priest is to be
completely burned: nothing of it is to be taken for food.

24 And the Lord said to Moses,

25 Say to Aaron and his sons, This is the law for the sin-
offering: the sin-offering is to be put to death before the
Lord in the same place as the burned offering; it is most holy.

26 The priest by whom it is offered for sin, is to take it for
his food in a holy place, in the open space of the Tent of
meeting.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 Anyone touching the flesh of it will be holy: and if any
of the blood is dropped on any clothing, the thing on which
the blood has been dropped is to be washed in a holy place.

28 But the vessel of earth in which the flesh was cooked is to
be broken; or if a brass vessel was used, it is to be rubbed
clean and washed out with water.

29 Every male among the priests may take it for his food: it
is most holy.

30 No sin-offering, the blood of which is taken into the
Tent of meeting, to take away sin in the holy place, may be
used for food: it is to be burned with fire.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 7

1 And this is the law of the offering for wrongdoing: it is
most holy.

2 They are to put to death the offering for wrongdoing in
the same place as the burned offering; and the priest is to put
the blood on and round the altar.

3 And all the fat of it, the fat tail and the fat covering the
inside parts, is to be given as an offering.

4 And the two kidneys, and the fat on them, which is by the
top of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys,
he is to take away:

5 They are to be burned by the priest on the altar for an
offering made by fire to the Lord: it is an offering for
wrongdoing.

6 Every male among the priests may have it as food in a
holy place: it is most holy.

7 As is the sin-offering, so is the offering for wrongdoing;
there is one law for them: the priest who makes the offering
to take away sin, he is to have it.

8 And the priest offering any man's burned offering for him,
may have the skin of the burned offering which is offered by
him.

9 And every meal offering which is cooked in the oven and
everything made in a cooking pot or on a flat plate, is for the
priest by whom it is offered.

10 And every meal offering, mixed with oil or dry, is for all
the sons of Aaron in equal measure.

11 And this is the law for the peace-offerings offered to the
Lord.

12 If any man gives his offering as a praise-offering, then let
him give with the offering, unleavened cakes mixed with oil
and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil and cakes of the
best meal well mixed with oil.

13 With his peace-offering let him give cakes of leavened
bread, as a praise-offering.

14 And let him give one out of every offering to be lifted up
before the Lord; that it may be for the priest who puts the
blood of the peace-offering on the altar.

15 And the flesh of the praise-offering is to be taken as food
on the day when it is offered; no part of it may be kept till the
morning.

16 But if his offering is made because of an oath or given
freely, it may be taken as food on the day when it is offered;
and the rest may be used up on the day after:

17 But if any of the flesh of the offering is still unused on
the third day, it is to be burned with fire.

18 And if any of the flesh of the peace-offering is taken as
food on the third day, it will not be pleasing to God and will
not be put to the account of him who gives it; it will be
unclean and a cause of sin to him who takes it as food.

19 And flesh touched by any unclean thing may not be
taken for food: it is to be burned with fire; and as for the
flesh of the peace-offerings, everyone who is clean may take it
as food:

20 But he who is unclean when he takes as food the flesh of
the peace-offerings, which are the Lord's, will be cut off from
his people.

21 And anyone who, after touching any unclean thing of
man or an unclean beast or any unclean and disgusting thing,
takes as food the flesh of the peace-offerings, which are the
Lord's, will be cut off from his people.

22 And the Lord said to Moses,

23 Say to the children of Israel: You are not to take any fat,
of ox or sheep or goat, for food.

24 And the fat of that which comes to a natural death, and
the fat of that which is attacked by beasts, may be used for
other purposes, but not in any way for food.

25 For anyone who takes as food the fat of any beast of
which men make an offering by fire to the Lord, will be cut
off from his people.

26 And you are not to take for food any blood, of bird or of
beast, in any of your houses.

27 Whoever takes any blood for food will be cut off from
his people.

28 And the Lord said to Moses,

29 Say to the children of Israel: He who makes a peace-
offering to the Lord, is to give an offering to the Lord out of
his peace-offering:

30 He himself is to take to the Lord the offering made by
fire, even the fat with the breast, so that the breast may be
waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

31 And the fat is to be burned by the priest on the altar, but
the breast is for Aaron and his sons.

32 And the right leg you are to give to the priest for an
offering to be lifted up out of what is given for your peace-
offerings.

33 That man, among the sons of Aaron, by whom the blood
of the peace-offering and the fat are offered, is to have the
right leg for his part.

34 For the breast which is waved and the right leg which is
lifted up on high I have taken from the children of Israel,
from their peace-offerings, and have given them to Aaron the
priest and to his sons as their right for ever from the children
of Israel.

35 This is the holy part given to Aaron and to his sons, out
of the offerings made to the Lord by fire, on the day when
they were made priests before the Lord;

36 Which the Lord said the children of Israel were to give
them, on the day when he made them his priests. It is their
right for ever from generation to generation.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

37 These are the laws for the burned offering, the meal
offering, and the offering for wrongdoing; and for the
making of priests, and for the giving of peace-offerings;

38 As they were given by the Lord to Moses on Mount Sinai,
on the day when the Lord gave orders to the children of
Israel to make their offerings to the Lord, in the waste land
of Sinai.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 8

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Take Aaron, and his sons with him, and the robes and the
holy oil and the ox of the sin-offering and the two male sheep
and the basket of unleavened bread;

3 And let all the people come together at the door of the
Tent of meeting.

4 And Moses did as the Lord said, and all the people came
together at the door of the Tent of meeting.

5 And Moses said to the people, This is what the Lord has
given orders to be done.

6 Then Moses took Aaron and his sons; and after washing
them with water,

7 He put the coat on him, making it tight with its band,
and then the robe, and over it the ephod, with its band of
needlework to keep it in place.

8 And he put the priest's bag on him, and in the bag he put
the Urim and Thummim.

9 And on his head he put the head-dress, and in front of the
head-dress the plate of gold, the holy crown, as the Lord
gave orders to Moses.

10 And Moses took the holy oil and put it on the House and
on all the things in it, to make them holy.

11 Seven times he put oil on the altar and on all its vessels,
and on the washing-basin and its base, to make them holy.

12 And some of the oil he put on Aaron's head, to make him
holy.

13 Then he took Aaron's sons, clothing them with the coats,
and putting the bands round them, and the head-dresses on
their heads, as the Lord had given him orders.

14 And he took the ox of the sin-offering: and Aaron and
his sons put their hands on the head of the ox,

15 And he put it to death; and Moses took the blood and
put it on the horns of the altar and round it with his finger,
and made the altar clean, draining out the blood at the base
of the altar; so he made it holy, taking away what was
unclean.

16 And he took all the fat on the inside parts, and the fat on
the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, to be burned on
the altar;

17 But the ox, with its skin and its flesh and its waste, was
burned with fire outside the tent-circle, as the Lord gave
orders to Moses.

18 And he put the male sheep of the burned offering before
the Lord, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head,

19 And he put it to death; and Moses put some of the blood
on and round the altar.

20 And when the sheep had been cut into parts, the head
and the parts and the fat were burned by Moses.

21 And the inside parts and the legs were washed with
water and all the sheep was burned by Moses on the altar; it
was a burned offering for a sweet smell: it was an offering
made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

22 And he put the other sheep before the Lord, the sheep
with which they were made priests; and Aaron and his sons
put their hands on the head of the sheep,

23 And he put it to death; and Moses took some of the
blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear and on the
thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot.

24 Then he took Aaron's sons, and Moses put some of the
blood on the point of their right ears and on the thumbs of
their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet: and
Moses put the blood on and round the altar.

25 And he took the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat on the
inside parts, and the fat on the liver, and the two kidneys
with their fat, and the right leg;

26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread which was
before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of
bread with oil on it, and one thin cake, and put them on the
fat and on the right leg:

27 And he put them all on the hands of Aaron and on the
hands of his sons, waving them for a wave offering before the
Lord.

28 And Moses took them from their hands, and they were
burned on the altar on the burned offering, as a priest's
offering for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the
Lord.

29 And Moses took the breast, waving it for a wave offering
before the Lord; it was Moses’ part of the sheep of the priest's
offering, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

30 And Moses took some of the holy oil and of the blood
which was on the altar and put it on Aaron and on his robes,
and on his sons and on his sons' robes; and made Aaron holy,
and his robes and his sons and his sons’ robes with him.

31 And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, The flesh is to
be cooked in water at the door of the Tent of meeting, and
there you are to take it as food, together with the bread in
the basket, as I have given orders, saying, It is the food of
Aaron and his sons.

32 And that which is over of the flesh and of the bread is to
be burned with fire.

33 And you are not to go out from the door of the Tent of
meeting for seven days, till the days for making you priest are
ended; for this will be the work of seven days.

34 What has been done this day, has been ordered by the
Lord to take away your sin.

35 And you are to keep watch for the Lord at the door of
the Tent of meeting day and night for seven days, so that
death may not come to you: for so he has given me orders.

36 And Aaron and his sons did all the things about which
the Lord had given orders through Moses.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 9

1 And on the eighth day Moses sent for Aaron and his sons
and the responsible men of Israel;

2 And he said to Aaron, Take a young ox for a sin-offering
and a male sheep for a burned offering, without a mark, and
make an offering of them before the Lord.

3 And say to the children of Israel: Take a he-goat for a sin-
offering, and a young ox and a lamb, in their first year,
without any mark on them, for a burned offering;

4 And an ox and a male sheep for peace-offerings, to be put
to death before the Lord; and a meal offering mixed with oil:
for this day you are to see the Lord.

5 And they took the things ordered by Moses, before the
Tent of meeting, and all the people came near, waiting before
the Lord.

6 And Moses said, This is what the Lord has said you are to
do; and you will see the glory of the Lord.

7 And Moses said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and
make your sin-offering and your burned offering to take
away your sin and the sin of the people, and make the
people's offering to take away their sin; as the Lord has given
orders.

8 So Aaron came near to the altar and put to death the ox
for the sin-offering for himself;

9 And the sons of Aaron gave him the blood and he put his
finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar,
draining out the blood at the base of the altar;

10 But the fat and the kidneys and the fat on the liver of the
sin-offering were burned by him on the altar as the Lord
gave orders to Moses.

11 And the flesh and the skin were burned with fire outside
the tent-circle;

12 And he put to death the burned offering; and Aaron's
sons gave him the blood and he put some of it on and round
the altar;

13 And they gave him the parts of the burned offering, in
their order, and the head, to be burned on the altar.

14 And the inside parts and the legs, when they had been
washed with water, were burned on the burned offering on
the altar.

15 And he made an offering for the people and took the
goat of the sin-offering for the people and put it to death,
offering it for sin, in the same way as the first.

16 And he took the burned offering, offering it in the
ordered way;

17 And he put the meal offering before the Lord, and
taking some of it in his hand he had it burned on the altar,
separately from the burned offering of the morning.

18 And he put to death the ox and the sheep, which were
the peace-offerings for the people; and Aaron's sons gave him
the blood and he put some of it on and round the altar;

19 And as for the fat of the ox and the fat tail of the sheep
and the fat covering the inside parts and the kidneys and the
fat on the liver;

20 They put the fat on the breasts, and the fat was burned
on the altar.

21 And Aaron took the breasts and the right leg, waving
them for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses gave
orders.

22 And Aaron, lifting up his hands to the people, gave
them a blessing; and he came down from offering the sin-
offering, and the burned offering, and the peace-offerings.

23 And Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of meeting,
and came out and gave the people a blessing, and the glory of
the Lord was seen by all the people.

24 And fire came out from before the Lord, burning up the
offering on the altar and the fat: and when all the people saw
it, they gave aloud cry, falling down on their faces.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 10

1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their
vessels and put fire in them and perfume, burning strange fire
before the Lord, which he had not given them orders to do.

2 And fire came out from before the Lord, burning them up
and causing their destruction before the Lord.

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord said, I
will be holy in the eyes of all those who come near to me, and
I will be honoured before all the people. And Aaron said
nothing.

4 And Moses sent for Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of
Uzziel, the brother of Aaron's father, and said to them, Come
near and take your brothers away from before the holy place,
outside the tent-circle.

5 So they came and took them, in their coats, outside the
tent-circle, as Moses had said.

6 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his
sons, Do not let your hair be loose, and give no signs of grief;
so that death may not overtake you, and his wrath come on
all the people; but let there be weeping among your brothers
and all the house of Israel for this burning of the Lord's fire.

7 And do not go out from the door of the Tent of meeting,
or death will come to you; for the holy oil of the Lord is on
you. And they did as Moses said.

8 And the Lord said to Aaron:

9 Take no wine, or strong drink, you or your sons with you,
when you go into the Tent of meeting, that it may not be the
cause of death to you; this is an order for ever through all
your generations.

10 And make a division between the holy and the common,
and between the unclean and the clean;

11 Teaching the children of Israel all the laws which the
Lord has given them by the hand of Moses.

12 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar,
his sons who were still living, Take the rest of the meal
offering from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and take
it for your food, without leaven, at the side of the altar, for it
is most holy.

13 It is to be for your food in a holy place, because it is your
right and your sons’ right, from the offerings of the Lord
made by fire: for so am I ordered.

14 And the breast which is waved and the leg which is lifted
up on high, you are to take as your food in a clean place; you

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and your sons and your daughters with you: for they are
given to you as your right and your sons' right, from the
peace-offerings of the children of Israel.

15 Let them take the breast which is waved and the leg
which is lifted up on high, with the fat of the burned offering,
to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord; and this will
be for you and for your sons with you, for a right for ever, as
the Lord has given orders.

16 And Moses was looking for the goat of the sin-offering,
but it was burned; and he was angry with Eleazar and
Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, who were still living, saying,

17 Why did you not make a meal of the sin-offering in the
holy place? For it is most holy and he has given it to you, so
that the sin of the people may be put on it, to take away their
sin before the Lord.

18 See, its blood was not taken into the holy place:
certainly it was right for you to have taken it as food in the
holy place, as I gave orders.

19 And Aaron said to Moses, You have seen that today they
have made their sin-offering and their burned offering before
the Lord, and such things as these have come on me. If I had
taken the sin-offering as food today, would it have been
pleasing to the Lord?

20 And after hearing this, Moses was no longer angry.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 11

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the living things
which you may have for food among all the beasts on the
earth.

3 You may have as food any beast which has a division in
the horn of its foot, and whose food comes back into its
mouth to be crushed again.

4 But, at the same time, of those beasts, you may not take
for food the camel, because its food comes back but the horn
of its foot is not parted in two; it is unclean to you.

5 And the rock-badger, for the same reason, is unclean to
you.

6 And the hare, because the horn of its foot is not parted in
two, is unclean to you.

7 And the pig is unclean to you, because though the horn of
its foot is parted, its food does not come back.

8 Their flesh may not be used for food, and their dead
bodies may not even be touched; they are unclean to you.

9 These you may have for food of all things living in the
water: anything living in the water, in the seas or rivers,
which has special parts for swimming and skin formed of thin
plates, may be used for food.

10 All other things living and moving in the water, in the
sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you;

11 They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are
disgusting to you.

12 Anything in the water which has no special parts for
swimming and no thin plates on its skin is disgusting to you.

13 And among birds these are to be disgusting to you, and
not to be used for food: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the
ospray;

14 And the kite and the falcon, and birds of that sort;

15 Every raven, and birds of that sort;

16 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk,
and birds of that sort;

17 And the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl;

18 And the water-hen and the pelican and the vulture;

19 The stork and the heron, and birds of that sort, and the
hoopoe and the bat.

20 Every winged four-footed thing which goes on the earth
is disgusting to you;

21 But of the winged four-footed things, those which have
long legs for jumping on the earth you may have for food;

22 Such as all the different sorts of locust.

23 But all other winged four-footed things which go on the
earth are disgusting to you.

24 By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching
their dead bodies will be unclean till evening:

25 Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to
have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening.

26 Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a
complete division, and whose food does not come back, is
unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean.

27 Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot,
is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of
these will be unclean till evening.

28 Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is
to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.

29 And these are unclean to you among things which go
low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the
great lizard, and animals of that sort;

30 And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and
the sand-lizard and the chameleon.

31 All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them
when they are dead will be unclean till evening.

32 The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will
make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or
clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any
purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be
unclean till evening; after that it will be clean.

33 And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth,
whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will
have to be broken.

34 Any food in it, and anything on which water from it
comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel
will be unclean.

35 Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on
anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-
pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be
unclean to you.

36 But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is
stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead
bodies will be unclean.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

37 If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to
any seed for planting, it is clean;

38 But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead
body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you.

39 And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a
natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean
till evening.

40 And he who makes use of any part of its body for food is
to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening; and
anyone taking away its body is to have his clothing washed
and be unclean till evening.

41 Everything which goes flat on its body on the earth is
disgusting, and is not to be used for food.

42 Whatever goes on its stomach or on four feet or has a
great number of feet, even all those going flat on the earth,
may not be used for food, for they are disgusting.

43 You are not to make yourselves disgusting with
anything which goes about flat on the earth; you may not
make yourselves unclean with them, in such a way that you
are not holy to me.

44 For I am the Lord your God: for this reason, make and
keep yourselves holy, for I am holy; you are not to make
yourselves unclean with any sort of thing which goes about
flat on the earth.

45 For I am the Lord, who took you out of the land of
Egypt, to be your God; so be you holy, for I am holy.

46 This is the law about beasts and birds and every living
thing moving in the waters, and every living thing which
goes flat on the earth:

47 Marking out the unclean from the clean, and the living
thing which may be used for food from that which may not.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 12

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, Ifa woman is with child and
gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean for seven days,
as when she is unwell.

3 And on the eighth day let him be given circumcision.

4 And she will be unclean for thirty-three days till the flow
of her blood is stopped; no holy thing may be touched by her,
and she may not come into the holy place, till the days for
making her clean are ended.

5 But if she gives birth to a female child, then she will be
unclean for two weeks, as when she is unwell; and she will not
be completely clean for sixty-six days.

6 And when the days are ended for making her clean for a
son or a daughter, let her take to the priest at the door of the
Tent of meeting, a lamb of the first year for a burned offering
and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin-offering:

7 And the priest is to make an offering of it before the Lord
and take away her sin, and she will be made clean from the
flow of her blood. This is the law for a woman who gives
birth to a male or a female.

8 And if she has not money enough for a lamb, then let her
take two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burned

offering and the other for a sin-offering, and the priest will
take away her sin and she will be clean,

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 13

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 Ifa man has on his skin a growth or a mark or a white
place, and it becomes the disease of a leper, let him be taken
to Aaron the priest, or to one of the priests, his sons;

3 And if, when the priest sees the mark on his skin, the hair
on the place is turned white and the mark seems to go deeper
than the skin, it is the mark of a leper: and the priest, after
looking at him, will say that he is unclean.

4 But if the mark on his skin is white, and does not seem to
go deeper than the skin, and the hair on it is not turned
white, then the priest will keep him shut up for seven days;

5 And the priest is to see him on the seventh day; and if, in
his opinion, the place on his skin has not become worse and is
not increased in size, then the priest will keep him shut up for
seven days more:

6 And the priest is to see him again on the seventh day; and
if the mark is less bright and 1s not increased on his skin, then
let the priest say that he is clean: it is only a skin-mark, and
after his clothing has been washed he will be clean.

7 But if the size of the mark on his skin is increased after he
has been seen by the priest, let him go to the priest again:

8 And if, after looking at him, he sees that the mark is
increased in his skin, let the priest say that he is unclean; he is
a leper.

9 When the disease of a leper is seen on a man, let him be
taken to the priest;

10 And if the priest sees that there is a white growth on the
skin, and the hair is turned white, and there is diseased flesh
in the growth,

11 It is an old disease in the skin of his flesh, and the priest
will say that he is unclean; he will not have to be shut up, for
he is clearly unclean.

12 And if the disease comes out all over his skin, from his
head to his feet, as far as the priest is able to see,

13 And if the priest sees that all his flesh is covered with the
leper's disease, the priest will say that he is clean: it is all
turned white, he is clean.

14 But whenever diseased flesh is seen on him, he will be
unclean.

15 And when the priest sees the diseased flesh he will say
that he is unclean; the diseased flesh is unclean, he is a leper.

16 Or if the diseased flesh is turned again and changed to
white then he is to come to the priest,

17 And the priest will see him: and if the place is turned
white, then the priest will say that he is free from the disease.

18 And if a bad place has come out on the skin and is well
again,

19 And on the same place there is a white growth of a
bright mark, red and white, then let the priest see it;

20 And after looking at it, if it seems to go deeper than the
skin, and the hair on it is turned white, then the priest will

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

say that the man is unclean: it is the leper's disease, it has
come out in the bad place.

21 But if, after looking at it, he sees that there are no white
hairs on it, and it is not deeper than the skin, and it is not
very bright, then let the priest keep him shut up for seven
days:

22 And if it is increasing on the skin, the priest will say that
he is unclean: it is a disease.

23 But if the bright mark keeps in the same place and gets
no greater, it is the mark of the old wound, and the priest
will say that he is clean.

24 Or if there is a burn on the skin of the flesh, and if the
diseased flesh in the burn becomes a bright place, red and
white or white,

25 The priest is to see it: and if the hair on the bright place
is turned white and it seems to go deeper than the skin, he is a
leper: it has come out in the burn, and the priest will say that
he is unclean: it is the leper's disease.

26 But if, after looking at it, the priest sees that there is no
white hair on the bright place, and it is not deeper than the
skin, and is not very bright, then let the priest keep him shut
up for seven days:

27 And the priest is to see him again on the seventh day; if
it is increased in the skin, then the priest will say that he is
unclean: it is the leper's disease.

28 And if the bright place keeps the same size and gets no
greater on the skin, but is less bright, it is the effect of the
burn, and the priest will say that he is clean: it is the mark of
the burn.

29 And when a man or a woman has a disease on the head,
or in the hair of the chin,

30 Then the priest is to see the diseased place: and if it seems
to go deeper than the skin, and if there is thin yellow hair in
it, then the priest will say that he is unclean: he has the mark
of the leper's disease on his head or in the hair of his chin.

31 And after looking at the diseased place, if it does not
seem to go deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in
it, then the priest will have him shut up for seven days:

32 And on the seventh day the priest will see the place: and
if it is not increased, and there is no yellow hair in it, and it
does not seem to go deeper than the skin,

33 Then his hair is to be cut off, but not on the diseased
place, and he is to be shut up for seven days more:

34 And on the seventh day the priest will see the place: and
if it is not increased, and does not seem to go deeper than the
skin, the priest will say that he is clean: and after his clothing
has been washed he will be clean.

35 But if the disease in his skin becomes worse after he has
been made clean,

36 Then the priest is to see him: and if the mark is increased,
the priest, without looking for the yellow hair, will say that
he is unclean.

37 But if, in his opinion, the growth is stopped, and black
hair has come up on it, the disease has gone; he is clean and
the priest will say that he is clean.

38 And if a man or a woman has bright marks on the skin
of their flesh, that is, bright white marks,

39 Then the priest is to see them: and if the white marks on
their skin are not very bright, it is a skin disease which has
come out on the skin; he is clean.

40 And if a man's hair has come out and he has no hair, still
he is clean.

41 And if the hair has gone from the front part of his head,
so that he has no hair there, still he is clean.

42 But if, on his head or on his brow, where he has no hair,
there is a red and white place, it is the disease of the leper
coming out on his head or on his brow.

43 Then if the priest sees that the growth of the disease has
become red and white on his head or on his brow where there
is no hair, like the mark in the skin of a leper;

44 He is a leper and unclean; the priest is to say that he is
most certainly unclean: the disease is in his head.

45 And the leper who has the disease on him is to go about
with signs of grief, with his hair loose and his mouth covered,
crying, Unclean, unclean.

46 While the disease is on him, he will be unclean. He is
unclean: let him keep by himself, living outside the tent-
circle.

47 And any clothing of wool or of linen in which is the
mark of the disease;

48 If it is in the threads of the linen or of the wool, or in
leather, or in anything made of skin;

49 If there are red or green marks on the clothing, or on the
leather, or in the threads of the cloth, or in anything made of
skin, it is the leper's disease: let the priest see it.

50 And after it has been seen by the priest, the thing which
is so marked is to be shut up for seven days:

51 And he is to see the mark on the seventh day; if the mark
is increased in the clothing, or in the threads of the material,
or in the leather, whatever the leather is used for, it is the
disease biting into it: it is unclean.

52 And the clothing, or the wool or linen material, or
anything of leather in which is the disease, is to be burned:
for the disease is biting into it; let it be burned in the fire.

53 And if the priest sees that the mark is not increased in
the clothing or in any part of the material or in the leather,

54 Then the priest will give orders for the thing on which
the mark is, to be washed, and to be shut up for seven days
more:

55 And if, after the mark has been washed, the priest sees
that the colour of it is not changed and it is not increased, it
is to be burned in the fire: the disease is working in it,
though the damage may be inside or outside.

56 And if the priest sees that the mark is less bright after
the washing, then let him have it cut out of the clothing or
the leather or from the threads of the material:

57 And if the mark is still seen in the clothing or in the
threads of the material or in the leather, it is the disease
coming out: the thing in which the disease is will have to be
burned with fire.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

58 And the material of the clothing, or anything of skin,
which has been washed, if the mark has gone out of it, let it
be washed a second time and it will be clean.

59 This is the law about the leper's disease in the thread of
wool or linen material, in clothing or in anything of skin,
saying how it is to be judged clean or unclean.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 14

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 This is the law of the leper on the day when he is made
clean: he is to be taken to the priest;

3 And the priest is to go outside the tent-circle; and if, after
looking, the priest sees that the mark of the disease has gone
from him,

4 Then the priest is to give orders to take, for him who 1s to
be made clean, two living clean birds and some cedar wood
and red thread and hyssop.

5 And the priest will give orders for one of the birds to be
put to death in a vessel made of earth, over flowing water.

6 And he will take the living bird and the wood and the red
thread and the hyssop and put them in the blood of the bird
which was put to death over flowing water.

7 And shaking it seven times over the man who is to be
made clean, he will say that he is clean and will let the living
bird go free into the open country.

8 And he who is to be made clean will have his clothing
washed and his hair cut and have a bath, and he will be clean.
And after that he will come back to the tent-circle; but he is
to keep outside his tent for seven days.

9 And on the seventh day he is to have all the hair cut off his
head and his chin and over his eyes--all his hair is to be cut
off--and he will have his clothing washed and his body
bathed in water and he will be clean.

10 And on the eighth day let him take two male lambs,
without any marks on them, and one female lamb of the first
year, without a mark, and three tenth parts of an ephah of
the best meal, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.

11 And the priest who is making him clean will put the man
who is being made clean, together with these things, before
the door of the Tent of meeting.

12 And the priest is to take one of the male lambs and give
it as an offering for wrongdoing, and the log of oil, waving
them for a wave offering before the Lord;

13 And he is to put the male lamb to death in the place
where they put to death the sin-offering and the burned
offering, in the holy place; for as the sin-offering is the
property of the priest, so is the offering for wrongdoing: it is
most holy.

14 And let the priest take some of the blood of the offering
for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right ear of
him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right
hand and on the great toe of his right foot;

15 And take some of the oil and put it in the hollow of his
left hand;

16 And let the priest put his right finger in the oil which is
in his left hand, shaking it out with his finger seven times
before the Lord;

17 And of the rest of the oil which is in his hand, the priest
will put some on the point of the right ear of the man who is
to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on
the great toe of his right foot, over the blood of the offering
for wrongdoing;

18 And the rest of the oil in the priest's hand he will put on
the head of him who is to be made clean; and so the priest
will make him free from sin before the Lord.

19 And the priest will give the sin-offering, and take away
the sin of him who is to be made clean from his unclean
condition; and after that he will put the burned offering to
death.

20 And the priest is to have the burned offering and the
meal offering burned on the altar; and the priest will take
away his sin and he will be clean.

21 And if he is poor and not able to get so much, then he
may take one male lamb as an offering for wrongdoing, to be
waved to take away his sin, and one tenth part of an ephah of
the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering, and a log of
oil;

22 And two doves or two young pigeons, such as he is able
to get; and one will be for a sin-offering and the other for a
burned offering.

23 And on the eighth day he will take them to the priest, to
the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, so that he
may be made clean.

24 And the priest will take the lamb of the offering for
wrongdoing and the oil, waving them for a wave offering
before the Lord;

25 And he will put to death the lamb of the offering for
wrongdoing and the priest will take some of the blood of the
offering for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right
ear of him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his
right hand and on the great toe of his right foot;

26 And the priest will put out some of the oil in the hollow
of his left hand,

27 Shaking out drops of oil with his right finger before the
Lord seven times:

28 And the priest will put some of the oil which is in his
hand on the point of the ear of the man who is to be made
clean and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe
of his right foot, on the place where the blood of the offering
for wrongdoing was put;

29 And the rest of the oil which is in the priest's hand he
will put on the head of him who is to be made clean, to take
away his sin before the Lord.

30 And he will make an offering of one of the doves or the
young pigeons, such as he is able to get;

31 And of these, he will give one for a sin-offering and one
for a burned offering, with the meal offering; and the priest
will take away the sin of him who is to be made clean before
the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 This is the law for the man who has the disease of the
leper on him, and who is not able to get that which is
necessary for making himself clean.

33 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

34 When you have come into the land of Canaan which |
will give you for your heritage, if I put the leper's disease on
a house in the land of your heritage,

35 Then let the owner of the house come and say to the
priest, It seems to me that there is a sort of leper's disease in
the house.

36 And the priest will give orders for everything to be
taken out of the house, before he goes in to see the disease, so
that the things in the house may not become unclean; and
then the priest is to go in to see the house;

37 And if he sees that the walls of the house are marked
with hollows of green and red, and if it seems to go deeper
than the face of the wall;

38 Then the priest will go out of the door of the house, and
keep the house shut up for seven days:

39 And the priest is to come again on the seventh day and
have a look and see if the marks on the walls of the house are
increased in size;

40 Then the priest will give orders to them to take out the
stones in which the disease is seen, and put them out into an
unclean place outside the town:

41 And he will have the house rubbed all over inside, and
the paste which is rubbed off will be put out into an unclean
place outside the town:

42 And they will take other stones and put them in place of
those stones, and he will take other paste and put it on the
walls of the house.

43 And if the disease comes out again in the house after he
has taken out the stones and after the walls have been rubbed
and the new paste put on,

44 Then the priest will come and see it; and if the disease in
the house is increased in size, it is the leper's disease working
out in the house: it is unclean.

45 And the house will have to be pulled down, the stones of
it and the wood and the paste; and everything is to be taken
out to an unclean place outside the town.

46 And, in addition, anyone who goes into the house at any
time, while it is shut up, will be unclean till evening.

47 And anyone who has been sleeping in the house will have
to have his clothing washed; and anyone who takes food in
that house will have to have his clothing washed.

48 And if the priest comes in, and sees that the disease is not
increased after the new paste has been put on the house, then
the priest will say that the house is clean, because the disease
is gone.

49 And in order to make the house clean, let him take two
birds and cedar-wood and red thread and hyssop;

50 And put one of the birds to death in a vessel of earth
over flowing water;

51 And take the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red
thread and the living bird and put them in the blood of the

dead bird and in the flowing water, shaking it over the house
seven times.

52 And he will make the house clean with the blood of the
bird and the flowing water and with the living bird and with
the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red thread.

53 But he will let the living bird go out of the town into the
open country; so he will take away sin from the house and it
will be clean.

54 This is the law for all signs of the leper's disease and for
skin diseases;

55 And for signs of disease in clothing, or in a house;

56 And for a growth or a bad place or a bright mark on the
skin;

57 To make clear when it is unclean and when it is clean:
this is the law about the disease of the leper.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 15

1 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron,

2 Say to the children of Israel: If a man has an unclean flow
from his flesh, it will make him unclean.

3 If the flow goes on or if the part is stopped up, to keep
back the flow, he is still unclean.

4 Every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean,
and everything on which he has been seated will be unclean.

5 And anyone touching his bed is to have his clothing
washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till
evening.

6 And he who has been seated on anything on which the
unclean man has been seated is to have his clothing washed
and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening.

7 And anyone touching the flesh of the unclean man is to
have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and
be unclean till evening.

8 And if liquid from the mouth of the unclean man comes
on to him who is clean, then he is to have his clothing washed
and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening.

9 And any leather seat on a horse on which the unclean man
has been seated will be unclean.

10 And anyone touching anything which was under him
will be unclean till the evening; anyone taking up any of
these things is to have his clothing washed and his body
bathed in water and be unclean till evening.

11 And anyone on whom the unclean man puts his hands,
without washing them in water, is to have his clothing
washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till
evening.

12 And any vessel of earth which has been touched by the
unclean man will have to be broken and any vessel of wood
washed.

13 And when a man who has a flow from his body is made
clean from it, he is to take seven days to make himself clean,
washing his clothing and bathing his body in flowing water,
and then he will be clean.

14 And on the eighth day he is to take two doves or two
young pigeons and come before the Lord to the door of the
Tent of meeting and give them to the priest:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And they are to be offered by the priest, one for a sin-
offering and one for a burned offering, and the priest will
take away his sin before the Lord on account of his flow.

16 And if a man's seed goes out from him, then all his body
will have to be bathed in water and he will be unclean till
evening.

17 And any clothing or skin on which the seed comes is to
be washed with water and be unclean till evening.

18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman and his seed
goes out from him, the two of them will have to be bathed in
water and will be unclean till evening.

19 And if a woman has a flow of blood from her body, she
will have to be kept separate for seven days, and anyone
touching her will be unclean till evening.

20 And everything on which she has been resting, while she
is kept separate, will be unclean, and everything on which she
has been seated will be unclean.

21 And anyone touching her bed will have to have his
clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean
till evening.

22 And anyone touching anything on which she has been
seated will have to have his clothing washed and his body
bathed in water and be unclean till evening.

23 Anyone touching anything on the bed or on the thing on
which she has been seated, will be unclean till evening.

24 And if any man has sex relations with her so that her
blood comes on him, he will be unclean for seven days and
every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean.

25 And if a woman has a flow of blood for a long time, not
at the time when she generally has it, or if the flow goes on
longer than the normal time, she will be unclean while the
flow of blood goes on, as she is at other normal times.

26 Every bed on which she has been resting will be unclean,
as at the times when she normally has a flow of blood, and
everything on which she has been seated will be unclean, in
the same way.

27 And anyone touching these things will be unclean, and
his clothing will have to be washed and his body bathed in
water and he will be unclean till evening.

28 But when her flow of blood is stopped, after seven days
she will be clean.

29 And on the eighth day let her get two doves or two
young pigeons and take them to the priest to the door of the
Tent of meeting,

30 To be offered by the priest, one for a sin-offering and
one for a burned offering; and the priest will take away her
sin before the Lord on account of her unclean condition.

31 In this way may the children of Israel be made free from
all sorts of unclean conditions, so that death may not
overtake them when they are unclean and when they make
unclean my holy place which is among them.

32 This is the law for the man who has a flow from his body,
or whose seed goes from him so that he is unclean;

33 And for her who has a flow of blood, and for any man or
woman who has an unclean flow, and for him who has sex
relations with a woman when she is unclean.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 16

1 And the Lord said to Moses, after the death of the two
sons of Aaron when they took in strange fire before the Lord
and death overtook them;

2 The Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, your brother, that
he may not come at all times into the holy place inside the
veil, before the cover which is on the ark, for fear that death
may overtake him; for I will be seen in the cloud on the cover
of the ark.

3 Let Aaron come into the holy place in this way: with an
ox for a sin-offering and a male sheep for a burned offering.

4 Let him put on the holy linen coat, and the linen trousers
on his body, and the linen band round him, and the linen
head-dress on his head; for this is holy clothing, and before
he puts them on his body is to be washed with water.

5 And let him take from the children of Israel two he-goats
for a sin-offering and one male sheep for a burned offering.

6 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for himself,
to make himself and his house free from sin.

7 And he is to take the two goats and put them before the
Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting.

8 And Aaron will make selection from the two goats by the
decision of the Lord, one goat for the Lord and one for
Azazel.

9 And the goat which is marked out for the Lord, let Aaron
give for a sin-offering.

10 But the goat for Azazel is to be placed living before the
Lord, for the taking away of sin, that it may be sent away for
Azazel into the waste land.

11 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for
himself and take away sin from himself and his house, and
put to death the ox of the sin-offering which is for himself.

12 And he is to take a vessel full of burning coal from the
altar before the Lord and in his hand some sweet perfume
crushed small, and take it inside the veil;

13 And let him put the perfume on the fire before the Lord
so that the ark may be covered with a cloud of the smoke of
the perfume, in order that death may not overtake him.

14 And let him take some of the blood of the ox, shaking
drops of it from his finger on the cover of the ark on the east
side, and before it, seven times.

15 Then let him put to death the goat of the sin-offering for
the people, and take its blood inside the veil and do with it as
he did with the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it on and
before the cover of the ark.

16 And let him make the holy place free from whatever is
unclean among the children of Israel and from their
wrongdoing in all their sins; and let him do the same for the
Tent of meeting, which has its place among an unclean
people.

17 And no man may be in the Tent of meeting from the time
when Aaron goes in to take away sin in the holy place till he
comes out, having made himself and his house and all the
people of Israel free from sin.

18 And he is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord
and make it free from sin; and he is to take some of the blood

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

of the ox and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of
the altar and round it;

19 Shaking drops of the blood from his finger on it seven
times to make it holy and clean from whatever is unclean
among the children of Israel.

20 And when he has done whatever is necessary to make the
holy place and the Tent of meeting and the altar free from sin,
let him put the living goat before the Lord;

21 And Aaron, placing his two hands on the head of the
living goat, will make a public statement over him of all the
evil doings of the children of Israel and all their wrongdoing,
in all their sins; and he will put them on the head of the goat
and send him away, in the care of a man who will be waiting
there, into the waste land.

22 And the goat will take all their sins into a land cut off
from men, and he will send the goat away into the waste land.

23 Then let Aaron come into the Tent of meeting and take
off the linen clothing which he put on when he went into the
holy place, and put them down there;

24 And after bathing his body in water in a holy place, he is
to put on his clothing and come out and give his burned
offering and the burned offering of the people, to take away
his sin and the sin of the people.

25 And the fat of the sin-offering is to be burned by him on
the altar.

26 And the man who takes away the goat for Azazel is to
have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and
then he may come back to the tent-circle.

27 And the ox of the sin-offering and the goat of the sin-
offering, whose blood was taken in to make the holy place
free from sin, are to be taken away outside the tent-circle and
their skins and their flesh and their waste are to be burned
with fire.

28 And the man by whom they are burned is to have his
clothing washed and his body bathed in water, and then he
may come back to the tent-circle.

29 And let this be an order to you for ever: in the seventh
month, on the tenth day, you are to keep yourselves from
pleasure and do no sort of work, those who are Israelites by
birth and those from other lands who are living among you:

30 For on this day your sin will be taken away and you will
be clean: you will be made free from all your sins before the
Lord.

31 It is a special Sabbath for you, and you are to keep
yourselves from pleasure; it is an order for ever.

32 And the man on whose head the holy oil has been put,
and who has been marked out to be a priest in his father's
place, will do what is necessary to take away sin, and will put
on the linen clothing, even the holy robes:

33 And he will make the holy place and the Tent of meeting
and the altar free from sin; he will take away sin from the
priests and from all the people.

34 And let this be an order for ever for you, so that the sin
of the children of Israel may be taken away once every year.
And he did as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 17

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of
Israel: This is the order which the Lord has given.

3 If any man of Israel puts to death an ox or a lamb or a
goat, in or outside the tent-circle;

4 And has not taken it to the door of the Tent of meeting,
to make an offering to the Lord, before the Lord's House, its
blood will be on him, for he has taken life, and he will be cut
off from among his people:

5 So that the children of Israel may take to the Lord, to the
door of the Tent of meeting and to the priest, the offerings
which they have put to death in the open country, and that
they may make their peace-offerings to the Lord.

6 And the priest will put blood on the altar of the Lord at
the door of the Tent of meeting, burning the fat for a sweet
smell to the Lord.

7 And let them make no more offerings to evil spirits, after
which they have gone, turning away from the Lord. Let this
be a law to them for ever, through all their generations.

8 And say to them, If any man of Israel, or any other living
among them, makes a burned offering or other offering,

9 And does not take it to the door of the Tent of meeting to
make an offering to the Lord, that man will be cut off from
among his people.

10 And if any man of Israel, or any other living among
them, takes any sort of blood for food, my wrath will be
turned against that man and he will be cut off from among
his people.

11 For the life of the flesh is in its blood; and I have given it
to you on the altar to take away your sin: for it is the blood
which makes free from sin because of the life in it.

12 For this reason I have said to the children of Israel, No
man among you, or any others living with you, may take
blood as food.

13 And any man of Israel, or any other living among them,
who gets with his bow any beast or bird used for food, is to
see that its blood is covered with earth.

14 For the blood is the life of all flesh: and so I have said to
the children of Israel, You may not take any sort of blood as
food, and any man who does so will be cut of.

15 And anyone who takes as food anything which has come
to a natural end, or anything which has been put to death by
beasts, if he is one of you by birth, or of another nation, will
have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in
water and be unclean till evening, and then he will be clean.

16 But if his clothing is not washed and his body bathed,
his sin will be on him.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 18

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord your God.

3 You may not do those things which were done in the land
of Egypt where you were living; and you may not do those
things which are done in the land of Canaan where I am
taking you, or be guided in your behaviour by their rules.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 But you are to be guided by my decisions and keep my
rules, and be guided by them: I am the Lord your God.

5 So keep my rules and my decisions, which, if a man does
them, will be life to him: I am the Lord.

6 You may not have sex connection with anyone who is a
near relation: I am the Lord.

7 You may not have sex relations with your father or your
mother: she is your mother, you may not take her.

8 And you may not have sex relations with your father's
wife: she is your father's.

9 You may not take your sister, the daughter of your father
or of your mother, wherever her birth took place, among you
or in another country.

10 You may not have sex relations with your son's daughter
or your daughter's daughter, for they are part of yourself;

11 Or your father's wife's daughter, the child of your father,
for she is your sister.

12 You may not have sex connection with your father's
sister, for she is your father's near relation.

13 You may not have sex connection with your mother's
sister, for she is your mother's near relation.

14 You may not have sex relations with the wife of your
father's brother, for she is of your family;

15 Or with your daughter-in-law, for she is your son's wife,
and you may not take her.

16 You may not have sex relations with your brother's wife,
for she is your brother's.

17 You may not take as wife a woman and her daughter, or
her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, for they are of
one family: it is an act of shame.

18 And you may not take as wife a woman and at the same
time her sister, to be in competition with her in her life-time.

19 And you may not go near a woman or have sex relations
with her when she is unclean, at her regular time.

20 And you may not have sex relations with your
neighbour's wife, making yourself unclean with her.

21 And you may not make any of your children go through
the fire as an offering to Molech, and you may not put shame
on the name of your God: I am the Lord.

22 You may not have sex relations with men, as you do with
women: it is a disgusting thing.

23 And you may not have sex relations with a beast, making
yourself unclean with it; and a woman may not give herself to
a beast: it is an unnatural act.

24 Do not make yourself unclean in any of these ways; for
so have those nations whom I am driving out from before you
made themselves unclean:

25 And the land itself has become unclean; so that I have
sent on it the reward of its wrongdoing, and the land itself
puts out those who are living in it.

26 So then keep my rules and my decisions, and do not do
any of these disgusting things, those of you who are Israelites
by birth, or any others who are living with you:

27 (For all these disgusting things were done by the men of
this country who were there before you, and the land has
been made unclean by them;)

28 So that the land may not put you out from it, when you
make it unclean, as it put out the nations which were there
before you.

29 For all those who do any of these disgusting things will
be cut off from among their people.

30 So then, keep my orders, so that you may not do any of
these disgusting things which were done before you, or make
yourselves unclean through them: I am the Lord your God.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 19

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to all the people of Israel, You are to be holy, for I,
the Lord your God, am holy.

3 Let every man give honour to his mother and to his father
and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

4 Do not go after false gods, and do not make metal images
of gods for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.

5 And when you give a peace offering to the Lord, do it in
the way which is pleasing to the Lord.

6 Let it be used for food on the same day on which it is
offered, or on the day after; and whatever is over on the third
day is to be burned with fire.

7 If any of it is used for food on the third day, it is a
disgusting thing and will not be pleasing to the Lord.

8 And as for anyone who takes it for food, his sin will be on
him, for he has put shame on the holy thing of the Lord: he
will be cut off from his people.

9 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let
all the grain be cut from the edges of the field, or take up
what has been dropped on the earth after the getting in of the
grain.

10 And do not take all the grapes from your vine-garden,
or the fruit dropped on the earth; let the poor man, and the
man from another country, have these: I am the Lord your
God.

11 Do not take anyone's property or be false in act or word
to another.

12 And do not take an oath in my name falsely, putting
shame on the name of your God: I am the Lord.

13 Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his;
do not keep back a servant's payment from him all night till
the morning.

14 Do not put a curse on those who have no hearing, or put
a cause of falling in the way of the blind, but keep the fear of
your God before you: I am the Lord.

15 Do no wrong in your judging: do not give thought to
the position of the poor, or honour to the position of the
great; but be a judge to your neighbour in righteousness.

16 Do not go about saying untrue things among your
people, or take away the life of your neighbour by false
witness: I am the Lord.

17 Let there be no hate in your heart for your brother; but
you may make a protest to your neighbour, so that he may be
stopped from doing evil.

18 Do not make attempts to get equal with one who has
done you wrong, or keep hard feelings against the children of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

your people, but have love for your neighbour as for yourself:
Tam the Lord.

19 Keep my laws. Do not let your cattle have offspring by
those of a different sort; do not put mixed seed into your field;
do not put on a robe made of two sorts of cloth.

20 If any man has sex relations with a servant-woman who
has given her word to be married to a man, and has not been
made free for a price or in any other way, the thing will be
looked into; but they will not be put to death because she was
not a free woman.

21 Let him take his offering for wrongdoing to the Lord,
to the door of the Tent of meeting; let him give a male sheep
as an offering for wrongdoing.

22 And the priest will take away his sin before the Lord
with the sheep which is offered for his wrongdoing, and he
will have forgiveness for the sin which he has done.

23 And when you have come into the land, and have put in
all sorts of fruit-trees, their fruit will be as if they had not
had circumcision, and for three years their fruit may not be
used for food.

24 And in the fourth year all the fruit will be holy as a
praise-offering to the Lord.

25 But in the fifth year you may take the fruit and the
increase of it for your food: I am the Lord your God.

26 Nothing may be used for food with its blood in it; you
may not make use of strange arts, or go in search of signs and
wonders.

27 The ends of the hair round your face and on your chin
may not be cut off.

28 You may not make cuts in your flesh in respect for the
dead, or have marks printed on your bodies: I am the Lord.

29 Do not make your daughter common by letting her
become a loose woman, for fear that the land may become
full of shame.

30 Keep my Sabbaths and have respect for my holy place: I
am the Lord.

31 Do not go after those who make use of spirits, or
wonder-workers; do not go in their ways or become unclean
through them: I am the Lord your God.

32 Get up from your seats before the white-haired, and give
honour to the old, and let the fear of your God be before you:
Tam the Lord.

33 And if a man from another country is living in your land
with you, do not make life hard for him;

34 Let him be to you as one of your countrymen and have
love for him as for yourself; for you were living in a strange
land, in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

35 Do not make false decisions in questions of yard-sticks
and weights and measures.

36 Have true scales, true weights and measures for all
things: I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the
land of Egypt;

37 You are to keep all my rules and my decisions and do
them: I am the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 20

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Again, say to the children of Israel, If any man of the
children of Israel, or any other man living in Israel, gives his
offspring to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death: he is
to be stoned by the people of the land;

3 And my face will be turned against that man, and he will
be cut off from his people; because he has given his offspring
to Molech, making my holy place unclean, and making my
holy name common.

4 And if the people of the land do not take note of that man
when he gives his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to
death,

5 Then my face will be turned against him and his family,
and he and all those who do evil with him will be cut off from
among their people.

6 And whoever goes after those who make use of spirits and
wonder-workers, doing evil with them, against him will my
face be turned, and he will be cut off from among his people.

7So make and keep yourselves holy, for Tam the Lord your
God.

8 And keep my rules and do them: I am the Lord, who make
you holy.

9 Every man cursing his father or his mother is certainly to
be put to death; because of his curse on his father or his
mother, his blood will be on him.

10 And if a man has sex relations with another man's wife,
even the wife of his neighbour, he and she are certainly to be
put to death.

11 And the man who has sex relations with his father's wife
has put shame on his father: the two of them are to be put to
death; their blood will be on them.

12 And if a man has sex relations with his son's wife, the
two of them are to be put to death: it is unnatural; their
blood will be on them.

13 And if a man has sex relations with a man, the two of
them have done a disgusting thing: let them be put to death;
their blood will be on them.

14 And if a man takes as wife a woman and her mother, it is
an act of shame; let them be burned with fire, all three of
them, so that there may be no shame among you.

15 And if a man has sex relations with a beast, let him be
put to death, and let the beast be put to destruction.

16 And if a woman goes near a beast and has sex relations
with it, you will put an end to the woman and the beast: their
blood will be on them.

17 And if a man takes his sister, daughter of his father or
his mother, and has sex relations with her and she with him,
it is an act of shame: they are to be cut off before the children
of their people; he has had sex relations with his sister, and
his sin will be on him.

18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman at the time
when she is unwell, he has seen her fountain and she has let
the fountain of her blood be uncovered, and the two of them
are to be cut off from among their people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 And you may not have sex connection with your
mother's sister or your father's sister, for they are his near
relations: their sin will be on them.

20 And if a man has sex relations with the wife of his
father's brother, he has put shame on his father's brother:
their sin will be on them; till the day of their death they will
have no children.

21 And ifa man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean act;
he has put shame on his brother; they will have no children.

22 So then, keep my rules and my decisions and do them, so
that the land which I am giving you as your resting-place
may not violently send you out again.

23 And do not keep the rules of the nations which I am
driving out before you; for they did all these things, and for
that reason my soul was turned against them.

24 But I have said to you, You will take their land and I
will give it to you for your heritage, a land flowing with
milk and honey: I am the Lord your God who have made you
separate from all other peoples.

25 So then, make division between the clean beast and the
unclean, and between the clean bird and the unclean: do not
make yourselves disgusting by any beast or bird or anything
which goes flat on the earth, which has been marked by me as
unclean for you.

26 And you are to be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy
and have made you separate from the nations, so that you
may be my people.

27 Any man or woman who makes use of spirits, or who is a
wonder-worker, is to be put to death: they are to be stoned
with stones: their blood will be on them.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 21

1 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the priests, the sons of
Aaron, Let no man make himself unclean for the dead among
his people;

2 But only for his near relations, for his mother or his
father, his son or his daughter, and his brother;

3 And for his sister, a virgin, for she is his near relation and
has had no husband, he may make himself unclean.

4 But let him, being a chief among his people, not make
himself unclean in such a way as to put shame on himself.

5 They are not to have their hair cut off for the dead, or the
hair on their chins cut short, or make cuts in their flesh.

6 Let them be holy to their God and not make the name of
their God common; for the fire offerings of the Lord and the
bread of their God are offered by them, and they are to be
holy.

7 They may not take as wife a loose or common woman, or
one who has been put away by her husband: for the priest is
holy to his God.

8 And he is to be holy in your eyes, for by him the bread of
your God is offered; he is to be holy in your eyes, for I the
Lord, who make you holy, am holy.

9 And if the daughter of a priest makes herself common and
by her loose behaviour puts shame on her father, let her be
burned with fire.

10 And he who is the chief priest among his brothers, on
whose head the holy oil has been put, who is marked out to
put on the holy robes, may not let his hair go loose or have
his clothing out of order as a sign of sorrow.

11 He may not go near any dead body or make himself
unclean for his father or his mother;

12 He may not go out of the holy place or make the holy
place of his God common; for the crown of the holy oil of his
God is on him: I am the Lord.

13 And let him take as his wife one who has not had
relations with a man.

14 A widow, or one whose husband has put her away, or a
common woman of loose behaviour, may not be the wife of a
priest; but let him take a virgin from among his people.

15 And he may not make his seed unclean among his people,
for I the Lord have made him holy.

16 And the Lord said to Moses,

17 Say to Aaron, Ifa man of your family, in any generation,
is damaged in body, let him not come near to make the
offering of the bread of his God.

18 For any man whose body is damaged may not come near:
one who is blind, or has not the use of his legs, or one who
has a broken nose or any unnatural growth,

19 Or a man with broken feet or hands,

20 Or one whose back is bent, or one who is unnaturally
small, or one who has a damaged eye, or whose skin is
diseased, or whose sex parts are damaged;

21 No man of the offspring of Aaron whose body is
damaged in any way may come near to give the fire offerings
of the Lord: he is damaged, he may not come near to make
the offerings.

22 He may take of the bread of God, the holy and the most
holy;

23 But he may not go inside the veil or come near the altar,
because he is damaged; and he may not make my holy places
common; for I the Lord have made them holy.

24 These are the words which Moses said to Aaron and to
his sons and to all the children of Israel.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 22

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to Aaron and to his sons to keep themselves
separate from the holy things of the children of Israel which
they give to me, and not to make my holy name common: I
am the Lord,

3 Say to them, If any man of all your seed through all your
generations, being unclean, comes near the holy things which
the children of Israel make holy to the Lord, he will be cut
off from before me: I am the Lord.

4 No man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper, or who has a
flow from his body, may take of the holy food till he is clean.
And any man touching anything which is unclean because of
the dead, or any man whose seed goes from him;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Or anyone touching any unclean thing which goes flat on
the earth, or someone by whom he may be made unclean in
any way whatever;

6 Any person touching any such unclean thing will be
unclean till evening, and may not take of the holy food till
his flesh has been bathed in water;

7 And when the sun has gone down he will be clean; and
after that he may take part in the holy food, because it is his
bread.

8 That which comes to a natural death, or is attacked by
beasts, he may not take as food, for it will make him unclean:
Tam the Lord.

9 So then, let them keep what I have put into their care, for
fear that sin may come on them because of it, so causing their
death because they have made it common: I am the Lord,
who make them holy.

10 No outside person may take of the holy food, or one
living as a guest in the priest's house, or a servant working
for payment.

11 But any person for whom the priest has given money, to
make him his, may take of it with him; and those who come
to birth in his house may take of his bread.

12 And if the daughter of a priest is married to an outside
person she may not take of the holy things which are lifted up
as offerings.

13 But ifa priest's daughter is a widow, or parted from her
husband, and has no child, and has come back to her father's
house as when she was a girl, she may take of her father's
bread; but no outside person may do so.

14 And ifa man takes the holy food in error, he will have to
give the holy thing back to the priest, with the addition of a
fifth part.

15 And they may not make common the holy things which
the children of Israel give to the Lord,

16 So causing sin to come on them when they take their
holy things for food: Iam the Lord who make them holy.

17 And the Lord said to Moses,

18 Say to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of
Israel, If any man of the children of Israel, or of another
nation living in Israel, makes an offering, given because of an
oath or freely given to the Lord for a burned offering;

19 So that it may be pleasing to the Lord, let him give a
male, without any mark, from among the oxen or the sheep
or the goats.

20 But anything which has a mark you may not give; it will
not make you pleasing to the Lord.

21 And whoever makes a peace-offering to the Lord, in
payment of an oath or as a free offering, from the herd or the
flock, if it is to be pleasing to the Lord, let it be free from any
mark or damage.

22 Anything blind or broken or damaged or having any
disease or any mark on it may not be offered to the Lord; you
may not make an offering of it by fire on the altar to the
Lord.

23 An ox or a lamb which has more or less than its natural
parts, may be given as a free offering; but it will not be taken
in payment of an oath.

24 An animal which has its sex parts damaged or crushed or
broken or cut, may not be offered to the Lord; such a thing
may not be done anywhere in your land.

25 And from one who is not an Israelite you may not take
any of these for an offering to the Lord; for they are unclean,
there is a mark on them, and the Lord will not be pleased
with them.

26 And the Lord said to Moses,

27 When an ox or a sheep or a goat is given birth, let it be
with its mother for seven days; and after the eighth day it
may be taken as an offering made by fire to the Lord.

28 A cow or a sheep may not be put to death with its young
on the same day.

29 And when you make an offering of praise to the Lord,
make it in a way which is pleasing to him.

30 Let it be used for food on the same day; do not keep any
part of it till the morning: I am the Lord.

31 So then, keep my orders and do them: I am the Lord.

32 And do not make my holy name common; so that it may
be kept holy by the children of Israel: I am the Lord who
make you holy,

33 Who took you out of the land of Egypt that I might be
your God: I am the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 23

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of
the Lord, which you will keep for holy meetings: these are
my feasts.

3 On six days work may be done; but the seventh day is a
special day of rest, a time for worship; you may do no sort of
work: it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you may be living.

4 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, the holy days of
worship which you will keep at their regular times.

5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at
nightfall, is the Lord's Passover;

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of
unleavened bread; for seven days let your food be unleavened
bread.

7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do
no sort of field-work.

8 And every day for seven days you will give a burned
offering to the Lord; and on the seventh day there will be a
holy meeting; you may do no field-work.

9 And the Lord said to Moses,

10 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come to the
land which I will give you, and have got in the grain from its
fields, take some of the first-fruits of the grain to the priest;

11 And let the grain be waved before the Lord, so that you
may be pleasing to him; on the day after the Sabbath let it be
waved by the priest.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 And on the day of the waving of the grain, you are to
give a male lamb of the first year, without any mark, for a
burned offering to the Lord.

13 And let the meal offering with it be two tenth parts of an
ephah of the best meal mixed with oil, an offering made by
fire to the Lord for a sweet smell; and the drink offering with
it is to be of wine, the fourth part ofa hin.

14 And you may take no bread or dry grain or new grain
for food till the very day on which you have given the
offering for your God: this is a rule for ever through all your
generations wherever you are living.

15 And let seven full weeks be numbered from the day after
the Sabbath, the day when you give the grain for the wave
offering;

16 Let fifty days be numbered, to the day after the seventh
Sabbath; then you are to give a new meal offering to the
Lord.

17 Take from your houses two cakes of bread, made of a
fifth part of an ephah of the best meal, cooked with leaven, to
be waved for first-fruits to the Lord.

18 And with the bread, take seven lambs of the first year,
without any marks, and one ox and two male sheep, to be a
burned offering to the Lord, with their meal offering and
their drink offerings, an offering of a sweet smell made by
fire to the Lord.

19 And you are to give one male goat for a sin-offering and
two male lambs of the first year for peace-offerings.

20 And these will be waved by the priest, with the bread of
the first-fruits, for a wave offering to the Lord, with the two
lambs: they will be holy to the Lord for the priest.

21 And on the same day, let it be given out that there will
be a holy meeting for you: you may do no field-work on that
day: it is a rule for ever through all your generations
wherever you are living.

22 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not
let all the grain at the edges of the field be cut, and do not
take up the grain which has been dropped in the field; let
that be for the poor, and for the man from another country: I
am the Lord your God.

23 And the Lord said to Moses,

24 Say to the children of Israel, In the seventh month, on
the first day of the month, let there be a special day of rest for
you, a day of memory, marked by the blowing of horns, a
meeting for worship.

25 Do no field-work and give to the Lord an offering made
by fire.

26 And the Lord said to Moses,

27 The tenth day of this seventh month is the day for the
taking away of sin; let it be a holy day of worship; you are to
keep from pleasure, and give to the Lord an offering made by
fire.

28 And on that day you may do no sort of work, for it is a
day of taking away sin, to make you clean before the Lord
your God.

29 For any person, whoever he may be, who takes his
pleasure on that day will be cut off from his people.

30 And if any person, whoever he may be, on that day does
any sort of work, I will send destruction on him from among
his people.

31 You may not do any sort of work: this is an order for
ever through all your generations wherever you may be
living.

32 Let this be a Sabbath of special rest to you, and keep
yourselves from all pleasure; on the ninth day of the month at
nightfall from evening to evening, let this Sabbath be kept.

33 And the Lord said to Moses,

34 Say to the children of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this
seventh month let the feast of tents be kept to the Lord for
seven days.

35 On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-
work.

36 Every day for seven days give an offering made by fire to
the Lord; and on the eighth day there is to be a holy meeting,
when you are to give an offering made by fire to the Lord;
this is a special holy day: you may do no field-work on that
day.

37 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, to be kept by you
as holy days of worship, for making an offering by fire to the
Lord; a burned offering, a meal offering, an offering of
beasts, and drink offerings; every one on its special day;

38 In addition to the Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition
to the things you give and the oaths you make and the free
offerings to the Lord.

39 But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you
have got in all the fruits of the land, you will keep the feast of
the Lord for seven days: the first day will be a Sabbath, and
the eighth day the same.

40 On the first day, take the fruit of fair trees, branches of
palm-trees, and branches of thick trees and trees from the
riverside, and be glad before the Lord for seven days.

41 And let this feast be kept before the Lord for seven days
in the year: it is a rule for ever from generation to generation;
in the seventh month let it be kept.

42 For seven days you will be living in tents; all those who
are Israelites by birth are to make tents their living-places:

43 So that future generations may keep in mind how I gave
the children of Israel tents as their living-places when I took
them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

44 And Moses made clear to the children of Israel the
orders about the fixed feasts of the Lord.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 24

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clean
olive oil for the light, so that a light may be burning at all
times,

3 Outside the veil of the ark in the Tent of meeting; let
Aaron see that it is burning from evening till morning at all
times before the Lord: it is a rule for ever through all your
generations.

4 Let Aaron put the lights in order on the support before
the Lord at all times.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And take the best meal and make twelve cakes of it, a fifth
part of an ephah in every cake.

6 And put them in two lines, six in a line, on the holy table
before the Lord.

7 And on the lines of cakes put clean sweet-smelling spices,
for a sign on the bread, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

8 Every Sabbath day regularly, the priest is to put it in
order before the Lord: it is offered for the children of Israel,
an agreement made for ever.

9 And it will be for Aaron and his sons; they are to take it
for food in a holy place: it is the most holy of all the offerings
made by fire to the Lord, a rule for ever.

10 And a son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an
Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel and had a
fight with a man of Israel by the tents;

11 And the son of the Israelite woman said evil against the
holy Name, with curses; and they took him to Moses. His
mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the
tribe of Dan.

12 And they kept him shut up, till a decision might be given
by the mouth of the Lord.

13 And the Lord said to Moses,

14 Take the curser outside the tent-circle; and let all in
whose hearing the words were said put their hands on his
head, and let him be stoned by all the people.

15 And say to the children of Israel, As for any man cursing
God, his sin will be on his head.

16 And he who says evil against the name of the Lord will
certainly be put to death; he will be stoned by all the people;
the man who is not of your nation and one who is an Israelite
by birth, whoever says evil against the holy Name is to be put
to death.

17 And anyone who takes another's life is certainly to be
put to death.

18 And anyone wounding a beast and causing its death,
will have to make payment for it: a life for a life.

19 And if a man does damage to his neighbour, as he has
done, so let it be done to him;

20 Wound for wound, eye for eye, tooth for tooth;
whatever damage he has done, so let it be done to him.

21 He who puts a beast to death will have to make payment
for it; he who puts a man to death will himself be put to
death.

22 You are to have the same law for a man of another
nation living among you as for an Israelite; for I am the Lord
your God.

23 And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, and
they took the man who had been cursing outside the tent-
circle and had him stoned. The children of Israel did as the
Lord gave orders to Moses.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 25

1 And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

2 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land
which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord.

3 For six years put seed into your land, and for six years
give care to your vines and get in the produce of them;

4 But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land,
a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or
have your vines cut.

5 That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and
the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let
it be a year of rest for the land.

6 And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and
your man-servant and your woman-servant and those
working for payment, and for those of another country who
are living among you;

7 And for your cattle and the beasts on the land; all the
natural increase of the land will be for food.

8 And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you,
seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of
years, that is forty-nine years;

9 Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the
tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin
let the horn be sounded through all your land.

10 And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly
that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee,
and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family.

11 Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be
planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be
cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for
vines.

12 For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will
be the natural increase of the field.

13 In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his
heritage.

14 And in the business of trading goods for money, do no
wrong to one another.

15 Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have
relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and
the number of times the earth has given her produce.

16 If the number of years is great, the price will be
increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will
be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years
which the man is giving you.

17 And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of
your God be before you; for Iam the Lord your God.

18 So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you
will be safe in your land.

19 And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food
in full measure and be safe in the land.

20 And if you say, Where will our food come from in the
seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the
increase

21 Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year,
and the land will give fruit enough for three years.

22 And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get
your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year
is ready.

23 No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine,
and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have
the right of getting it back.

25 If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some
of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get
back that which his brother has given up.

26 And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he
himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back;

27 Then let him take into account the years from the time
when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the
years to him who took it, and so get back his property.

28 But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will
be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee;
and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will
have his property again.

29 And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money,
he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after
he has given it up.

30 And if he does not get it back by the end of the year,
then the house in the town will become the property of him
who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will
not go from him in the year of Jubilee.

31 But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as
property in the country; they may be got back, and they will
go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee.

32 But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got
back by the Levites at any time.

33 And if a Levite does not give money to get back his
property, his house in the town which was exchanged for
money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the
houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among
the children of Israel.

34 But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be
exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.

35 And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to
make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping
him as you would a man from another country who is living
among you.

36 Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but
have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother
make a living among you.

37 Do not take interest on the money which you let him
have or on the food which you give him.

38 Iam the Lord your God, who took you out of the land
of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your
God.

39 And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to
you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is
your property;

40 But let him be with you as a servant working for
payment, till the year of Jubilee;

41 Then he will go out from you, he and his children with
him, and go back to his family and to the property of his
fathers.

42 For they are my servants whom I took out from the land
of Egypt; they may not become the property of another.

43 Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of
God before you.

44 But you may get servants as property from among the
nations round about; from them you may take men-servants
and women-servants.

45 And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from
among the children of other nations who are living with you,
and from their families which have come to birth in your
land; and these will be your property.

46 And they will be your children's heritage after you, to
keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever;
but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the
children of Israel.

47 And if one from another nation living among you gets
wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and
gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to
one of his family;

48 After he has given himself he has the right to be made
free, for a price, by one of his brothers,

49 Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother,
or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make
himself free.

50 And let the years be numbered from the time when he
gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the
price given for him will be in relation to the number of years,
on the scale of the payment of a servant.

51 If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account
of it, a part of the price which was given for him.

52 And if there is only a short time, he will take account of
it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he
will give back the price of making him free.

53 And he will be with him as a servant working for
payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him
before your eyes.

54 And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in
the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

55 For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my
servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord
your God.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 26

1 Do not make images of false gods, or put up an image cut
in stone or a pillar or any pictured stone in your land, to give
worship to it; for Iam the Lord your God.

2 Keep my Sabbaths and give honour to my holy place: I am
the Lord.

3 If you are guided by my rules, and keep my laws and do
them,

4 Then I will give you rain at the right time, and the land
will give her increase and the trees of the field will give their
fruit;

5 And the crushing of the grain will overtake the cutting of
the grapes, and the cutting of the grapes will overtake the
planting of the seed, and there will be bread in full measure,
and you will be living in your land safely.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And I will give you peace in the land, and you will take
your rest and no one will give you cause for fear; and I will
put an end to all evil beasts in the land, and no sword of war
will go through your land.

7 And you will put to flight those who are against you, and
they will be put to death by your swords.

8 Then five of you will put to flight a hundred, and a
hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, and all who
are against you will be put to death by your swords.

9 And IJ will have pleasure in you and make you fertile and
greater in number; and I will keep my agreement with you.

10 And old stores long kept will be your food, and you will
take out the old because of the new;

11 And I will put my holy House among you, and my soul
will not be turned away from you in disgust.

12 And I will be present among you and will be your God
and you will be my people.

13 Iam the Lord your God, who took you out of the land
of Egypt so that you might not be servants to them; by me
the cords of your yoke were broken and I made you go
upright.

14 But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all
these my laws;

15 And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in
your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders,
but go against my agreement;

16 This will I do to you: I will put fear in your hearts, even
wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and
making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your
seed, for your haters will take it for food.

17 And my face will be turned from you, and you will be
broken before those who are against you, and your haters
will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no
man comes after you.

18 And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to
me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for
your sins.

19 And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will
make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass;

20 And your strength will be used up without profit; for
your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field
will not give their fruit.

21 And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me,
I will put seven times more punishments on you because of
your sins.

22 I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and
they will take away your children and send destruction on
your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your
roads become waste.

23 And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but
still go against me;

24 Then I will go against you, and I will give you
punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins.

25 And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the
punishment of my agreement; and when you come together

into your towns I will send disease among you and you will
be given up into the hands of your haters.

26 When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be
cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured
out by weight; you will have food but never enough.

27 And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go
against me still,

28 Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will
give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins.

29 Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of
your daughters for food;

30 And I will send destruction on your high places,
overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead
bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned
from you in disgust.

31 And I will make your towns waste and send destruction
on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of
your sweet perfumes;

32 And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your
haters living in it.

33 And I will send you out in all directions among the
nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and
your land will be without any living thing, and your towns
will be made waste.

34 Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it
is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then
will the land have rest.

35 All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such
rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in
it.

36 And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble
in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by
the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as
from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them;

37 Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no
one comes after them; you will give way before your haters.

38 And death will overtake you among strange nations,
and the land of your haters will be your destruction.

39 And those of you who are still living will be wasting
away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of
their fathers they will be wasting away.

40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of
their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they
went against me;

41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the
land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken
and they take the punishment of their sins,

42 Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made
with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep
in mind the land.

43 And the land, while she is without them, will keep her
Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins,
because they were turned away from my decisions and in
their souls was hate for my laws.

44 But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters
I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

them up completely; my agreement with them will not be
broken, for I am the Lord their God.

45 And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement
which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land
of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am
the Lord.

46 These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord
made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount
Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 27

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath,
you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for
the Lord.

3 And you will put the value of a male from twenty years to
sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, by the scale of the
holy place.

4 And if it is a female, the value will be thirty shekels.

5 And if the person is from five to twenty years old, the
value will be twenty shekels for a male, and ten for a female.

6 And if the person is from one month to five years old,
then the value for a male will be five shekels of silver, and for
a female three shekels.

7 And for sixty years old and over, for a male the value will
be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten.

8 But if he is poorer than the value which you have put on
him, then let him be taken to the priest, and the priest will
put a value on him, such as it is possible for him to give.

9 And if it is a beast of which men make offerings to the
Lord, whatever any man gives of such to the Lord will be
holy.

10 It may not be changed in any way, a good given for a
bad, or a bad for a good; if one beast is changed for another,
the two will be holy.

11 And if it is any unclean beast, of which offerings are not
made to the Lord, then let him take the beast before the
priest;

12 And let the priest put a value on it, if it is good or bad;
whatever value the priest puts on it, so will it be.

13 But if he has a desire to get it back for himself, let him
give a fifth more than your value.

14 And if a man has given his house as holy to the Lord,
then the priest will put a value on it, if it is good or bad; as
the priest gives decision so will the value be fixed.

15 And if the owner has a desire to get back his house, let
him give a fifth more than your value, and it will be his.

16 And if a man gives to the Lord part of the field which is
his property, then let your value be in relation to the seed
which is planted in it; a measure of barley grain will be
valued at fifty shekels of silver.

17 If he gives his field from the year of Jubilee, the value
will be fixed by your decision.

18 But if he gives his field after the year of Jubilee, the
amount of the money will be worked out by the priest in

relation to the number of years till the coming year of Jubilee,
and the necessary amount will be taken off your value.

19 And if the man who has given the field has a desire to get
it back, let him give a fifth more than the price at which it
was valued and it will be his.

20 But if he has no desire to get it back, or if he has given it
for a price to another man, it may not be got back again.

21 But the field, when it becomes free at the year of Jubilee,
will be holy to the Lord, as a field given under oath: it will
be the property of the priest.

22 And if a man gives to the Lord a field which he has got
for money from another, which is not part of his heritage;

23 Then the value fixed by you up to the year of Jubilee will
be worked out for him by the priest, and in that day he will
give the amount of your value as holy to the Lord.

24 In the year of Jubilee the field will go back to him from
whom he got it, that is, to him whose heritage it was.

25 And let all your values be based on the shekel of the holy
place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26 But a man may not give by oath to the Lord the first-
fruits of cattle which are offered to the Lord: if it is an ox or
a sheep it is the Lord's.

27 And if it is an unclean beast, then the owner of it may
give money to get it back, in agreement with the value fixed
by you, by giving a fifth more; or if it is not taken back, let it
be given for money in agreement with your valuing.

28 But nothing which a man has given completely to the
Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land
which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in
exchange for money; anything completely given is most holy
to the Lord.

29 Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got
back: he is certainly to be put to death.

30 And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or
of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord.

31 And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth
part which he has given, let him give a fifth more.

32 And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever
goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord.

33 He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or
make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for
another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back
again.

34 These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for
the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

NUMBERS
The Fourth Book of Moses
Hebrew Title: Bamidebar ("In the Wilderness")

(The Book of Numbers (from Greek Arithmot; Hebrew:
Bemidbar, "In the Wilderness" or "In the Desert") is the
fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five
books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex
history, but its final form 1s probably due to a Priestly
redaction (i.e., editing) of a Yahwistic source made some
time in the early Persian period (5th century BC). The name
of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the
Israelites.

Numbers begins at Mount Sinai, where the Israelites have
received their laws and covenant from God and God has
taken up residence among them in the sanctuary. The task
before them 1s to take possession of the Promised Land. The
people are counted and preparations are made for resuming
their march. The Israelites begin the journey, but they
"murmur" at the hardships along the way, and about the
authority of Moses and Aaron. For these acts, God punishes
them through various means. They arrive at the borders of
Canaan and send spies into the land. Upon hearing the spies'
fearful report concerning the conditions in Canaan, the
Israelites refuse to take possession of it. God condemns them
to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow
up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new
generation of Israelites in the Plain of Moab ready for the
crossing of the Jordan River.)

Contents or Torah Portions:

¢ Bemidbar, on Numbers 1-4: First census, priestly duties

¢ Naso, on Numbers 4— Priestly duties, the camp,
unfathfulness, and the Nazirite, Tabernacle consecration

¢ Behaalotecha, on Numbers 8—12: Levites, journeying by
cloud and fire, complaints, questioning of Moses

¢ Shlach, on Numbers 13-15: Mixed report of the scouts
and Israel's response, libations, bread, idol worship, fringes

¢ Korach, on Numbers 16—18: Korah’s rebellion, plague,
Aaron’s staff buds, duties of the Levites

¢ Chukat, on Numbers 19-21: Red heifer, water from a
rock, Miriam's and Aaron's deaths, victories, serpents

¢ Balak, on Numbers 22-25: Balaam's donkey and blessing

¢ Pinechas, on Numbers 25—29: Phinehas, second census,
inheritance, Moses' successor, offerings and holidays

¢ Matot, on Numbers 30-32: Vows, Midian, dividing
booty, land for Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh

¢ Maset, on Numbers 33-36: Stations of the Israelites’
Journeys, instructions for conquest, cities for Levites.)

NUMBERS CHAPTER 1

1 And the Lord said to Moses in the waste land of Sinai, in
the Tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in
the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt,

2 Take the full number of the children of Israel, by their
families, and by their fathers' houses, every male by name;

3 All those of twenty years old and over, who are able to go
to war in Israel, are to be numbered by you and Aaron.

4 And to give you help, take one man from every tribe, the
head of his father's house.

5 These are the names of those who are to be your helpers:
from Reuben, Elizur, the son of Shedeur;

6 From Simeon, Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai;

7 From Judah, Nahshon, the son of Amminadab;

8 From Issachar, Nethanel, the son of Zuar;

9 From Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon;

10 Of the children of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama, the
son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of
Pedahzur,

11 From Benjamin, Abidan, the son of Gideoni;

12 From Dan, Ahiezer, the son of Ammi-shaddai;

13 From Asher, Pagiel, the son of Ochran;

14 From Gad, Eliasaph, the son of Reuel;

15 From Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enan.

16 These are the men named out of all the people, chiefs of
their fathers’ houses, heads of the tribes of Israel.

17 And Moses and Aaron took these men, marked out by
name;

18 And they got together all the people on the first day of
the second month; and everyone made clear his family and his
father's house, by the number of the names, from twenty
years old and over.

19 As the Lord had given orders to Moses, so they were
numbered by him in the waste place of Sinai.

20 The generations of the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of
Israel, were numbered by their families and their fathers'
houses, every male of twenty years old and over, who was
able to go to war;

21 Forty-six thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Reuben
were numbered.

22 The generations of the sons of Simeon were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years old and over, who was able to go to war;

23 Fifty-nine thousand, three hundred of the tribe of
Simeon were numbered.

24 The generations of the sons of Gad were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years old and over who was able to go to war;

25 Forty-five thousand, six hundred and fifty of the tribe of
Gad were numbered.

26 The generations of the sons of Judah were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years old and over who was able to go to war;

27 Seventy-four thousand, six hundred of the tribe of Judah
were numbered.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 The generations of the sons of Issachar were numbered
by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of
twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

29 Fifty-four thousand, four hundred of the tribe of
Issachar were numbered.

30 The generations of the sons of Zebulun were numbered
by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of
twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

31 Fifty-seven thousand, four hundred of the tribe of
Zebulun were numbered.

32 The generations of the sons of Joseph were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years old and over who was able to go to war;

33 Forty thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Ephraim
were numbered.

34 The generations of the sons of Manasseh were numbered
by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of
twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

35 Thirty-two thousand, two hundred of the tribe of
Manasseh were numbered.

36 The generations of the sons of Benjamin were numbered
by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of
twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

37 Thirty-five thousand, four hundred of the tribe of
Benjamin were numbered.

38 The generations of the sons of Dan were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years and over who was able to go to war;

39 Sixty-two thousand, seven hundred of the tribe of Dan
were numbered.

40 The generations of the sons of Asher were numbered by
their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty
years old and over who was able to go to war;

41 Forty-one thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Asher
were numbered.

42 The generations of the sons of Naphtali were numbered
by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of
twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

43 Fifty-three thousand, four hundred of the tribe of
Naphtali were numbered.

44 These are they who were numbered by Moses and Aaron
and by the twelve chiefs of Israel, one from every tribe.

45 So all those who were numbered of the children of Israel,
by their families, all those of twenty years old and over who
were able to go to war,

46 Were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and
fifty.

47 But the Levites, of the tribe of their fathers, were not
numbered among them.

48 For the Lord said to Moses,

49 Only the tribe of Levi is not to be numbered among the
children of Israel,

50 But to them you are to give the care of the Tent of
meeting with its vessels and everything in it: they are to take
up the Tent, and be responsible for everything to do with it,
and put up their tents round it.

51 And when the Tent of meeting goes forward, the Levites
are to take it down; and when it is to be put up, they are to
do it: any strange person who comes near it is to be put to
death.

52 The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every
man in his tent-circle round his flag.

53 But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of
meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of
Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.

54 So the children of Israel did as the Lord had given
orders to Moses.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 2

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 The children of Israel are to put up their tents in the
order of their families, by the flags of their fathers' houses,
facing the Tent of meeting on every side.

3 Those whose tents are on the east side, looking to the
dawn, will be round the flag of the children of Judah, with
Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, as their chief.

4 The number of his army was seventy-four thousand, six
hundred.

5 And nearest to him will be the tribe of Issachar, with
Nethanel, the son of Zuar, as their chief.

6 The number of his army was fifty-four thousand, four
hundred.

7 After him, the tribe of Zebulun, with Eliab, the son of
Helon, as their chief.

8 The number of his army was fifty-seven thousand, four
hundred.

9 The number of all the armies of Judah was a hundred and
eighty-six thousand, four hundred. They go forward first.

10 On the south side is the flag of the children of Reuben, in
the order of their armies, with Elizur, the son of Shedeur, as
their chief.

11 The number of his army was forty-six thousand, five
hundred.

12 And nearest to him, the tribe of Simeon, with Shelumiel,
the son of Zurishaddai, as their chief.

13 The number of his army was fifty-nine thousand, three
hundred.

14 Then the tribe of Gad, with Eliasaph, son of Reuel, as
their chief.

15 The number of his army was forty-five thousand, six
hundred and fifty.

16 The number of all the armies of Reuben together came to
a hundred and fifty-one thousand, four hundred and fifty.
They go forward second.

17 Then the Tent of meeting is to go forward, with the
tents of the Levites, in the middle of the armies; in the same
order as their tents are placed, they are to go forward, every
man under his flag.

18 On the west side will be the flag of the children of
Ephraim, with Elishama, the son of Ammihud, as their chief.

19 The number of his army was forty thousand, five
hundred.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 And by him the tribe of Manasseh with Gamaliel, the
son of Pedahzur, as their chief.

21 The number of his army was thirty-two thousand, two
hundred.

22 Then the tribe of Benjamin, with Abidan, the son of
Gideoni, as their chief.

23 The number of his army was thirty-five thousand, four
hundred.

24 The number of all the armies of Ephraim was a hundred
and eight thousand, one hundred. They go forward third.

25 On the north side will be the flag of the children of Dan,
with Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai, as their chief.

26 The number of his army was sixty-two thousand, seven
hundred.

27 Nearest to him will be the tribe of Asher, with Pagiel,
the son of Ochran, as their chief.

28 The number of his army was forty-one thousand, five
hundred;

29 Then the tribe of Naphtali, with Ahira, the son of Enan,
as their chief.

30 The number of his army was fifty-three thousand, four
hundred.

31 The number of all the armies in the tents of Dan was a
hundred and fifty-seven thousand, six hundred. They will go
forward last, by their flags.

32 These are all who were numbered of the children of
Israel, in the order of their fathers' families: all the armies in
their tents together came to six hundred and three thousand,
five hundred and fifty.

33 But the Levites were not numbered among the children
of Israel, as the Lord said to Moses.

34 So the children of Israel did as the Lord said to Moses,
so they put up their tents by their flags, and they went
forward in the same order, by their families, and by their
fathers' houses.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 3

1 Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the
day when the word of the Lord came to Moses on Mount
Sinai.

2 These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the
oldest, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests, on
whom the holy oil was put, who were marked out as priests.

4 And Nadab and Abihu were put to death before the Lord
when they made an offering of strange fire before the Lord,
in the waste land of Sinai, and they had no children: and
Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests before Aaron
their father.

5 And the Lord said to Moses,

6 Make the tribe of Levi come near, and put them before
Aaron the priest, to be his helpers,

7 In order that they may be responsible to him and to all
Israel for the care of the Tent of meeting, and to do the work
of the House;

8 And they will have the care of all the vessels of the Tent of
meeting, and will do for the children of Israel all the
necessary work of the House.

9 Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; so that they may
be his without question from among the children of Israel.

10 And give orders that Aaron and his sons are to keep
their place as priests; any strange person who comes near is
to be put to death.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 See, I have taken the Levites out of the children of Israel
to be mine in place of the first sons of the children of Israel;

13 For all the first sons are mine; on the day when I put to
death all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I took for myself
every first male birth of man and beast. They are mine; I am
the Lord.

14 And the Lord said to Moses in the waste land of Sinai,

15 Let all the children of Levi be numbered by their families
and their fathers’ houses; let every male of a month old and
over be numbered.

16 So Moses did as the Lord said, numbering them as he
had been ordered.

17 These were the sons of Levi by name: Gershon and
Kohath and Merari.

18 And these are the names of the sons of Gershon, by their
families: Libni and Shimei.

19 And the sons of Kohath, by their families: Amram and
Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel.

20 And the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and
Mushi. These are the families of the Levites in the order of
their fathers’ houses.

21 From Gershon come the Libnites and the Shimeites;
these are the families of the Gershonites.

22 Those who were numbered of them, the males from one
month old and over, were seven thousand, five hundred.

23 The tents of the Gershonites are to be placed at the back
of the House, to the west.

24 The chief of the Gershonites is Eliasaph, the son of Lael.

25 In the Tent of meeting, the Gershonites are to have the
care of the House, and the Tent with its cover, and the veil
for the door of the Tent of meeting,

26 And the hangings for the open space round the House
and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, and all the
cords needed for its use.

27 From Kohath come the Amramites and the Izharites and
the Hebronites and the Uzzielites; these are the families of the
Kohathites.

28 Those who were numbered of them, the males from one
month old and over, were eight thousand, six hundred, who
were responsible for the care of the holy place.

29 The tents of the Kohathites are to be placed on the south
side of the House.

30 Their chief'is Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel.

31 In their care are the ark, and the table, and the lights,
and the altars, and all the vessels used in the holy place, and
the veil, and all they are used for.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, will be head over
all the Levites and overseer of those responsible for the care
of the holy place.

33 From Merari come the Mahlites and the Mushites; these
are the families of Merari.

34 Those who were numbered of them, the males of a month
old and over, were six thousand, two hundred.

35 The chief of the families of Merari was Zuriel, the son of
Abihail: their tents are to be placed on the north side of the
House.

36 And in their care are to be all the boards of the Tent,
with their rods and pillars and bases, and all the instruments,
and all they are used for,

37 And the pillars of the open space round it, with their
bases and nails and cords.

38 And those whose tents are to be placed on the east side of
the House in front of the Tent of meeting, looking to the
dawn, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, who will do the
work of the holy place for the children of Israel; and any
strange person who comes near will be put to death.

39 All the Levites numbered by Moses and Aaron at the
order of the Lord, all the males of one month old and over
numbered in the order of their families, were twenty-two
thousand.

40 And the Lord said to Moses, Let all the first male
children be numbered, and take the number of their names.

41 And give to me the Levites (I am the Lord) in place of
the first sons of the children of Israel; and the cattle of the
Levites in place of the first births among the cattle of the
children of Israel.

42 So Moses had all the first sons among the children of
Israel numbered, as the Lord said to him.

43 Every first son from a month old and over was numbered
by name, and the number came to twenty-two thousand, two
hundred and seventy-three.

44 And the Lord said to Moses,

45 Take the Levites in place of all the first sons of the
children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of
their cattle; the Levites are to be mine; I am the Lord.

46 And the price you have to give for the two hundred and
seventy-three first sons of the children of Israel which are in
addition to the number of the Levites,

47 Will be five shekels for every one, by the scale of the holy
place (the shekel is twenty gerahs);

48 And this money, the price of those over the number of
the Levites, is to be given to Aaron and his sons.

49 So Moses took the money, the price of those whose place
had not been taken by the Levites;

50 From the first sons of Israel he took it, a thousand, three
hundred and sixty-five shekels, by the scale of the holy place;

51 And he gave the money to Aaron and his sons, as the
Lord had said.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 4

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 Let the sons of Kohath, from among the sons of Levi, be
numbered by their families, in the order of their fathers'
houses;

3 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do
the work of the Tent of meeting.

4 And this is to be the work of the sons of Kohath in
connection with the most holy things.

5 When all the people go forward, Aaron is to go in with
his sons, and take down the veil of the curtain, covering the
ark of witness with it;

6 And putting over it the leather cover and over that a blue
cloth; and putting its rods in place.

7 And on the table of the holy bread they are to put a blue
cloth, and on it all the vessels, the spoons and the basins and
the cups; and the holy bread with them;

8 And over them they are to put a red cloth, covering it
with a leather cover, and putting its rods in their places.

9 And they are to take a blue cloth, covering with it the
light-support with its lights and its instruments and its trays
and all the oil vessels which are used for it:

10 All these they are to put in a leather cover, and put it on
the frame.

11 On the gold altar they are to put a blue cloth, covering
it with a leather cover; and they are to put its rods in their
places.

12 All the vessels which are used in the holy place they are
to put in a blue cloth, covering them with a leather cover,
and put them on the frame.

13 And they are to take away the burned waste from the
altar, and put a purple cloth on it;

14 Placing on the cloth all its vessels, the fire-baskets, the
meat-hooks, the spades, and the basins; all the vessels of the
altar; they are to put a leather cover over all these, and put
its rods in their places.

15 And after the holy place and all its vessels have been
covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the
people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take
it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for
fear of death.

16 And Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is to be
responsible for the oil for the light, and the sweet perfumes
for burning, and the regular meal offering, and the holy oil;
the House and the holy place and everything in it will be in
his care.

17 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

18 Do not let the family of the Kohathites be cut off from
among the Levites;

19 But do this to them, so that life and not death may be
theirs when they come near the most holy things; let Aaron
and his sons go in and give to every one his work and that
which he is to take up;

20 But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place,
even for a minute, for fear of death.

21 And the Lord said to Moses,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 Let the sons of Gershon be numbered by families, in the
order of their fathers' houses;

23 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to
do the work of the Tent of meeting.

24 This is to be the work of the Gershonites, the things they
are to do and take up.

25 They are to take up the curtains of the House, and the
Tent of meeting with its cover and the leather cover over it,
and the hangings for the door of the Tent of meeting;

26 And the hangings for the open space round the House
and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, with the cords
and all the things used for them; whatever is necessary for
these, they are to do.

27 From the mouth of Aaron and his sons the Gershonites
will have word about all the things they are to do and take
up; you are to give them their orders.

28 This is the work of the family of the Gershonites in the
Tent of meeting, and they will be under the direction of
Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

29 The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in
the order of their fathers’ houses;

30 Every one from thirty to fifty years old who is able to do
the work of the Tent of meeting.

31 And this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting:
the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the
pillars and their bases;

32 And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their
bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used,
and everything which has to be done there; all the
instruments for which they are responsible are to be
numbered by name.

33 This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in
connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of
Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

34 So Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people took in
hand the numbering of the sons of the Kohathites, by
families, in the order of their fathers’ houses;

35 Numbering all those from thirty to fifty years old who
were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting;

36 And the number of all these was two thousand, seven
hundred and fifty.

37 This is the number of those of the Kohathites who did
the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by
Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

38 And those of the sons of Gershon who were numbered by
families,

39 All those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to
do the work in the Tent of meeting,

40 Who were numbered by families in the order of their
fathers' houses, were two thousand, six hundred and thirty.

41 This is the number of the sons of Gershon who did the
work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by
Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

42 And those of the sons of Merari who were numbered by
families, in the order of their fathers’ houses,

43 All those from thirty to fifty years old who did the work
in the Tent of meeting,

44 Who were numbered by families, were three thousand,
two hundred.

45 This is the number of the sons of Merari, numbered by
Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

46 And all the Levites who were numbered by Moses and
Aaron and the chiefs of the people, by families, in the order
of their fathers' houses,

47 Those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do
the work of the Tent of meeting and of its transport,

48 Came to eight thousand, five hundred and eighty.

49 At the order of the Lord they were numbered by Moses,
every one in relation to his work and to his part in the
transport; so they were numbered by Moses at the order of
the Lord.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 5

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel to put outside the
tent-circle every leper, and anyone who has any sort of flow
from his body, and anyone who is unclean from the touch of
the dead;

3 Male or female they are to be put outside the tent-circle,
so that they may not make unclean my resting-place among
them.

4 So the children of Israel did as the Lord had said to Moses,
and put them outside the tent-circle.

5 And the Lord said to Moses,

6 Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman does
any of the sins of men, going against the word of the Lord,
and is in the wrong;

7 Let them say openly what they have done; and make
payment for the wrong done, with the addition of a fifth part,
and give it to him to whom the wrong was done.

8 But if the man has no relation to whom the payment may
be made, then the payment for sin made to the Lord will be
the priest's, in addition to the sheep offered to take away his
sin.

9 And every offering lifted up of all the holy things which
the children of Israel give to the priest, will be his.

10 And every man's holy things will be his: whatever a man
gives to the priest will be his.

11 And the Lord said to Moses,

12 Say to the children of Israel, If any man's wife does
wrong, sinning against him

13 By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret
so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no
witness against her, and she is not taken in the act;

14 If the spirit of doubt comes into her husband's heart, and
he has doubts of his wife, with good cause; or if he has doubts
of her without cause:

15 Then let him take her to the priest, offering for her the
tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or perfume;
for it is a meal offering of a bitter spirit, a meal offering
keeping wrongdoing in mind.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And the priest will make her come near and put her
before the Lord;

17 And the priest will take holy water in a pot and put in it
dust from the floor of the House;

18 And he will make the woman come before the Lord with
her hair loose, and will put the meal offering, the offering of
a bitter spirit, in her hands; and the priest will take in his
hand the bitter water causing the curse;

19 And he will make her take an oath, and say to her, If no
man has been your lover and you have not been with another
in place of your husband, you are free from this bitter water
causing the curse;

20 But if you have been with another in place of your
husband and have made yourself unclean with a lover:

21 Then the priest will put the oath of the curse on the
woman, and say to her, May the Lord make you a curse and
an oath among your people, sending on you wasting of the
legs and disease of the stomach;

22 And this water of the curse will go into your body,
causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs:
and the woman will say, So be it.

23 And the priest will put these curses in a book, washing
out the writing with the bitter water;

24 And he will give to the woman the bitter water for drink;
and the bitter water causing the curse will go into her.

25 And the priest will take from her hand the meal offering
of doubt, waving it before the Lord, and will take it to the
altar;

26 And he will take some of it in his hand, burning it on the
altar as a sign, and then he will give the woman the bitter
water.

27 And it will be that if the woman has become unclean,
sinning against her husband, when she has taken the bitter
water it will go into her body, causing disease of the stomach
and wasting of the legs, and she will be a curse among her
people.

28 But if she is clean she will be free and will have offspring.

29 This is the law for testing a wife who goes with another
in place of her husband and becomes unclean;

30 Or for a husband who, in a bitter spirit, has doubts in
his heart about his wife; let him take her to the priest, who
will put in force this law.

31 Then the man will be free from all wrong, and the
woman's sin will be on her.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 6

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, Ifa man or a woman takes an
oath to keep himself separate and give himself to the Lord;

3 He is to keep himself from wine and strong drink, and
take no mixed wine or strong drink or any drink made from
grapes, or any grapes, green or dry.

4 All the time he is separate he may take nothing made from
the grape-vine, from its seeds to its skin.

5 All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near
his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy
and his hair may not be cut.

6 All the time he is separate he may not come near any dead
body.

7 He may not make himself unclean for his father or his
mother, his sister or his brother, if death comes to them;
because he is under an oath to keep himself separate for God.

8 All the time he is separate he is holy to the Lord.

9 If death comes suddenly to a man at his side, so that he
becomes unclean, let his hair be cut off on the day when he is
made clean, on the seventh day.

10 And on the eighth day let him take to the priest, at the
door of the Tent of meeting, two doves or two young pigeons;

11 And the priest will give one for a sin-offering and the
other for a burned offering to take away the sin which came
on him on account of the dead, and he will make his head
holy that same day.

12 And he will give to the Lord his days of being separate,
offering a he-lamb of the first year as an offering for error:
but the earlier days will be a loss, because he became unclean.

13 And this is the law for him who is separate, when the
necessary days are ended: he is to come to the door of the
Tent of meeting,

14 And make his offering to the Lord; one he-lamb of the
first year, without a mark, for a burned offering, and one
female lamb of the first year, without a mark, for a sin-
offering, and one male sheep, without a mark, for peace-
offerings,

15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of the best meal
mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil,
with their meal offering and drink offerings.

16 And the priest will take them before the Lord, and make
his sin-offering and his burned offering;

17 Giving the sheep of the peace-offerings, with the basket
of unleavened bread; and at the same time, the priest will
make his meal offering and his drink offering.

18 Then let his long hair, the sign of his oath, be cut off at
the door of the Tent of meeting, and let him put it on the fire
on which the peace-offerings are burning.

19 And the priest will take the cooked leg of the sheep and
one unleavened cake and one thin cake out of the basket, and
put them on the hands of the separate one after his hair has
been cut,

20 Waving them for a wave offering before the Lord; this is
holy for the priest, together with the waved breast and the
leg which is lifted up; after that, the man may take wine.

21 This is the law for him who takes an oath to keep himself
separate, and for his offering to the Lord on that account, in
addition to what he may be able to get; this is the law of his
oath, which he will have to keep.

22 And the Lord said to Moses,

23 Say to Aaron and his sons, These are the words of
blessing which are to be used by you in blessing the children
of Israel; say to them,

24 May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 May the light of the Lord's face be shining on you in
grace:

26 May the Lord's approval be resting on you and may he
give you peace.

27 So they will put my name on the children of Israel, and I
will give them my blessing.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 7

1 And when Moses had put up the House completely, and
had put oil on it and made it holy, with all the things in it,
and had made the altar and all its vessels holy with oil;

2 Then the chiefs of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses,
made offerings; these were the chiefs of the tribes, who were
over those who were numbered.

3 And they came with their offerings before the Lord, six
covered carts and twelve oxen; a cart for every two of the
chiefs, and for every one an ox.

4 And the Lord said to Moses,

5 Take the things from them, to be used for the work of the
Tent of meeting; and give them to the Levites, to every man
what is needed for his work.

6 So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to
the Levites.

7 Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon
for their work;

8 And four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of
Merari for their work, under the direction of Ithamar, the
son of Aaron the priest.

9 But to the sons of Kohath he gave nothing; because they
had the care of the holy place, taking it about on their backs.

10 And the chiefs gave an offering for the altar on the day
when the holy oil was put on it; they made their offering
before the altar.

11 And the Lord said to Moses, Let every chief on his day
give his offering to make the altar holy.

12 And he who made his offering on the first day was
Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah:

13 And his offering was one silver plate, a hundred and
thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels,
by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best
meal mixed with oil for a meal offering;

14 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice for burning;

15 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

16 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

17 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.

18 On the second day Nethanel, the son of Zuar, chief of
Issachar, made his offering:

19 He gave one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in
weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the
holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with
oil for a meal offering;

20 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

21 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

22 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

23 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Nethanel, the son of Zuar.

24 On the third day Eliab, the son of Helon, chief of the
children of Zebulun:

25 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

26 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

27 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

28 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

29 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Eliab, the son of Helon.

30 On the fourth day Elizur, the son of Shedeur, chief of the
children of Reuben:

31 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

32 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

33 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

34 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

35 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Elizur, the son of Shedeur.

36 On the fifth day Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, chief
of the children of Simeon:

37 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

38 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

39 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

40 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

41 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.

42 On the sixth day Eliasaph, the son of Reuel, chief of the
children of Gad:

43 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

44 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

45 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

46 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

47 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Eliasaph, the son of Reuel

48 On the seventh day Elishama, the son of Ammihud, chief
of the children of Ephraim:

49 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

50 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

51 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

52 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

53 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Elishama, the son of Ammihud.

54 On the eighth day Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, chief
of the children of Manasseh:

55 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

56 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

57 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

58 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

59 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.

60 On the ninth day Abidan, the son of Gideoni, chief of
the children of Benjamin:

61 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

62 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

63 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year for a burned offering;

64 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

65 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Abidan, the son of Gideoni.

66 On the tenth day Ahiezer; the son of Ammishaddai, chief
of the children of Dan:

67 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

68 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

69 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

70 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

71 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.

72 On the eleventh day Pagiel, the son of Ochran, chief of
the children of Asher:

73 His offering was one silver plate; a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

74 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

75 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

76 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

77 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Pagiel, the son of Ochran.

78 On the twelfth day Ahira, the son of Enan, chief of the
children of Naphtali:

79 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty
shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the
scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal
mixed with oil for a meal offering;

80 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice;

81 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first
year, for a burned offering;

82 One male of the goats for a sin-offering;

83 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the
offering of Ahira, the son of Enan.

84 These were the offerings given for the altar by the chiefs
of Israel, when the holy oil was put on it: twelve silver plates,
twelve silver basins, twelve gold spoons;

85 The weight of every silver plate was a hundred and
thirty shekels, and of every basin seventy; the weight of all
the silver of the vessels was two thousand and four hundred
shekels, by the scale of the holy place;

86 The weight of the twelve gold spoons of spice for
burning was ten shekels for every one, by the scale of the holy
place; all the gold of the spoons was a hundred and twenty
shekels;

87 All the oxen, for the burned offering were twelve, the
male sheep twelve, the he-lambs of the first year twelve, with
their meal offering; and the males of the goats for sin-
offering twelve;

88 And all the oxen for the peace-offerings, twenty-four
oxen, the male sheep sixty, and the he-goats sixty, the he-
lambs of the first year sixty. This was given for the altar after
the holy oil was put on it.

89 And when Moses went into the Tent of meeting to have
talk with him, then the Voice came to his ears from over the
cover which was on the ark of witness, from between the two
winged ones. And he had talk with him.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 8

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to Aaron, When you put the lights in their places, the
seven lights will give light in front of the support.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And Aaron did so; he put the lights in their places so that
they gave light in front of the support, as the Lord gave
orders to Moses.

4 The support for the lights was of hammered gold work,
from its base to its flowers it was of hammered work; from
the design which the Lord had given to Moses, he made the
support for the lights.

5 And the Lord said to Moses,

6 Take the Levites out from among the children of Israel
and make them clean.

7 And this is how you are to make them clean: let the holy
water which takes away sin be put on them, and let the hair
all over their bodies be cut off with a sharp blade, and let
their clothing be washed and their bodies made clean.

8 Then let them take a young ox and its meal offering,
crushed grain mixed with oil, and take another ox for a sin-
offering.

9 And make the Levites come forward in front of the Tent
of meeting, and let all the children of Israel come together:

10 And you are to take the Levites before the Lord: and the
children of Israel are to put their hands on them:

11 And Aaron is to give the Levites to the Lord as a wave
offering from the children of Israel, so that they may do the
Lord's work.

12 And the Levites are to put their hands on the heads of
the oxen, and one of the oxen is to be offered for a sin-
offering and the other for a burned offering to the Lord to
take away the sin of the Levites.

13 Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons,
to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord.

14 So you are to make the Levites separate from the
children of Israel, and the Levites will be mine.

15 After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to
be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean
and give them as a wave offering.

16 For they have been given to me from among the children
of Israel; in place of every mother's first son, the first to come
to birth in Israel, I have taken them for myself.

17 For every mother's first son among the children of Israel
is mine, the first male birth of man or beast: on the day when
I sent death on all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I made
them mine.

18 And in place of the first sons among the children of
Israel, I have taken the Levites.

19 And I have given them to Aaron and to his sons, from
among the children of Israel, to undertake for them all the
work of the Tent of meeting, and to take away sin from the
children of Israel so that no evil may come on them when
they come near the holy place.

20 All these things Moses and Aaron and the children of
Israel did to the Levites; as the Lord gave orders to Moses
about the Levites, so the children of Israel did.

21 And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their
clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave
offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and
made them clean.

22 And then the Levites went in to do their work in the
Tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons: all the orders
which the Lord had given Moses about the Levites were put
into effect.

23 And the Lord said to Moses,

24 This is the rule for the Levites: those of twenty-five years
old and over are to go in and do the work of the Tent of
meeting;

25 But after they are fifty years old, they are to give up
their work and do no more;

26 But be with their brothers in the Tent of meeting,
taking care of it but doing no work. This is what you are to
do in connection with the Levites and their work.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 9

1 And the Lord said to Moses, in the waste land of Sinai, in
the first month of the second year after they had come out of
the land of Egypt,

2 Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its regular
time.

3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are
to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the
law.

4 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel to keep
the Passover.

5 So they kept the Passover in the first month, on the
fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the waste land of
Sinai: as the Lord gave orders to Moses, so the children of
Israel did.

6 And there were certain men who were unclean because of
a dead body, so that they were not able to keep the Passover
on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron
on that day:

7 And these men said to him, We have been made unclean
by the dead body of a man; why may we not make the
offering of the Lord at the regular time among the children
of Israel?

8 And Moses said to them, Do nothing till the Lord gives
me directions about you.

9 And the Lord said to Moses,

10 Say to the children of Israel, If any one of you or of your
families is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey
far away, still he is to keep the Passover to the Lord:

11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the
evening, they are to keep it, taking it with unleavened bread
and bitter-tasting plants;

12 Nothing of it is to be kept till the morning, and no bone
of it is to be broken: they are to keep it by the rules of the
Passover.

13 But the man who, not being unclean or on a journey,
does not keep the Passover, will be cut off from his people:
because he did not make the offering of the Lord at the
regular time, his sin will be on him.

14 And if a man from another country is among you and
has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is
ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

rule for the man from another nation and for him who had
his birth in the land.

15 And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud
came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening
there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.

16 And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud,
and by a light as of fire by night.

17 And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the
House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in
the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of
Israel put up their tents.

18 At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went
forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents:
as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not
go away from that place.

19 When the cloud was resting on the House for a long time
the children of Israel, waiting for the order of the Lord, did
not go on.

20 Sometimes the cloud was resting on the House for two
or three days; then, by the order of the Lord, they kept their
tents in that place, and when the Lord gave the order they
went on.

21 And sometimes the cloud was there only from evening to
morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning
they went on their journey again: or if it was resting there by
day and by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they went
forward.

22 Or if the cloud came to rest on the House for two days or
a month or a year without moving, the children of Israel
went on waiting there and did not go on; but whenever it
was taken up they went forward on their journey.

23 At the word of the Lord they put up their tents, and at
the word of the Lord they went forward on their journey:
they kept the orders of the Lord as he gave them by Moses.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 10

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Make two silver horns of hammered work, to be used for
getting the people together and to give the sign for the
moving of the tents.

3 When they are sounded, all the people are to come
together to you at the door of the Tent of meeting.

4 If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads
of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you.

5 When a loud note is sounded, the tents placed on the east
side are to go forward.

6 At the sound ofa second loud note, the tents on the south
side are to go forward: the loud note will be the sign to go
forward.

7 But when all the people are to come together, the horn is
to be sounded but not loudly.

8 The horns are to be sounded by the sons of Aaron, the
priests; this is to be a law for you for ever, from generation to
generation.

9 And if you go to war in your land against any who do you
wrong, then let the loud note of the horn be sounded; and the

Lord your God will keep you in mind and give you salvation
from those who are against you.

10 And on days of joy and on your regular feasts and on the
first day of every month, let the horns be sounded over your
burned offerings and your peace-offerings; and they will put
the Lord in mind of you: I am the Lord your God.

11 Now in the second year, on the twentieth day of the
second month, the cloud was taken up from over the Tent of
witness.

12 And the children of Israel went on their journey out of
the waste land of Sinai; and the cloud came to rest in the
waste land of Paran.

13 They went forward for the first time on their journey as
the Lord had given orders by the hand of Moses.

14 First the flag of the children of Judah went forward with
their armies: and at the head of his army was Nahshon, the
son of Amminadab.

15 And at the head of the army of the children of Issachar
was Nethanel, the son of Zuar.

16 And at the head of the army of the children of Zebulun
was Eliab, the son of Helon.

17 Then the House was taken down; and the sons of
Gershon and the sons of Merari, who were responsible for
moving the House, went forward.

18 Then the flag of the children of Reuben went forward
with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elizur, the
son of Shedeur.

19 And at the head of the army of the children of Simeon
was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.

20 At the head of the army of the children of Gad was
Eliasaph, the son of Reuel.

21 Then the Kohathites went forward with the holy place;
the others put up the House ready for their coming.

22 Then the flag of the children of Ephraim went forward
with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elishama,
the son of Ammihud.

23 At the head of the army of the children of Manasseh was
Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.

24 At the head of the army of the children of Benjamin was
Abidan, the son of Gideoni.

25 And the flag of the children of Dan, whose tents were
moved last of all, went forward with their armies: and at the
head of his army was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.

26 At the head of the army of the children of Asher was
Pagiel, the son of Ochran.

27 And at the head of the army of the children of Naphtali
was Ahira, the son of Enan.

28 This was the order in which the children of Israel were
journeying by armies; so they went forward.

29 Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of his father-in-law
Reuel the Midianite, We are journeying to that place of
which the Lord has said, I will give it to you: so come with us,
and it will be for your profit: for the Lord has good things in
store for Israel.

30 But he said, I will not go with you, I will go back to the
land of my birth and to my relations.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 And he said, Do not go from us; for you will be eyes for
us, guiding us to the right places in the waste land to put up
our tents.

32 And if you come with us, we will give you a part in
whatever good the Lord does for us.

33 So they went forward three days' journey from the
mountain of the Lord; and the ark of the Lord's agreement
went three days' journey before them, looking for a resting-
place for them;

34 And by day the cloud of the Lord went over them, when
they went forward from the place where they had put up
their tents.

35 And when the ark went forward Moses said, Come up, O
Lord, and let the armies of those who are against you be
broken, and let your haters go in flight before you.

36 And when it came to rest, he said, Take rest, O Lord,
and give a blessing to the families of Israel.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 11

1 Now the people were saying evil against the Lord; and the
Lord, hearing it, was angry and sent fire on them, burning
the outer parts of the tent-circle.

2 And the people made an outcry to Moses, and Moses made
prayer to the Lord, and the fire was stopped.

3 So that place was named Taberah, because of the fire of
the Lord which had been burning among them.

4 And the mixed band of people who went with them were
overcome by desire: and the children of Israel, weeping again,
said, Who will give us flesh for our food?

5 Sweet is the memory of the fish we had in Egypt for
nothing, and the fruit and green plants of every sort, sharp
and pleasing to the taste:

6 But now our soul is wasted away; there is nothing at all:
we have nothing but this manna before our eyes.

7 Now the manna was like a seed of grain, like small clear
drops.

8 The people went about taking it up from the earth,
crushing it between stones or hammering it to powder, and
boiling it in pots, and they made cakes of it: its taste was like
the taste of cakes cooked with oil.

9 When the dew came down on the tents at night, the
manna came down with it.

10 And at the sound of the people weeping, every man at his
tent-door, the wrath of the Lord was great, and Moses was
very angry.

11 And Moses said to the Lord, Why have you done me this
evil? and why have I not grace in your eyes, that you have put
on me the care of all this people?

12 Am I the father of all this people? have I given them
birth, that you say to me, Take them in your arms, like a
child at the breast, to the land which you gave by an oath to
their fathers?

13 Where am I to get flesh to give to all this people? For
they are weeping to me and saying, Give us flesh for our food.

14 I am not able by myself to take the weight of all this
people, for it is more than my strength.

15 If this is to be my fate, put me to death now in answer to
my prayer, if I have grace in your eyes; and let me not see my
shame.

16 And the Lord said to Moses, Send for seventy of the
responsible men of Israel, who are in your opinion men of
weight and authority over the people; make them come to
the Tent of meeting and be there with you.

17 And I will come down and have talk with you there: and
I will take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on
them, and they will take part of the weight of the people off
you, so that you do not have to take it by yourself.

18 And say to the people, Make yourselves clean before
tomorrow and you will have flesh for your food: for in the
ears of the Lord you have been weeping and saying, Who will
give us flesh for food? for we were well off in Egypt: and so
the Lord will give you flesh, and it will be your food;

19 Not for one day only, or even for five or ten or twenty
days;

20 But every day for a month, till you are tired of it,
turning from it in disgust: because you have gone against the
Lord who is with you, and have been weeping before him
saying, Why did we come out of Egypt?

21 Then Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six
hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, I will give
them flesh to be their food for a month.

22 Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are
all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be
full?

23 And the Lord said to Moses, Has the Lord's hand
become short? Now you will see if my word comes true for
you or not.

24 And Moses went out and gave the people the words of
the Lord: and he took seventy of the responsible men of the
people, placing them round the Tent.

25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and had talk
with him, and put on the seventy men some of the spirit
which was on him: now when the spirit came to rest on them,
they were like prophets, but only at that time.

26 But two men were still in the tent-circle one of them
named Eldad and the other Medad: and the spirit came to
rest on them; they were among those who had been sent for,
but they had not gone out to the Tent: and the prophet's
power came on them in the tent-circle.

27 And a young man went running to Moses and said,
Eldad and Medad are acting as prophets in the tent-circle.

28 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, who had been Moses’
servant from the time when he was a child, said, My lord
Moses, let them be stopped.

29 And Moses said to him, Are you moved by envy on my
account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the
Lord might put his spirit on them!

30 Then Moses, with the responsible men of Israel, went
back to the tent-circle.

31 Then the Lord sent a wind, driving little birds from the
sea, so that they came down on the tents, and all round the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

tent-circle, about a day's journey on this side and on that, in
masses about two cubits high over the face of the earth.

32 And all that day and all night and the day after, the
people were taking up the birds; the smallest amount which
anyone got was ten homers: and they put them out all round
the tents.

33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before
it was tasted, the wrath of the Lord was moved against the
people and he sent a great outburst of disease on them.

34 So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah; because
there they put in the earth the bodies of the people who had
given way to their desires.

35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people went on to
Hazeroth; and there they put up their tents.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 12

1 Now Miriam and Aaron said evil against Moses, because
of the Cushite woman to whom he was married, for he had
taken a Cushite woman as his wife.

2 And they said, Have the words of the Lord been given to
Moses only? have they not come to us? And the Lord took
note of it.

3 Now the man Moses was more gentle than any other man
on earth.

4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and
Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And
the three of them went out.

5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his
place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam
come before him.

6 And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a
prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a
vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.

7 My servant Moses is not so; he is true to me in all my
house:

8 With him I will have talk mouth to mouth, openly and
not in dark sayings; and with his eyes he will see the form of
the Lord: why then had you no fear of saying evil against my
servant Moses?

9 And burning with wrath against them, the Lord went
away.

10 And the cloud was moved from over the Tent; and
straight away Miriam became a leper, as white as snow: and
Aaron, looking at Miriam, saw that she was a leper.

11 Then Aaron said to Moses, O my lord, let not our sin be
on our heads, for we have done foolishly and are sinners.

12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half wasted
when he comes out from the body of his mother.

13 And Moses, crying to the Lord, said, Let my prayer
come before you, O God, and make her well.

14 And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a mark
of shame on her, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let
her be shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days, and after
that she may come in again.

15 So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven
days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till
Miriam had come in again.

16 After that, the people went on from Hazeroth and put
up their tents in the waste land of Paran.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 13

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Send men to get knowledge about the land of Canaan,
which I am giving to the children of Israel; from every tribe
of their fathers you are to send a man, every one a chief
among them.

3 And Moses sent them from the waste land of Paran as the
Lord gave orders, all of them men who were heads of the
children of Israel.

4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben,
Shammua, the son of Zaccur.

5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori.

6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal, the son of Joseph.

8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Nun.

9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu.

10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, the son of Sodi.

11 Of the tribe of Joseph, that is of the family of Manasseh,
Gaddi, the son of Susi.

12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, the son of Gemalli.

13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur, the son of Michael

14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, the son of Vophsi.

15 Of the tribe of Gad, Gevel, the son of Machi.

16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to get
knowledge about the land. And Moses gave to Hoshea, the
son of Nun, the name of Joshua.

17 So Moses sent them to have a look at the land of Canaan,
and said to them, Go up into the South and into the hill-
country;

18 And see what the land is like; and if the people living in
it are strong or feeble, small or great in number;

19 And what sort of land they are living in, if it is good or
bad; and what their living-places are, tent-circles or walled
towns;

20 And if the land is fertile or poor, and if there is wood in
it or not. And be of good heart, and come back with some of
the produce of the land. Now it was the time when the first
grapes were ready.

21 So they went up and got a view of the land, from the
waste land of Zin to Rehob, on the way to Hamath.

22 They went up into the South and came to Hebron; and
Ahiman and Sheshai and Talmai, the children of Anak, were
living there. (Now the building of Hebron took place seven
years before that of Zoan in Egypt.)

23 And they came to the valley of Eshcol, and cutting down
a vine-branch with its grapes, two of them took it on a rod
between them; and they took some pomegranates and figs.

24 That place was named the valley of Eshcol because of the
grapes which the children of Israel took from there.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 At the end of forty days they came back from viewing the
land.

26 And they came back to Moses and Aaron and all the
children of Israel, to Kadesh in the waste land of Paran; and
gave an account to them and to all the people and let them
see the produce of the land.

27 And they said, We came to the land where you sent us,
and truly it is flowing with milk and honey: and here is some
of the produce of it.

28 But the people living in the land are strong, and the
towns are walled and very great; further, we saw the children
of Anak there.

29 And the Amalekites are in the South; and the Hittites
and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill-
country; and the Canaanites by the sea and by the side of
Jordan.

30 Then Caleb made signs to the people to keep quiet, and
said to Moses, Let us go up straight away and take this land;
for we are well able to overcome it.

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not
able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than
we.

32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad account of the
land they had been to see, saying, This land through which
we went is a land causing destruction to those living in it;
and all the people we saw there are men of more than
common size.

33 There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak,
offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no
more than insects, and so we seemed to them.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 14

1 Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that
night they gave themselves up to weeping.

2 And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses
and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land
of Egypt, or even in this waste land!

3 Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our
death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get
into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back
to Egypt?

4 And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over
us, and go back to Egypt.

5 Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before
the meeting of the people.

6 And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of
Jephunneh, two of those who had been to see the land, giving
signs of grief,

7 Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went
through to see is a very good land.

8 And if the Lord has delight in us, he will take us into this
land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

9 Only, do not go against the Lord or go in fear of the
people of the land, for they will be our food; their strength
has been taken from them and the Lord is with us: have no
fear of them.

10 But all the people said they were to be stoned. Then the
glory of the Lord was seen in the Tent of meeting, before the
eyes of all the children of Israel.

11 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people
have no respect for me? how long will they be without faith,
in the face of all the signs I have done among them?

12 I will send disease on them for their destruction, and
take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation
greater and stronger than they.

13 And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the
ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people
out from among them;

14 And they will give the news to the people of this land:
they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this
people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your
cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a
pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then
the nations who have had word of your glory will say,

16 Because the Lord was not able to take this people into
the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent
destruction on them in the waste land.

17 So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the
power of the Lord be great, as you said:

18 The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy,
overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let
wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the
sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

19 May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the
measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them
from Egypt up till now.

20 And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say:

21 But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full
of the glory of the Lord;

22 Because all these men, having seen my glory and the
signs which I have done in Egypt and in the waste land, still
have put me to the test ten times, and have not given ear to
my voice;

23 They will not see the land about which I made an oath to
their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been
honoured will see it.

24 But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in
him, and has been true to me with all his heart, him I will
take into that land into which he went, and his seed will have
it for their heritage.

25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are in the valley;
tomorrow, turning round, go into the waste land by the way
to the Red Sea.

26 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

27 How long am I to put up with this evil people and their
outcries against me? The words which they say against me
have come to my ears.

28 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as
your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this
to you:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

29 Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land;
and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and
over who have been crying out against me,

30 Not one will come into the land which I gave my word
you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the
son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

31 And your little ones, whom you said would come into
strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which
you would not have.

32 But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this
waste land.

33 And your children will be wanderers in the waste land
for forty years, undergoing punishment for your false ways,
till your bodies become dust in the waste land.

34 And as you went through the land viewing it for forty
days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will
undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see
that I am against you.

35 I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all
this evil people who have come together against me: in this
waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be
their fate.

36 And the men whom Moses sent to see the land, and who,
by the bad account they gave of the land, were the cause of
the outcry the people made against Moses,

37 Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their
death by disease before the Lord.

38 But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of
Jephunneh, of those who went to see the land, were not
touched by disease.

39 And when Moses put these words before the children of
Israel, the people were full of grief.

40 And early in the morning they got up and went to the
top of the mountain, saying, We are here and we will go up
to the place which the Lord said he would give us: for we
have done wrong.

41 And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the
Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it?

42 Go not up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will be
overcome by those who are fighting against you.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before
you, and you will be put to death by their swords: because
you have gone back from the way of the Lord, the Lord will
not be with you.

44 But they gave no attention to his words and went to the
top of the mountain, though Moses and the ark of the Lord's
agreement did not go out of the tent-circle.

45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites
who were living in the hill-country, and overcame them
completely, driving them back as far as Hormah.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 15

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come into
the land which I am giving to you for your resting-place,

3 And are going to make an offering by fire to the Lord, a
burned offering or an offering in connection with an oath, or
an offering freely given, or at your regular feasts, an offering
for a sweet smell to the Lord, from the herd or the flock:

4 Then let him who is making his offering, give to the Lord
a meal offering of a tenth part of a measure of the best meal
mixed with a fourth part ofa hin of oil:

5 And for the drink offering, you are to give with the
burned offering or other offering, the fourth part of a hin of
wine for every lamb.

6 Or for a male sheep, give as a meal offering two tenth
parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with a third part of
a hin of oil:

7 And for the drink offering give a third part of a hin of
wine, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

8 And when you make ready a young ox for a burned or
other offering, or for the effecting of an oath, or for peace-
offerings to the Lord:

9 Then with the ox give a meal offering of three tenth parts
of a measure of the best meal mixed with half a hin of oil.

10 And for the drink offering: give half a hin of wine, for
an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord.

11 This is to be done for every young ox and for every male
sheep or he-lamb or young goat.

12 Whatever number you make ready, so you are to do for
every one.

13 All those who are Israelites by birth are to do these
things in this way, when giving an offering made by fire of a
sweet smell to the Lord.

14 And if a man from another country or any other person
living among you, through all your generations, has the
desire to give an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the
Lord, let him do as you do.

15 There is to be one law for you and for the man of
another country living with you, one law for ever from
generation to generation; as you are, so is he to be before the
Lord.

16 The law and the rule are to be the same for you and for
those from other lands living with you.

17 And the Lord said to Moses,

18 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the
land where I am guiding you,

19 Then, when you take for your food the produce of the
land, you are to give an offering lifted up before the Lord.

20 Of the first of your rough meal you are to give a cake for
a lifted offering, lifting it up before the Lord as the offering
of the grain-floor is lifted up.

21 From generation to generation you are to give to the
Lord a lifted offering from the first of your rough meal.

22 And if in error you go against any of these laws which
the Lord has given to Moses,

23 All the laws which the Lord has given you by the hand of
Moses, from the day when the Lord gave them, and ever after
from generation to generation;

24 Then, if the wrong is done in error, without the
knowledge of the meeting of the people, let all the meeting

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

give a young ox as a burned offering, a sweet smell to the
Lord, with its meal offering and its drink offering, as is

ordered in the law, together with a he-goat for a sin-offering.

25 So the priest will make the people free from sin, and they
will have forgiveness; for it was an error, and they have given
their offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin-offering
before the Lord, on account of their error:

26 And all the meeting of the children of Israel, as well as
those from other lands living among them, will have
forgiveness; for it was an error on the part of the people.

27 And if one person does wrong, without being conscious
of it, then let him give a she-goat of the first year for a sin-
offering.

28 And the priest will take away the sin of the person who
has done wrong, if the wrong was done unconsciously, and
he will have forgiveness.

29 The law in connection with wrong done unconsciously is
to be the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the
man from another country who is living among them.

30 But the person who does wrong in the pride of his heart,
if he is one of you or of another nation by birth, is acting
without respect for the Lord, and will be cut off from his
people.

31 Because he had no respect for the word of the Lord, and
did not keep his law, that man will be cut off without mercy
and his sin will be on him.

32 Now while the children of Israel were in the waste land,
they saw a man who was getting sticks on the Sabbath day.

33 And those who saw him getting sticks took him before
Moses and Aaron and all the people.

34 And they had him shut up, because they had no
directions about what was to be done with him.

35 Then the Lord said to Moses, Certainly the man is to be
put to death: let him be stoned by all the people outside the
tent-circle.

36 So all the people took him outside the tent-circle and he
was stoned to death there, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

37 And the Lord said to Moses,

38 Say to the children of Israel that through all their
generations they are to put on the edges of their robes an
ornament of twisted threads, and in every ornament a blue
cord;

39 So that, looking on these ornaments, you may keep in
mind the orders of the Lord and do them; and not be guided
by the desires of your hearts and eyes, through which you
have been untrue to me:

40 And that you may keep in mind all my orders and do
them and be holy to your God.

41 Tam the Lord your God, who took you out of the land
of Egypt, so that I might be your God: I am the Lord your
God.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 16

1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son
of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On,
the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben, made themselves ready,

2 And came before Moses, with certain of the children of
Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the people, men of
good name who had a place in the meeting of the people.

3 They came together against Moses and against Aaron,
and said to them, You take overmuch on yourselves, seeing
that all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord
is among them; why then have you put yourselves in
authority over the people of the Lord?

4 And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face;

5 And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the
Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who
may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to
come near him.

6 So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for
burning perfumes;

7 And put spices on the fire in them before the Lord
tomorrow; then the man marked out by the Lord will be holy:
you take overmuch on yourselves, you sons of Levi.

8 And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi:

9 Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of
Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting
you come near himself to do the work of the House of the
Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what
has to be done for them;

10 Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi,
come near to him? and would you now be priests?

11 So you and all your band have come together against the
Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against
him?

12 Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of
Eliab: and they said, We will not come up:

13 Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land
flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste
land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over
us?

14 And more than this, you have not taken us into a land
flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields
and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We
will not come up.

15 Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, Give
no attention to their offering: not one of their asses have I
taken, or done wrong to any of them.

16 And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to
come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron:

17 And let every man take a vessel for burning perfumes,
and put sweet spices in them; let every man take his vessel
before the Lord, two hundred and fifty vessels; you and
Aaron and everyone with his vessel.

18 So every man took his vessel and they put fire in them,
with spices, and came to the door of the Tent of meeting with
Moses and Aaron.

19 And Korah made all the people come together against
them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the
Lord was seen by all the people.

20 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Come out from among this people, so that I may send
sudden destruction on them.

22 Then falling down on their faces they said, O God, the
God of the spirits of all flesh, because of one man's sin will
your wrath be moved against all the people?

23 And the Lord said to Moses,

24 Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah
Dathan, and Abiram.

25 So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and
the responsible men of Israel went with him.

26 And he said to the people, Come away now from the
tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs,
or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins.

27 So on every side they went away from the tent of Korah
Dathan, and Abiram: and Dathan and Abiram came out to
the door of their tents, with their wives and their sons and
their little ones.

28 And Moses said, Now you will see that the Lord has sent
me to do all these works, and I have not done them of myself.

29 If these men have the common death of men, or if the
natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not
sent me.

30 But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth
to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go
down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you
that the Lord has not been honoured by these men.

31 And while these words were on his lips, the earth under
them was parted in two;

32 And the earth, opening her mouth, took them in, with
their families, and all the men who were joined to Korah,
and their goods.

33 So they and all theirs went down living into the
underworld, and the earth was shut over them, and they were
cut off from among the meeting of the people.

34 And all Israel round about them went in flight at their
cry, For fear, said they, that we go down into the heart of the
earth.

35 Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two
hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume.

36 And the Lord said to Moses,

37 Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he is to
take out of the flames the vessels with the perfumes in them,
turning the fire out of them, for they are holy;

38 And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives
have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into
plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered
before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to
the children of Israel.

39 So Eleazar the priest took the brass vessels which had
been offered by those who were burned up, and they were
hammered out to make a cover for the altar:

40 To be a sign, kept in memory for ever by the children of
Israel, that no man who is not of the seed of Aaron has the
right of burning spices before the Lord, so that he may not
be like Korah and his band: as the Lord said to him by the
mouth of Moses.

41 But on the day after, all the children of Israel made an
outcry against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have
put to death the Lord's people.

42 Now when the people had come together against Moses
and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting,
they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord
came before their eyes.

43 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of
meeting.

44 And the Lord said to Moses,

45 Come out from among this people, so that I may send
sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their
faces.

46 And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it
fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into
the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for
wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting.

47 And at the words of Moses, Aaron took his vessel, and
went running among the people; and even then the disease
had made a start among them; and he put spices in his vessel
to take away the sin of the people.

48 And he took his place between the dead and the living:
and the disease was stopped.

49 Now fourteen thousand, seven hundred deaths were
caused by that disease, in addition to those who came to their
end because of what Korah had done.

50 Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent
of meeting: and the disease came to a stop.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 17

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel that they are to give you rods,
one for every family, for every chief, the head of his father's
house, making twelve rods; let every man's name be placed on
his rod.

3 And let Aaron's name be placed on the rod of Levi: for
there is to be one rod for the head of every family.

4 And let them be stored up in the Tent of meeting, in front
of the ark of witness where I come to you.

5 And the rod of that man who is marked out by me for
myself will have buds on it; so I will put a stop to the outcries
which the children of Israel make to me against you.

6 So Moses gave these orders to the children of Israel, and
all their chiefs gave him rods, one for the head of every family,
making twelve rods: and Aaron's rod was among them.

7 And Moses put the rods before the Lord in the Tent of
witness.

8 Now on the day after, Moses went into the Tent of witness;
and he saw that Aaron's rod, the rod of the house of Levi,
had put out buds, and was covered with buds and flowers and
fruit.

9 Then Moses took out all the rods from before the Lord,
and gave them back to the children of Israel: and they saw
them, and every man took his rod.

10 And the Lord said to Moses, Put Aaron's rod back in
front of the ark of witness, to be kept for a sign against this

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

false-hearted people, so that you may put a stop to their
outcries against me, and death may not overtake them.

11 This Moses did: as the Lord gave orders, so he did.

12 And the children of Israel said to Moses, Truly,
destruction has come on us; an evil fate has overtaken us all.

13 Death will overtake everyone who comes near, who
comes near the House of the Lord: are we all to come to
destruction?

NUMBERS CHAPTER 18

1 And the Lord said to Aaron, You and your sons and your
father's family are to be responsible for all wrongdoing in
relation to the holy place: and you and your sons are to be
responsible for the errors which come about in your work as
priests.

2 Let your brothers, the family of Levi, come near with you,
so that they may be joined with you and be your servants: but
you and your sons with you are to go in before the ark of
witness.

3 They are to do your orders and be responsible for the
work of the Tent; but they may not come near the vessels of
the holy place or the altar, so that death may not overtake
them or you.

4 They are to be joined with you in the care of the Tent of
meeting, doing whatever is needed for the Tent: and no one
of any other family may come near you.

5 You are to be responsible for the holy place and the altar,
so that wrath may never again come on the children of Israel.

6 Now, see, I have taken your brothers the Levites from
among the children of Israel: they are given to you and to the
Lord, to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

7 And you and your sons with you are to be responsible as
priests for the altar and everything on it, and everything
inside the veil; you are to do the work of priests; I have given
you your position as priests; and any other man who comes
near will be put to death.

8 And the Lord said to Aaron, See, I have given into your
care my lifted offerings; even all the holy things of the
children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons as your
right for ever, because you have been marked with the holy
oil.

9 This is to be yours of the most holy things, out of the fire
offerings; every offering of theirs, every meal offering and
sin-offering, and every offering which they make on account
of error, is to be most holy for you and your sons.

10 As most holy things they are to be your food: let every
male have them for food; it is to be holy to you.

11 And this is yours: the lifted offering which they give and
all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given to
you and to your sons and to your daughters as your right for
ever: everyone in your house who is clean may have them for
food.

12 All the best of the oil and the wine and the grain, the
first-fruits of them which they give to the Lord, to you have I
given them.

13 The earliest produce from their land which they take to
the Lord is to be yours; everyone in your house who is clean
may have it for his food.

14 Everything given by oath to the Lord in Israel is to be
yours.

15 The first birth of every living thing which is offered to
the Lord, of man or beast, is to be yours; but for the first
sons of man payment is to be made, and for the first young of
unclean beasts.

16 Payment is to be made for these when they are a month
old, at the value fixed by you, a price of five shekels by the
scale of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

17 But no such payment may be made for the first birth of
an ox or a sheep or a goat; these are holy: their blood is to be
dropped on the altar, and their fat burned for an offering
made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord.

18 Their flesh is to be yours; like the breast of the wave
offering and the right leg, it is to be yours.

19 All the lifted offerings of the holy things which the
children of Israel give to the Lord, I have given to you and to
your sons and to your daughters as a right for ever. This is an
agreement made with salt before the Lord, to you and to
your seed for ever.

20 And the Lord said to Aaron, You will have no heritage
in their land, or any part among them; I am your part and
your heritage among the children of Israel.

21 And to the children of Levi I have given as their heritage
all the tenths offered in Israel, as payment for the work they
do, the work of the Tent of meeting.

22 In future the children of Israel are not to come near the
Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because
of sin.

23 But the Levites are to do the work of the Tent of
meeting, and be responsible for errors in connection with it:
this is a law for ever through all your generations; and
among the children of Israel they will have no heritage.

24 For the tenths which the children of Israel give as a
lifted offering to the Lord I have given to the Levites as their
heritage. and so I have said to them, Among the children of
Israel they will have no heritage.

25 And the Lord said to Moses,

26 Say to the Levites, When you take from the children of
Israel the tenth which I have given to you from them as your
heritage, a tenth part of that tenth is to be offered as an
offering lifted up before the Lord.

27 And this lifted offering is to be put to your credit as if it
was grain from the grain-floor and wine from the vines.

28 So you are to make an offering lifted up to the Lord
from all the tenths which you get from the children of Israel,
giving out of it the Lord's lifted offering to Aaron the priest.

29 From everything given to you, let the best of it, the holy
part of it, be offered as a lifted offering to the Lord.

30 Say to them, then, When the best of it is lifted up on
high, it is to be put to the account of the Levites as the
increase of the grain-floor and of the place where the grapes
are crushed.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 It is to be your food, for you and your families in every
place: it is your reward for your work in the Tent of meeting.

32 And no sin will be yours on account of it, when the best
of it has been lifted up on high; you are not to make a wrong
use of the holy things of the children of Israel, so that death
may not overtake you.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 19

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

2 This is the rule of the law which the Lord has made,
saying, Give orders to the children of Israel to give you a red
cow without any mark on her, and on which the yoke has
never been put:

3 Give her to Eleazar the priest and let him take her outside
the tent-circle and have her put to death before him.

4 Then let Eleazar the priest take some of her blood on his
finger, shaking the blood seven times in the direction of the
front of the Tent of meeting:

5 And the cow is to be burned before him, her skin and her
flesh and her blood and her waste are to be burned:

6 Then let the priest take cedar-wood and hyssop and red
thread, and put them into the fire where the cow is burning.

7 And the priest, after washing his clothing and bathing his
body in water, may come back to the tent-circle, and will be
unclean till evening.

8 And he who does the burning is to have his clothing
washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till
evening.

9 Then let a man who is clean take the dust of the burned
cow and put it outside the tent-circle in a clean place, where
it is to be kept for the children of Israel and used in making
the water which takes away what is unclean: it is a sin-
offering.

10 And he who takes up the dust of the burned cow is to
have his clothing washed with water and be unclean till
evening: this is to be a law for ever, for the children of Israel
as well as for the man from another country who is living
among them.

11 Anyone touching a dead body will be unclean for seven
days:

12 On the third day and on the seventh day he is to make
himself clean with the water, and so he will be clean: but if he
does not do this on the third day and on the seventh day, he
will not be clean.

13 Anyone touching the body of a dead man without
making himself clean in this way, makes the House of the
Lord unclean; and that man will be cut off from Israel:
because the water was not put on him, he will be unclean; his
unclean condition is unchanged.

14 This is the law when death comes to a man in his tent:
everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the
tent, will be unclean for seven days.

15 And every open vessel without a cover fixed on it will be
unclean.

16 And anyone touching one who has been put to death
with the sword in the open country, or the body of one who

has come to his end by a natural death, or a man's bone, or
the resting-place of a dead body, will be unclean for seven
days.

17 And for the unclean, they are to take the dust of the
burning of the sin-offering, and put flowing water on it in a
vessel:

18 And a clean person is to take hyssop and put it in the
water, shaking it over the tent, and all the vessels, and the
people who were there, and over him by whom the bone, or
the body of one who has been put to death with the sword, or
the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death,
or the resting-place was touched.

19 Let the clean person do this to the unclean on the third
day and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he is to
make him clean; and after washing his clothing and bathing
himself in water, he will be clean in the evening.

20 But the man who, being unclean, does not make himself
clean in this way, will be cut off from the meeting of the
people, because he has made the holy place of the Lord
unclean: the water has not been put on him, he is unclean.

21 This is to be a law for them for ever: he who puts the
water on the unclean person is to have his clothing washed;
and anyone touching the water will be unclean till evening.

22 Anything touched by the unclean person will be unclean;
and any person touching it will be unclean till evening.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 20

1 In the first month all the children of Israel came into the
waste land of Zin, and put up their tents in Kadesh; there
death came to Miriam, and they put her body to rest in the
earth.

2 And there was no water for the people: and they came
together against Moses and against Aaron.

3 And the people were angry with Moses and said, If only
death had overtaken us when our brothers came to their
death before the Lord!

4 Why have you taken the Lord's people into this waste, for
death to come to us and to our cattle there?

5 Why have you made us come out of Egypt into this evil
place? This is no place of seed or figs or vines or other fruits,
and there is no water for drinking.

6 Then Moses and Aaron went away from the people to the
door of the Tent of meeting; and, falling on their faces there,
they saw the glory of the Lord.

7 And the Lord said to Moses,

8 Take the rod, you and Aaron, your brother, and make all
the people come together, and before their eyes give orders to
the rock to give out its water; and so make water come out of
the rock for them, and give the people and their cattle drink.

9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he gave
him orders.

10 Then Moses and Aaron made the people come together
in front of the rock, and he said to them, Give ear now, you
people whose hearts are turned from the Lord; are we to get
water for you out of the rock?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And lifting up his hand, Moses gave the rock two blows
with his rod: and water came streaming out, and the people
and their cattle had drink enough.

12 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you
had not enough faith in me to keep my name holy before the
children of Israel, you will not take this people into the land
which I have given them.

13 These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of
Israel went against the Lord, and they saw that he was holy
among them.

14 Then Moses sent men from Kadesh to the king of Edom
to say to him, Your brother Israel says, You have knowledge
of all the things we have been through;

15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we were
living in Egypt for a long time; and the Egyptians were cruel
to us and to our fathers:

16 And the Lord gave ear to the voice of our cry, and sent
an angel and took us out of Egypt: and now we are in Kadesh,
a town on the edge of your land;

17 Let us now go through your land: we will not go into
field or vine-garden, or take the water of the springs; we will
go by the highway, not turning to the right or to the left, till
we have gone past the limits of your land.

18 And Edom said, You are not to go through my land, for
if you do I will come out against you with the sword.

19 And the children of Israel said to him, We will go up by
the highway: and if we or our cattle take of your water, we
will give you a price for it: only let us go through on our feet,
nothing more.

20 But he said, You are not to go through. And Edom
came out against them in his strength, with a great army.

21 So Edom would not let Israel go through his land; and
Israel went in another direction.

22 And they went on from Kadesh, and came, with all their
people, to Mount Hor.

23 And at Mount Hor, at the edge of the land of Edom, the
Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

24 Aaron will be put to rest with his people; he will not go
into the land which I have given to the children of Israel,
because you went against my word at the waters of Meribah.

25 So take Aaron and Eleazar, his son, up into Mount Hor;

26 And take Aaron's robes off him and put them on Eleazar,
his son: and death will come to Aaron there, and he will be
put to rest with his people.

27 So Moses did as the Lord had said, and before the eyes of
all the people they went up Mount Hor.

28 And Moses took off Aaron's robes, and put them on
Eleazar, his son; and there on the top of the mountain death
came to Aaron: then Moses and Eleazar came down from the
mountain.

29 And when the people saw that Aaron was dead, all the
children of Israel gave themselves up to weeping for him for
thirty days.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 21

| And it came to the ears of the Canaanite, the king of Arad,
living in the South, that Israel was coming by the way of
Atharim, and he came out against them and took some of
them prisoners.

2 Then Israel made an oath to the Lord, and said, If you
will give up this people into my hands, then I will send
complete destruction on all their towns.

3 And the Lord, in answer to the voice of Israel, gave the
Canaanites up to them; and they put them and their towns
completely to destruction: and that place was named
Hormah.

4 Then they went on from Mount Hor by the way to the
Red Sea, going round the land of Edom: and the spirit of the
people was overcome with weariness on the way.

5 And crying out against God and against Moses, they said,
Why have you taken us out of Egypt to come to our death in
the waste land? For there is no bread and no water, and this
poor bread is disgusting to us.

6 Then the Lord sent poison-snakes among the people; and
their bites were a cause of death to numbers of the people of
Israel.

7 Then the people came to Moses and said, We have done
wrong in crying out against the Lord and against you: make
prayer to the Lord to take away the snakes from us. So Moses
made prayer for the people.

8 And the Lord said to Moses, Make an image of a snake
and put it on a rod, and anyone who has been wounded by
the snakes, looking on it will be made well.

9 So Moses made a snake of brass and put it on a rod; and
anyone who had a snakebite, after looking on the snake of
brass, was made well.

10 Then the children of Israel went on and put up their
tents in Oboth.

11 And journeying on again from Oboth, they put up their
tents in Iye-abarim, in the waste land before Moab looking
east.

12 And moving on from there, they put up their tents in the
valley of Zered.

13 From there they went on and put up their tents on the
other side of the Arnon, which is on the waste land at the
edge of the land of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the line of
division between Moab and the Amorites:

14 As it says in the book of the Wars of the Lord, Vaheb in
Suphah, and the valley of the Amon;

15 The slope of the valleys going down to the tents of Ar
and touching the edge of Moab.

16 From there they went on to Beer, the water-spring of
which the Lord said to Moses, Make the people come
together and I will give them water.

17 Then Israel gave voice to this song: Come up, O water-
spring, let us make a song to it:

18 The fountain made by the chiefs, made deep by the great
ones of the people, with the law-givers' rod, and with their
sticks. Then from the waste land they went on to Mattanah:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to
Bamoth:

20 And from Bamoth to the valley in the open country of
Moab, and to the top of Pisgah looking over Jeshimon.

21 And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites,
saying,

22 Let me go through your land: we will not go into field
or vine-garden, or take the water of the springs; we will go
by the highway till we have gone past the limits of your land.

23 And Sihon would not let Israel go through his land; but
got all his people together and went out against Israel into
the waste land, as far as Jahaz, to make war on Israel.

24 But Israel overcame him, and took all his land from the
Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the country of the children of
Ammon, for the country of the children of Ammon was
strongly armed.

25 And Israel took all their towns, living in Heshbon and
all the towns and small places of the Amorites.

26 For Heshbon was the town of Sihon, king of the
Amorites, who had made war against an earlier king of
Moab and taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon.

27 So the makers of wise sayings say, Come to Heshbon,
building up the town of Sihon and making it strong:

28 For a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the
town of Sihon: for the destruction of Ar in Moab, and the
lords of the high places of the Arnon.

29 Sorrow is yours, O Moab! Destruction is your fate, O
people of Chemosh: his sons have gone in flight, and his
daughters are prisoners, in the hands of Sihon, king of the
Amorites.

30 They are wounded with our arrows; destruction has
come on Heshbon, even to Dibon; and we have made the land
waste as far as Nophah, stretching out to Medeba.

31 So Israel put up their tents in the land of the Amorites.

32 And Moses sent men secretly to Jazer, and they took its
towns, driving out the Amorites who were living there.

33 Then turning they went up by the way of Bashan; and
Og, king of Bashan, went out against them with all his
people, to the fight at Edrei.

34 And the Lord said to Moses, Have no fear of him: for I
have given him up into your hands, with all his people and
his land; do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites,
at Heshbon.

35 So they overcame him and his sons and his people,
driving them all out: and they took his land for their
heritage.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 22

1 Then the children of Israel, journeying on, put up their
tents in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan at
Jericho.

2 Now Balak, the son of Zippor, saw what Israel had done
to the Amorites.

3 And in Moab there was great fear of the people, because
their numbers were so great: and the feeling of Moab was
bitter against the children of Israel.

4 Then Moab said to the responsible men of Midian, It is
clear that this great people will be the destruction of
everything round us, making a meal of us as the ox does of
the grass of the field. At that time Balak, the son of Zippor,
was king of Moab.

5 So he sent men to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor by the
River in the land of the children of his people, saying to him,
See, a people has come out of Egypt, covering all the face of
the earth, and they have put up their tents opposite to me:

6 Come now, in answer to my prayer, and put a curse on
this people, for they are greater than I: and then I may be
strong enough to overcome them and send them out of the
land: for it is clear that good comes to him who has your
blessing, but he on whom you put your curse is cursed.

7 So the responsible men of Moab and Midian went away,
taking in their hands rewards for the prophet; and they came
to Balaam and said to him what Balak had given them orders
to say.

8 And he said to them, Take your rest here tonight, and I
will give you an answer after hearing what the Lord says; so
the chiefs of Moab kept there with Balaam that night.

9 And God came to Balaam and said, Who are these men
with you?

10 And Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king
of Moab, has sent them to me, saying,

11 See, the people who have come out of Egypt are covering
all the earth: now, put a curse on this people for me, so that I
may be able to make war on them, driving them out of the
land.

12 And God said to Balaam, You are not to go with them,
or put a curse on this people, for they have my blessing.

13 In the morning Balaam got up and said to the chiefs of
Balak, Go back to your land, for the Lord will not let me go
with you.

14 So the chiefs of Moab went back to Balak and said,
Balaam will not come with us.

15 So Balak sent more chiefs, greater in number and of
higher position than the others.

16 And they came to Balaam and said, Balak, son of Zippor,
says, Let nothing keep you from coming to me:

17 For I will give you a place of very great honour, and
whatever you say to me I will do; so come, in answer to my
prayer, and put a curse on this people.

18 But Balaam, in answer; said to the servants of Balak,
Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, it
would not be possible for me to do anything more or less
than the orders of the Lord my God.

19 So take your rest here this night, till I have knowledge
what more the Lord has to say to me.

20 And that night God came to Balaam and said to him, If
these men have come for you, go with them: but do only what
Isay to you.

21 So in the morning Balaam got up and, making his ass
ready, went with the chiefs of Moab.

22 But God was moved to wrath because he went: and the
angel of the Lord took up a position in the road to keep him

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

from his purpose. Now he was seated on his ass, and his two
servants were with him.

23 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord waiting in the
road with his sword in his hand; and turning from the road,
the ass went into the field; and Balaam gave the ass blows, to
get her back on to the road.

24 Then the angel of the Lord took up his position in a
narrow road through the vine-gardens, with a wall on this
side and on that.

25 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord, and went near the
wall, crushing Balaam's foot against the wall; and he gave
her more blows.

26 Then the angel of the Lord went further, stopping in a
narrow place where there was no room for turning to the
right or to the left.

27 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord and went down on
the earth under Balaam; and full of wrath, Balaam gave her
hard blows with his stick.

28 Then the Lord gave the ass the power of talking, and
opening her mouth she said to Balaam, What have I done to
you that you have given me blows these three times?

29 And Balaam said to the ass, You have made me seem
foolish: if only I had a sword in my hand I would put you to
death.

30 And the ass said to Balaam, Am I not your ass upon
which you have gone all your life till this day? and have I
ever done this to you before? And he said, No.

31 Then the Lord made Balaam's eyes open, and he saw the
angel of the Lord in the way with his sword in his hand: and
he went down on his face to the earth.

32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you
given your ass blows these three times? See, I have come out
against you to keep you back, because your purpose is not
pleasing to me.

33 And the ass saw me, turning to one side from me three
times: if she had not gone to one side, I would certainly have
put you to death and kept her safe.

34 And Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have done
wrong, for I did not see that you were in the way against me:
but now, if it is evil in your eyes, I will go back again.

35 And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the
men; but say only what I give you to say. Then Balaam went
on with the chiefs of Balak.

36 Now Balak, hearing that Balaam had come, went to the
chief town of Moab, on the edge of the Arnon, in the farthest
part of the land, for the purpose of meeting him.

37 And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send to you,
requesting you with all my heart to come to me? why did you
not come? am I not able to give you a place of honour?

38 Then Balaam said to Balak, Now I have come to you;
but have I power to say anything? Only what God puts into
my mouth may I say.

39 And Balaam went with Balak to Kiriath-huzoth.

40 And Balak made offerings of oxen and sheep, and sent to
Balaam and the chiefs who were with him.

41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam up to the high
places of Baal, and from there he was able to see the outer
limits of the people.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 23

1 And Balaam said to Balak, Make me here seven altars and
get ready seven oxen and seven male sheep.

2 And Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam
made an offering on every altar of an ox and a male sheep.

3 Then Balaam said to Balak, Take your place by your
burned offering, and I will go and see if the Lord comes to
me: and I will give you word of whatever he says to me. And
he went to an open place on a hill.

4 And God came to Balaam, and Balaam said to him, I have
made ready seven altars, offering an ox and a male sheep on
every altar.

5 And the Lord put words in Balaam's mouth, and said, Go
back to Balak, and this is what you are to say.

6 So he went back to him where he was waiting by his
burned offering with all the chiefs of Moab.

7 And in the words which the Lord had given him he said,
From Aram Balak has sent for me, the king of Moab from
the mountains of the East: come, put curses on Jacob for me
and be angry with Israel.

8 How may I put curses on him who is not cursed by God?
how may I be angry with him with whom the Lord is not
angry?

9 From the top of the rocks I see him, looking down on him
from the hills: it is a people made separate, not to be
numbered among the nations.

10 Who is able to take the measure of the dust of Jacob or
the number of the thousands of Israel? May my death be the
death of the upright and my last end like his!

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me?
Isent for you so that my haters might be cursed, and see, you
have given them a blessing.

12 And in answer he said, Am I not ordered to say only
what the Lord puts into my mouth?

13 And Balak said to him, Come with me now into another
place from which you will not be able to see them all, but
only the outskirts of them; and you will send curses on them
from there.

14 So he took him into the country of Zophim, to the top of
Pisgah, and there they made seven altars, offering an ox and
a male sheep on every altar.

15 Then he said to Balak, Take your place here by your
burned offering, while I go over there to the Lord.

16 And the Lord came to Balaam, and put words in his
mouth, and said, Go back to Balak, and this is what you are
to say.

17 So he came to him where he was waiting by his burned
offering with the chiefs of Moab by his side. And Balak said
to him, What has the Lord said?

18 And in the words which the Lord had given him he said,
Up! Balak, and give ear; give attention to me, O son of
Zippor:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 God is not a man, to say what is false; or the son of man,
that his purpose may be changed: what he has said, will he
not do? and will he not give effect to the words of his mouth?

20 See, I have had orders to give blessing: and he has given
a blessing which I have no power to take away.

21 He has seen no evil in Jacob or wrongdoing in Israel: the
Lord his God is with him, and the glad cry of a king is
among them.

22 It is God who has taken them out of Egypt; his horns are
like those of the mountain ox.

23 No evil power has effect against Jacob, no secret arts
against Israel; at the right time it will be said of Jacob and of
Israel, See what God has done!

24 See, Israel comes up like a she-lion, lifting himself up
like a lion: he will take no rest till he has made a meal of
those he has overcome, drinking the blood of those he has
put to death.

25 Then Balak said to Balaam, If you will not put a curse
on them, at all events do not give them a blessing.

26 But Balaam in answer said to Balak, Did I not say to
you, I may only do what the Lord says?

27 Then Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you
to another place; it may be that God will let you put a curse
on them from there.

28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, looking down
over the waste land.

29 And Balaam said to Balak, Make me seven altars here
and get seven oxen and seven male sheep ready for me.

30 And Balak did as Balaam said, offering an ox and a male
sheep on every altar.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 24

1 Now when Balaam saw that it was the Lord's pleasure to
give his blessing to Israel, he did not, as at other times, make
use of secret arts, but turning his face to the waste land,

2 And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel there, with their
tents in the order of their tribes: and the spirit of God came
on him.

3 And moved by the spirit, he said, These are the words of
Balaam, son of Beor, the words of the man whose eyes are
open:

4 He says, whose ears are open to the words of God, who
has seen the vision of the Ruler of all, falling down, but
having his eyes open:

5 How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your houses, O Israel!

6 They are stretched out like valleys, like gardens by the
riverside, like flowering trees planted by the Lord, like
cedar-trees by the waters.

7 Peoples will be in fear before his strength, his arm will be
on great nations: his king will be higher than Agag, and his
kingdom made great in honour.

8 It is God who has taken him out of Egypt; his horns are
like those of the mountain ox; the nations warring against
him will be his food, their bones will be broken, they will be
wounded with his arrows.

9 He took his sleep stretched out like a lion, and like a she-
lion: by whom will his rest be broken? May a blessing be on
everyone who gives you blessing, and a curse on everyone by
whom you are cursed.

10 Then Balak was full of wrath against Balaam, and
angrily waving his hands he said to Balaam, I sent for you so
that those who are against me might be cursed, but now, see,
three times you have given them a blessing.

11 Go back quickly to the place you came from: it was my
purpose to give you a place of honour, but now the Lord has
kept you back from honour.

12 Then Balaam said to Balak, Did I not say to the men you
sent to me,

13 Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, it
would not be possible for me to go outside the orders of the
Lord, doing good or evil at the impulse of my mind;
whatever the Lord says I will say?

14 So now I will go back to my people: but first let me
make clear to you what this people will do to your people in
days to come.

15 Then he went on with his story and said, These are the
words of Balaam, the son of Beor, the words of him whose
eyes are open:

16 He says, whose ear is open to the words of God, who has
knowledge of the Most High, who has seen the vision of the
Ruler of all, falling down and having his eyes open:

17 I see him, but not now: looking on him, but not near: a
star will come out of Jacob, and a rod of authority out of
Israel, sending destruction to the farthest limits of Moab and
on the head of all the sons of Sheth.

18 Edom will be his heritage, and he will put an end to the
last of the people of Seir.

19 And Israel will go on in strength, and Jacob will have
rule over his haters.

20 Then, turning his eyes to Amalek, he went on with his
story and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his
part will be destruction for ever.

21 And looking on the Kenites he went on with his story
and said, Strong is your living-place, and your secret place is
safe in the rock.

22 But still the Kenites will be wasted, till Asshur takes you
away prisoner.

23 Then he went on with his story and said, But who may
keep his life when God does this?

24 But ships will come from the direction of Kittim,
troubling Asshur and troubling Eber, and like the others
their fate will be destruction.

25 Then Balaam got up and went back to his place: and
Balak went away.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 25

1 Now when Israel was living in Shittim the people became
false to the Lord, doing evil with the daughters of Moab:

2 For they sent for the people to be present at the offerings
made to their gods; and the people took part in their feasts
and gave honour to their gods.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 So Israel had relations with the women of Moab in
honour of the Baal of Peor: and the Lord was moved to
wrath against Israel.

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the
people, hanging them up in the sun before the Lord, so that
the wrath of the Lord may be turned from Israel.

5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, Let everyone put to
death those of his men who have had relations with the
women of Moab in honour of the Baal of Peor.

6 Then one of the children of Israel came to his brothers,
taking with him a woman of Midian, before the eyes of Moses
and all the meeting of the people, while they were weeping at
the door of the Tent of meeting.

7 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, seeing it, got up from among the people and took a
spear in his hand,

8 And went after the man of Israel into the tent, driving the
spear through the two of them, through the man of Israel
and through the stomach of the woman. So the disease was
stopped among the children of Israel.

9 But twenty-four thousand of them had come to their
death by the disease.

10 And the Lord said to Moses,

11 Through Phinehas, and because of his passion for my
honour, my wrath has been turned away from the children of
Israel, so that I have not sent destruction on them all in my
wrath.

12 So say to them that I will make with him an agreement
of peace:

13 And by this agreement, he and his sons after him have
the right to be priests for ever; because, by his care for the
honour of his God, he took away the sin of the children of
Israel.

14 Now the man of Israel who was put to death with the
woman of Midian was Zimri, the son of Salu, a chief of one of
the families of the Simeonites.

15 And the woman of Midian who was put to death was
Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was the head of a family in
Midian.

16 Then the Lord said to Moses,

17 Take up arms against the Midianites and overcome them;

18 For they are a danger to you with their false ways,
causing sin to come on you in the question of Peor, and
because of Cozbi, their sister, the daughter of the chief of
Midian, who was put to death at the time of the disease
which came on you because of Peor.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 26

1 Now after the disease was over, the Lord said to Moses
and Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,

2 Let all the children of Israel be numbered, by the names of
their fathers' families, all those of twenty years old and over
who are able to go to war in Israel.

3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest gave them the order in
the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, saying,

4 Let all the people of twenty years old and over be
numbered, as the Lord has given orders to Moses and the
children of Israel who have come out of Egypt.

5 Reuben, the first son of Israel: the sons of Reuben by their
families: of Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu,
the family of the Palluites:

6 Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Carmi, the
family of the Carmites.

7 These are the families of the Reubenites: their number was
forty-three thousand, seven hundred and thirty.

8 And the sons of Pallu, Eliab

9 And the sons of Eliab: Nemuel and Dathan and Abiram.
These are the same Dathan and Abiram who had a place in
the meeting of the people, who together with Korah made an
outcry against Moses and Aaron and against the Lord:

10 And they went down into the open mouth of the earth,
together with Korah, when death overtook him and all his
band; at the time when two hundred and fifty men were
burned in the fire, and they became a sign.

11 But death did not overtake the sons of Korah.

12 The sons of Simeon by their families: of Nemuel, the
family of the Nemuelites: of Jamin, the family of the
Jaminites: of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites:

13 Of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites: of Shaul, the
family of the Shaulites.

14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two
thousand, two hundred.

15 The sons of Gad by their families: of Zephon, the family
of the Zephonites: of Haggi, the family of the Haggites: of
Shuni, the family of the Shunites:

16 Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family of
the Erites:

17 Of Arod, the family of the Arodites: of Areli, the family
of the Arelites.

18 These are the families of the sons of Gad as they were
numbered, forty thousand, five hundred.

19 The sons of Judah, Er and Onan: and Er and Onan had
come to their death in the land of Canaan.

20 And the sons of Judah by their families were: of Shelah,
the family of the Shelahites: of Perez, the family of the
Perezites: of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites.

21 And the sons of Perez were: of Hezron, the family of the
Hezronites: of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.

22 These are the families of Judah as they were numbered,
seventy-six thousand, five hundred.

23 The sons of Issachar by their families: of Tola, the family
of the Tolaites: of Puvah, the family of the Punites:

24 Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites: of Shimron, the
family of the Shimronites.

25 These are the families of Issachar, as they were numbered,
sixty-four thousand, three hundred.

26 The sons of Zebulun by their families: of Sered, the
family of the Seredites: of Elon, the family of the Elonites: of
Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.

27 These are the families of the Zebulunites as they were
numbered, sixty thousand, five hundred.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 The sons of Joseph by their families: Manasseh and
Ephraim.

29 The sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the
Machirites: and Machir was the father of Gilead: of Gilead,
the family of the Gileadites.

30 These are the sons of Gilead: of Iezer, the family of the
Tezerites: of Helek, the family of the Helekites:

31 And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites: and of
Shechem, the family of the Shechemites:

32 And of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites: and of
Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.

33 And Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, had no sons, but
only daughters, and the names of the daughters of
Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and
Tirzah.

34 These are the families of Manasseh; and those who were
numbered of them were fifty-two thousand, seven hundred.

35 These are the sons of Ephraim by their families: of
Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites: of Becher, the
family of the Becherites: of Tahan, the family of the
Tahanites.

36 And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family
of the Eranites:

37 These are the families of Ephraim as they were numbered,
thirty-two thousand, five hundred. These are the sons of
Joseph by their families.

38 The sons of Benjamin by their families: of Bela, the
family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites:
of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites:

39 Of Shephupham, the family of the Shuphamites: and of
Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.

40 And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the
family of the Ardites: of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.

41 These are the sons of Benjamin by their families: and
those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand,
six hundred.

42 These are the sons of Dan by their families: of Shuham,
the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan
by their families.

43 All the families of the Shuhamites, as they were
numbered, were sixty-four thousand, four hundred.

44 The sons of Asher by their families: of Imnah, the family
of the Imnites: of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites: of Beriah,
the family of the Beriites.

45 Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the
Heberites: of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites:

46 And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.

47 These are the families of the sons of Asher as they were
numbered, fifty-three thousand, four hundred.

48 The sons of Naphtali by their families: of Jahzeel, the
family of the Jahzeelites: of Guni, the family of the Gunites:

49 Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites: of Shillem, the
family of the Shillemites.

50 These are the families of Naphtali by their families: and
those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand,
four hundred.

51 Those who were numbered of the children of Israel were
six hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and thirty.

52 And the Lord said to Moses,

53 Let there be a division of the land among these, for their
heritage, in relation to the number of names.

54 To those families who are more in number, give a
greater heritage; to those who are less in number, a smaller
part: to every one let the heritage be given in relation to the
number in his family.

55 But let the distribution of the land be made by the
decision of the Lord: by the names of the tribes of their
fathers let their heritage be given them.

56 As it is ordered by the decision of the Lord, let
distribution be made between those who are more in number
and those who are less.

57 These were those of the Levites who were numbered by
their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of
Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family
of the Merarites.

58 These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites,
the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the
family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And
Kohath was the father of Amram.

59 Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom
he had in Egypt: by Amram she had Moses and Aaron and
their sister Miriam.

60 Aaron's sons were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and
Ithamar.

61 Death overtook Nadab and Abihu when they made an
offering of strange fire before the Lord.

62 Of these, twenty-three thousand males, from one month
old and over, were numbered: they were not numbered with
the rest of the children of Israel, for they had no heritage
among the children of Israel.

63 All these were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest
when the children of Israel were numbered in the lowlands of
Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

64 But among all these was not one of those numbered by
Moses and Aaron the priest when the children of Israel were
numbered in the waste land of Sinai.

65 For the Lord had said of them, Death will certainly
overtake them in the waste land. And of them all, only Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, were still
living.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 27

| Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the
son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the
families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, came forward: their
names are Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and
Tirzah.

2 They came before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the
chiefs and all the people at the door of the Tent of meeting,
and said,

3 Death overtook our father in the waste land; he was not
among those who were banded together with Korah against

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the Lord; but death came to him in his sin; and he had no
sons.

4 Why is the name of our father to be taken away from
among his family, because he had no son? Give us a heritage
among our father's brothers.

5 So Moses put their cause before the Lord.

6 And the Lord said to Moses,

7 What the daughters of Zelophehad say is right: certainly

you are to give them a heritage among their father's brothers:

and let the property which would have been their father's go
to them.

8 And say to the children of Israel, If a man has no son at
the time of his death, let his heritage go to his daughter.

9 And if he has no daughter, then give his heritage to his
brothers.

10 And if he has no brothers, then give his heritage to his
father's brothers.

11 And if his father has no brothers, then give it to his
nearest relation in the family, as his heritage: this is to be a
decision made by law for the children of Israel, as the Lord
gave orders to Moses.

12 And the Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain
of Abarim so that you may see the land which I have given to
the children of Israel.

13 And when you have seen it, you will be put to rest with
your people, as your brother Aaron was:

14 Because in the waste land of Zin, when the people were
angry, you and he went against my word and did not keep
my name holy before their eyes, at the waters. (These are the
waters of Meribah in Kadesh in the waste land of Zin.)

15 Then Moses said to the Lord,

16 Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, put a
man at the head of this people,

17 To go out and come in before them and be their guide;
so that the people of the Lord may not be like sheep without
a keeper.

18 And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of
Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and put your hand on him;

19 And take him before Eleazar the priest and all the
meeting of the people, and give him his orders before their
eyes.

20 And put your honour on him, so that all the children of
Israel may be under his authority.

21 He will take his place before Eleazar the priest, so that
he may get directions from the Lord for him, with the Urim:
at his word they will go out, and at his word they will come
in, he and all the children of Israel.

22 So Moses did as the Lord said: he took Joshua and put
him before Eleazar the priest and the meeting of the people:

23 And he put his hands on him and gave him his orders, as
the Lord had said by Moses.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 28

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, Let
it be your care to give me my offerings at their regular times,
the food of the offerings made by fire to me for a sweet smell.

3 Say to them, This is the offering made by fire which you
are to give to the Lord; he-lambs of the first year without
any mark, two every day as a regular burned offering.

4 Let one be offered in the morning, and the other at
evening;

5 And the tenth part of an ephah of the best meal for a meal
offering mixed with the fourth part of a hin of clear oil.

6 It is a regular burned offering, as it was ordered in Mount
Sinai, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

7 And for its drink offering take the fourth part of a hin for
one lamb: in the holy place let the wine be drained out for a
drink offering for the Lord.

8 Let the other lamb be offered at evening; like the meal
offering of the morning and its drink offering, let it be
offered as an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the
Lord.

9 And on the Sabbath day, two he-lambs of the first year,
without any mark, and two tenth parts of the best meal for a
meal offering mixed with oil, and its drink offering:

10 This is the burned offering for every Sabbath day, in
addition to the regular burned offering, and its drink
offering.

11 And on the first day of every month you are to give a
burned offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and
seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark;

12 And three tenth parts of the best meal for a meal offering
mixed with oil, for every ox; and two tenth parts of the best
meal for a meal offering mixed with oil, for the one sheep;

13 And a separate tenth part of the best meal mixed with oil
for a meal offering for every lamb; for a burned offering of a
sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

14 And their drink offerings are to be half a hin of wine for
an ox, and the third part of a hin for a male sheep, and the
fourth part of a hin for a lamb: this is the burned offering for
every month through all the months of the year.

15 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to the Lord; it is to
be offered in addition to the regular burned offering and its
drink offering.

16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the
month, is the Lord's Passover.

17 On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a feast;
for seven days let your food be unleavened cakes.

18 On the first day there is to be a holy meeting: you may
do no sort of field-work:

19 And you are to give an offering made by fire, a burned
offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-
lambs of the first year, without any mark:

20 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil: let
three tenth parts of an ephah be offered for an ox and two
tenth parts for a male sheep;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven
lambs;

22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to take away your sin.

23 These are to be offered in addition to the morning
burned offering, which is a regular burned offering at all
times.

24 In this way, every day for seven days, give the food of the
offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord: it is to be
offered in addition to the regular burned offering, and its
drink offering.

25 Then on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting;
you may do no field-work.

26 And at the time of the first-fruits, when you give an
offering of new meal to the Lord at your feast of weeks, there
is to be a holy meeting: you may do no field-work:

27 And give a burned offering for a sweet smell to the Lord;
two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year;

28 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil,
three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep,

29 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven
lambs;

30 And one he-goat to take away your sin.

31 These are in addition to the regular burned offering and
its meal offering; take care that they are without any mark,
and let them be offered with their drink offerings.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 29

1 In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let
there be a holy meeting; on it you may do no field-work; let
the day be marked by the blowing of horns;

2 And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell;
one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year,
without any mark on them:

3 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil,
three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep,

4 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs;

5 And one he-goat for a sin-offering, to take away your sin:

6 In addition to the burned offering of the new moon, and
its meal offering, and the regular burned offering and its
meal offering, and their drink offerings, as they are ordered,
for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month there will be a
holy meeting; keep yourselves from pleasure, and do no sort
of work;

8 And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell;
one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year: only
those without any mark on them may be used:

9 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil,
three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep,

10 A separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs;

11 One he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
offering for taking away your sin, and the regular burned
offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.

12 And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month let there
be a holy meeting; do no field-work, and keep a feast to the
Lord for seven days;

13 And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a
sweet smell to the Lord, thirteen oxen, two male sheep,
fourteen he-lambs of the first year, all without any mark on
them;

14 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil,
three tenth parts for every one of the thirteen oxen, two tenth
parts for every male sheep,

15 And a separate tenth part for every one of the fourteen
lambs;

16 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

17 On the second day of the feast give an offering of twelve
oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year,
without any mark on them;

18 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the
oxen and the sheep and the lambs, in relation to their number,
as it is ordered:

19 And one he-goat for a sin-offering in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and their
drink offerings.

20 And on the third day eleven oxen, two male sheep,
fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark;

21 And their meal offering and drink offerings for the oxen,
for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their
number, as it is ordered:

22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

23 And on the fourth day ten oxen, two male sheep,
fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

24 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the
oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to
their number, as it is ordered.

25 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

26 And on the fifth day nine oxen, two male sheep, fourteen
he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

27 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the
oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to
their number, as it is ordered:

28 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

29 And on the sixth day eight oxen, two male sheep,
fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

30 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the
oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to
their number, as it is ordered:

31 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink
offerings.

32 And on the seventh day seven oxen, two male sheep,
fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the
oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to
their number, as it is ordered:

34 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

35 On the eighth day let there be a holy meeting: you may
do no field-work;

36 And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of'a
sweet smell to the Lord: one ox, one male sheep, seven he-
lambs of the first year, without any mark:

37 With the meal offering and the drink offerings for the ox,
the male sheep, and the lambs, in relation to their number, as
it is ordered:

38 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the
regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink
offering.

39 These are the offerings which you are to give to the Lord
at your regular feasts, in addition to the offerings for an oath,
and the free offerings you give, for your burned offerings and
your drink offerings and your peace-offerings.

40 So Moses gave the children of Israel all these directions
as the Lord had given him orders.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 30

1 And Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the children
of Israel, This is the order of the Lord.

2 When a man takes an oath to the Lord, or gives an
undertaking having the force of an oath, let him not go back
from his word, but let him do whatever he has said he will do.

3 Ifa woman, being young and under the authority of her
father, takes an oath to the Lord or gives an undertaking;

4 If her father, hearing of her oath or the undertaking she
has given, says nothing to her, then all her oaths and every
undertaking she has given will have force.

5 But if her father, hearing of it, makes her take back her
word, then the oaths or the undertakings she has given will
have no force; and she will have forgiveness from the Lord,
because her oath was broken by her father.

6 And if she is married to a husband at the time when she is
under an oath or an undertaking given without thought;

7 If her husband, hearing of it, says nothing to her at the
time, then the oaths she made and the undertakings she gave
will have force.

8 But if her husband, hearing of it, makes her take it back,
then the oath she made and the undertaking she gave without
thought will have no force or effect, and she will have the
Lord's forgiveness.

9 But an oath made by a widow or one who is no longer
married to her husband, and every undertaking she has given,
will have force.

10 If she made an oath while she was under the authority of
her husband,

11 And her husband, hearing of it, said nothing to her and
did not put a stop to it, then all her oaths and every
undertaking she gave will have force.

12 But if her husband, on hearing of it, made them without
force or effect, then whatever she has said about her oaths or
her undertaking has no force: her husband has made them
without effect, and she will have the Lord's forgiveness.

13 Every oath, and every undertaking which she gives, to
keep herself from pleasure, may be supported or broken by
her husband.

14 But if the days go on, and her husband says nothing
whatever to her, then he is giving the support of his
authority to her oaths and undertakings, because at the time
of hearing them he said nothing to her.

15 But if at some time after hearing of them, he makes them
without force, then he is responsible for her wrongdoing.

16 These are the laws which the Lord gave Moses in
relation to a man and his wife, or a father and a young
daughter who is under his authority.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 31

1 Then the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give the Midianites punishment for the wrong they did to
the children of Israel: and after that you will go to rest with
your people.

3 So Moses said to the people, Let men from among you be
armed for war to put into effect against Midian the Lord's
punishment on them.

4 From every tribe of Israel send a thousand to the war.

5 So from the thousands of Israel a thousand were taken
from every tribe, twelve thousand men armed for war.

6 And Moses sent them out to war, a thousand from every
tribe, and with them Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest,
taking in his hands the vessels of the holy place and the horns
for sounding the note of war.

7 And they made war on Midian, as the Lord gave orders to
Moses; and they put to death every male.

8 They put the kings of Midian to death with the rest, Evi
and Reken and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of
Midian: and Balaam, the son of Beor, they put to death with
the sword.

9 The women of Midian with their little ones the children
of Israel took prisoner; and all their cattle and flocks and all
their goods they took for themselves;

10 And after burning all their towns and all their tent-
circles,

11 They went away with the goods they had taken, man and
beast.

12 And the prisoners and the goods and everything they
had taken, they took to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the
people of Israel, to the tent-circle in the lowlands of Moab by
the Jordan at Jericho.

13 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest and the chiefs of the
people went out to them before they had come into the tent-
circle.

14 And Moses was angry with the chiefs of the army, the
captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds who had
come back from the war.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And Moses said to them, Why have you kept all the
women safe?

16 It was these who, moved by Balaam, were the cause of
Israel's sin against the Lord in the question of Peor, because
of which disease came on the people of the Lord.

17 So now put every male child to death, and every woman
who has had sex relations with a man.

18 But all the female children who have had no sex relations
with men, you may keep for yourselves.

19 You yourselves will have to keep outside the tent-circle
for seven days, anyone of you who has put any person to
death or come near a dead body; and on the third day and on
the seventh day make yourselves and your prisoners clean.

20 And every bit of clothing, and anything made of leather
or goats' hair or wood, you are to make clean.

21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had
been to the fight, This is the rule of the law which the Lord
has given to Moses:

22 But gold and silver and brass and iron and tin and lead,

23 And anything which may be heated, is to go through the
fire and be made clean; but in addition it is to be put in the
water of cleaning: and anything which may not go through
the fire is to be put in the water.

24 And on the seventh day, after washing your clothing,
you will be clean, and then you may come into the tent-circle.

25 And the Lord said to Moses,

26 Get an account of everything which was taken in the war,
of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads
of families of the people:

27 And let division be made of it into two parts, one for the
men of war who went out to the fight, and one for all the
people:

28 And from the men of war who went out let there be
offered to the Lord one out of every five hundred, from the
persons, and from the oxen and asses and sheep:

29 Take this from their part and give it to Eleazar the
priest as an offering to be lifted up to the Lord.

30 And from the part given to the children of Israel, take
one out of every fifty, from the persons, and from the oxen
and asses and sheep, and give it to the Levites who have the
care of the House of the Lord.

31 So Eleazar and Moses did as the Lord had given orders
to Moses.

32 Now the beasts taken, in addition to what the fighting-
men took for themselves, were six hundred and seventy-five
thousand sheep,

33 And seventy-two thousand oxen,

34 And sixty-one thousand asses;

35 And thirty-two thousand persons, that is, women who
had never had sex relations with a man.

36 And the half given as their part to the men who went to
the war, was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five
hundred sheep,

37 Of which the Lord's part was six hundred and seventy-
five.

38 The number of oxen was thirty-six thousand, of which
the Lord's part was seventy-two;

39 The number of asses was thirty thousand, five hundred,
of which the Lord's part was sixty-one.

40 And the number of persons was sixteen thousand, of
which the Lord's part was thirty-two persons.

41 And Moses gave the Lord's part, lifted up as an offering,
to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

42 And from the half given to the children of Israel, which
Moses had kept separate from that given to the fighting-men,

43 (Now the people's half was three hundred and thirty-
seven thousand, five hundred sheep,

44 And thirty-six thousand oxen,

45 And thirty thousand, five hundred asses,

46 And sixteen thousand persons;)

47 Even from the children of Israel's half, Moses took one
out of every fifty, men and beasts, and gave them to the
Levites who had the care of the House of the Lord; as the
Lord gave orders to Moses.

48 Then the men in authority over the thousands of the
army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
came to Moses,

49 And said to him, Your servants have taken note of the
number of all the fighting-men under our orders, and every
one is present;

50 And we have here an offering for the Lord from what
every man took in the war, ornaments of gold, leg-chains and
arm-rings, finger-rings, ear-rings, and neck-ornaments, to
make our souls free from sin before the Lord.

51 So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them,
even all the worked ornaments.

52 And the gold which the captains of thousands and
captains of hundreds gave, as an offering to be lifted up
before the Lord, came to sixteen thousand, seven hundred
and fifty shekels.

53 (For every man of the army had taken goods for himself
in the war.)

54 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold given
by the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and
took it into the Tent of meeting, to be a sign in memory of
the children of Israel before the Lord.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 32

1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had
a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of
Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle;

2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and
said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of
the meeting,

3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and
Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

4 The land which the Lord gave into the hands of the
children of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have
cattle.

5 And they said, With your approval, let this land be given
to your servants as their heritage: do not take us over Jordan.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of
Reuben, Are your brothers to go to the war, while you take
your rest here?

7 Why would you take from the children of Israel the desire
to go over into the land which the Lord has given them?

8 So did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-
barnea to see the land.

9 For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw
the land, they took from the children of Israel the desire to
go into the land which the Lord had given them.

10 And at that time the Lord was moved to wrath, and
made an oath, saying,

11 Truly, not one of the men of twenty years old and over
who came out of Egypt will see the land which I gave by oath
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not been
true to me with all their heart;

12 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and
Joshua, the son of Nun: because they have been true to the
Lord.

13 Then the Lord was angry with Israel, and he made them
wanderers in the waste land for forty years? till all that
generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord was
dead.

14 And now you have come to take the place of your fathers,
another generation of sinners, increasing the wrath of the
Lord against Israel.

15 For if you are turned away from him, he will send them
wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause
of the destruction of all this people.

16 Then they came to him, and said, We will make safe
places for our cattle here, and towns for our little ones;

17 But we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the
children of Israel till we have taken them to their place: but
our little ones will be safe in the walled towns against the
people of the land.

18 We will not come back to our houses till every one of the
children of Israel has come into his heritage.

19 For we will not have our heritage with them on the
other side of Jordan and forward; because our heritage has
come to us on this side of Jordan to the east.

20 Then Moses said to them, If you will do this, arming
yourselves to go before the Lord to the war,

21 Every armed man of you going across Jordan before the
Lord till he has overcome and sent in flight all who are
against him,

22 And the land is under the rule of the Lord: then after
that you may come back, having done no wrong to the Lord
and to Israel; and this land will be yours for your heritage
before the Lord.

23 But if you do not do this, then you are sinners against
the Lord; and you may be certain that your sin will have its
reward.

24 So get to work building your towns for your little ones,
and safe places for your sheep; and do as you have said.

25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said
to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord says.

26 Our little ones, our wives, and our flocks, and all our
cattle, will be there in the towns of Gilead;

27 But your servants will go over, every man armed for war,
before the Lord to the fight, as my lord says.

28 So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest
and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of
the tribes of the children of Israel.

29 And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the
children of Reuben go with you over Jordan, every man
armed for the fight before the Lord, and all the land is given
into your hands, then let them have the land of Gilead for a
heritage:

30 But if they do not go over with you armed, they will
have to take their heritage with you in the land of Canaan.

31 Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben
said, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do.

32 We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of
Canaan, and you will give us our heritage on this side of
Jordan.

33 So Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad and
the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the
son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites
and Og, king of Bashan, all the land with its towns and the
country round them.

34 And the children of Gad were the builders of Dibon and
Ataroth and Aroer;

35 And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah;

36 And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran: walled towns and
shut-in places for sheep.

37 And the children of Reuben were the builders of
Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim;

38 And Nebo and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,)
and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the towns they
made.

39 And the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went
to Gilead and took it, driving out the Amorites who were
living there.

40 And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh;
and he made it his living-place.

41 And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the towns
of Gilead, naming them Hawvoth-Jair.

42 And Nobah went and took Kenath and its small towns,
naming it Nobah, after himself.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 33

1 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they
went out of the land of Egypt in their armies, under the
direction of Moses and Aaron.

2 And the stages of their journey on their way out were put
down in writing by Moses at the order of the Lord: these are
the stages of their journey and the way they went.

3 On the fifteenth day of the first month they went out from
Rameses; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel
went out by the power of the Lord before the eyes of all the
Egyptians,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 While the Egyptians were placing in the earth the bodies
of their sons on whom the Lord had sent destruction: and
their gods had been judged by him.

5 So the children of Israel went from Rameses and put up
their tents in Succoth.

6 And they went on from Succoth and put up their tents in
Etham on the edge of the waste land.

7 And from Etham, turning back to Pi-hahiroth which is
before Baal-zephon, they put up their tents before Migdol.

8 And journeying on from before Hahiroth, they went
through the sea into the waste land: they went three days'
journey through the waste land of Etham and put up their
tents in Marah.

9 And from Marah they went on to Elim: and in Elim there
were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees; and they
put up their tents there.

10 And they went on from Elim and put up their tents by
the Red Sea.

11 Then from the Red Sea they went on and put up their
tents in the waste land of Sin.

12 And they went on from the waste land of Sin, and put up
their tents in Dophkah.

13 And they went on from Dophkah, and put up their tents
in Alush.

14 And they went on from Alush, and put up their tents in
Rephidim, where there was no drinking-water for the people.

15 And they went on from Rephidim, and put up their tents
in the waste land of Sinai.

16 And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put
up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah.

17 And they went on from Kibroth-hattaavah, and put up
their tents in Hazeroth.

18 And they went on from Hazeroth, and put up their tents
in Rithmah.

19 And they went on from Rithmah, and put up their tents
in Rimmon-perez.

20 And they went on from Rimmon-perez, and put up their
tents in Libnah.

21 And they went on from Libnah, and put up their tents in
Rissah.

22 And they went on from Rissah, and put up their tents in
Kehelathah.

23 And they went on from Kehelathah, and put up their
tents in Mount Shepher.

24 And they went on from Mount Shepher, and put up
their tents in Haradah.

25 And they went on from Haradah, and put up their tents
in Makheloth.

26 And they went on from Makheloth, and put up their
tents in Tahath.

27 And they went on from Tahath, and put up their tents in
Terah.

28 And they went on from Terah, and put up their tents in
Mithkah.

29 And they went on from Mithkah, and put up their tents
in Hashmonah.

30 And they went on from Hashmonah, and put up their
tents in Moseroth.

31 And they went on from Moseroth, and put up their tents
in Bene-jaakan.

32 And they went on from Bene-jaakan, and put up their
tents in Hor-haggidgad.

33 And they went on from Hor-haggidgad, and put up
their tents in Jotbathah.

34 And they went on from Jotbathah, and put up their
tents in Abronah.

35 And they went on from Abronah, and put up their tents
in Ezion-geber.

36 And they went on from Ezion-geber, and put up their
tents in the waste land of Zin (which is Kadesh).

37 And they went on from Kadesh, and put up their tents in
Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

38 And Aaron the priest went up into the mountain at the
order of the Lord, and came to his death there, in the fortieth
year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of
Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.

39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at the
time of his death in Mount Hor.

40 And news of the coming of the children of Israel came to
the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who was living in the South
in the land of Canaan.

41 And from Mount Hor they went on, and put up their
tents in Zalmonah.

42 And they went on from Zalmonah, and put up their
tents in Punon.

43 And they went on from Punon, and put up their tents in
Oboth.

44 And they went on from Oboth, and put up their tents in
Tye-abarim at the edge of Moab.

45 And they went on from Iyim, and put up their tents in
Dibon-gad.

46 And from Dibon-gad they went on, and put up their
tents in Almon-diblathaim.

47 And from Almon-diblathaim they went on, and put up
their tents in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

48 And they went on from the mountains of Abarim, and
put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at
Jericho;

49 Planting their tents by the side of Jordan from Beth-
jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab.

50 And in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, the
Lord said to Moses,

51 Say to the children of Israel, When you go over Jordan
into the land of Canaan,

52 See that all the people of the land are forced out from
before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones,
and all their metal images, and all their high places:

53 And take the land for yourselves, for your resting-place:
for to you I have given the land as your heritage.

54 And you will take up your heritage in the land by the
decision of the Lord, to every family its part; the greater the
family the greater its heritage, and the smaller the family the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

smaller will be its heritage; wherever the decision of the Lord
gives to any man his part, that will be his; distribution will
be made to you by your fathers’ tribes.

55 But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land,
then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points
in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in
the land where you are living.

56 And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do
to them, so I will do to you.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 34

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land
which is to be your heritage, the land of Canaan inside these
limits,)

3 Then your south quarter will be from the waste land of
Zin by the side of Edom, and your limit on the south will be
from the east end of the Salt Sea,

4 And round to the south of the slope of Akrabbim, and on
to Zin: and its direction will be south of Kadesh-barnea, and
it will go as far as Hazar-addar and on to Azmon:

5 And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt
as far as the sea.

6 And for your limit on the west you will have the Great
Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west.

7 And your limit on the north will be the line from the
Great Sea to Mount Hor:

8 And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of
Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad:

9 And the limit will go on to Ziphron, with its farthest
point at Hazar-enan: this will be your limit on the north.

10 And on the east, your limit will be marked out from
Hazar-enan to Shepham,

11 Going down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of
Ain, and on as far as the east side of the sea of Chinnereth:

12 And so down to Jordan, stretching to the Salt Sea: all
the land inside these limits will be yours.

13 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel saying,
This is the land which is to be your heritage, by the decision
of the Lord, which by the Lord's order is to be given to the
nine tribes and the half-tribe:

14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben, by their fathers’
families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, by their
fathers’ families, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been
given their heritage:

15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have been given their
heritage on the other side of Jordan at Jericho, on the east
looking to the dawn.

16 And the Lord said to Moses,

17 These are the names of the men who are to make the
distribution of the land among you: Eleazar the priest and
Joshua, the son of Nun.

18 And you are to take one chief from every tribe to make
the distribution of the land.

19 And these are the names of the men: of the tribe of Judah,
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

20 And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel, the
son of Ammihud.

21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Chislon.

22 And of the tribe of the children of Dan, a chief, Bukki,
the son of Jogli.

23 Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of
Manasseh, a chief, Hanniel, the son of Ephod:

24 And of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, a chief,
Kemuel, the son of Shiphtan.

25 And of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, a chief,
Elizaphan, the son of Parnach.

26 And of the tribe of the children of Issachar, a chief,
Paltiel, the son of Azzan.

27 And of the tribe of the children of Asher, a chief, Ahihud,
the son of Shelomi.

28 And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, a chief,
Pedahel, the son of Ammihud.

29 These are they to whom the Lord gave orders to make
the distribution of the heritage among the children of Israel
in the land of Canaan.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 35

1 And the Lord said to Moses in the lowlands of Moab by
Jordan at Jericho,

2 Give orders to the children of Israel to give to the Levites,
from the heritage which is theirs, towns for themselves, with
land on the outskirts of the towns.

3 These towns are to be their living-places, with land round
them for their cattle and their food and all their beasts,

4 Stretching from the wall of the towns a distance of a
thousand cubits all round.

5 The measure of this space of land is to be two thousand
cubits outside the town on the east, and two thousand cubits
on the south and on the west and on the north, the town
being in the middle. This space will be the outskirts of their
towns.

6 And the towns which you give the Levites are to be the six
safe places to which the taker of life may go in flight; and in
addition you are to give them forty-two towns.

7 Forty-eight towns are to be given to the Levites, all with
land round them.

8 And these towns are to be given out of the heritage of the
children of Israel, taking the greater number from those who
have much, and a smaller number from those who have little:
everyone, in the measure of his heritage, is to give of his
property to the Levites.

9 And the Lord said to Moses,

10 Say to the children of Israel, when you have gone over
Jordan into the land of Canaan;

11 Then let certain towns be marked out as safe places to
which anyone who takes the life of another in error may go
in flight.

12 In these towns you may be safe from him who has the
right of punishment; so that death may not overtake the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

taker of life till he has been judged by the meeting of the
people.

13 Six of the towns which you give will be such safe places;

14 Three on the other side of Jordan and three in the land
of Canaan, to be safe places for flight.

15 For the children of Israel and for the man from another
country who is living among them, these six towns are to be
safe places, where anyone causing the death of another
through error may go in flight.

16 But if a man gives another man a blow with an iron
instrument, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is
certainly to be put to death.

17 Or if he gives him a blow with a stone in his hand,
causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be
put to death.

18 Or if he gave him blows with a wood instrument in his
hands, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly
to be put to death.

19 He whose right it is to give punishment for blood, may
himself put to death the taker of life when he comes face to
face with him.

20 If in his hate he put a sword through him, or waiting
secretly for him sent a spear or stone at him, causing his
death;

21 Or in hate gave him blows with his hand, causing death;
he who gave the death-blow is to be put to death; he is a
taker of life: he whose right it is to give punishment for
blood may put to death the taker of life when he comes face
to face with him.

22 But ifa man has given a wound to another suddenly and
not in hate, or without design has sent something against
him,

23 Or has given him a blow with a stone, without seeing
him, so causing his death, though he had nothing against
him and no desire to do him evil:

24 Then let the meeting of the people be judge between the
man responsible for the death and him who has the right of
punishment for blood, acting by these rules:

25 And let the people keep the man responsible for the
death safe from the hands of him who has the right of
punishment for blood, and send him back to his safe town
where he had gone in flight: there let him be till the death of
the high priest who was marked with the holy oil.

26 But if ever he goes outside the walls of the safe town
where he had gone in flight,

27 And the giver of punishment, meeting him outside the
walls of the town, puts him to death, he will not be
responsible for his blood:

28 Because he had been ordered to keep inside the safe town
till the death of the high priest: but after the death of the
high priest the taker of life may come back to the place of his
heritage.

29 These rules are to be your guide in judging through all
your generations wherever you may be living.

30 Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put
to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one
witness is not enough.

31 Further, no price may be given for the life of one who
has taken life and whose right reward is death: he is certainly
to be put to death.

32 And no price may be offered for one who has gone in
flight to a safe town, for the purpose of letting him come
back to his place before the death of the high priest.

33 So do not make the land where you are living unholy:
for blood makes the land unholy: and there is no way of
making the land free from the blood which has come on it,
but only by the death of him who was the cause of it.

34 Do not make unclean the land where you are living and
in which is my House: for I the Lord am present among the
children of Israel.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 36

1 Now the heads of the families of the children of Gilead,
the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the
sons of Joseph, came to Moses, the chiefs and the heads of
families of the children of Israel being present,

2 And said, The Lord gave orders to my lord to make
distribution of the land as their heritage to the children of
Israel: and my lord was ordered by the Lord to give the
heritage of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters.

3 Now if they get married to any of the sons of other tribes
of the children of Israel, then their property will be taken
away from the heritage of our fathers, and become part of the
heritage of the tribe into which they get married: and their
heritage will be taken away from the heritage of our tribe.

4 And at the time of the Jubilee of the children of Israel,
their property will be joined to the heritage of the tribe of
which they are part and will be taken away from the heritage
of the tribe of our fathers.

5 So by the direction of the Lord, Moses gave orders to the
children of Israel, saying, What the tribe of the sons of
Joseph have said is right.

6 This is the order of the Lord about the daughters of
Zelophehad: The Lord says, Let them take as their husbands
whoever is most pleasing to them, but only among the family
of their father's tribe.

7 And so no property will be handed from tribe to tribe
among the children of Israel; but every one of the children of
Israel will keep the heritage of his father's tribe.

8 And every daughter owning property in any tribe of the
children of Israel is to be married to one of the family of her
father's tribe, so that every man of the children of Israel may
keep the heritage of his fathers.

9 And no property will be handed from one tribe to
another, but every tribe of the children of Israel will keep its
heritage.

10 So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord gave
orders to Moses:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and
Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, took as their husbands
the sons of their father's brothers:

12 And were married into the families of the sons of
Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their property was kept in
the tribe of their father's family

13 These are the laws and the orders which the Lord gave
to the children of Israel by Moses, in the lowlands of Moab
by Jordan at Jericho.

KES
ETRE

DEUTERONOMY
The Fifth Book of Moses
Hebrew Title: Devarim ("The Law of Moses")

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(Deuteronomy 1s a book in the Bible. It is the last of the five
books of Moses, meaning it deals with Moses, the Israelites
and their ancestors, and their relationship with God. The
Hebrew name of the book is Devarim, which means ‘people of
the Word.' The Book of Deuteronomy, literally "second law"
from Greek deuteros + nomos, is the fifth book of the Jewish
Torah, where it 1s called Devarim which 1s Hebrew for "The
Words [of Moses]" or "The Law [of Moses]". While Leviticus
represents the First or Basic Law, Deuteronomics definitely
outlines that what we nowadays would call The Civil Law.

Outline of the Narrative:

Chapters 1—30 of the book consist of three sermons or
speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of
Moab, shortly before they enter the Promised Land.

¢ Chapters 1-4: The journey through the wilderness from
Horeb (Sinai) to Kadesh and then to Moab 1s recalled.

¢ Chapters 4-11: After a second introduction at 4:44—49
the events at Mount Horeb are recalled, with the giving of
the Ten Commandments. Heads of families are urged to
instruct those under their care in the law, warnings are made
against serving gods other than Yahweh, the land promised
to Israel is praised, and the people are urged to obedience.

¢ Chapters 12—26, the Deuteronomic code: Laws governing
Israel's worship (chapters 12—16a), the appointment and
regulation of community and religious leaders (16b—18),
social regulation (19-25), and confession of identity and
loyalty (26).

¢ Chapters 27-28: Blessings and curses for those who keep
and break the law.

¢ Chapters 29-30: Concluding discourse on the covenant in
the land of Moab, including all the laws in the Deuteronomic
code (chapters 12—26) after those given at Horeb; Israel is
again exhorted to obedience.

¢ Chapters 31—34: Joshua is installed as Moses'’s successor,
Moses delivers the law to the Levites (a priestly caste), and
ascends Mount Nebo or Pisgah, where he dies and 1s buried
by God. The narrative of these events is interrupted by two
poems, the Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses.

The final verses, Deuteronomy 34:10—12, "never again did
there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses," make a claim for
the authoritative Deuteronomistic view of theology and its
insistence that the worship of the Hebrew God as the sole
deity of Israel was the only permissible religion, having been
sealed by the greatest of prophets.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Contents or Torah Portions:

¢ Devarim, on Deuteronomy 1-3: Chiefs, scouts, Edom,
Ammonites, Sthon, Og, land for two and a half tribes

¢ Va'etchanan, on Deuteronomy 3— Cities of refuge, Ten
Commandments, Shema, exhortation, conquest instructions

¢ Eikev, on Deuteronomy 7—11: Obedience, taking the land,
golden calf, Aaron's death, Levites’ duties

¢ Reh, on Deuteronomy 1 1—16: Centralized worship, diet,
tithes, sabbatical year, pilgrim festivals

¢ Shofetim, on Deuteronomy 16-21: Basic societal
structure for the Israelites

¢ Ki Teitzei, on Deuteronomy 21-25: Miscellaneous laws
on civil and domestic life

¢ Ki Tavo, on Deuteronomy 26-29: First fruits, tithes,
blessings and curses, exhortation

¢ Nitzavim, on Deuteronomy 29-30: covenant, violation,
choose blessing and curse

¢ Vayelech, on Deuteronomy 31: Encouragement, reading
and writing the law

¢ Haazinu, on Deuteronomy 32: Punishment, punishment
restrained, parting words

¢ VZot HaBerachah, on Deuteronomy 33-34: Farewell
blessing and death of Moses.

Deuteronomic, Second or Civil Code

Deuteronomy 12—26, the Deuteronomic Code, 1s the oldest
part of the book and the core around which the rest
developed. It is a series of mitzvot (commands) to the
Israelites regarding how they ought to conduct themselves in
Canaan, the land promised by Yahweh, God of Israel. The
following list organises most of the laws into thematic
groups:

SECTION 1: Laws of religious observance

¢ All sacrifices are to be brought and vows are to be made at
acentral sanctuary (12:1—28).

¢ The worship of Canaanite gods 1s forbidden. The order 1s
given to destroy their places of worship (12:29-31) and to
commit genocide against Canaanites and others with

"detestable" religious beltefs (20: 16-18).

¢ Native mourning practices such as deliberate
disfigurement are forbidden (14: 1—2).

¢ The procedure for tithing produce or donating its
equivalent 1s given (14:22—29).

* A catalogue of which animals are permitted and which
forbidden for consumption is given (14:3—20).

¢ The consumption of animals which are found dead and
have not been slaughtered 1s prohibited (14:21).

¢ Sacrificed animals must be without blemish (15:21, 11).

¢ First-born male livestock must be sacrificed (15:19-23).

¢ The Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and
Sukkot are instituted (16: 1-17).

¢ The worship at Asherah groves and setting up of ritual
pillars are forbidden (16:21—22).

¢ Prohibition of mixing kinds (22:9-1 1).

¢ Tzitzit are obligatory (22:12).

SECTION 2: Laws concerning officials

¢ Judges are to be appointed in every city (16:18).

¢ Judges are to be impartial and bribery 1s forbidden
(16:19-20).

¢ A central tribunal is established (18—13).

¢ Should the Israelites choose to be ruled by a King,
regulations for the office are given (114-20).

¢ Regulations of the rights, and revenue, of the Levites are
given (18: 1-8).

¢ Concerning the future (unspecified) prophet (18:9-22).

¢ Regulations for the priesthood are given (23: 1-8).

SECTION 3: Civil law

¢ Debts are to be released in the seventh year (15:1—11).

¢ Regulations of the institution of slavery and the
procedure for freeing slaves (15:12—18).

¢ Regulations for the treatment of foreign wives taken in
war (21:10-14)

¢ Regulations permitting taking slaves and plunder in war
(20:14)

¢ Lost property, once found, 1s to be restored to its owner
(22:1-4).

¢ Marriages between women and their stepsons are
forbidden (22:30).

¢ The camp ts to be kept clean (23:9-14).

¢ Usury 1s forbidden except for foreigners (23: 19-20).

¢ Regulations for vows and pledges are given (23:21—23,
24:6, 24:10-13).

¢ The procedure for tzaraath (a disfigurative condition) 1s
given (24:8—9).

¢ Hired workers are to be paid fairly (24: 14-15).

¢ Justice is to be shown towards strangers, widows, and
orphans (24:17—18).

¢ Portions of crops are to be given to the poor (24:19—22).

SECTION 4: Criminal law

¢ The rules for witnesses are given (19:15—21).

¢ The procedure for a bride who has been slandered is given
(22:13-21).

¢ Various laws concerning adultery and rape are given
(22:22-29).

¢ Kidnapping is forbidden (24:7).

¢ Just weights and measures are obligatory (25:13—16).)

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 1

1 These are the words which Moses said to all Israel on the
far side of Jordan, in the waste land in the Arabah opposite
Suph, between Paran on the one side, and Tophel, Laban,
Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other.

2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount
Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

3 Now in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh
month, Moses gave to the children of Israel all the orders
which the Lord had given him for them;

4 After he had overcome Sihon, king of the Amorites,
ruling in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, ruling in
Ashtaroth, at Edrei:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 On the far side of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses gave
the people this law, saying,

6 The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have been
long enough in this mountain:

7 Make a move now, and go on your way into the hill-
country of the Amorites and the places near it, in the Arabah
and the hill-country and in the lowlands and in the South
and by the seaside, all the land of the Canaanites, and
Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

8 See, all the land is before you: go in and take for
yourselves the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after
them.

9 At that time I said to you, I am not able to undertake the
care of you by myself;

10 The Lord your God has given you increase, and now you
are like the stars of heaven in number.

11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a
thousand times greater in number than you are, and give you
his blessing as he has said!

12 How is it possible for me by myself to be responsible for
you, and undertake the weight of all your troubles and your
arguments?

13 Take for yourselves men who are wise, far-seeing, and
respected among you, from your tribes, and I will make them
rulers over you.

14 And you made answer and said to me, It is good for us to
do as you say.

15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and
respected, and made them rulers over you, captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds and captains of fifties
and captains of tens, and overseers of your tribes.

16 And at that time I gave orders to your judges, saying,
Let all questions between your brothers come before you for
hearing, and give decisions uprightly between a man and his
brother or one from another nation who 1s with him.

17 In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight
with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no
fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in
which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put
before me and I will give it a hearing.

18 And at that time I gave you all the orders which you
were to do.

19 Then we went on from Horeb, through all that great
and cruel waste which you saw, on our way to the hill-
country of the Amorites, as the Lord gave us orders; and we
came to Kadesh-barnea.

20 And I said to you, You have come to the hill-country of
the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

21 See now, the Lord your God has put the land into your
hands: go up and take it, as the Lord, the God of your
fathers, has said to you; have no fear and do not be troubled.

22 And you came near to me, every one of you, and said,
Let us send men before us to go through the land with care
and give us an account of the way we are to go and the towns
to which we will come.

23 And what you said seemed good to me, and I took twelve
men from among you, one from every tribe;

24 And they went up into the hill-country and came to the
valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there.

25 And taking in their hands some of the fruit of the land,
they came down again to us, and gave us their account,
saying, It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.

26 But going against the order of the Lord your God, you
would not go up:

27 And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said,
In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of
Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our
destruction.

28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our
hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and
taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to
heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the
Anakim there.

29 Then I said to you, Have no fear of them.

30 The Lord your God who goes before you will be fighting
for you, and will do such wonders as he did for you in Egypt
before your eyes;

31 And in the waste land, where you have seen how the
Lord was supporting you, as a man does his son, in all your
journeying till you came to this place.

32 But for all this, you had no faith in the Lord your God,

33 Who goes before you on your way, looking for a place
where you may put up your tents, in fire by night, lighting
up the way you are to go, and in a cloud by day.

34 And the Lord, hearing your words, was angry, and said
with an oath,

35 Truly, not one of this evil generation will see that good
land which I said I would give to your fathers,

36 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he will see it; and
to him and to his children I will give the land over which his
feet have gone, because he has been true to the Lord with all
his heart.

37 And, in addition, the Lord was angry with me because of
you, saying, You yourself will not go into it:

38 Joshua, the son of Nun, your servant, he will go into the
land: say to him that he is to be strong, for he will be Israel's
guide into their heritage.

39 And your little ones, who, you said, would come into
strange hands, your children, who now have no knowledge of
good or evil, they will go into that land, and to them I will
give it and it will be theirs.

40 But as for you, go back, journeying into the waste land
by the way of the Red Sea.

41 Then you said to me, We have done evil against the Lord,
we will go up to the attack, as the Lord our God has given us
orders. And arming yourselves every one, you made ready to
go up without care into the hill-country.

42 And the Lord said to me, Say to them, Do not go up to
the attack; for I am not among you, and you will be
overcome by those who are against you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

43 This I said to you, but you gave no attention and went
against the orders of the Lord, and in your pride went up
into the hill-country.

44 And the Amorites who were in the hill-country came out
against you and put you to flight, rushing after you like bees,
and overcame you in Seir, driving you even as far as Hormah.

45 And you came back, weeping before the Lord; but the
Lord gave no attention to your cries and did not give ear to
you.

46 So you were kept waiting in Kadesh for a long time.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 2

1 Then we went back, journeying into the waste land by the
way to the Red Sea, as the Lord had said to me: and we were
along time going round Mount Seir.

2 And the Lord said to me,

3 You have been journeying round this mountain long
enough: now go to the north;

4 And give the people orders, saying, You are about to go
through the land of your brothers, the children of Esau, who
are living in Seir; and they will have fear of you; so take care
what you do:

5 Make no attack on them, for I will not give you any of
their land, not even space enough for a man's foot: because I
have given Mount Seir to Esau for his heritage.

6 You may get food for your needs from them for a price,
and water for drinking.

7 For the blessing of the Lord your God has been on you in
all the work of your hands: he has knowledge of your
wanderings through this great waste: these forty years the
Lord your God has been with you, and you have been short
of nothing.

8 So we went on past our brothers, the children of Esau,
living in Seir, by the road through the Arabah, from Elath
and Ezion-geber. And turning, we went by the road through
the waste land of Moab.

9 And the Lord said to me, Make no attack on Moab and
do not go to war with them, for I will not give you any of his
land: because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for their
heritage.

10 (In the past the Emim were living there; a great people,
equal in numbers to the Anakim and as tall;

11 They are numbered among the Rephaim, like the
Anakim; but are named Emim by the Moabites.

12 And the Horites in earlier times were living in Seir, but
the children of Esau took their place; they sent destruction
on them and took their land for themselves, as Israel did to
the land of his heritage which the Lord gave them.)

13 Get up now, and go over the stream Zered. So we went
over the stream Zered.

14 Thirty-eight years had gone by from the time when we
came away from Kadesh-barnea till we went over the stream
Zered; by that time all the generation of the men of war
among us were dead, as the Lord had said.

15 For the hand of the Lord was against them, working
their destruction, till all were dead.

16 So when death had overtaken all the men of war among
the people,

17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 You are about to go by Ar, the limit of the country of
Moab;

19 And when you come near the land of the children of
Ammon, give them no cause of trouble and do not make war
on them, for I will not give you any of the land of the
children of Ammon for your heritage: because I have given it
to the children of Lot.

20 (That land is said to have been a land of the Rephaim,
for Rephaim had been living there in earlier times, but they
were named Zamzummim by the Ammonites;

21 They were a great people, tall as the Anakim, and equal
to them in number; but the Lord sent destruction on them
and the children of Ammon took their place, living in their
land;

22 As he did for the children of Esau living in Seir, when he
sent destruction on the Horites before them, and they took
their land where they are living to this day:

23 And the Avvim, living in the small towns as far as Gaza,
came to destruction by the hands of the Caphtorim who came
out from Caphtor and took their land.)

24 Get up now, and go on your journey, crossing over the
valley of the Arnon: see, I have given into your hands Sihon,
the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and all his land: go forward
to make it yours, and make war on him,

25 From now on I will put the fear of you in all peoples
under heaven, who, hearing of you, will be shaking with fear
and grief of heart because of you.

26 Then from the waste land of Kedemoth I sent
representatives to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of
peace, saying,

27 Let me go through your land: I will keep to the highway,
not turning to the right or to the left;

28 Let me have food, at a price, for my needs, and water for
drinking: only let me go through on foot;

29 As the children of Esau did for me in Seir and the
Moabites in Ar; till I have gone over Jordan into the land
which the Lord our God is giving us.

30 But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us go
through; for the Lord your God made his spirit hard and his
heart strong, so that he might give him up into your hands as
at this day.

31 And the Lord said to me, See, from now on IJ have given
Sihon and his land into your hands: go forward now to take
his land and make it yours.

32 Then Sihon came out against us with all his people, to
make an attack on us at Jahaz.

33 And the Lord our God gave him into our hands; and we
overcame him and his sons and all his people.

34 At that time we took all his towns, and gave them over
to complete destruction, together with men, women, and
children; we had no mercy on any:

35 Only the cattle we took for ourselves, with the goods
from the towns we had taken.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

36 From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon and
from the town in the valley as far as Gilead, no town was
strong enough to keep us out; the Lord our God gave them
all into our hands:

37 But you did not go near the land of the children of
Ammon, that is, all the side of the river Jabbok or the towns
of the hill-country, wherever the Lord our God had said we
were not to go.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 3

1 Then turning we took the road to Bashan: and Og, king
of Bashan, came out against us with all his people, and made
an attack on us at Edrei.

2 And the Lord said to me, Have no fear of him: for I have
given him and all his people and his land into your hands; do
to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was
ruling in Heshbon.

3 So the Lord our God gave up Og, king of Bashan, and all
his people into our hands; and we overcame him so
completely that all his people came to their end in the fight.

4 At that time we took all his towns; there was not one
town of the sixty towns, all the country of Argob, the
kingdom of Og in Bashan, which we did not take.

5 All these towns had high walls round them with doors
and locks; and in addition we took a great number of
unwalled towns.

6 And we put them to the curse, every town together with
men, women, and children.

7 But we took for ourselves all the cattle and the stored
wealth of the towns.

8 At that time we took their land from the two kings of the
Amorites on the far side of Jordan, from the valley of the
Arnon to Mount Hermon;

9 (By the Sidonians, Hermon is named Sirion, and by the
Amorites Shenir;)

10 All the towns of the table-land and all Gilead and
Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of
Og in Bashan.

11 (For Og, king of Bashan, was the last of all the Rephaim;
his bed was made of iron; is it not in Rabbah, in the land of
the children of Ammon? It was nine cubits long and four
cubits wide, measured by the common cubit.)

12 And this land which we took at that time, from Aroer by
the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead
with its towns, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites.

13 The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og,
all the land of Argob, together with Bashan, I gave to the
half-tribe of Manasseh. (This land is named the land of the
Rephaim.

14 Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the land of Argob, as
far as the country of the Geshurites and the Maacathites,
naming it, Bashan, Havvoth-Jair after himself, as it is to this
day.)

15 And Gilead I gave to Machir.

16 And the land from Gilead to the valley of the Arnon,
with the middle of the valley as a limit, as far as the river

Jabbok which is the limit of the country of the children of
Ammon, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites;

17 As well as the Arabah, with the river Jordan as their
limit, from Chinnereth to the Salt Sea, under the slopes of
Pisgah to the east.

18 At that time I gave you orders, saying, The Lord has
given you this land for your heritage: all the men of war are
to go over armed before your brothers the children of Israel.

19 But your wives and your little ones and your cattle (for
it is clear that you have much cattle) may go on living in the
towns I have given you;

20 Till the Lord has given rest to your brothers as to you,
and till they have taken for themselves the land which the
Lord your God is giving them on the other side of Jordan:
then you may go back, every man of you, to the heritage
which I have given you.

21 And I gave orders to Joshua at that time, saying, Your
eyes have seen what the Lord your God has done to these two
kings: so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you
come.

22 Have no fear of them, for the Lord your God will be
fighting for you.

23 And at that time I made request to the Lord, saying,

24 O Lord God, you have now for the first time let your
servant see your great power and the strength of your hand;
for what god is there in heaven or on earth able to do such
great works and such acts of power?

25 Let me go over, O Lord, and see the good land on the
other side of Jordan, and that fair mountain country, even
Lebanon.

26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and
would not give ear to my prayer; and the Lord said to me,
Let it be enough, say no more about this thing.

27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and turning your eyes to the
west and the north, to the south and the east, see the land
with your eyes: for you are not to go over Jordan.

28 But give my orders to Joshua, comforting him and
making him strong; for he is to go over Jordan at the head of
this people, and he will give them this land which you will see
for their heritage.

29 So we were waiting in the valley facing Beth-peor.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 4

1 And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions
which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be
yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land
which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 Make no addition to the orders which I give you, and take
nothing from them, but keep the orders of the Lord your
God which I give you.

3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-
peor: for destruction came from the Lord on all those among
you who went after Baal-peor.

4 But you who kept faith with the Lord are living, every
one of you, today.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was
ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep
them in the land to which you are going to take it for your
heritage.

6 So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom
and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who
hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a
wise and far-seeing people.

7 For what great nation has a god so near to them as the
Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer?

8 And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as
all this law which I put before you today?

9 Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that
the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory
and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the
knowledge of them be given to your children and to your
children's children;

10 That day when you were waiting before the Lord your
God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people
come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear
of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching
to their children.

11 And you came near, waiting at the foot of the mountain;
and flames of fire went up from the mountain to the heart of
heaven, with dark clouds, and all was black as night.

12 And the voice of the Lord came to you out of the fire:
the sound of his words came to your ears but you saw no
form; there was nothing but a voice.

13 And he gave you his agreement with you, the ten rules
which you were to keep, which he put in writing on the two
stones of the law.

14 And the Lord gave me orders at that time to make clear
to you these laws and decisions, so that you might do them in
the land to which you are going, and which is to be your
heritage.

15 So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no
form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came
to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire:

16 So that you may not be turned to evil ways and make for
yourselves an image in the form of any living thing, male or
female,

17 Or any beast of the earth, or winged bird of the air,

18 Or of anything which goes flat on the earth, or any fish
in the water under the earth.

19 And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see
the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven,
do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or
become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all
peoples under heaven.

20 But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out
of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are
today.

21 And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and
made an oath that I was not to go over Jordan into the good
land which the Lord 1s giving you for your heritage:

22 But death is to come to me in this land, I may not go
over Jordan: but you will go over and take that good land
for your heritage.

23 Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord
your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind,
or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders
which the Lord your God has given you.

24 For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he
will not let the honour which is his be given to any other.

25 If, when you have had children and children's children,
and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned
to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in
the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:

26 May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today,
that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off
from that land which you are going over Jordan to take;
your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to
a complete end.

27 And the Lord will send you wandering among the
peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death
among the nations where the Lord will send you.

28 There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's
hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or
hearing or taking food or smelling.

29 But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord
your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he
will not keep himself from you.

30 When you are in trouble and all these things have come
on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord
your God, and give ear to his voice:

31 Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will
not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake
you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath
with your fathers.

32 Give thought now to the days which are past, before
your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on
the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other,
see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything
like it has been talked of in story.

33 Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the
voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did?

34 Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out
of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by
war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great
acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in
Egypt, before your very eyes?

35 All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that
the Lord is God and there is no other.

36 Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you;
and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came
to your ears out of the heart of the fire.

37 And because of his love for your fathers, he took their
seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you,
took you out of Egypt by his great power;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

38 Driving out before you nations greater and stronger
than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for
your heritage, as at this day.

39 So today be certain, and keep the knowledge deep in
your hearts, that the Lord is God, in heaven on high and
here on earth; there is no other God.

40 Then keep his laws and his orders which I give you today,
so that it may be well for you and for your children after you,
and that your lives may be long in the land which the Lord
your God is giving you for ever.

41 Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side
of Jordan looking to the east;

42 To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in
error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one
of these towns he might be kept from death:

43 The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in
the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for
the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.

44 This is the law which Moses put before the children of
Israel:

45 These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which
Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of
Egypt;

46 On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor,
in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in
Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame
after they had come out of Egypt:

47 And they took his land for a heritage, and the land of
Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whose
lands were on the other side of Jordan to the east;

48 From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon as far
as Mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49 And all the Arabah on the far side of Jordan to the east,
as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 5

1 And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear,
O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today,
and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.

2 The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb.

3 The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers
but with us, who are all living and present here today.

4 The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the
mountain, out of the heart of the fire,

5 (I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make
clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of
the fire, you did not go up the mountain;) saying,

61 am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the prison-house.

7 You are to have no other gods but me.

8 You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of
anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the
earth:

9 You may not go down on your faces before them or give
them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will
not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment

on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the
third and fourth generation of my haters;

10 And J will have mercy through a thousand generations
on those who have love for me and keep my laws.

11 You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your
God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on
his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the
Lord.

12 Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been
ordered by the Lord your God.

13 On six days do all your work:

14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God;
on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter,
or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or
your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange
country who is living among you; so that your man-servant
and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you.

15 And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of
Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that
land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this
reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath
day.

16 Give honour to your father and your mother, as you
have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life
may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the
Lord your God is giving you.

17 Do not put anyone to death without cause.

18 Do not be false to the married relation.

19 Do not take the property of another.

20 Do not give false witness against your neighbour;

21 Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour's wife, or
his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-
servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your
neighbour's.

22 These words the Lord said to all of you together on the
mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and
the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put
them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them
to me.

23 And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark
while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of
your tribes and your chiefs came to me,

24 And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power,
and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have
seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice
of God.

25 Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the
Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us,
and we will be burned up in this great fire.

26 For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the
voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire,
has been kept from death?

27 Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the
Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said
to you, and we will give ear, and do it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me,
The words which this people have said to you have come to
my ears: what they have said is well said.

29 If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that
they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it
might be well for them and for their children for ever!

30 Now say to them, Go back to your tents.

31 But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will
give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which
you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in
the land which I am giving them for their heritage.

32 Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has
given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the
right hand or to the left.

33 Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord
your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for
you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 6

1 Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions
which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that
you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you
are going:

2 So that living in the fear of the Lord your God, you may
keep all his laws and his orders, which I give you: you and
your son and your son's son, all the days of your life; and so
that your life may be long.

3 So give ear, O Israel, and take care to do this; so that it
may be well for you, and you may be greatly increased, as the
Lord the God of your fathers has given you his word, in a
land flowing with milk and honey.

4 Give ear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:

5 And the Lord your God is to be loved with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in
your hearts;

7 Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of
them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the
way, when you go to sleep and when you get up.

8 Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on
your brow;

9 Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over
the doors of your towns.

10 And when the Lord your God has taken you into the
land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and
fair towns which were not of your building;

11 And houses full of good things not stored up by you,
and places for storing water which you did not make, and
vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you
have taken food and are full;

12 Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the
Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
prison-house.

13 Let the fear of the Lord your God be in your hearts, and
be his servants, taking your oaths by his name.

14 Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples
round about you;

15 For the Lord your God who is with you is a God who
will not let his honour be given to another; or the wrath of
the Lord will be burning against you, causing your
destruction from the face of the earth.

16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in
Massah.

17 Keep with care the orders of the Lord your God, and his
rules and his laws which he has given you;

18 And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord
your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in
and take for your heritage that good land from which the
Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers,

19 To send out from before you all those who are against
you.

20 And when your son says to you in time to come, What is
the reason for these rules and laws and decisions which the
Lord our God has given you?

21 Then you will say to your son, We were servants under
Pharaoh's yoke in Egypt; and the Lord took us out of Egypt
with a strong hand:

22 And the Lord did great signs and wonders against Egypt,
and against Pharaoh and all his house, before our eyes:

23 And he took us out from that place, guiding us here to
give us this land, as he said in his oath to our fathers.

24 And the Lord gave us orders to keep all these laws, in
the fear of the Lord our God, so that it might be well for us
for ever, and that he might keep us from death, as he has
done to this day.

25 And it will be our righteousness if we take care to keep
all this order before the Lord our God as he has given it to us.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 7

1 When the Lord your God takes you into the land where
you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out
the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and
the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the
Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger
than you;

2 And when the Lord has given them up into your hands
and you have overcome them, give them up to complete
destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no
mercy on them:

3 Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not
give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for
your sons.

4 For through them your sons will be turned from me to
the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to
wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.

5 But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to
be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees
cut down and their images burned with fire.

6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked
out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all
the nations on the face of the earth.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself
because you were more in number than any other people; for
you were the smallest of the nations:

8 But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his
oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the
strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house
and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

9 Be certain, then, that the Lord your God is God; whose
faith and mercy are unchanging, who keeps his word through
a thousand generations to those who have love for him and
keep his laws;

10 Rewarding his haters to their face with destruction; he
will have no mercy on his hater, but will give him open
punishment.

11 So keep the orders and the laws and the decisions which
I give you today and do them.

12 And it will be, that if you give attention to these
decisions and keep and do them, then the Lord will keep his
agreement with you and his mercy, as he said in his oath to
your fathers.

13 And he will give you his love, blessing you and
increasing you: he will send his blessing on the offspring of
your body and the fruit of your land, your grain and your
wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young
of your flock, in the land which by his oath to your fathers he
undertook to give you.

14 You will have greater blessings than any other people:
no male or female among you or among your cattle will be
without offspring.

15 And the Lord will take away from you all disease, and
will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which
you have seen, but will put them on your haters.

16 And you are to send destruction on all the peoples which
the Lord your God gives into your hands; have no pity on
them, and do not give worship to their gods; for that will be
a cause of sin to you.

17 If you say in your hearts, These nations are greater in
number than we are: how are we to take their land from them?

18 Have no fear of them, but keep well in mind what the
Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt;

19 The great punishments which your eyes saw, and the
signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the stretched-
out arm, by which the Lord your God took you out: so will
the Lord your God do to all the peoples who are the cause of
your fears.

20 And the Lord will send a hornet among them, till all the
rest who have kept themselves safe from you in secret places
have been cut off.

21 Have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you,
a great God greatly to be feared.

22 The Lord your God will send out the nations before you
little by little; they are not to be rooted out quickly, for fear
that the beasts of the field may be increased overmuch against
you.

23 But the Lord your God will give them up into your
hands, overpowering them till their destruction is complete.

24 He will give their kings into your hands, and you will
put their names out of existence under heaven; there is not
one of them who will not give way before you, till their
destruction is complete.

25 The images of their gods are to be burned with fire: have
no desire for the gold and silver on them, and do not take it
for yourselves, for it will be a danger to you: it is a thing
disgusting to the Lord your God:

26 And you may not take a disgusting thing into your
house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep
yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it
is a cursed thing.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 8

1 Take care to keep all the orders which I give you today, so
that you may have life and be increased and go in and take as
a heritage the land which the Lord, by his oath to your
fathers, undertook to give you.

2 And keep in mind the way by which the Lord your God
has taken you through the waste land these forty years, so
that he might make low your pride and put you to the test, to
see what was in your heart and if you would keep his orders
or not.

3 And he made low your pride and let you be without food
and gave you manna for your food, a thing new to you,
which your fathers never saw; so that he might make it clear
to you that bread is not man's only need, but his life is in
every word which comes out of the mouth of the Lord.

4 Through all these forty years your clothing did not get
old or your feet become tired.

5 Keep in mind this thought, that as a son is trained by his
father, so you have been trained by the Lord your God.

6 Then keep the orders of the Lord your God, fearing him
and walking in his ways.

7 For the Lord your God is guiding you into a good land, a
land of water-springs, of fountains, and deep streams flowing
out from the valleys and the hills;

8 A land of grain and vines and fig-trees and fair fruits; a
land of oil-giving olive-trees and honey;

9 Where there will be bread for you in full measure and you
will be in need of nothing; a land where the very stones are
iron and from whose hills you may get copper.

10 And you will have food enough and be full, praising the
Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

11 Then take care that you are not turned away from the
Lord your God and from keeping his orders and decisions
and laws which I give you this day:

12 And when you have taken food and are full, and have
made fair houses for yourselves and are living in them;

13 And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and
your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every
sort;

14 Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride,
giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out
of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Who was your guide through that great and cruel waste,
where there were poison-snakes and scorpions and a dry land
without water; who made water come out of the hard rock
for you;

16 Who gave you manna for your food in the waste land, a
food which your fathers had never seen; so that your pride
might be broken and your hearts tested for your good in the
end;

17 Say not then, in your hearts, My power and the strength
of my hands have got me this wealth.

18 But keep in mind the Lord your God: for it is he who
gives you the power to get wealth, so that he may give effect
to the agreement which he made by his oath with your
fathers, as at this day.

19 And it is certain that if at any time you are turned away
from the Lord your God, and go after other gods, to be their
servants and to give them worship, destruction will overtake
you.

20 Like the nations which the Lord is cutting off before you,
so you will be cut off; because you would not give ear to the
voice of the Lord your God.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 9

1 Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to
take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than
yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as
heaven;

2 A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom
you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are
forced to give way before the sons of Anak.

3 Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who
goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send
destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will
send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the
Lord has said.

4 And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before
you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the
Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-
doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you.

5 Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are
upright are you going in to take their land; but because of
the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving
them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you
this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you
are a stiff-necked people.

7 Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God
angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of
Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the
orders of the Lord.

8 Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his
wrath he would have put an end to you.

9 When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the
stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord

made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and
forty nights without taking food or drinking water.

10 And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on
them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all
the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of
the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting.

11 Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord
gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement.

12 And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down
quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of
Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly
been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go;
they have made themselves a metal image.

13 And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this
people is stiff-necked:

14 Let me send destruction on them till their very name is
cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger
than they.

15 So turning round I came down from the mountain, and
the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of
the agreement were in my hands.

16 And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and
had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you
had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had
given you orders to go.

17 And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were
broken before your eyes.

18 And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the
first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or
drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the
eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath.

19 For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord
which was burning against you, with your destruction in
view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer.

20 And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to
death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and
put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small
till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing
down from the mountain.

22 Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-
hattaavah you made the Lord angry.

23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea,
saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you
went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no
faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.

24 From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you
have gone against the word of the Lord.

25 So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for
forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord
had said that he would put an end to you.

26 And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God,
do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to
whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom
you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-
doing and their sin:

28 Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken
them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the
land which he said he would give them, and because of his
hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in
the waste land.

29 But still they are your people and your heritage, whom
you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out
arm.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 10

1 At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones,
cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain,
and make an ark of wood.

2 And I will put on the stones the words which were on the
first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put
them into the ark.

3 So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut
like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in
my hands.

4 And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten
rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the
fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the
stones to me.

5 And turning round I came down from the mountain and
put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they
are as the Lord gave me orders.

6 (And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-
jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was
put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as
priest.

7 From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from
Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to
take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the
Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to
this day.

9 For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself
among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord
your God said to him.)

10 And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty
days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were
open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.

11 Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your
journey before the people, so that they may go in and take
the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would
give them.

12 And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have
you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking
in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all
your heart and all your soul,

13 Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which
I give you this day for your good?

14 The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of
heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.

15 But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for
them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you,
from all peoples, as at this day.

16 Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away
your pride.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,
the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who
has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards:

18 Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the
child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his
mercy to the man from a strange country.

19 So be kind to the man from a strange country who is
living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange
country in the land of Egypt.

20 Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give
him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your
oaths in his name.

21 He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who
has done for you all these works of power which your eyes
have seen.

22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy
persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the
stars of heaven in number.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 11

1 So have love for the Lord your God, and give him
worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at
all times.

2 And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are
not said to your children, who have had no experience of the
training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his
great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,

3 Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;

4 And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and
their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea
come up over them when they went after you, and how the
Lord put an end to them even to this day;

5 And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came
to this place;

6 And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab,
the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open
mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and
every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all
Israel:

7 But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord
which he has done.

8 So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you
may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be
your heritage;

9 And that your days may be long in the land which the
Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after
them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 For the land where you are going is not like the land of
Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your
seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:

11 But the land where you are going is a land of hills and
valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:

12 A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the
Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year
to the other.

13 And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders
which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God
and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,

14 Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the
early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your
grain and your wine and your oil.

15 And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so
that you may have food in full measure.

16 But take care that your hearts are not turned to false
ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other
gods;

17 For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning
against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no
rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time
you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is
giving you.

18 So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul,
and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on
your brow;

19 Teaching them to your children, and talking of them
when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way,
when you go to sleep and when you get up:

20 Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the
doors of your towns:

21 So that your days, and the days of your children, may be
long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers
said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.

22 For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give
you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking
in all his ways and being true to him:

23 Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before
you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and
stronger than yourselves.

24 Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from
the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river
Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your
land.

25 All people will give way before you: for the Lord your
God will put the fear of you on all the land through which
you go, as he has said.

26 Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:

27 The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord
your God, which I give you this day:

28 And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the
Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way
which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods
which are not yours.

29 And when the Lord your God has taken you into the
land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount
Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30 Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west,
in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite
Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?

31 For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage
which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your
resting-place.

32 And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the
decisions which I put before you today.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 12

1 These are the laws and the decisions which you are to keep
with care in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers,
has given you to be your heritage all the days of your life on
earth.

2 You are to give up to the curse all those places where the
nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their
gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every
green tree:

3 Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and
their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods
cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place.

4 Do not so to the Lord your God.

5 But let your hearts be turned to the place which will be
marked out by the Lord your God, among your tribes, to put
his name there;

6 And there you are to take your burned offerings and
other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the
offerings to be lifted up to the Lord, and the offerings of
your oaths, and those which you give freely from the impulse
of your hearts, and the first births among your herds and
your flocks;

7 There you and all your families are to make a feast before
the Lord your God, with joy in everything to which you put
your hand, because the Lord has given you his blessing.

8 You are not to do things then in the way in which we now
do them here, every man as it seems right to him:

9 For you have not come to the rest and the heritage which
the Lord your God is giving you.

10 But when you have gone over Jordan and are living in
the land which the Lord your God is giving you as your
heritage, and when he has given you rest from all those on
every side who are fighting against you, and you are living
there safely;

11 Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your
God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take
all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned
offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your
goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of
your oaths which you make to the Lord;

12 And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and
your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and
your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your
house, because he has no part or heritage among you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in
any place you see:

14 But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your
tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there
do what I have given you orders to do.

15 Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle
or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire
of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your
God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may
take of it.

16 But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be
drained out on the earth like water.

17 In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part
of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births
of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an
oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted
offering;

18 But they will be your food before the Lord your God in
the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them,
with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and
your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you:
and you will have joy before the Lord your God in
everything to which you put your hand.

19 See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long
as you are living in your land.

20 When the Lord your God makes wide the limit of your
land, as he has said, and you say, I will take flesh for my food,
because you have a desire for it; then you may take whatever
flesh you have a desire for.

21 If the place marked out by the Lord your God as the
resting-place for his name is far away from you, then take
from your herds and from your flocks which the Lord has
given you, as I have said, and have a meal of it in the towns
where you may be living.

22 It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the
unclean and the clean may take of it.

23 But see that you do not take the blood for food; for the
blood is the life; and you may not make use of the life as food
with the flesh.

24 Do not take it for food but let it be drained out on the
earth like water.

25 Do not take it for food; so that it may be well for you
and for your children after you, while you do what is right in
the eyes of the Lord.

26 But the holy things which you have, and the offerings of
your oaths, you are to take to the place which will be marked
out by the Lord:

27 Offering the flesh and the blood of your burned offerings
on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your
offerings is to be drained out on the altar of the Lord your
God, and the flesh will be your food.

28 Take note of all these orders I am giving you and give
attention to them, so that it may be well for you and for your
children after you for ever, while you do what is good and
right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

29 When the people of the land where you are going have
been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have
taken their land and are living in it;

30 After their destruction take care that you do not go in
their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods,
saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I
will do as they did.

31 Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is
disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in
honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters
in the fire to their gods.

32 You are to keep with care all the words I give you,
making no addition to them and taking nothing from them.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 13

1 If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

2 And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to
you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you,
and give them worship;

3 Then give no attention to the words of that prophet or
that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God is testing you,
to see if all the love of your heart and soul is given to him.

4 But keep on in the ways of the Lord your God, fearing
him and keeping his orders and hearing his voice,
worshipping him and being true to him.

5 And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put
to death; for his words were said with the purpose of turning
you away from the Lord your God, who took you out of the
land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; and
of forcing you out of the way in which the Lord your God
has given you orders to go. So you are to put away the evil
from among you.

6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or
your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is
as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to
you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to
you and to your fathers;

7 Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from
one end of the earth to the other;

8 Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have
no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover;

9 But put him to death without question; let your hand be
the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and
then the hands of all the people.

10 Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it
was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God,
who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-
house.

11 And all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and no
one will again do such evil as this among you.

12 And if word comes to you, in one of the towns which the
Lord your God is giving you for your resting-place,

13 That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from
among you, turning the people of their town from the right

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of
whom you have no knowledge;

14 Then let a full search be made, and let questions be put
with care; and if it is true and certain that such a disgusting
thing has been done among you;

15 Then take up arms against the people of that town and
give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it.

16 And take all the goods into the middle of its open space,
burning the town and all its property with fire as an offering
to the Lord your God; it is to be a waste for ever; there is to
be no more building there.

17 Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the
Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and
have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his
oath to your fathers:

18 So long as you give ear to the voice of the Lord your
God, and keep all his orders which I give you today, and do
what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 14

1 You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not
to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your
brows in honour of the dead;

2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the
Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the
nations on the face of the earth.

3 No disgusting thing may be your food.

4 These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox,
the sheep, and the goat;

5 The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and
the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep.

6 Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and
whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again,
may be used for food.

7 But even among these, there are some which may not be
used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney,
which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes
back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two.

8 And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a
division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back;
their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies
touched by you.

9 And of the things living in the waters, you may take all
those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of
thin plates.

10 But any which have no skin-plates or wings for
swimming, you may not take; they are unclean for you.

11 All clean birds may be used for food.

12 But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-
eagle and the ospray;

13 The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort;

14 Every raven, and all birds of that sort;

15 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk
and birds of that sort;

16 The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen;

17 And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant;

18 The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the
hoopoe and the bat.

19 Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is
unclean to you and may not be used as food.

20 But all clean birds you may take.

21 You may not have as food anything which has come to a
natural death; the man from another country who is living
with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it
from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the
Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its
mother's milk.

22 Put on one side a tenth of all the increase of your seed,
produced year by year.

23 And make a feast before the Lord your God, in the place
which is to be marked out, where his name will be for ever, of
the tenth part of your grain and your wine and your oil, and
the first births of your herds and your flocks; so that you may
have the fear of the Lord your God in your hearts at all times.

24 And if the way is so long that you are not able to take
these things to the place marked out by the Lord your God
for his name, when he has given you his blessing, because it is
far away from you;

25 Then let these things be exchanged for money, and,
taking the money in your hand, go to the place marked out
by the Lord your God for himself;

26 And with the money get whatever you have a desire for,
oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your soul's
desire may be: and make a feast there before the Lord your
God, and be glad, you and all your house;

27 And give a thought to the Levite who is living among
you, for he has no part or heritage in the land.

28 At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all
your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your
walls:

29 And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the
land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who
has no father, and the widow, who are living among you,
will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing
of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 15

1 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general
forgiveness of debt.

2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his
right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to
make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a
general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord.

3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment
of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it
£0;

4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will
certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord
your God is giving you for your heritage;

5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God,
and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he
has said: you will let other nations have the use of your
money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers
over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.

7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your
God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your
countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut
to him;

8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever
he is in need of.

9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart,
moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of
forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor
countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an
outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in
you.

10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of
heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God
will be on all your work and on everything to which you put
your hand.

11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in
the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open
to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in
your land.

12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman,
becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six
years, in the seventh year let him go free.

13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away
with nothing in his hands:

14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain
and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord
your God has given you, you are to give to him.

15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the
land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I
give you this order today.

16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from
you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is
happy with you;

17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it
through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for
ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl.

18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him
away free; for he has been working for you for six years,
which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing
of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.

19 All the first males to come to birth in your herd and
your flock are to be holy to the Lord your God: the first
birth of your ox 1s not to be used for work, the wool of your
first lamb is not to be cut.

20 But year by year you and all your house are to take a
meal of it before the Lord, in the place of his selection.

21 But ifit has any mark on it, if it is blind or has damaged
legs, or if there is anything wrong with it, it may not be
offered to the Lord your God.

22 It may be used for food in your houses: the unclean and
the clean may take of it, as of the gazelle and the roe.

23 Only do not take its blood for food, but let it be drained
out on the earth like water.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 16

1 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to
the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your
God took you out of Egypt by night.

2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to
be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by
him as the resting-place of his name.

3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your
food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for
you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of
that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be
with you all your life.

4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land;
and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening
of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning.

5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of
the towns which the Lord your God gives you:

6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the
resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover
to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year
when you came out of Egypt.

7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked
out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to
your tents.

8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on
the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your
God; no work is to be done.

9 Let seven weeks be numbered from the first day when the
grain is cut.

10 Then keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, with
an offering freely given to him from the wealth he has given
you:

11 Then you are to be glad before the Lord your God, you
and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your
woman-servant, and the Levite who is with you, and the man
from a strange country, and the child without a father, and
the widow, who are living among you, in the place marked
out by the Lord your God as a resting-place for his name.

12 And you will keep in mind that you were a servant in the
land of Egypt: and you will take care to keep all these laws.

13 You are to keep the feast of tents for seven days after you
have got in all your grain and made your wine:

14 You are to keep the feast with joy, you and your son and
your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant,
and the Levite, and the man from a strange country, and the
child without a father, and the widow, who are living among
you.

15 Keep the feast to the Lord your God for seven days, in
the place marked out by the Lord: because the blessing of the
Lord your God will be on all the produce of your land and
all the work of your hands, and you will have nothing but
joy.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 Three times in the year let all your males come before the
Lord your God in the place named by him; at the feast of
unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents:
and they are not to come before the Lord with nothing in
their hands;

17 Every man is to give as he is able, in the measure of the
blessing which the Lord your God has given you.

18 You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns
which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they
are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness.

19 You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's
position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the
eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright
false.

20 Let righteousness be your guide, so that you may have
life, and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your
God is giving you.

21 Let no holy tree of any sort be planted by the altar of the
Lord your God which you will make.

22 You are not to put up stone pillars, for they are hated by
the Lord your God.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 17

1 No ox or sheep which has a mark on it or is damaged in
any way may be offered to the Lord your God: for that is
disgusting to the Lord your God.

2 If there is any man or woman among you, in any of the
towns which the Lord your God gives you, who does evil in
the eyes of the Lord your God, sinning against his agreement,

3 By becoming a servant of other gods and worshipping
them or the sun or the moon or all the stars of heaven,
against my orders;

4 If word of this comes to your ears, then let this thing be
looked into with care, and if there is no doubt that it is true,
and such evil has been done in Israel;

5 Then you are to take the man or woman who has done the
evil to the public place of your town, and they are to be
stoned with stones till they are dead.

6 On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be
given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to
death on the word of one witness.

7 The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to
death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are
to put away the evil from among you.

8 If you are not able to give a decision as to who is
responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who
gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of
opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked
out by the Lord your God;

9 And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him
who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question
and give you a decision:

10 And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the
place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say:

11 Acting in agreement with their teaching and the
decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from
the word they have given you.

12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the
priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to
the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil
from Israel.

13 And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and
put away their pride.

14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your
God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are
living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like
the other nations round about you;

15 Then see that you take as your king the man named by
the Lord your God: let your king be one of your countrymen,
not a man of another nation who is not one of yourselves.

16 And he is not to get together a great army of horses for
himself, or make the people go back to Egypt to get horses
for him: because the Lord has said, You will never again go
back that way.

17 And he is not to have a great number of wives, for fear
that his heart may be turned away; or great wealth of silver
and gold.

18 And when he has taken his place on the seat of his
kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from
that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care:

19 And it is to be with him for his reading all the days of his
life, so that he may be trained in the fear of the Lord his God
to keep and do all the words of this teaching and these laws:

20 So that his heart may not be lifted up over his
countrymen, and he may not be turned away from the orders,
to one side or the other: but that his life and the lives of his
children may be long in his kingdom in Israel.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 18

1 The priests, the Levites, that is, all the tribe of Levi, will
have no part or heritage with Israel: their food and their
heritage will be the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

2 And they will have no heritage among their countrymen:
the Lord is their heritage, as he has said to them.

3 And this is to be the priests’ right: those who make an
offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top
part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach.

4 And in addition you are to give him the first of your
grain and wine and oil, and the first wool cut from your
sheep.

5 For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked
out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the
work of priests in the name of the Lord.

6 And if a Levite, moved by a strong desire, comes from any
town in all Israel where he is living to the place marked out
by the Lord;

7 Then he will do the work of a priest in the name of the
Lord his God, with all his brothers the Levites who are there
before the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 His food will be the same as theirs, in addition to what
has come to him as the price of his property.

9 When you have come into the land which the Lord your
God is giving you, do not take as your example the
disgusting ways of those nations.

10 Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his
son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using
secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs,
or any wonder-worker,

11 Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting
questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to
the dead for directions.

12 For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord;
and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is
driving them out before you.

13 You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God.

14 For these nations, whose land you are taking, give
attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts:
but the Lord your God will not let you do so.

15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among
your people, like me; you will give ear to him;

16 In answer to the request you made to the Lord your God
in Horeb on the day of the great meeting, when you said, Let
not the voice of the Lord my God come to my ears again, and
let me not see this great fire any more, or death will overtake
me.

17 Then the Lord said to me, What they have said is well
said.

18 I will give them a prophet from among themselves, like
you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will say to
them whatever I give him orders to say.

19 And whoever does not give ear to my words which he
will say in my name, will be responsible to me.

20 But the prophet who takes it on himself to say words in
my name which I have not given him orders to say, or who
says anything in the name of other gods, will come to his
death.

21 And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain
that the word does not come from the Lord?

22 When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the
Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do
not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the
words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and
you are to have no fear of him.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 19

1 When the nations, whose land the Lord your God is
giving you, have been cut off by him, and you have taken
their place and are living in their towns and in their houses;

2 You are to have three towns marked out in the land which
the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

3 You are to make ready a way, and see that the land which
the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, is marked
out into three parts, to which any taker of life may go in
flight.

4 This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there,
after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not
through hate;

5 For example, if a man goes into the woods with his
neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when
he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe
comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound
causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of
these towns and be safe:

6 For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go
running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and
overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-
blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death
because he was not moved by hate.

7 And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are
marked out for this purpose.

8 And if the Lord your God makes wide the limits of your
land, as he said in his oath to your fathers, and gives you all
the land which he undertook to give to your fathers;

9 If you keep and do all these orders which I give you today,
loving the Lord your God and walking ever in his ways; then
let three more towns, in addition to these three, be marked
out for you:

10 So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is
giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to
death, for which you will be responsible.

11 But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting
for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow
causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these
towns;

12 The responsible men of his town are to send and take
him, and give him up to the one who has the right of
punishment to be put to death.

13 Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the
crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be
well for you.

14 Your neighbour's landmark, which was put in its place
by the men of old times, is not to be moved or taken away in
the land of your heritage which the Lord your God is giving
you.

15 One witness may not make a statement against a man in
relation to any sin or wrongdoing which he has done: on the
word of two or three witnesses a question is to be judged.

16 If a false witness makes a statement against a man,
saying that he has done wrong,

17 Then the two men, between whom the argument has
taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests
and judges who are then in power;

18 And the judges will have the question looked into with
care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a
false statement against his brother,

19 Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his
brother: and so put away the evil from among you.

20 And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of
fear, and never again do such evil among you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 20

1 When you go out to war against other nations, and come
face to face with horses and war-carriages and armies greater
in number than yourselves, have no fear of them: for the
Lord your God is with you, who took you up out of the land
of Egypt.

2 And when you are on the point of attacking, let the priest
come forward and say to the people,

3 Give ear, O Israel: today you are going forward to the
fight; let your heart be strong; do not let uncontrolled fear
overcome you because of those who are against you;

4 For the Lord your God goes with you, fighting for you to
give you salvation from those who are against you.

5 And let the overseers say to the people, If there is any man
who has made for himself a new house and has not gone into
it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his
death in the fight, another may not take his house for himself.

6 Or if any man has made a vine-garden without taking the
first-fruits of it, let him go back to his house, so that in the
event of his death in the fight, another may not be the first to
make use of the fruit.

7 Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex
relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that
in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not
take her.

8 And let the overseers go on to say to the people, If there is
any man whose heart is feeble with fear, let him go back to
his house before he makes the hearts of his countrymen feeble.

9 Then, after saying these words to the people, let the
overseers put captains over the army.

10 When you come to a town, before attacking it, make an
offer of peace.

11 And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its
doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced
work as your servants.

12 If however it will not make peace with you, but war,
then let it be shut in on all sides:

13 And when the Lord your God has given it into your
hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy.

14 But the women and the children and the cattle and
everything in the town and all its wealth, you may take for
yourselves: the wealth of your haters, which the Lord your
God has given you, will be your food.

15 So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not
the towns of these nations.

16 But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord
your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing
be kept from death:

17 Give them up to the curse; the Hittite, the Amorite, the
Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the
Lord your God has given you orders:

18 So that you may not take them as your example and do
all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of
their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.

19 Ifin war a town is shut in by your armies for a long time,
do not let its trees be cut down and made waste; for their
fruit will be your food; are the trees of the countryside men
for you to take up arms against them?

20 Only those trees which you are certain are not used for
food may be cut down and put to destruction: and you are to
make walls of attack against the town till it is taken.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 21

1 If, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you,
you come across the dead body of a man in the open country,
and you have no idea who has put him to death:

2 Then your responsible men and your judges are to come
out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to
the towns round about it to be measured;

3 And whichever town is nearest to the body, the
responsible men of that town are to take from the herd a
young cow which has never been used for work or put under
the yoke;

4 And they are to take the cow into a valley where there is
flowing water, and which is not ploughed or planted, and
there the neck of the cow is to be broken:

5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for
they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his
servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by
their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged:

6 And all the responsible men of that town which is nearest
to the dead man, washing their hands over the cow whose
neck was broken in the valley,

7 Will say, This death is not the work of our hands and our
eyes have not seen it.

8 Have mercy, O Lord, on your people Israel whom you
have made free, and take away from your people the crime of
a death without cause. Then they will no longer be
responsible for the man's death.

9 So you will take away the crime of a death without cause
from among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the
Lord.

10 When you go out to war against other nations, and the
Lord your God gives them up into your hands and you take
them as prisoners;

11 If among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman and it
is your desire to make her your wife;

12 Then take her back to your house; and let her hair and
her nails be cut;

13 And let her take off the dress in which she was made
prisoner and go on living in your house and weeping for her
father and mother for a full month: and after that you may
go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife.

14 But if you have no delight in her, you are to let her go
wherever she will; you may not take a price for her as if she
was your property, for you have made use of her for your
pleasure.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Ifa man has two wives, one greatly loved and the other
hated, and the two of them have had children by him; and if
the first son is the child of the hated wife:

16 Then when he gives his property to his sons for their
heritage, he is not to put the son of his loved one in the place
of the first son, the son of the hated wife:

17 But he is to give his first son his birthright, and twice as
great a part of his property: for he is the first-fruits of his
strength and the right of the first son is his.

18 Ifa man has a son who is hard-hearted and uncontrolled,
who gives no attention to the voice of his father and mother,
and will not be ruled by them, though they give him
punishment:

19 Then let his father and mother take him to the
responsible men of the town, to the public place;

20 And say to them, This son of ours is hard-hearted and
uncontrolled, he will not give attention to us; he gives
himself up to pleasure and strong drink.

21 Then he is to be stoned to death by all the men of the
town: so you are to put away the evil from among you; and
all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear.

22 Ifa man does a crime for which the punishment is death,
and he is put to death by hanging him on a tree;

23 Do not let his body be on the tree all night, but put it to
rest in the earth the same day; for the man who undergoes
hanging is cursed by God; so do not make unclean the land
which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 22

1 If you see your brother's ox or his sheep wandering, do
not go by without helping, but take them back to your
brother.

2 If their owner is not near, or if you are not certain who he
is, then take the beast to your house and keep it till its owner
comes in search of it, and then you are to give it back to him.

3 Do the same with his ass or his robe or anything which
has gone from your brother's keeping and which you have
come across: do not keep it to yourself.

4 If you see your brother's ox or his ass falling down on the
road, do not go by without giving him help in lifting it up
again.

5 It is not right for a woman to be dressed in man's clothing,
or for a man to put on a woman's robe: whoever does such
things is disgusting to the Lord your God.

6 If by chance you see a place which a bird has made for
itself in a tree or on the earth, with young ones or eggs, and
the mother bird seated on the young ones or on the eggs, do
not take the mother bird with the young:

7 See that you let the mother bird go, but the young ones
you may take; so it will be well for you and your life will be
long.

8 If you are building a house, make a railing for the roof, so
that the blood of any man falling from it will not come on
your house.

9 Do not have your vine-garden planted with two sorts of
seed: or all of it may become a loss, the seed you have put in
as well as the increase.

10 Do not do your ploughing with an ox and an ass yoked
together.

11 Do not have clothing made of two sorts of thread, wool
and linen together.

12 On the four edges of your robe, with which your body is
covered, put ornaments of twisted threads.

13 Ifany man takes a wife, and having had connection with
her, has no delight in her,

14 And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name,
saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with
her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin:

15 Then let the girl's father and mother put before the
responsible men of the town, in the public place, signs that
the girl was a virgin:

16 And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I
gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love
for her;

17 And now he has put shame on her, saying that she is not
a virgin; but here is the sign that she is a virgin. Then they
are to put her clothing before the responsible men of the
town.

18 Then the responsible men of the town are to give the
man his punishment;

19 They will take from him a hundred shekels of silver,
which are to be given to the father of the girl, because he has
given an evil name to a virgin of Israel: she will go on being
his wife, he may never put her away all his life.

20 But if what he has said is true, and she is seen to be not a
virgin,

21 Then they are to make the girl come to the door of her
father's house and she will be stoned to death by the men of
the town, because she has done evil and put shame on Israel,
by acting as a loose woman in her father's house: so you are
to put away evil from among you.

22 If a man is taken in the act of going in to a married
woman, the two of them, the man as well as the woman, are
to be put to death: so you are to put away the evil from Israel.

23 Ifa young virgin has given her word to be married to a
man, and another man meeting her in the town, has
connection with her;

24 Then you are to take the two of them to the doorway of
the town, and have them stoned to death; the young virgin,
because she gave no cry for help, though it was in the town,
and the man, because he has put shame on his neighbour's
wife: so you are to put away evil from among you.

25 But if the man, meeting such a virgin in the open
country, takes her by force, then only the man is to be put to
death;

26 Nothing is to be done to the virgin, because there is no
cause of death in her: it is the same as if a man made an attack
on his neighbour and put him to death:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 For he came across her in the open country, and there
was no one to come to the help of the virgin in answer to her
cry.

28 If a man sees a young virgin, who has not given her word
to be married to anyone, and he takes her by force and has
connection with her, and discovery is made of it;

29 Then the man will have to give the virgin's father fifty
shekels of silver and make her his wife, because he has put
shame on her; he may never put her away all his life.

30 A man may not take his father's wife or have sex
relations with a woman who is his father's.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 23

1 No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off
may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

2 One whose father and mother are not married may not
come into the meeting of the Lord's people, or any of his
family to the tenth generation.

3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their people to the
tenth generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's
people:

4 Because they gave you no bread or water on your way,
when you came out of Egypt: and they got Balaam, the son of
Peor, from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to put curses on you.

5 But the Lord your God would not give ear to Balaam,
but let the curse be changed into a blessing to you, because of
his love for you.

6 Do nothing for their peace or well-being for ever.

7 But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your
brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land.

8 Their children in the third generation may come into the
meeting of the Lord's people.

9 When you go out to war and put your tents in position,
keep from every evil thing.

10 If any man among you becomes unclean through
anything which has taken place in the night, he is to go out
from the tent-circle and keep outside it:

11 But when evening comes near, let him take a bath: and
after sundown he may come back to the tents.

12 Let there be a place outside the tent-circle to which you
may g0;

13 And have among your arms a spade; and when you have
been to that place, let that which comes from you be covered
up with earth:

14 For the Lord your God is walking among your tents, to
keep you safe and to give up into your hands those who are
fighting against you; then let your tents be holy, so that he
may see no unclean thing among you, and be turned away
from you.

15 Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in
flight from his master and come to you:

16 Let him go on living among you in whatever place is
most pleasing to him: do not be hard on him.

17 No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose
woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give
himself to a man.

18 Do not take into the house of the Lord your God, as an
offering for an oath, the price of a loose woman or the money
given to one used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods:
for these two things are disgusting to the Lord your God.

19 Do not take interest from an Israelite on anything,
money or food or any other goods, which you let him have:

20 From men of other nations you may take interest, but
not from an Israelite: so that the blessing of the Lord your
God may be on everything to which you put your hand, in
the land which you are about to take as your heritage.

21 When you take an oath to the Lord, do not be slow to
give effect to it: for without doubt the Lord your God will
make you responsible, and will put it to your account as sin.

22 But if you take no oath, there will be no sin.

23 Whatever your lips have said, see that you do it; for you
gave your word freely to the Lord your God.

24 When you go into your neighbour's vine-garden, you
may take of his grapes at your pleasure, but you may not take
them away in your vessel.

25 When you go into your neighbour's field, you may take
the heads of grain with your hand; but you may not put your
blade to his grain.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 24

1 If a man takes a wife, and after they are married she is
unpleasing to him because of some bad quality in her, let him
give her a statement in writing and send her away from his
house.

2 And when she has gone away from him, she may become
another man's wife.

3 And if the second husband has no love for her and, giving
her a statement in writing, sends her away; or if death comes
to the second husband to whom she was married;

4 Her first husband, who had sent her away, may not take
her back after she has been wife to another; for that is
disgusting to the Lord: and you are not to be a cause of sin in
the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your
heritage.

5 A newly married man will not have to go out with the
army or undertake any business, but may be free for one year,
living in his house for the comfort of his wife.

6 No one is to take, on account of a debt, the stones with
which grain is crushed: for in doing so he takes a man's living.

7 If a man takes by force one of his countrymen, the
children of Israel, using him as his property or getting a
price for him, that thief is to be put to death: so you are to
put away evil from among you.

8 In connection with the leper's disease, take care to keep
and do every detail of the teaching of the priests, the Levites:
as I gave them orders, so you are to do.

9 Keep in mind what the Lord your God did to Miriam on
the way, when you came out of Egypt.

10 If you let your brother have the use of anything which is
yours, do not go into his house and take anything of his as a
sign of his debt;

11 But keep outside till he comes out and gives it to you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Ifhe is a poor man, do not keep his property all night;

13 But be certain to give it back to him when the sun goes
down, so that he may have his clothing for sleeping in, and
will give you his blessing: and this will be put to your
account as righteousness before the Lord your God.

14 Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if
he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation
living with you in your land.

15 Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back
over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it;
and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it
will be judged as sin in you.

16 Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or
children for their fathers: every man is to be put to death for
the sin which he himself has done.

17 Be upright in judging the cause of the man from a
strange country and of him who has no father; do not take a
widow's clothing on account of a debt:

18 But keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of
Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: for this is why
I give you orders to do this.

19 When you get in the grain from your field, if some of the
grain has been dropped by chance in the field, do not go back
and get it, but let it be for the man from a strange land, the
child without a father, and the widow: so that the blessing of
the Lord your God may be on all the work of your hands.

20 When you are shaking the fruit from your olive-trees, do
not go over the branches a second time: let some be for the
man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the
widow.

21 When you are pulling the grapes from your vines, do not
take up those which have been dropped; let them be for the
man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the
widow.

22 Keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of
Egypt: for this is why I give you orders to do this.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 25

| If there is an argument between men and they go to law
with one another, let the judges give their decision for the
upright, and against the wrongdoer.

2 And if the wrongdoer is to undergo punishment by
whipping, the judge will give orders for him to go down on
his face and be whipped before him, the number of the blows
being in relation to his crime.

3 He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are
given, your brother may be shamed before you.

4 Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is
crushing it.

5 If brothers are living together and one of them, at his
death, has no son, the wife of the dead man is not to be
married outside the family to another man: let her husband's
brother go in to her and make her his wife, doing as it is
right for a brother-in-law to do.

6 Then the first male child she has will take the rights of the
brother who is dead, so that his name may not come to an
end in Israel.

7 But if the man says he will not take his brother's wife,
then let the wife go to the responsible men of the town, and
say, My husband's brother will not keep his brother's name
living in Israel; he will not do what it is right for a husband's
brother to do.

8 Then the responsible men of the town will send for the
man, and have talk with him: and if he still says, I will not
take her;

9 Then his brother's wife is to come to him, before the
responsible men of the town, and take his shoe off his foot,
and put shame on him, and say, So let it be done to the man
who will not take care of his brother's name.

10 And his family will be named in Israel, The house of him
whose shoe has been taken off.

11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them,
coming to the help of her husband, takes the other by the
private parts;

12 Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her.

13 Do not have in your bag different weights, a great and a
small;

14 Or in your house different measures, a great and a small.

15 But have a true weight and a true measure: so that your
life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is
giving you.

16 For all who do such things, and all whose ways are not
upright, are disgusting to the Lord your God.

17 Keep in mind what Amalek did to you on your way from
Egypt;

18 How, meeting you on the way, he made an attack on you
when you were tired and without strength, cutting off all the
feeble ones at the end of your line; and the fear of God was
not in him.

19 So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all
who are against you on every side, in the land which the
Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, see to it that
the memory of Amalek is cut off from the earth; keep this in
mind.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 26

1 Now when you have come into the land which the Lord is
giving you for your heritage, and you have made it yours and
are living in it;

2 You are to take a part of the first-fruits of the earth,
which you get from the land which the Lord your God is
giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place
marked out by the Lord your God, as the resting-place of his
name.

3 And you are to come to him who is priest at that time,
and say to him, I give witness today before the Lord your
God, that I have come into the land which the Lord made an
oath to our fathers to give us.

4 Then the priest will take the basket from your hand and
put it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And these are the words which you will say before the
Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and
he went down with a small number of people into Egypt;
there he became a great and strong nation:

6 And the Egyptians were cruel to us, crushing us under a
hard yoke:

7 And our cry went up to the Lord, the God of our fathers,
and the Lord's ear was open to the voice of our cry, and his
eyes took note of our grief and the crushing weight of our
work:

8 And the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand
and a stretched-out arm, with works of power and signs and
wonders:

9 And he has been our guide to this place, and has given us
this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 So now, I have come here with the first of the fruits of
the earth which you, O Lord, have given me. Then you will
put it down before the Lord your God and give him worship:

11 And you will have joy in every good thing which the
Lord your God has given to you and to your family; and the
Levite, and the man from a strange land who is with you,
will take part in your joy.

12 When you have taken out a tenth from the tenth of all
your produce in the third year, which is the year when this
has to be done, give it to the Levite, and the man from a
strange land, and the child without a father, and the widow,
so that they may have food in your towns and be full;

13 And say before the Lord your God, I have taken all the
holy things out of my house and have given them to the
Levite, and the man from a strange land, and him who has no
father, and the widow, as you have given me orders: I have
kept in mind all your orders, in nothing have I gone against
them:

14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time
of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the
dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and
have done all you have given me orders to do.

15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send
your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which
you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a
land flowing with milk and honey.

16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all
these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all
your heart and all your soul.

17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God,
and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his
orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice:

18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a
special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you
are to keep all his orders;

19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he
has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are
to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 27

1 Then Moses and the responsible men of Israel gave the
people these orders: Keep all the orders which I have given
you this day;

2 And on the day when you go over Jordan into the land
which the Lord your God is giving you, put up great stones,
coating them with building-paste,

3 And writing on them all the words of this law, after you
have gone over; so that you may take the heritage which the
Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and
honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said.

4 And when you have gone over Jordan, you are to put up
these stones, as I have said to you today, in Mount Ebal, and
have them coated with building-paste.

5 There you are to make an altar to the Lord your God, of
stones on which no iron instrument has been used.

6 You are to make the altar of the Lord your God of uncut
stones; offering on it burned offerings to the Lord your God:

7 And you are to make your peace-offerings, feasting there
with joy before the Lord your God.

8 And put on the stones all the words of this law, writing
them very clearly.

9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, said to all Israel,
Be quiet and give ear, O Israel; today you have become the
people of the Lord your God.

10 For this cause you are to give ear to the voice of the
Lord your God, and do his orders and his laws which I give
you this day.

11 That same day Moses said to the people,

12 These are to take their places on Mount Gerizim for
blessing the people when you have gone over Jordan: Simeon
and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin;

13 And these are to be on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben,
Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14 Then the Levites are to say in a loud voice to all the men
of Israel,

15 Cursed is the man who makes any image of wood or
stone or metal, disgusting to the Lord, the work of man's
hands, and puts it up in secret. And let all the people say, So
be it.

16 Cursed is he who does not give honour to his father or
mother. And let all the people say, So be it.

17 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's landmark from
its place. And let all the people say, So be it.

18 Cursed is he by whom the blind are turned out of the
way. And let all the people say, So be it.

19 Cursed is he who gives a wrong decision in the cause of a
man from a strange land, or of one without a father, or of a
widow. And let all the people say, So be it.

20 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his father's wife,
for he has put shame on his father. And let all the people say,
So be it.

21 Cursed is he who has sex relations with any sort of beast.
And let all the people say, So be it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his sister, the
daughter of his father or of his mother. And let all the people
say, So be it.

23 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his mother-in-
law. And let all the people say, So be it.

24 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's life secretly. And
let all the people say, So be it.

25 Cursed is he who for a reward puts to death one who has
done no wrong. And let all the people say, So be it.

26 Cursed is he who does not take this law to heart to do it.
And let all the people say, So be it.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 28

1 Now if you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God,
and keep with care all these orders which I have given you
today, then the Lord your God will put you high over all the
nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you,
if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.

3 A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in
the field.

4 A blessing will be on the fruit of your body, and on the
fruit of your land, on the fruit of your cattle, the increase of
your herd, and the young of your flock.

5 A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.

6 A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going
out.

7 By the power of the Lord, those who take arms against
you will be overcome before you: they will come out against
you one way, and will go in flight from you seven ways.

8 The Lord will send his blessing on your store-houses and
on everything to which you put your hand: his blessing will
be on you in the land which the Lord your God 1s giving you.

9 The Lord will keep you as a people holy to himself, as he
has said to you in his oath, if you keep the orders of the Lord
your God and go on walking in his ways.

10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of
the Lord is on you, and they will go in fear of you.

11 And the Lord will make you fertile in every good thing,
in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the
fruit of your fields, in the land which the Lord, by his oath to
your fathers, said he would give you.

12 Opening his store-house in heaven, the Lord will send
rain on your land at the right time, blessing all the work of
your hands: other nations will make use of your wealth, and
you will have no need of theirs.

13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; and
you will ever have the highest place, if you give ear to the
orders of the Lord your God which I give you today, to keep
and to do them;

14 Not turning away from any of the orders which I give
you today, to the right hand or to the left, or going after any
other gods to give them worship.

15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your
God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I

give you today, then all these curses will come on you and
overtake you:

16 You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.

17 A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.

18 A curse will be on the fruit of your body, and on the
fruit of your land, on the increase of your cattle, and the
young of your flock.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when
you go out.

20 The Lord will send on you cursing and trouble and
punishment in everything to which you put your hand, till
sudden destruction overtakes you; because of your evil ways
in which you have been false to me.

21 The Lord will send disease after disease on you, till you
have been cut off by death from the land to which you are
going.

22 The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain,
and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your
land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is
complete.

23 And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the
earth under you hard as iron.

24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and
dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your
destruction is complete.

25 The Lord will let you be overcome by your haters: you
will go out against them one way, and you will go in flight
before them seven ways: you will be the cause of fear among
all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and
the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them
away.

27 The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and
other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well.

28 He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind,
and your hearts wasted with fear:

29 You will go feeling your way when the sun is high, like a
blind man for whom all is dark, and nothing will go well for
you: you will be crushed and made poor for ever, and you
will have no saviour.

30 You will take a wife, but another man will have the use
of her: the house which your hands have made will never be
your resting-place: you will make a vine-garden, and never
take the fruit of it.

31 Your ox will be put to death before your eyes, but its
flesh will not be your food: your ass will be violently taken
away before your face, and will not be given back to you:
your sheep will be given to your haters, and there will be no
saviour for you.

32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another
people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and
weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to
do anything.

33 The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands
will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for
ever:

34 So that the things which your eyes have to see will send
you out of your minds.

35 The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees
and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your
head, so that nothing will make you well.

36 And you, and the king whom you have put over you,
will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to
your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of
wood and stone.

37 And you will become a wonder and a name of shame
among all the nations where the Lord will take you.

38 You will take much seed out into the field, and get little
in; for the locust will get it.

39 You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will
get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for
worms.

40 Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no
oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give
no fruit.

41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be
yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land.

42 All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the
locust's.

43 The man from a strange land who is living among you
will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go
down lower and lower.

44 He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have
no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail.

45 And all these curses will come after you and overtake
you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not
give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws
and his orders which he gave you:

46 These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a
sign and a wonder for ever;

47 Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God,
worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account
of all your wealth of good things;

48 For this cause you will become servants to those whom
the Lord your God will send against you, without food and
drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put
a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.

49 The Lord will send a nation against you from the
farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle;
anation whose language is strange to you;

50 A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the
old or mercy for the young:

51 He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till
death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of
your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle
or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction
complete.

52 Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high
walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his

armies will be round your towns, through all your land
which the Lord your God has given you.

53 And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of
the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given
you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your
haters.

54 That man among you who is soft and used to comfort
will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife,
and to of those his children who are still living;

55 And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children
which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel
grip of your haters on all your towns.

56 The most soft and delicate of your women, who would
not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she,
will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to
her daughter;

57 And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the
children of her body; for having no other food, she will make
a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the
cruel grip of your haters on all your towns.

58 If you will not take care to do all the words of this law,
recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of
fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD;

59 Then the Lord your God will make your punishment,
and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at;
great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through
long years.

60 He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt,
which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in
their grip.

61 And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the
book of this law will the Lord send on you till your
destruction is complete.

62 And you will become a very small band, though your
numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not
give ear to the voice of the Lord your God.

63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and
increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you
off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted
from the land which you are about to take as your heritage.

64 And the Lord will send you wandering among all
peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you
will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of
which you and your fathers had no knowledge.

65 And even among these nations there will be no peace for
you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you
there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul:

66 Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and
day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will
be certain:

67 In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And
at evening you will say, If only morning would come!
Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your
eyes will see.

68 And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships,
by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and
women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will
take you.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 29

| These are the words of the agreement which Moses was
ordered by the Lord to make with the children of Israel in
the land of Moab, in addition to the agreement which he
made with them in Horeb.

2 And Moses said in the hearing of all Israel, You have seen
all the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to
Pharaoh and to all his servants and all his land;

3 The great tests which your eyes saw, and the signs and
wonders:

4 But even to this day the Lord has not given you a mind
open to knowledge, or seeing eyes or hearing ears.

5 For forty years I have been your guide through the waste
land: your clothing has not become old on your backs, or
your shoes on your feet.

6 You have had no bread, or wine, or strong drink: so that
you might see that I am the Lord your God.

7 When you came to this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon,
and Og, king of Bashan, came out to make war against us
and we overcame them:

8 And we took their land and gave it to the Reubenites and
the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, for their heritage.

9 So keep the words of this agreement and do them, so that
it may be well for you in everything you do.

10 You have come here today, all of you, before the Lord
your God; the heads of your tribes, the overseers, and those
who are in authority over you, with all the men of Israel,

11 And your little ones, your wives, and the men of other
lands who are with you in your tents, down to the wood-
cutter and the servant who gets water for you:

12 With the purpose of taking part in the agreement of the
Lord your God, and his oath which he makes with you today:

13 And so that he may make you his people today, and be
your God, as he has said to you, and as he made an oath to
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

14 And not with you only do I make this agreement and
this oath;

15 But with everyone who is here with us today before the
Lord our God, as well as with those who are not here:

16 (For you have in mind how we were living in the land of
Egypt; and how we came through all the nations which were
on your way;

17 And you have seen their disgusting doings, and the
images of wood and stone and silver and gold which were
among them:)

18 So that there may not be among you any man or woman
or family or tribe whose heart is turned away from the Lord
our God today, to go after other gods and give them worship;
or any root among you whose fruit is poison and bitter
sorrow;

19 If such a man, hearing the words of this oath, takes
comfort in the thought that he will have peace even if he goes

on in the pride of his heart, taking whatever chance may give
him:

20 The Lord will have no mercy on him, but the wrath of
the Lord will be burning against that man, and all the curses
recorded in this book will be waiting for him, and the Lord
will take away his name completely from the earth.

21 He will be marked out by the Lord, from all the tribes of
Israel, for an evil fate, in keeping with all the curses of the
agreement recorded in this book of the law.

22 And future generations, your children coming after you,
and travellers from far countries, will say, when they see the
punishments of that land and the diseases which the Lord has
sent on it;

23 And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not
planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like
Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the
Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:

24 Truly all the nations will say, Why has the Lord done so
to this land? what is the reason for this great and burning
wrath?

25 Then men will say, Because they gave up the agreement
of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with
them when he took them out of the land of Egypt:

26 And they went after other gods and gave them worship,
gods who were strange to them, and whom he had not given
them:

27 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against this
land, to send on it all the curse recorded in this book:

28 Rooting them out of their land, in the heat of his wrath
and passion, and driving them out into another land, as at
this day.

29 The secret things are the Lord our God's: but the things
which have been made clear are ours and our children's for
ever, so that we may do all the words of this law.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 30

1 Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing
and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of
them comes back to your minds, when you are living among
the nations where the Lord your God has sent you,

2 And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God,
and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and
your children, with all your heart and with all your soul:

3 Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate,
and taking you back again from among all the nations where
you have been forced to go.

4 Even if those who have been forced out are living in the
farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search
of you, and take you back;

5 Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your
heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are
more in number than your fathers were.

6 And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed
a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your
heart and all your soul, you may have life.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those
who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel
yoke on you.

8 And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and
do all his orders which I have given you today.

9 And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good
things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your
body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land:
for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers:

10 If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God,
keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this
book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul.

11 For these orders which I have given you today are not
strange and secret, and are not far away.

12 They are not in heaven, for you to say, Who will go up
to heaven for us and give us knowledge of them so that we
may do them?

13 And they are not across the sea, for you to say, Who will
go over the sea for us and give us news of them so that we
may do them?

14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in
your heart, so that you may do it.

15 See, I have put before you today, life and good, and
death and evil;

16 In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord
your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders
and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased,
and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you
in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage.

17 But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut,
and you go after those who would make you servants and
worshippers of other gods:

18 I give witness against you this day that destruction will
certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the
land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the
other side of Jordan.

19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this
day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a
curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed:

20 In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and
being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your
days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which
the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 31

1 So Moses said all these things to Israel.

2 Then he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty
years old; I am no longer able to go out and come in: and the
Lord has said to me, You are not to go over Jordan.

3 The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will
send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their
land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head
as the Lord has said.

4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og,
the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he put to
destruction.

5 The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are
to do to them as I have given you orders.

6 Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it
is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take
away his help from you.

7 Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all
Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go
with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to
their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it
for their heritage.

8 It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he
will not take away his help from you or give you up: so have
no fear.

9 Then Moses put all this law in writing, and gave it to the
priests, the sons of Levi, who take up the ark of the Lord's
agreement, and to all the responsible men of Israel.

10 And Moses said to them, At the end of every seven years,
at the time fixed for the ending of debts, at the feast of tents,

11 When all Israel has come before the Lord your God in
the place named by him, let a reading be given of this law in
the hearing of all Israel.

12 Make all the people come together, men and women and
children, and anyone from another country who is with you,
so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord
your God, and take care to do all the words of this law;

13 And so that your children, to whom it is new, may give
ear and be trained in the fear of the Lord your God, while
you are living in the land which you are going over Jordan to
take for your heritage.

14 At that time the Lord said to Moses, The day of your
death is near: send for Joshua, and come to the Tent of
meeting so that I may give him his orders. So Moses and
Joshua went to the Tent of meeting.

15 And the Lord was seen in the Tent in a pillar of cloud
resting by the door of the Tent.

16 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest
with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting
themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are
going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep
the agreement I have made with them.

17 In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I
will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them,
and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils
and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will
say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not
with us?

18 Truly, my face will be turned away from them in that
day, because of all the evil they have done in going after
other gods.

19 Make then this song for yourselves, teaching it to the
children of Israel: put it in their mouths, so that this song
may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 For when I have taken them into the land named in my
oath to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey,
and they have made themselves full of food and are fat, then
they will be turned to other gods and will give them worship,
no longer honouring me or keeping my agreement.

21 Then when evils and troubles without number have
overtaken them, this song will be a witness to them, for the
words of it will be clear in the memories of their children: for
I see the thoughts which are moving in their hearts even now,
before I have taken them into the land of my oath.

22 So that same day Moses made this song, teaching it to
the children of Israel.

23 Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to
him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head
of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to
give them; and I will be with you.

24 Now after writing all the words of this law in a book till
the record of them was complete,

25 Moses said to the Levites who were responsible for
taking up the ark of the Lord's agreement,

26 Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the
Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you.

27 For I have knowledge of your hard and uncontrolled
hearts: even now, while J am still living, you will not be ruled
by the Lord; how much less after my death?

28 Get together before me all those who are in authority in
your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things
in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses
against them.

29 For I am certain that after my death you will give
yourselves up to sin, wandering from the way which I have
given you; and evil will overtake you in the end, because you
will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by
the work of your hands.

30 Then in the hearing of all the meeting of Israel, Moses
said the words of this song, to the end.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 32

1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note
of the words of my mouth:

2 My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew
on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the
garden plants:

3 For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our
God be named great.

4 He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are
righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and
upright is he.

5 They have become false, they are not his children, the
mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted
generation.

6 Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and
unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has
made you and given you your place.

7 Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the
years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will

make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you
the story.

8 When the Most High gave the nations their heritage,
separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits
of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of
the children of Israel.

9 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of
his heritage.

10 He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled
waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him,
he kept him as the light of his eye.

11 As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight,
with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her
strong feathers:

12 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with
him.

13 He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was
the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock
and oil out of the hard rock;

14 Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of
lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the
grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.

15 But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled:
you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he
was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to
the Rock of his salvation.

16 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by
their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.

17 They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God,
to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up,
not feared by your fathers.

18 You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you
have no memory of the God who gave you birth.

19 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons
and daughters.

20 And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see
what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled
generation, children in whom is no faith.

21 They have given my honour to that which is not God,
moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their
honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath
by a foolish nation,

22 For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts
of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase,
and firing the deep roots of the mountains.

23 I will send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be
showered on them.

24 They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by
burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I
will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.

25 Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the
inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the
virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man.

26 I said I would send them wandering far away, I would
make all memory of them go from the minds of men:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride,
might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this.

28 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense
in them.

29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and
they would give thought to their future!

30 How would it be possible for one to overcome a
thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their
rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?

31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters
themselves being judges.

32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of
Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries
are bitter:

33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of
snakes.

34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?

35 Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the
slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near,
sudden will be their fate.

36 For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have
pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone,
there is no one, shut up or free.

37 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which
they put their faith?

38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their
drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be
your salvation.

39 See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me:
giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no
one has power to make you free from my hand.

40 For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending
life,

41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is
outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those
who are against me, and their right reward to my haters.

42 | will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be
feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the
prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters.

43 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will
take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give
punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land,
for his people.

44 So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of
the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.

45 And after saying all this to the people,

46 Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to
you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your
children to do every word of this law.

47 And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and
through this you may make your days long in the land which
you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.

48 That same day the Lord said to Moses,

49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in
the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the

land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel
for their heritage:

50 And let death come to you on the mountain where you
are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came
to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to
rest with his people:

51 Because of your sin against me before the children of
Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of
Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the
children of Israel.

52 So you will see the land before you, but you will not go
into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 33

1 Now this is the blessing which Moses, the man of God,
gave to the children of Israel before his death.

2 He said, The Lord came from Sinai, dawning on them
from Seir; shining out from Mount Paran, coming from
Meribath Kadesh: from his right hand went flames of fire: his
wrath made waste the peoples.

3 All his holy ones are at his hand; they go at his feet; they
are lifted up on his wings.

4 Moses gave us a law, a heritage for the people of Jacob.

5 And there was a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the
people and the tribes of Israel came together.

6 Let life not death be Reuben's, let not the number of his
men be small.

7 And this is the blessing of Judah: he said, Give ear, O
Lord, to the voice of Judah and make him one with his
people: let your hands take up his cause, and be his help
against his attackers.

8 And of Levi he said, Give your Thummim to Levi and let
the Urim be with your loved one, whom you put to the test at
Massah, with whom you were angry at the waters of Meribah;

9 Who said of his father, Who is he? and of his mother, I
have not seen her; he kept himself separate from his brothers
and had no knowledge of his children: for they have given ear
to your word and kept your agreement.

10 They will be the teachers of your decisions to Jacob and
of your law to Israel: the burning of perfumes before you will
be their right, and the ordering of burned offerings on your
altar.

11 Let your blessing, O Lord, be on his substance, may the
work of his hands be pleasing to you: may those who take up
arms against him and all who have hate for him, be wounded
through the heart, never to be lifted up again.

12 And of Benjamin he said, Benjamin is the loved one of
the Lord, he will be kept safe at all times; he will be covered
by the Most High, resting between his arms.

13 And of Joseph he said, Let the blessing of the Lord be on
his land; for the good things of heaven on high, and the deep
waters flowing under the earth,

14 And the good things of the fruits of the sun, and the
good things of the growth of the moons,

15 And the chief things of the oldest mountains, and the
good things of the eternal hills,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 The good things of the earth and all its wealth, the good
pleasure of him who was seen in the burning tree: may they
come on the head of Joseph, on the head of him who was
prince among his brothers.

17 He is a young ox, glory is his; his horns are the horns of
the mountain ox, with which all peoples will be wounded,
even to the ends of the earth: they are the ten thousands of
Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.

18 And of Zebulun he said, Be glad, Zebulun, in your going
out; and, Issachar, in your tents.

19 They will send out the word for the people to come to
the mountain, taking there the offerings of righteousness: for
the store of the seas will be theirs, and the secret wealth of the
sand.

20 Of Gad he said, A blessing be on him who makes wide
the limits of Gad: he takes his rest like a she-lion, taking for
himself the arm and the crown of the head.

21 He kept for himself the first part, for his was the ruler's
right: he put in force the righteousness of the Lord, and his
decisions for Israel.

22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a young lion, springing out
from Bashan.

23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, made glad with
grace and full of the blessing of the Lord: the sea and its
fishes will be his.

24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher have the blessing of
children; may he be pleasing to his brothers, and let his foot
be wet with oil.

25 Your shoes will be iron and brass; and as your days, so
may your work be.

26 No other is like the God of Jeshurun, coming on the

heavens to your help, and letting his glory be seen in the skies.

27 The God of your fathers is your safe resting-place, and
under you are his eternal arms: driving out the forces of your
haters from before you, he said, Let destruction overtake
them.

28 And Israel is living in peace, the fountain of Jacob by
himself, in a land of grain and wine, with dew dropping from
the heavens.

29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose
saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is
your strength! All those who are against you will put
themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on
their high places.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 34

1 And Moses went up from the table-lands of Moab to
Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah which is facing Jericho.
And the Lord let him see all the land, the land of Gilead as
far as Dan;

2 And all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh,
and all the land of Judah, as far as the Great Sea of the west;

3 And the South, and the circle of the valley of Jericho, the
town of palm-trees, as far as Zoar.

4 And the Lord said to him, This is the land about which I
made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will
give it to your seed: now I have let you see it with your eyes,
but you will not go in there.

5 So death came to Moses, the servant of the Lord, there in
the land of Moab, as the Lord had said.

6 And the Lord put him to rest in the valley in the land of
Moab opposite Beth-peor: but no man has knowledge of his
resting-place to this day.

7 And Moses at his death was a hundred and twenty years
old: his eye had not become clouded, or his natural force
become feeble.

8 For thirty days the children of Israel were weeping for
Moses in the table-lands of Moab, till the days of weeping
and sorrow for Moses were ended.

9 And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of
wisdom; for Moses had put his hands on him: and the
children of Israel gave ear to him, and did as the Lord had
given orders to Moses.

10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like
Moses, whom the Lord had knowledge of face to face;

11 In all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to
do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants
and all his land;

12 And in all the acts of power and fear which Moses did
before the eyes of all Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

HISTORICAL BOOKS
Originally, The Hebrew Bible called this Part
Nevi'im, "The Prophets'

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
Hebrew Title: Sefer Yehoshua
("The Book of the Saviour")
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 640—540 B.C.

(The Book of Joshua (Hebrew: Sefer Yehoshua) ts the sixth
book in the Tanakh [the Hebrew Bible] and the Christian Old
Testament, and 1s the first book of the Neviim [the Rishonim,
the Primary Major Prophets], the Deuteronomustic history,
which 1s the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to
the Babylonian exile. It tells of the campaigns of the Israelites
in central, southern and northern Canaan, the destruction of
their enemies, and the division of the land among the Twelve
Tribes, framed by two set-piece speeches, the first by God
commanding the conquest of the land, and, at the end, the
last by Joshua warning of the need for faithful observance of
the Law (torah) revealed to Moses.

[Etymology: Joshua derives from the Hebrew word
'Yehoshua.' And this is a combination of YHWH, 'Yahweh'
or in short Ye (meaning God, like 'yahu' or 'el' at the end of
names) with hoshea or hoshia, 'to save’, thus meaning
"Yahweh ts salvation" or better 'God’s Saviour’. By cognate
a direct equivalent to Jesus via Latin Iesus and Greek Iesous
from Aramaic Yeso, akin to Hebrew Yeshua, a variant of
Yehoshua’. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew
Bible and the Greek New Testament consistently render the
two Hebrew names 'Yehoshua' (whence Joshua) and 'Yeshua'
(whence Jeshua) into Greek as lesous (whence Jesus) with no
distinction between Jesus and Joshua. While Yeshua 1s the
form in some English bibles, Jeshua appears in the King
James Version. In the Wycliffe Bible (Middle English), the
forms used are Jhesus and Shesu.]

Authorship and Date: Tradition says, it was Joshua, son of
Nun, who wrote the book. However, the Book of Joshua 1s
an anonymous work. The Babylonian Talmud, written in the
3rd to 5th centuries AD, attributed it to Joshua himself, but
this idea was rejected as untenable by John Calvin (1509-64),
and by the time of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) it was
recognised that the book must have been written much later
than the period it depicted. There is now general agreement
that it was composed as part of a larger work, the
Deuterononustic history, stretching from the Book of
Deuteronomy to the Books of Kings, composed first at the
court of king Josiah in the late 7th century BC, and revised
and completed after the fall of Jerusalem to the Neo-

Babylonian Empire in 586 BC, and possibly after the return
from the Babylonian exile in 538 BC.

Historicity: Almost all scholars agree that the Book of
Joshua holds little historical value for early Israel and most
likely reflects a much later period. The prevailing scholarly
view 1s that Joshua 1s not a factual account of historical
events. However, they are wrong. The apparent setting
of Joshua in the 14th century BC corroborates with the
Bronze Age Collapse, which was indeed a time of widespread
city-destruction. However, with a few exceptions (Hazor,
Lachish), the destroyed cities are not the ones the Bible
associates with Joshua, and the ones it does associate with
him show little or no sign of even being occupied at the time.
Al was first excavated by Judith Marquet-Krause. The
archaeological evidence shows that Jericho and Ai were not
occupied in the Near Eastern Late Bronze Age.

The story of the conquest look like pure fantasy and
nationalist propaganda of the 8th century BC kings of Judah
and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel;
incorporated into an early form of Joshua written late in the
reign of king Josiah (reigned 640-609 BC). Many events
might be exaggerated by the autor. But as usual, there is a
kernel of truth in the story. The Amarna letters* [See: The
Grand Bible, pp. 2140] talk about the Habiru on a conquest
spree and they give chilling details of the distess the
Canaanites of those days faced. [* The Amarna letters (also
called The Amarna Correspondence or Amarna Tablets) are
an archive found in 1887, written in Akkadian with
cuneiform script on some 350 clay tablets. They consist
mostly of letters and State records sent to Kings Amenhotep
Ill and Amenhotep IV of Egypt by representatives in Canaan,
Amurru (Phoenicia), and Mesopotamia, during the New
Kingdom, spanning a period of 30 years between c. 1360-
1332 BC. The letters give the impression that the
monotheistic Akhenaten supported the Habiru / Hebrew by
ignoring the desperate cry for help of the Canaanite
governors. ]

Manuscripts: Fragments of Joshua dating to the
Hasmonean period were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls
(4QJosha and 4QJoshb, found in Qumran Cave 4). The
Septuagint (Greek translation from the 3rd century BC) is
found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I (5th
century AD), and a reduced version of the Septuagint text 1s
found in the illustrated Joshua Roll. The earliest complete
copy of the book in Hebrew is in the Aleppo Codex (10th
century AD).

Plot: After the death of Moses, God put Joshua in charge of
the people. Joshua sent two spies to spy on the city of Jericho.
A woman prostitute called Rahab hid these two men and told
the enemies they had already left. She hid them on top of her
root, underneath stalks of flax. The spies later promised that
they would keep the oath that Joshua made with them.
Jericho fell when the people of Israel, instructed by God,
circled around the wall of Jericho seven times and blew their
ram's horns, and on the seventh time, they all shouted with a
great shout, causing the wall to fall. Joshua told the spies to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

go to Rahab’s house and bring out her family and belongings.
The spies did as they were told, as they kept the oath. Joshua
saved Rahab's life, and she went to Live in Israel.

Later, God told Joshua to invade the city of Ai. After they
did this, the people of Gibeon tricked Joshua into a treaty.
However, three days later, the people of Israel realized that
they really made a treaty with Gibeon’s neighbors, the
Aiivites. The Hivities became cursed, but the people of
Gibeon promised that they would do whatever the Israelites
say. After making peace with the Hivites, they went to lay
siege to Gibeon. The Gibeonites sent a message to Joshua
saying he needs to save the people of Gibeon. So, God killed
many of the Amorites by making large hailstones. Then
Joshua made the sun stay over Gibeon, and the moon over
Ayalon. Joshua later got very old and died.

About Faith and Wrath: The overarching theological
theme of the Deuteronomistic history is faithfulness and
God's mercy, and their opposites, faithlessness and God's
wrath. In the Book of Judges, the Books of Samuel, and the
Books of Kings, the Israelites become faithless and God
ultimately shows his anger by sending his people into exile.
But in Joshua Israel 1s obedient, Joshua 1s faithful, and God
fulfills his promise and gives them the land as a result.
Yahweh's war campaign in Canaan validates Israel's
entitlement to the land and provides a paradigm of how
Israel was to live there: twelve tribes, with a designated
leader, united by covenant in warfare and in worship of
Yahweh alone at a single sanctuary, all in obedience to the
commands of Moses as found in the Book of Deuteronomy.

About God and Israel: The Book of Joshua takes forward
Deuteronomy'’s theme of Israel as a_ single people
worshipping Yahweh in the land God has given them.
Yahweh, as the main character in the book, takes the
initiative in conquering the land, and Yahweh's power wins
the battles. For example, the walls of Jericho fall because
Yahweh fights for Israel, not because the Israelites show
superior fighting ability. The potential disunity of Israel 1s a
constant theme, the greatest threat of disunity coming from
the tribes east of the Jordan. Chapter 22:19 even hints that
the land across the Jordan 1s unclean and that the tribes who
live there have secondary status.

About the Land: Land is the central topic of Joshua. The
introduction to Deuteronomy recalled how Yahweh had
given the land to the Israelites but then withdrew the gift
when Israel showed fear and only Joshua and Caleb had
trusted in God. The land 1s Yahweh's to give or to withhold,
and the fact that he has promused it to Israel gives Israel an
inalienable right to take it. For exilic and post-exilic readers,
the land was both the sign of Yahweh's faithfulness and
Israel's unfaithfulness, as well as the centre of their ethnic
identity. In Deuteronomistic theology, "rest" meant Israel's
unthreatened possession of the land, the achievement of
which began with the conquests of Joshua.

About the Enemy: Joshua "carries out a systematic
campaign against the civilians of Canaan — men, women and
children — that amounts to genocide." This practice was

known as herem, as described in Deuteronomy 20:17, which

entailed no treaties with the enemy, no mercy, and no

intermarriage. "The extermination of the nations glorifies
Yahweh as a warrior and promotes Israel's claim to the
land," while their continued survival "explores the themes of
disobedience and penalty and looks forward to the story told
in Judges and Kings." The divine call for massacre at Jericho

and elsewhere can be explained in terms of cultural norms
(Israel was not the only Iron Age state to practice herem) and
theology (e.g. to ensure Israel's purity, fulfill God's promise,

judge the Canaanites for their "sexual misconduct") but
Patrick D. Miller in his commentary on Deuteronomy
remarks, "there is no real way to make such reports palatable
to the hearts and minds of contemporary readers and
believers."

About Obedience: Obedience versus disobedience is a
constant theme of the work.[68]:79 Obedience ties in the
Jordan crossing, the defeat of Jericho and Al, circumcision
and Passover, and the public display and reading of the Law.
Disobedience appears in the story of Achan (stoned for
violating the herem command), the Gibeonites, and the altar
built by the Transjordan tribes. Joshua's two final addresses
challenge the Israel of the future (the readers of the story) to
obey the most important command of all, to worship
Yahweh and no other gods. Joshua thus illustrates the
central Deuteronomistic message, that obedience leads to
success and disobedience to ruin.

On Moses, Joshua and Josiah: The Deuteronomistic
history draws parallels in proper leadership between Moses,
Joshua and Josiah. God's commission to Joshua in chapter 1
is framed as a royal installation. The people's pledge of
loyalty to Joshua as the successor of Moses recalls royal
practices. The covenant-renewal ceremony led by Joshua was
the prerogative of the kings of Judah. God's command to
Joshua to meditate on the "book of the law" day and night
parallels the description of Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25 as a king
uniquely concerned with the study of the law. The two
figures had identical territorial goals; Josiah died in 609
BCE while attempting to annex the former Israel to his own
kingdom of Judah.

Some of the parallels with Moses can be seen in the
following, and not exhaustive, list:

¢ Joshua sent spies to scout out the land near Jericho, just as
Moses sent spies from the wilderness to scout out the
Promised Land

¢ Joshua led the Israelites out of the wilderness into the
Promised Land, crossing the Jordan River as if on dry
ground, just as Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt through
the Red Sea, which they crossed as ifon dry land

¢ After crossing the Jordan River, the Israelites celebrated
the Passover just as they did immediately before the Exodus

¢ Joshua's vision of the "commander of Yahweh's army" is
reminiscent of the divine revelation to Moses in the burning
bush

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

¢ Joshua successfully intercedes on behalf of the Israelites
when Yahweh is angry for their failure to fully observe the
"ban" (herem), just as Moses frequently persuaded God not
to punish the people

¢ Joshua and the Israelites were able to defeat the people at
Al because Joshua followed the divine instruction to extend
his sword, just as the people were able to defeat the
Amalekites as long as Moses extended his hand that held the
staff of God

¢ Joshua 1s "old, advanced in years" at the time when the
Israelites can begin to settle on the promised land, just as
Moses was old when he died having seen, but not entered, the
Promised Land

¢ Joshua served as the mediator of the renewed covenant
between Yahweh and Israel at Shechem,[79] just as Moses
was the mediator of Yahweh's covenant with the people at
Mount Sinat/Mount Horeb.

¢ Before his death, Joshua delivered a farewell address to
the Israelites, just as Moses had delivered his farewell address.

¢ Moses lived to be 120 and Joshua lived to be 110.

Contents and Structure

SECTION 1: Transfer of leadership to Joshua (1:1—18)
A. God's commission to Joshua (1:1—9)
B. Joshua’s instructions to the people (1:10-18)

SECTION 2: Entrance into and conquest of Canaan (2:1—
12:24)
A. Entry into Canaan
1. Reconnaissance of Jericho (2:1—24)
2. Crossing the River Jordan (3:1—17)
3. Establishing a foothold at Gilgal (4:1—5:1)
4. Circumcision and Passover (5:2—15)
B. Victory over Canaan (6:1—12:24)
1. Destruction of Jericho (6)
2. Failure and success at Ai (18:29)
3. Renewal of the covenant at Mount Ebal (8:30-35)
4. Other campaigns in central Canaan. The Gibeonite
Deception (9:1—27)
5. Campaigns in southern Canaan (10:1—43)
6. Campaigns in northern Canaan (11:1—15)
7. Summary of lands conquered (11:16-23)
8. Summary list of defeated kings (12:1—24)

SECTION 3: Division of the land among the tribes (13:1—
22:34)
A. God's instructions to Joshua (13:1—7)
B. Tribal allotments (13:8—19:51)
1. Eastern tribes (13:8—33)
2. Western tribes (14:1—19-51)
C. Cities of refuge and levitical cities (20:1—21:42)
D. Summary of conquest (21:43—45)
E. De-commussioning of the eastern tribes (22: 1—34)

SECTION 4: Conclusion (23:1—24:33)
A. Joshua's farewell address (23:1—16)

B. Covenant at Shechem (24:1—28)
C. Deaths of Joshua and Eleazar; burial of Joseph's bones
(24:29-33).)

JOSHUA CHAPTER 1

1 Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the
word of the Lord came to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses'
helper, saying,

2 Moses my servant is dead; so now get up! Go over Jordan,
you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to
them, to the children of Israel.

3 Every place on which you put your foot I have given to
you, as I said to Moses.

4 From the waste land and this mountain Lebanon, as far as
the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the
Hittites to the Great Sea, in the west, will be your country.

5 While you are living, all will give way before you: as I was
with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not take away my
help from you or give you up.

6 Take heart and be strong; for you will give to this people
for their heritage the land which I gave by an oath to their
fathers.

7 Only take heart and be very strong; take care to do all the
law which Moses my servant gave you, not turning from it to
the right hand or to the left, so that you may do well in all
your undertakings.

8 Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your
thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care
everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and
you will do well.

9 Have I not given you your orders? Take heart and be
strong; have no fear and do not be troubled; for the Lord
your God is with you wherever you go,

10 Then Joshua gave their orders to those who were in
authority over the people, saying,

11 Go through the tents and give orders to the people,
saying, Get ready a store of food; for in three days you are to
go over this river Jordan and take for your heritage the land
which the Lord your God is giving you.

12 And to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe
of Manasseh, Joshua said,

13 Keep in mind what Moses, the servant of the Lord, said
to you, The Lord your God is sending you rest and will give
you this land.

14 Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle will be kept
here in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan;
but you, the fighting-men, are to go over before your
brothers, armed, to give them help;

15 Till the Lord has given your brothers rest, as he has
given it to you, and they have taken their heritage in the land
which the Lord your God is giving them: then you will go
back to the land of your heritage which Moses, the servant of
the Lord, gave you on the east side of Jordan.

16 Then they said to Joshua in answer, Whatever you say to
us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 As we gave attention to Moses in all things, so we will
give attention to you: and may the Lord your God be with
you as he was with Moses.

18 Whoever goes against your orders, and does not give
attention to all your words, will be put to death: only take
heart and be strong.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 2

1 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men from Shittim
secretly, with the purpose of searching out the land, and
Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a loose
woman of the town, named Rahab, where they took their rest
for the night.

2 And it was said to the king of Jericho, See, some men have
come here tonight from the children of Israel with the
purpose of searching out the land.

3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Send out
the men who have come to you and are in your house; for

they have come with the purpose of searching out all the land.

4 And the woman took the two men and put them in a
secret place; then she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I had
no idea where they came from;

5 And when it was the time for shutting the doors at dark,
they went out; I have no idea where the men went: but if you
go after them quickly, you will overtake them.

6 But she had taken them up to the roof, covering them
with the stems of flax which she had put out in order there.

7 So the men went after them on the road to Jordan as far
as the river-crossing: and when they had gone out after them,
the door into the town was shut.

8 And before the men went to rest, she came up to them on
the roof,

9 And said to them, It is clear to me that the Lord has given
you the land, and that the fear of you has come on us;

10 For we have had news of how the Lord made the Red
Sea dry before you when you came out of Egypt; and what
you did to the two kings of the Amorites, on the other side of
Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you gave up to the curse.

11 And because of this news, our hearts became like water,
and there was no more spirit in any of us because of you; for
the Lord your God is God in heaven on high and here on
earth.

12 So now, will you give me your oath by the Lord, that,
because I have been kind to you, you will be kind to my
father's house,

13 And that you will keep safe my father and mother and
my brothers and sisters and all they have, so that death may
not come on us?

14 And the men said to her, Our life for yours if you keep
our business secret; and when the Lord has given us the land,
we will keep faith and be kind to you.

15 Then she let them down from the window by a cord, for
the house where she was living was on the town wall.

16 And she said to them, Get away into the hill-country, or
the men who have gone after you will overtake you; keep

yourselves safe there for three days, till the searchers have
come back, and then go on your way.

17 And the men said to her, We will only be responsible for
this oath which you have made us take,

18 If, when we come into the land, you put this cord of
bright red thread in the window from which you let us down;
and get your father and mother and your brothers and all
your family into the house;

19 Then if anyone goes out of your house into the street, his
blood will be on his head, we will not be responsible; but if
any damage comes to anyone in the house, his blood will be
on our heads.

20 But if you say anything about our business here, then we
will be free from the oath you have made us take.

21 And she said, Let it be as you say. Then she sent them
away, and they went; and she put the bright red cord in the
window.

22 And they went into the hill-country and were there three
days, till the men who had gone after them had come back;
and those who went after them were searching for them
everywhere without coming across them.

23 Then the two men came down from the hill-country and
went over and came back to Joshua, the son of Nun; and they
gave him a complete account of what had taken place.

24 And they said to Joshua, Truly, the Lord has given all
the land into our hands; and all the people of the land have
become like water because of us.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 3

1 Then Joshua got up early in the morning, and, moving on
from Shittim, he and all the children of Israel came to Jordan
and were there for the night before going over.

2 And at the end of three days, the men in authority over
the people went through the tents,

3 Giving the people their orders, and saying, When you see
the ark of the agreement of the Lord your God lifted up by
the priests, the Levites, then get up from your places and go
after it;

4 But let there be a space between you and it of about two
thousand cubits: come no nearer to it, so that you may see
the way you have to go, for you have not been over this way
before.

5 And Joshua said to the people, Make yourselves holy, for
tomorrow the Lord will do works of wonder among you.

6 Then Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the
agreement and go over in front of the people. So they took
up the ark of the agreement and went in front of the people.

7 And the Lord said to Joshua, From now on I will give
you glory in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may see that, as
I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

8 And you are to give orders to the priests who take up the
ark of the agreement, and say, When you come to the edge of
the waters of Jordan, go no further.

9 And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come to me
here: and give ear to the words of the Lord your God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And Joshua said, By this you will see that the living God
is among you, and that he will certainly send out from before
you the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Hivite and the
Perizzite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the
Jebusite.

11 See, the ark of the agreement of the Lord of all the earth
is going over before you into Jordan.

12 So take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, a man
from every tribe.

13 And when the feet of the priests who take up the ark of
the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the waters
of Jordan, the waters of Jordan will be cut off, all the waters
flowing down from higher up, and will come together in a
mass.

14 So when the people went out from their tents to go over
Jordan, the priests who took up the ark of the agreement
were in front of the people;

15 And when those who took up the ark came to Jordan,
and the feet of the priests who took up the ark were touching
the edge of the water (for the waters of Jordan are
overflowing all through the time of the grain-cutting),

16 Then the waters flowing down from higher up were
stopped and came together in a mass a long way back at
Adam, a town near Zarethan; and the waters flowing down
to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were cut off: and the
people went across opposite Jericho.

17 And the priests who took up the ark of the agreement of
the Lord kept their places, with their feet on dry land in the
middle of Jordan, while all Israel went over on dry land, till
all the nation had gone over Jordan.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 4

1 Now when all the nation had come to the other side of
Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,

2 Take twelve men from the people, a man for every tribe,

3 And say to them, Take up from the middle of Jordan,
from the place where the feet of the priests were resting,
twelve stones, and take them over with you and put them
down in the place where you take your rest tonight.

4 So Joshua sent for the twelve men, whom he had ready,
one man out of every tribe of the children of Israel,

5 And he said to them, Go over before the ark of the Lord
your God into the middle of Jordan, and let every one of you
take up a stone on his back, one for every tribe of the
children of Israel:

6 So that this may be a sign among you; when your children
say to you in time to come, What is the reason for these
stones?

7 Then you will say to them, Because the waters of Jordan
were cut off before the ark of the Lord's agreement; when it
went over Jordan the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these
stones will be a sign for the children of Israel, keeping it in
their memory for ever.

8 So the children of Israel did as Joshua gave them orders,
and took twelve stones from the middle of Jordan, as the
Lord had said to Joshua, one for every tribe of the children

of Israel; these they took across with them to their night's
resting-place and put them down there.

9 And Joshua put up twelve stones in the middle of Jordan,
where the feet of the priests who took up the ark of the
agreement had been placed: and there they are to this day.

10 For the priests who took up the ark kept there in the
middle of Jordan till all the orders given to Joshua by Moses
from the Lord had been done: then the people went over
quickly.

11 And when all the people had come to the other side, the
ark of the Lord went over, and the priests, before the eyes of
the people.

12 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and
the half-tribe of Manasseh went over armed before the
children of Israel as Moses had said to them:

13 About forty thousand armed for war went over before
the Lord to the fight, to the lowlands of Jericho.

14 That day the Lord made Joshua great in the eyes of all
Israel; and all the days of his life they went in fear of him, as
they had gone in fear of Moses.

15 Then the Lord said to Joshua,

16 Give orders to the priests who take up the ark of witness,
to come up out of Jordan.

17 So Joshua gave orders to the priests, saying, Come up
now out of Jordan.

18 And when the priests who took up the ark of the Lord's
agreement came up out of Jordan and their feet came out on
to dry land, the waters of Jordan went back to their place,
overflowing its edges as before.

19 So on the tenth day of the first month the people came
up out of Jordan, and put up their tents in Gilgal, on the east
side of Jericho.

20 And the twelve stones which they took out of Jordan,
Joshua put up in Gilgal.

21 And he said to the children of Israel, When your
children say to their fathers in time to come, What is the
reason for these stones?

22 Then give your children the story, and say, Israel came
over this river Jordan on dry land.

23 For the Lord your God made the waters of Jordan dry
before you till you had gone across, as he did to the Red Sea,
drying it up before us till we had gone across:

24 So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the hand
of the Lord is strong; and that they may go in fear of the
Lord your God for ever.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 5

1 Now when the news came to all the kings of the Amorites
on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the
Canaanites living by the sea, how the Lord had made the
waters of Jordan dry before the children of Israel, till they
had gone across, their hearts became like water, and there
was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make yourself stone
knives and give the children of Israel circumcision a second
time.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 So Joshua made stone knives and gave the children of
Israel circumcision at Gibeath-ha-araloth.

4 And this is the reason why Joshua did so: all the males of
the people who came out of Egypt, all the fighting-men, had
been overtaken by death in the waste land on the way, after
they came out of Egypt.

5 All the people who came out had undergone circumcision;
but all the people whose birth had taken place in the waste
land on their journey from Egypt had not.

6 For the children of Israel were wandering in the waste
land for forty years, till all the nation, that is, all the
fighting-men, who had come out of Egypt, were dead,
because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord: to
whom the Lord said, with an oath, that he would not let
them see the land which the Lord had given his word to their
fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 And their children, who came up in their place, now
underwent circumcision by the hands of Joshua, not having
had it before: for there had been no circumcision on the
journey.

8 So when all the nation had undergone circumcision, they
kept in their tents till they were well again.

9 And the Lord said to Joshua, Today the shame of Egypt
has been rolled away from you. So that place was named
Gilgal, to this day.

10 So the children of Israel put up their tents in Gilgal; and
they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in
the evening, in the lowlands of Jericho.

11 And on the day after the Passover, they had for their
food the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and dry grain
on the same day.

12 And there was no more manna from the day after they
had for their food the produce of the land; the children of
Israel had manna no longer, but that year the produce of the
land of Canaan was their food.

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, lifting up his eyes he
saw a man in front of him, with his sword uncovered in his
hand: and Joshua went up to him and said, Are you for us or
against us?

14 And he said, No; but I have come as captain of the
armies of the Lord. Then Joshua, falling down with his face
to the earth in worship, said, What has my lord to say to his
servant?

15 And the captain of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take
off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is
holy. And Joshua did so.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 6

1 (Now Jericho was all shut up because of the children of
Israel: there was no going out or coming in.)

2 And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your
hands Jericho with its king and all its men of war.

3 Now let all your fighting-men make a circle round the
town, going all round it once. Do this for six days.

4 And let seven priests go before the ark with seven loud-
sounding horns in their hands: on the seventh day you are to

go round the town seven times, the priests blowing their
horns.

5 And at the sound of a long note on the horns, let all the
people give a loud cry; and the wall of the town will come
down flat, and all the people are to go straight forward.

6 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent for the priests and said
to them, Take up the ark of the agreement, and let seven
priests take seven horns in their hands and go before the ark
of the Lord.

7 And he said to the people, Go forward, circling the town,
and let the armed men go before the ark of the Lord.

8 So after Joshua had said this to the people, the seven
priests with their seven horns went forward before the Lord,
blowing on their horns: and the ark of the Lord's agreement
went after them.

9 And the armed men went before the priests who were
blowing the horns, and the mass of the people went after the
ark, blowing their horns.

10 And to the people Joshua gave an order, saying, You
will give no cry, and make no sound, and let no word go out
of your mouth till the day when I say, Give a loud cry; then
give aloud cry.

11 So he made the ark of the Lord go all round the town
once: then they went back to the tents for the night.

12 And early in the morning Joshua got up, and the priests
took up the ark of the Lord.

13 And the seven priests with their seven horns went on
before the ark of the Lord, blowing their horns: the armed
men went before them, and the mass of the people went after
the ark of the Lord, blowing their horns.

14 The second day they went all round the town once, and
then went back to their tents: and so they did for six days.

15 Then on the seventh day they got up early, at the dawn
of the day, and went round the town in the same way, but
that day they went round it seven times.

16 And the seventh time, at the sound of the priests' horns,
Joshua said to the people, Now give a loud cry; for the Lord
has given you the town.

17 And the town will be put to the curse, and everything in
it will be given to the Lord: only Rahab, the loose woman,
and all who are in the house with her, will be kept safe,
because she kept secret the men we sent.

18 And as for you, keep yourselves from the cursed thing,
for fear that you may get a desire for it and take some of it
for yourselves, and so be the cause of a curse and great
trouble on the tents of Israel.

19 But all the silver and gold and the vessels of brass and
iron are holy to the Lord: they are to come into the store-
house of the Lord.

20 So the people gave a loud cry, and the horns were
sounded; and on hearing the horns the people gave a loud cry,
and the wall came down flat, so that the people went up into
the town, every man going straight before him, and they
took the town.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 And they put everything in the town to the curse; men
and women, young and old, ox and sheep and ass, they put to
death without mercy.

22 Then Joshua said to the two men who had been sent to
make a search through the land, Go into the house of the
loose woman, and get her out, and all who are with her, as
you gave her your oath.

23 So the searchers went in and got out Rahab and her
father and mother and her brothers and all she had, and they
got out all her family; and they took them outside the tents
of Israel.

24 Then, after burning up the town and everything in it,
they put the silver and gold and the vessels of brass and iron
into the store-house of the Lord's house.

25 But Joshua kept Rahab, the loose woman, and her
father's family and all she had, from death, and so she got a
living-place among the children of Israel to this day; because
she kept safe the men whom Joshua had sent to make a search
through the land.

26 Then Joshua gave the people orders with an oath, saying,
Let that man be cursed before the Lord who puts his hand to
the building up of this town: with the loss of his first son will
he put the first stone of it in place, and with the loss of his
youngest son he will put up its doors.

27 So the Lord was with Joshua; and news of him went
through all the land.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 7

1 But the children of Israel did wrong about the cursed
thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son
of Zerah, of the family of Judah, took of the cursed thing,
moving the Lord to wrath against the children of Israel.

2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is by the
side of Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and said to
them, Go up and make a search through the land. And the
men went up and saw how Ai was placed.

3 Then they came back to Joshua and said to him, Do not
send all the people up, but let about two or three thousand
men go up and make an attack on Ai; there is no need for all
the people to be tired with the journey there, for it is only a
small town.

4 So about three thousand of the people went up, and were
sent in flight by the men of Ai.

5 The men of Ai put to death about thirty-six of them,
driving them from before the town as far as the stoneworks,
and overcoming them on the way down: and the hearts of the
people became like water.

6 Then Joshua, in great grief, went down on the earth
before the ark of the Lord till the evening, and all the chiefs
of Israel with him, and they put dust on their heads.

7 And Joshua said, O Lord God, why have you taken us
over Jordan only to give us up into the hands of the Amorites
for our destruction? If only it had been enough for us to keep
on the other side of Jordan!

8 O Lord, what am I to say now that Israel have given way
before their attackers?

9 For when the news comes to the Canaanites and all the
people of the land, they will come up, shutting us in and
cutting off our name from the earth: and what will you do
for the honour of your great name?

10 Then the Lord said to Joshua, Get up; what are you
doing with your face to the earth?

11 Israel has done wrong, sinning against the agreement
which I made with them: they have even taken of the cursed
thing; acting falsely like thieves they have put it among their
goods.

12 For this reason the children of Israel have given way,
turning their backs in flight before their attackers, because
they are cursed: I will no longer be with you, if you do not
put the cursed thing away from among you.

13 Up! make the people holy; say to them, Make yourselves
holy before tomorrow, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has
said, There is a cursed thing among you, O Israel, and you
will give way before your attackers in the fight till the cursed
thing has been taken away from among you.

14 So in the morning you are to come near, tribe by tribe;
and the tribe marked out by the Lord is to come near, family
by family; and the family marked out by the Lord is to come
near, house by house; and the house marked out by the Lord
is to come near, man by man.

15 Then the man who is taken with the cursed thing is to be
burned, with everything which is his; because he has gone
against the agreement of the Lord and has done an act of
shame in Israel.

16 So Joshua got up early in the morning, and made Israel
come before him by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was
taken;

17 Then he made Judah come forward, and the family of the
Zerahites was taken; and he made the family of the Zerahites
come forward man by man; and Zabdi was taken;

18 Then the house of Zabdi came forward man by man, and
Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah,
of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

19 And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory and praise
to the Lord, the God of Israel; give me word now of what
you have done, and keep nothing back from me.

20 And Achan, answering, said to Joshua, Truly I have
done wrong against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is
what I have done:

21 When I saw among their goods a fair robe of Babylon
and two hundred shekels of silver, and a mass of gold, fifty
shekels in weight, I was overcome by desire and took them;
and they are put away in the earth in my tent, and the silver
is under it.

22 So Joshua sent men quickly, and looking in his tent,
they saw where the robe had been put away secretly with the
silver under it.

23 And they took them from the tent and came back with
them to Joshua and the children of Israel, and put them
before the Lord.

24 Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan, the son of Zerah,
and the silver and the robe and the mass of gold, and his sons

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep
and his tent and everything he had; and they took them up
into the valley of Achor.

25 And Joshua said, Why have you been a cause of trouble
to us? Today the Lord will send trouble on you. And all
Israel took part in stoning him; they had him stoned to death
and then burned with fire.

26 And over him they put a great mass of stones, which is
there to this day; then the heat of the Lord's wrath was
turned away. So that place was named, The Valley of Achor,
to this day.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 8

1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be
troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up
against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai
and his people and his town and his land:

2 And you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho
and its king: but their goods and their cattle you may take
for yourselves: let a secret force be stationed to make a
surprise attack on the town from the back.

3 So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up
against Ai; and Joshua took thirty thousand men of war, and
sent them out by night.

4 And he gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up
your position secretly at the back of the town: do not go very
far away, and let all of you be ready:

5 And I and all the people with me will come near the town,
and when they come out against us as they did before, we will
go in flight from them;

6 And they will come out after us, till we have got them
away from the town; for they will say, They have gone in
flight from us as before; so we will go in flight before them;

7 Then you will get up from your secret position and take
the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your
hands.

8 And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the
Lord has said: see, I have given you your orders.

9 So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret
position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but
Joshua kept with the people that night.

10 And early in the morning Joshua got up, and put the
people in order, and he and the chiefs of Israel went up before
the people to Ai.

11 And all the fighting-men who were with him went up
and came near the town, and took up a position on the north
side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the
town.

12 And taking about five thousand men, he put them in
position for a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between
Beth-el and Ai.

13 So all the people were in their places, the army on the
north side of the town and the secret force on the west; and
that night Joshua went down into the valley.

14 Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and
went out to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the

slope going down to the valley; but he had no idea that a
secret force was waiting at the back of the town.

15 Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were
overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste
land.

16 And all the people in Ai came together to go after them;
and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town.

17 There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go
out after Israel; and the town was open and unwatched while
they went after Israel.

18 And the Lord said to Joshua, Let your spear be stretched
out against Ai; for I will give it into your hands. So Joshua
took up his spear, stretching it out in the direction of the
town.

19 Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and
running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went
into the town and took it, and put fire to it straight away.

20 Then the men of Ai, looking back, saw the smoke of the
town going up to heaven, and were unable to go this way or
that: and the people who had gone in flight to the waste land
were turned back on those who were coming after them.

21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had
been taken by the surprise attack, and that the smoke of the
town had gone up, turning round they overcame the men of
Ai.

22 Then the other force came out of the town against them,
so that they were being attacked on this side and on that: and
Israel overcame them and let not one of them get away with
his life.

23 But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to
Joshua.

24 Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the
field and in the waste land where they went after them, and
when all the people had been put to death without mercy, all
Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all who were in it
without mercy.

25 On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and
women, all the people of Ai.

26 For Joshua did not take back his hand with the
outstretched spear till the destruction of the people of Ai was
complete.

27 But the cattle and the goods from that town, Israel took
for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua.

28 So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste
mass of stones for ever, as it is to this day.

29 And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a
tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave
them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it
in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass
of stones, which is there to this day.

30 Then Joshua put up an altar to the Lord, the God of
Israel, in Mount Ebal,

31 In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, as
it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of
uncut stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it
they made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 And he made there on the stones a copy of the law of
Moses, writing it before the eyes of the children of Israel.

33 And all Israel, those who were Israelites by birth, as well
as the men from other lands living with them, and their
responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their
places round the ark, in front of the priests, the Levites,
whose work it was to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement;
half of them were stationed in front of Mount Gerizim and
half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for
the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant
of the Lord, had given.

34 And after, he gave them all the words of the law, the
blessing and the curse, as it is all recorded in the book of the
law;

35 Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women
and the children and the men from other lands who were
living among them, every word of the orders which Moses
had given.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 9

1 Now on hearing the news of these things, all the kings on
the west side of Jordan, in the hill-country and the lowlands
and by the Great Sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittites and
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites,

2 Came together with one purpose, to make war against
Joshua and Israel.

3 And the men of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to
Jericho and Ai,

4 Acting with deceit, got food together as if for a long
journey; and took old food-bags for their asses, and old and
cracked wine-skins kept together with cord;

5 And put old stitched-up shoes on their feet, and old
clothing on their backs; and all the food they had with them
was dry and broken up.

6 And they came to Joshua to the tent-circle at Gilgal, and
said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far
country: so now make an agreement with us.

7 And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, It may be that
you are living among us; how then may we make an
agreement with you?

8 And they said to Joshua, We are your servants. Then
Joshua said to them, Who are you and where do you come
from?

9 And they said to him, Your servants have come from a
very far country, because of the name of the Lord your God:
for the story of his great name, and of all he did in Egypt has
come to our ears,

10 And what he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of
Jordan, to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and to Og, king of
Bashan, at Ashtaroth.

11 So the responsible men and all the people of our country
said to us, Take food with you for the journey and go to
them, and say to them, We are your servants: so now make an
agreement with us.

12 This bread which we have with us for our food, we took
warm and new from our houses when starting on our journey
to you; but now see, it has become dry and broken up.

13 And these wine-skins were new when we put the wine in
them, and now they are cracked as you see; and our clothing
and our shoes have become old because of our very long
journey here.

14 And the men took some of their food, without
requesting directions from the Lord.

15 So Joshua made peace with them, and made an
agreement with them that they were not to be put to death:
and the chiefs of the people took an oath to them.

16 Now three days after, when they had made this
agreement with them, they had word that these men were
their neighbours, living near them.

17 And the children of Israel went forward on their journey,
and on the third day came to their towns. Now their towns
were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim.

18 And the children of Israel did not put them to death,
because the chiefs of the people had taken an oath to them by
the Lord, the God of Israel. And all the people made an
outcry against the chiefs.

19 But all the chiefs said to the people, We have taken an
oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and so we may
not put our hands on them.

20 This is what we will do to them: we will not put them to
death, for fear that wrath may come on us because of our
oath to them.

21 Keep them living, and let them be servants, cutting
wood and getting water for all the people. And all the people
did as the chiefs had said to them.

22 Then Joshua sent for them, and said to them, Why have
you been false to us, saying, We are very far from you, when
you are living among us?

23 Now because of this you are cursed, and you will for ever
be our servants, cutting wood and getting water for the
house of my God.

24 And, answering Joshua, they said, Because it came to the
ears of your servants that the Lord your God had given
orders to his servant Moses to give you all this land, and to
send destruction on all the people living in it, because of you;
so, fearing greatly for our lives because of you, we have done
this.

25 And now we are in your hands: do to us whatever seems
good and right to you.

26 So he kept them safe from the children of Israel, and did
not let them be put to death.

27 And that day Joshua made them servants, cutting wood
and getting water for the people and for the altar of the Lord,
in the place marked out by him, to this day.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 10

1 Now when it came to the ears of Adoni-zedek, king of
Jerusalem, that Joshua had taken Ai, and had given it up to
the curse (for as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

had done to Ai and its king); and that the people of Gibeon
had made peace with Israel and were living among them;

2 He was in great fear, because Gibeon was a great town,
like one of the king's towns, greater than Ai, and all the men
in it were men of war.

3 So Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king
of Hebron, and to Piram, king of Jarmuth, and to Japhia,
king of Lachish, and to Debir, king of Eglon, saying,

4 Come up to me and give me help, and let us make an
attack on Gibeon: for they have made peace with Joshua and
the children of Israel.

5 So the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem,
the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish,
and the king of Eglon, were banded together, and went up
with all their armies and took up their position before
Gibeon and made war against it.

6 And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua to the tent-circle at
Gilgal, saying, Be not slow to send help to your servants;
come up quickly to our support and keep us safe: for all the
kings of the Amorites from the hill-country have come
together against us.

7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal with all his army and all
his men of war.

8 And the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear of them, for I
have given them into your hands; they will all give way
before you.

9 So Joshua, having come up from Gilgal all night, made a
sudden attack on them.

10 And the Lord made them full of fear before Israel, and
they put great numbers of them to death at Gibeon, and went
after them by the way going up to Beth-horon, driving them
back to Azekah and Makkedah

11 And in their flight before Israel, on the way down from
Beth-horon, the Lord sent down great stones from heaven on
them all the way to Azekah, causing their death: those whose
death was caused by the stones were more than those whom
the children of Israel put to death with the sword.

12 It was on the day when the Lord gave up the Amorites
into the hands of the children of Israel that Joshua said to the
Lord, before the eyes of Israel, Sun, be at rest over Gibeon;
and you, O moon, in the valley of Aijalon.

13 And the sun was at rest and the moon kept its place till
the nation had given punishment to their attackers. (Is it not
recorded in the book of Jashar?) So the sun kept its place in
the middle of the heavens, and was waiting, and did not go
down, for the space ofa day.

14 And there was no day like that, before it or after it,
when the Lord gave ear to the voice of a man; for the Lord
was fighting for Israel.

15 And Joshua, with all Israel, went back to the tent-circle
at Gilgal.

16 But these five kings went in flight secretly to a hole in
the rock at Makkedah.

17 And word was given to Joshua that the five kings had
been taken in a hole in the rock at Makkedah.

18 And Joshua said, Let great stones be rolled against the
mouth of the hole, and let men keep watch by it:

19 But do you, without waiting, go after their army,
attacking them from the back; do not let them get into their
towns, for the Lord your God has given them into your
hands.

20 Now when Joshua and the children of Israel had come to
the end of their war of complete destruction, and had put to
death all but a small band who had got safely into the walled
towns,

21 All the people went back to Joshua to the tent-circle at
Makkedah in peace: and no one said a word against the
children of Israel.

22 Then Joshua said, Take away the stones from the mouth
of the hole in the rock, and make those five kings come out to
me.

23 And they did so, and made those five kings come out of
the hole to him, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron,
the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of
Eglon.

24 And when they had made those kings come out to Joshua,
Joshua sent for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of
the men of war who had gone with him, Come near and put
your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came near and
put their feet on their necks.

25 And Joshua said to them, Have no fear and do not be
troubled; be strong and take heart: for so will the Lord do to
all against whom you make war.

26 Then Joshua had them put to death, hanging them on
five trees, where they were till evening.

27 And when the sun went down, they were taken down
from the trees, by Joshua's orders, and put into the hole
where they had gone to be safe; and great stones were placed
at the mouth of the hole, where they are to this day.

28 That day Joshua took Makkedah, and put it and its king
to the sword; every soul in it he gave up to the curse without
mercy: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to
the king of Jericho.

29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from
Makkedah and came to Libnah, and made an attack on it;

30 And again the Lord gave it and its king into the hands
of Israel; and he put it and every person in it to the sword,
till their destruction was complete; and he did to its king as
he had done to the king of Jericho.

31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from
Libnah to Lachish, and took up their position against it and
made an attack on it,

32 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hands of Israel, and
on the second day he took it, putting it and every person in it
to the sword without mercy, as he had done to Libnah.

33 Then Horam, king of Gezer, came up to the help of
Lachish; and Joshua overcame him and his people, putting
all of them to death.

34 And Joshua and all Israel with him went on from
Lachish to Eglon: and they took up their position against it
and made an attack on it;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 And that day they took it, putting it and every person in
it to the sword, as he had done to Lachish.

36 And Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon
to Hebron, and made an attack on it;

37 And took it, overcoming it and putting it and its king
and its towns and every person in it to the sword: as he had
done to Eglon, he put them all to death, and gave it up to the
curse with every person in it.

38 And Joshua and all Israel with him went on to make an
attack on Debir;

39 And he took it, with its king and all its towns: and he
put them to the sword, giving every person in it to the curse;
all were put to death: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to
Debir and its king.

40 So Joshua overcame all the land, the hill-country and
the South and the lowland and the mountain slopes, and all
their kings; all were put to death: and every living thing he
gave up to the curse, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had
given him orders.

41 Joshua overcame them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza,
and all the land of Goshen as far as Gibeon.

42 And all these kings and their land Joshua took at the
same time, because the Lord, the God of Israel, was fighting
for Israel.

43 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went back to their
tents at Gilgal.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 11

1 Now Jabin, king of Hazor, hearing of these things, sent
to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to
the king of Achshaph,

2 And to the kings on the north in the hill-country, and in
the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in
the highlands of Dor on the west,

3 And to the Canaanites on the east and on the west, and to
the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites, and the
Jebusites in the hill-country, and the Hivites under Hermon
in the land of Mizpah.

4 And they went out, they and all their armies with them, a
great people, in number like the sand on the seaside, with
horses and war-carriages in great number.

5 And all these kings came together, and put their forces in
position at the waters of Merom, to make war on Israel.

6 And the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear of them: for
tomorrow at this time I will give them all up dead before
Israel; you are to have the leg-muscles of their horses cut and
their war-carriages burned with fire.

7 So Joshua and all the men of war with him came against
them suddenly at the waters of Merom, and made an attack
on them.

8 And the Lord gave them up into the hands of Israel, and
they overcame them driving them back to great Zidon and to
Misrephoth-maim and into the valley of Mizpeh to the east;
and they put them all to death, no man got away safely.

9 And Joshua did to them as the Lord had said to him; he
had the leg-muscles of their horses cut and their war-
carriages burned with fire.

10 At that time, Joshua went on to take Hazor and put its
king to the sword: for in earlier times Hazor was the chief of
all those kingdoms.

11 And they put every person in it to death without mercy,
giving every living thing up to the curse, and burning Hazor.

12 And all the towns of these kings, and all the kings,
Joshua took, and put them to the sword: he gave them up to
the curse, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had said.

13 As for the towns made on hills of earth, not one was
burned by Israel but Hazor, which was burned by Joshua.

14 And all the goods taken from these towns, and their
cattle, the children of Israel kept for themselves; but every
man they put to death without mercy, till their destruction
was complete, and there was no one living.

15 As the Lord had given orders to Moses his servant, so
Moses gave orders to Joshua, and so Joshua did; every order
which the Lord had given to Moses was done.

16 So Joshua took all that land, the hill-country and all the
South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland and the
Arabah, the hill-country of Israel and its lowland;

17 From Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, as far as
Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon:
and all their kings he overcame and put to death.

18 For a long time Joshua made war on all those kings.

19 Not one town made peace with the children of Israel, but
only the Hivites of Gibeon: they took them all in war.

20 For the Lord made them strong in heart to go to war
against Israel, so that he might give them up to the curse
without mercy, and that destruction might come on them, as
the Lord had given orders to Moses.

21 And Joshua came at that time and put an end to the
Anakim in the hill-country, in Hebron, in Debir, in Anab,
and in all the hill-country of Judah and Israel: Joshua gave
them and their towns to the curse.

22 Not one of the Anakim was to be seen in the land of the
children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod,
some were still living.

23 So Joshua took all the land, as the Lord had said to
Moses; and Joshua gave it to the children of Israel as their
heritage, making division of it among them by their tribes.
And the land had rest from war.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 12

1 Now these are the kings of the land whom the children of
Israel overcame, taking as their heritage their land on the
east side of Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount
Hermon, and all the Arabah to the east:

2 Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was living in Heshbon,
ruling from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the
Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and half
Gilead, as far as the river Jabbok, the limits of the children of
Ammon;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, to the east, and
to the sea of the Arabah, that is the Salt Sea, to the east, the
way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of
Pisgah:

4 And the land of Og, king of Bashan, of the rest of the
Rephaim, who was living at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

5 Ruling in the mountain of Hermon, and in Salecah, and
in all Bashan, as far as the limits of the Geshurites and the
Maacathites, and half Gilead, to the land of Sihon, king of
Heshbon.

6 Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel
overcame them; and Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave
their land for a heritage to the Reubenites, and the Gadites,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

7 And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the
children of Israel overcame on the west side of Jordan, from
Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which
goes up to Seir; and Joshua gave the land to the tribes of
Israel for a heritage, in keeping with their divisions;

8 In the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah,
and on the mountain slopes, and in the waste land, and in the
South; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is near
Beth-el, one;

10 The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;

13 The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

14 The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;

15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

16 The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Beth-el, one;

17 The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

18 The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;

19 The king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;

20 The king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph,
one;

21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

22 The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel,
one;

23 The king of Dor on the hill of Dor, one; the king of
Goiim in Gilgal, one;

24 The king of Tirzah, one; all the kings together were
thirty-one.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 13

1 Now Joshua was old and full of years; and the Lord said
to him, You are old and full of years, and there is still very
much land to be taken.

2 This is the land which is still to be taken: all the country
of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites;

3 From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, to the edge of
Ekron to the north, which is taken to be Canaanite property:
the five chiefs of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the
Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites,
as well as the Avvim;

4 On the south: all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah
which is the property of the Zidonians, to Aphek, as far as
the limit of the Amorites:

5 And the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, looking
east, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon as far as Hamath:

6 All the people of the hill-country from Lebanon to
Misrephoth-maim, all the Zidonians; them will I send out
from before the children of Israel: only make division of it to
Israel for a heritage, as I have given you orders to do.

7 So now make division of this land for a heritage to the
nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

8 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites have been given
their heritage, which Moses gave them, on the east side of
Jordan, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them;

9 From Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and
the town in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land
from Medeba to Dibon;

10 And all the towns of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who
was ruling in Heshbon, to the limits of the children of
Ammon;

11 And Gilead, and the land of the Geshurites and the
Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to
Salecah;

12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who was ruling in
Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he was one of the last of the
Rephaim); these did Moses overcome, driving them out of
their country.

13 However, the people of Israel did not send out the
Geshurites, or the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath are
living among Israel to this day.

14 Only to the tribe of Levi he gave no heritage; the
offerings of the Lord, the God of Israel, made by fire are his
heritage, as he said to him.

15 And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Reuben by
their families.

16 Their limit was from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of
the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and all
the table-land by Medeba;

17 Heshbon and all her towns in the table-land; Dibon, and
Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon;

18 And Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath;

19 And Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the
mountain of the valley;

20 And Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-
jeshimoth;

21 And all the towns of the table-land, and all the kingdom
of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon,
whom Moses overcame, together with the chiefs of Midian,
Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the chiefs of
Sihon, who were living in the land.

22 And Balaam, the son of Beor, the prophet, the children
of Israel put to death with the sword.

23 And the limit of the children of Reuben was the edge of
Jordan. This was the heritage of the children of Reuben by
their families, with its towns and its unwalled places.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Gad by
their families.

25 And their limit was Jazer, and all the towns of Gilead,
and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer before
Rabbah;

26 And from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim;
and from Mahanaim to the edge of Debir;

27 And in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and
Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon, king
of Heshbon, having Jordan for its limit, to the end of the sea
of Chinnereth on the east side of Jordan.

28 This is the heritage of the children of Gad by their
families, with its towns and its unwalled places

29 And Moses gave their heritage to the half-tribe of
Manasseh by their families.

30 And their limit was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the
kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all Havvoth-Jair, in
Bashan, sixty towns;

31 And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, towns of the
kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir,
the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by
their families.

32 These are the heritages of which Moses made
distribution in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of
Jordan in Jericho, to the east.

33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no heritage: the
Lord, the God of Israel, is their heritage, as he said to them.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 14

1 And these are the heritages which the children of Israel
took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar, the priest, and
Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of the tribes of the
children of Israel, gave out to them;

2 Their heritage by the Lord's decision, as he gave orders by
Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.

3 For Moses had given their heritage to the two tribes and
the half-tribe on the other side of Jordan, but to the Levites
he gave no heritage among them.

4 Because the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh
and Ephraim; and they gave the Levites no part in the land,
only towns for their living-places, with the grass-lands for
their cattle and for their property.

5 As the Lord had given orders to Moses, so the people of
Israel did, and they made division of the land.

6 Then the children of Judah went to Joshua in Gilgal; and
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, You
have knowledge of what the Lord said to Moses, the man of
God, about me and about you in Kadesh-barnea.

7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord,
sent me from Kadesh-barnea to make a search through the
land; and the account which I gave him was in keeping with
his desire.

8 My brothers, however, who went up with me, made the
heart of the people like water: but I was true to the Lord
with all my heart.

9 And on that day Moses took an oath, saying, Truly the
land where your feet have been placed will become a heritage
for you and your children for ever, because you have been
true to the Lord your God with all your heart.

10 And now, as you see, the Lord has kept me safe these
forty-five years, from the time when the Lord said this to
Moses, while Israel was wandering in the waste land: and
now I am eighty-five years old.

11 And still, I am as strong today as I was when Moses sent
me out: as my strength was then, so is it now, for war and for
all the business of life.

12 So now, give me this hill-country named by the Lord at
that time; for you had an account of it then, how the Anakim
were there, and great walled towns: it may be that the Lord
will be with me, and I will be able to take their land, as the
Lord said.

13 And Joshua gave him his blessing; and he gave Hebron
to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for his heritage.

14 So Hebron became the heritage of Caleb, the son of
Jephunneh the Kenizzite, to this day, because with all his
heart he was true to the Lord, the God of Israel.

15 In earlier times the name of Hebron had been Kiriath-
arba, named after Arba, the greatest of the Anakim. And the
land had rest from war.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 15

1 Now the part of the land marked out for the children of
Judah by families, went up to the edge of Edom, as far as the
waste land of Zin to the south, to the farthest point of it on
the south.

2 Their south limit was from the farthest part of the Salt
Sea, from the inlet looking to the south:

3 From there it goes south of the slope up to Akrabbim,
and on to Zin, then south past Kadesh-barnea, and on by
Hezron and up to Addar, turning in the direction of Karka:

4 Then on to Azmon, ending at the stream of Egypt: and
the end of the limit is at the sea; this will be your limit on the
south.

5 And the east limit is the Salt Sea as far as the end of
Jordan. And the limit of the north part of the land is from
the inlet of the sea at the end of Jordan:

6 Then the line goes up to Beth-hoglah, past the north of
Beth-arabah, and up to the stone of Bohan, the son of
Reuben;

7 Then the line goes up to Debir from the valley of Achor,
and so to the north, in the direction of Gilgal, which is
opposite the slope up to Adummim, on the south side of the
river: and the line goes on to the waters of En-shemesh,
ending at En-rogel:

8 Then the line goes up by the valley of the son of Hinnom
to the south side of the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem): then up
to the top of the mountain in front of the valley of Hinnom
to the west, which is at the farthest point of the valley of
Rephaim on the north:

9 And the limit is marked out from the top of the mountain
to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah, and out to the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

towns of Mount Ephron, as far as Baalah (which is Kiriath-
jearim):

10 Then turning west, the line goes from Baalah to Mount
Seir, and on to the side of Mount Jearim (which is Chesalon)
on the north, then down to Beth-shemesh, and on past
Timnah:

11 And out to the side of Ekron to the north: then it is
marked out to Shikkeron and on to Mount Baalah, ending at
Jabneel; the end of the line is at the sea.

12 And the limit on the west is the edge of the Great Sea.
This is the line going round the land marked out for the
children of Judah, by their families.

13 And to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a part
among the children of Judah, as the Lord had given orders to
Joshua, that is, Kiriath-arba, named after Arba, the father of
Anak which is Hebron.

14 And the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and
Talmai, the children of Anak, were forced out from there by
Caleb.

15 From there he went up against the people of Debir:
(now the name of Debir before that was Kiriath-sepher.)

16 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife
to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it.

17 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother, took it:
so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife.

18 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the
idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down
from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it?

19 And she said, Give me a blessing; because you have put
me in dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So he
gave her the higher spring and the lower spring.

20 This is the heritage of the tribe of Judah, by their
families.

21 The farthest towns of the tribe of Judah in the direction
of the limits of Edom to the south, were Kabzeel, and Eder,
and Jagur;

22 And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah;

23 And Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan;

24 Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth;

25 And Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (which is
Hazor);

26 Amam, and Shema, and Moladah;

27 And Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-pelet;

28 And Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Biziothiah;

29 Baalah, and lim, and Ezem;

30 And Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah;

31 And Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah;

32 And Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon; all
the towns are twenty-nine, with their unwalled places.

33 In the lowland, Eshtaol, and Zorah, and Ashnah;

34 And Zanoah, and En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam;

35 Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah;

36 And Shaaraim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and
Gederothaim; fourteen towns with their unwalled places.

37 Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad;

38 And Dilan, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel;

39 Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon;

40 And Cabbon, and Lahmas, and Chithlish;

41 And Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah, and
Makkedah; sixteen towns with their unwalled places.

42 Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan;

43 And Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib;

44 And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine towns
with their unwalled places.

45 Ekron, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled
places;

46 From Ekron to the sea, all the towns by the side of
Ashdod, with their unwalled places.

47 Ashdod, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled
places; Gaza, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled
places, to the stream of Egypt, with the Great Sea as a limit.

48 And in the hill-country, Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh;

49 And Dannah, and Kiriath-sannah (which is Debir);

50 And Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim;

51 And Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh; eleven towns with
their unwalled places.

52 Arab, and Dumah, and Eshan;

53 And Janim, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah;

54 And Humtah, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron), and
Zior; nine towns with their unwalled places.

55 Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Jutah;

56 And Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah;

57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten towns with their
unwalled places.

58 Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor;

59 And Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six towns
with their unwalled places.

60 Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim), and Rabbah;
two towns with their unwalled places.

61 In the waste land, Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah;

62 And Nibshan, and the Town of Salt, and En-gedi; six
towns with their unwalled places.

63 And as for the Jebusites living in Jerusalem, the children
of Judah were unable to make them go out; but the Jebusites
are living with the children of Judah at Jerusalem, to this day.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 16

1 And the limit of the land marked out for the children of
Joseph went out from Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of
Jericho on the east, in the waste land, going up from Jericho
through the hill-country to Beth-el;

2 And it goes out from Beth-el to Luz, and on as far as the
limit of the Archites to Ataroth;

3 And it goes down to the west to the limit of the
Japhletites, to the limit of Beth-horon the lower, as far as
Gezer; ending at the sea.

4 And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took
their heritage.

5 And the limit of the land of the children of Ephraim by
their families was marked out in this way: the limit of their
heritage to the east was Ataroth-addar, to Beth-horon the
higher;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 The line goes out to the west at Michmethath on the
north; then turning to the east to Taanath-shiloh, going past
it on the east of Janoah;

7 And from Janoah down to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and
touching Jericho, it goes on to Jordan.

8 From Tappuah the line goes on to the west to the river of
Kanah; ending at the sea. This is the heritage of the children
of Ephraim by their families;

9 Together with the towns marked out for the children of
Ephraim in the heritage of Manasseh, all the towns with
their unwalled places.

10 And the Canaanites who were living in Gezer were not
forced out; but the Canaanites have been living among
Ephraim, to this day, as servants, doing forced work.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 17

1 And this was the part marked out for the tribe of
Manasseh, because he was the oldest son of Joseph. As for
Machir, the oldest son of Manasseh, the father of Gilead,
because he was a man of war he had Gilead and Bashan.

2 And as for the rest of the children of Manasseh, their
heritage was given to them by families; for the children of
Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children
of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the
children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these
were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by
their families.

3 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the
son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only
daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah,
and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

4 And they came before Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, the
son of Nun, and before the chiefs, saying, The Lord gave
orders to Moses to give us a heritage among our brothers: so
in agreement with the orders of the Lord he gave them a
heritage among their father's brothers.

5 And ten parts were given to Manasseh, in addition to the
land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of
Jordan;

6 Because the daughters of Manasseh had a heritage among
his sons, and the land of Gilead was the property of the other
sons of Manasseh.

7 And the limit of Manasseh's land was from Asher to
Michmethath, which is before Shechem; the line goes on to
the right hand, to the people of En-tappuah.

8 The land of Tappuah was the property of Manasseh; but
Tappuah on the edge of Manasseh was the property of the
children of Ephraim.

9 And the limit goes down to the stream Kanah, to the
south of the stream: these towns were Ephraim's among the
towns of Manasseh; Manasseh's limit was on the north side of
the stream, ending at the sea:

10 To the south it is Ephraim's, and to the north it is
Manasseh's, and the sea is his limit; and they are touching
Asher on the north, and Issachar on the east.

11 In Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its
daughter-towns, and Ibleam and its daughter-towns, and the
people of Dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of En-
dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of Taanach and
its daughter-towns, and the people of Megiddo and its
daughter-towns, that is, the three hills.

12 But the children of Manasseh were not able to make the
people of those towns go out; but the Canaanites would go
on living in that land.

13 And when the children of Israel had become strong, they
put the Canaanites to forced work, in place of driving them
out.

14 Then the children of Joseph said to Joshua, Why have
you given me only one part and one stretch of land for my
heritage? For through the blessing given to me by the Lord
up to now, I am a great people.

15 Then Joshua said to them, If you are such a great people,
go up into the woodlands, clearing a place there for
yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if
the hill-country of Ephraim is not wide enough for you.

16 And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not
enough for us: and all the Canaanites living in the valley have
iron war-carriages, those in Beth-shean and its towns as well
as those in the valley of Jezreel.

17 Then Joshua said to the children of Joseph, to Ephraim
and Manasseh, You are a great people, and have great power:
you are not to have one property only,

18 For the hill-country of Gilead will be yours, and because
it is woodland you shall cut it down and the areas around
will be yours, and you shall get the Canaanites out, for they
have iron war-carriages which make them strong.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 18

1 And all the meeting of the children of Israel came
together at Shiloh and put up the Tent of meeting there: and
the land was crushed before them.

2 But there were still seven tribes among the children of
Israel who had not taken up their heritage.

3 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, Why are you so
slow to go in and take up your heritage in the land which the
Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?

4 Take from among you three men from every tribe; and I
will send them to go through the land and make a record of
it for distribution as their heritage; then let them come back
to me.

5 And let them make division of it into seven parts: let
Judah keep inside his limit on the south, and let the children
of Joseph keep inside their limit on the north.

6 And you are to have the land marked out in seven parts,
and come back to me with the record; and I will make the
distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord our God.

7 For the Levites have no part among you; to be the Lord's
priests is their heritage; and Gad and Reuben and the half-
tribe of Manasseh have had their heritage on the east side of
Jordan, given to them by Moses, the servant of the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 So the men got up and went; and Joshua gave orders to
those who went, to make a record of the land, saying, Go up
and down through the land, and make a record of it and
come back here to me, and I will make the distribution for
you here by the decision of the Lord in Shiloh.

9 So the men went, travelling through the land, and made a
record of it by towns in seven parts in a book, and came back
to Joshua to the tent-circle at Shiloh.

10 And Joshua made the distribution for them in Shiloh by
the decision of the Lord, marking out the land for the
children of Israel by their divisions.

11 And the first heritage came out for the tribe of Benjamin
by their families: and the limit of their heritage went between
the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.

12 And their limit on the north was from the Jordan, and
the line goes up to the side of Jericho on the north and
through the hill-country to the west, ending at the waste
land of Beth-aven.

13 And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of
Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the
mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower.

14 And the limit is marked as coming round to the south on
the west side from the mountain which is south of Beth-
horon, and ending at Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim),
a town of the children of Judah: this is the west part.

15 And the south part is from the farthest point of Kiriath-
jearim, and the line goes out to the west to the fountain of
the waters of Nephtoah:

16 And the line goes down to the farthest part of the
mountain facing the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is on
the north of the valley of Rephaim: from there it goes down
to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite on the
south as far as En-rogel;

17 And it goes to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, opposite
the way up to Adummim, and it goes down to the stone of
Bohan, the son of Reuben;

18 And it goes on to the side facing the Arabah to the north,
and down to the Arabah;

19 And on to the north side of Beth-hoglah, ending at the
north inlet of the Salt Sea at the south end of Jordan; this is
their limit on the south.

20 And the limit of the east part is the Jordan. This is the
heritage of the children of Benjamin, marked out for their
families by these limits on all sides.

21 And the towns of the children of Benjamin, given to
them in the order of their families, are Jericho and Beth-
hoglah and Emek-kezziz

22 And Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and Beth-el

23 And Avvim and Parah and Ophrah

24 And Chephar-Ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve
towns with their unwalled places;

25 Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth

26 And Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah

27 And Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah

28 And Zela, Eleph and the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem),
Gibeath and Kiriath; fourteen towns with their unwalled

places. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin by
their families.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 19

1 And the second heritage came out for the tribe of Simeon
by their families; and their heritage was in the middle of the
heritage of the children of Judah.

2 And they had for their heritage Beer-sheba and Shema
and Moladah

3 And Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem

4 And Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah

5 And Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah

6 And Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen towns with
their unwalled places;

7 Ain, Rimmon, and Ether and Ashan; four towns with
their unwalled places;

8 And all the unwalled places round about these towns as
far as Baalath-beer-ramah to the south. This is the heritage
of the tribe of Simeon by their families.

9 The heritage of Simeon was taken out of Judah's stretch
of land, for Judah's part was more than they had need of, so
the heritage of the children of Simeon was inside their
heritage.

10 And the third heritage came out for Zebulun by their
families; the limit of their heritage was as far as Sarid;

11 And their limit goes up to the west to Maralah,
stretching to Dabbesheth, and to the stream in front of
Jokneam;

12 Then turning east from Sarid to the limit of Chisloth-
tabor, it goes out to Daberath, and up to Japhia;

13 And from there it goes on east to Gath-hepher, to Eth-
kazin; ending at Rimmon which goes as far as Neah;

14 And the line goes round it on the north to Hannathon,
ending at the valley of Iphtah-el;

15 And Kattath and Nahalal and Shimron and Idalah and
Beth-lehem; twelve towns with their unwalled places.

16 This is the heritage of the children of Zebulun by their
families, these towns with their unwalled places.

17 For Issachar the fourth heritage came out, for the
children of Issachar by their families;

18 And their limit was to Jezreel and Chesulloth and
Shunem

19 And Hapharaim and Shion and Anaharath

20 And Rabbith and Kishion and Ebez

21 And Remeth and En-gannim and En-haddah and Beth-
pazzez;

22 And their limit goes as far as Tabor and Shahazimah and
Beth-shemesh, ending at Jordan; sixteen towns with their
unwalled places.

23 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of
Issachar by their families, these towns with their unwalled
places.

24 And the fifth heritage came out for the tribe of Asher by
their families.

25 And their limit was Helkath and Hali and Beten and
Achshaph

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 And Alammelech and Amad and Mishal, stretching to
Carmel on the west and Shihor-libnath;

27 Turning to the east to Beth-dagon and stretching to
Zebulun and the valley of Iphtah-el as far as Beth-emek and
Neiel to the north; on the left it goes as far as Cabul

28 And Ebron and Rehob and Hammon and Kanah, to
great Zidon;

29 And the limit goes round to Ramah and the walled town
of Tyre and Hosah, ending at the sea by Heleb and Achzib;

30 And Ummah and Aphek and Rehob; twenty-two towns
with their unwalled places.

31 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Asher
by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

32 For the children of Naphtali the sixth heritage came out,
for the children of Naphtali by their families;

33 And their limit was from Heleph, from the oak-tree in
Zaanannim, and Adami-hannekeb and Jabneel, as far as
Lakkum, ending at Jordan;

34 And turning west to Aznoth-tabor, the limit goes out
from there to Hukkok, stretching to Zebulun on the south,
and Asher on the west, and Judah at Jordan on the east.

35 And the walled towns are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath,
Rakkath, and Chinnereth

36 And Adamah and Ramah and Hazor

37 And Kedesh and Edrei and En-Hazor

38 And Iron and Migdal-el, Horem and Beth-anath and
Beth-shemesh; nineteen towns with their unwalled places.

39 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of
Naphtali by their families, these towns with their unwalled
places.

40 For the tribe of Dan by their families the seventh
heritage came out;

41 And the limit of their heritage was Zorah and Eshtaol
and Ir-shemesh

42 And Shaalabbin and Aijalon and Ithlah

43 And Elon and Timnah and Ekron

44 And Eltekeh and Gibbethon and Baalath

45 And Jehud and Bene-berak and Gath-rimmon;

46 And on the west was Me-jarkon, and Rakkon opposite
Joppa.

47 (But the limit of the children of Dan was not wide
enough for them; so the children of Dan went up and made
war on Leshem and took it, putting it to the sword without
mercy, and they took it for their heritage and made a place
for themselves there, giving it the name of Leshem-dan, after
the name of their father, Dan.)

48 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Dan by
their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

49 So the distribution of the land and its limits was
complete; and the children of Israel gave Joshua, the son of
Nun, a heritage among them;

50 By the orders of the Lord they gave him the town for
which he made request, Timnath-serah in the hill-country of
Ephraim: there, after building the town, he made his living-
place.

51 These are the heritages which Eleazar the priest and
Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of families of the tribes
of the children of Israel gave out at Shiloh, by the decision of
the Lord, at the door of the Tent of meeting. So the
distribution of the land was complete.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 20

1 And the Lord said to Joshua,

2 Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked
out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses,

3 So that any man who in error and without design has
taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they
will be safe places for you from him who has the right of
punishment for blood.

4 And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and
comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause
before the responsible men of the town, they will take him
into the town and give him a place among them where he
may be safe.

5 And if the one who has the right of punishment comes
after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him;
because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without
designing it and not in hate.

6 And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come
before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death
of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life
may come back to his town and to his house, to the town
from which he had gone in flight.

7 So they made selection of Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-
country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of
Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in the hill-
country of Judah.

8 And on the east side of Jordan at Jericho, they made
selection of Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, out of
the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of
Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

9 These were the towns marked out for all the children of
Israel and for the man from a strange country living among
them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error,
might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who
has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before
the meeting of the people.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 21

1 Then the heads of the families of the Levites came to
Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the
heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel;

2 And said to them in Shiloh in the land of Canaan, The
Lord gave orders by Moses that we were to have towns for
living in, with their grass-lands for our cattle.

3 And the children of Israel out of their heritage gave to the
Levites these towns with their grass-lands, by the order of
the Lord.

4 And the heritage came out for the families of the
Kohathites: the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Levites, were given thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah,
Simeon, and Benjamin.

5 The rest of the children of Kohath by their families were
given ten towns from the tribes of Ephraim and Dan and the
half-tribe of Manasseh.

6 The children of Gershon by their families were given
thirteen towns from the tribes of Issachar and Asher and

Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh which was in Bashan.

7 The children of Merari by their families were given twelve
towns from the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Zebulun.

8 All these towns with their grass-lands the children of
Israel gave by the decision of the Lord to the Levites, as the
Lord had given orders by Moses.

9 From the tribes of the children of Judah and the children
of Simeon they gave these towns, listed here by name:

10 These were for the children of Aaron among the families
of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi: for they came first
in the distribution.

11 They gave them Kiriath-arba, the town of Arba, the
father of Anak, (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of
Judah, with its grass-lands.

12 But the open country round the town, and its unwalled
places, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as his
property.

13 And to the children of Aaron the priest they gave
Hebron with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life
might be safe, and Libnah with its grass-lands;

14 And Jattir with its grass-lands, and Eshtemoa with its
grass-lands;

15 And Holon with its grass-lands, and Debir with its
grass-lands;

16 And Ain, and Juttah, and Beth-shemesh, with their
grass-lands; nine towns from those two tribes.

17 And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave Gibeon and
Geba with their grass-lands;

18 Anathoth and Almon with their grass-lands, four towns.

19 Thirteen towns with their grass-lands were given to the
children of Aaron, the priests.

20 The rest of the families of the children of Kohath, the
Levites, were given towns from the tribe of Ephraim.

21 And they gave them Shechem with its grass-lands in the
hill-country of Ephraim, the town where the taker of life
might be safe, and Gezer with its grass-lands;

22 And Kibzaim and Beth-horon with their grass-lands,
four towns.

23 And from the tribe of Dan, Elteke and Gibbethon with
their grass-lands;

24 Ayalon and Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, four
towns.

25 And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach and
Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, two towns.

26 All the towns of the rest of the families of the children of
Kohath were ten with their grass-lands.

27 And to the children of Gershon, of the families of the
Levites, they gave from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in

Bashan with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life
might be safe, and Ashtaroth with its grass-lands, two towns.

28 And from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion and Daberath
with their grass-lands;

29 Jarmuth and En-gannim with their grass-lands, four
towns.

30 And from the tribe of Asher, Mishal and Abdon, with
their grass-lands:

31 Helkath and Rehob with their grass-lands, four towns.

32 And from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with
its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe,
and Hammoth-dor and Kartan with their grass-lands, three
towns.

33 All the towns of the Gershonites with their families were
thirteen with their grass-lands.

34 And to the rest of the Levites, that is, the families of the
children of Merari, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun,
Jokneam and Kartah with their grass-lands;

35 Dimnah and Nahalal with their grass-lands, four towns.

36 And from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer and Jahaz with
their grass-lands;

37 Kedemoth and Mephaath with their grass-lands, four
towns.

38 And from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead, the town
where the taker of life might be safe, and Mahanaim with
their grass-lands;

39 Heshbon and Jazer with their grass-lands, four towns.

40 All these towns were given to the children of Merari by
their families, that is, the rest of the families of the Levites;
and their heritage was twelve towns.

41 All the towns of the Levites, among the heritage of the
children of Israel, were forty-eight towns with their grass-
lands.

42 Every one of these towns had grass-lands round it.

43 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he gave by
oath to their fathers; so it became their heritage and their
living-place.

44 And the Lord gave them peace on every side, as he had
said to their fathers: all those who were against them gave
way before them, for the Lord gave them all up into their
hands.

45 The Lord kept faith with the house of Israel about all
the good which he said he would do for them, and all his
words came true.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 22

1 Then Joshua sent for the Reubenites and the Gadites and
the half-tribe of Manasseh,

2 And said to them, You have kept all the orders of Moses,
the Lord's servant, and have done everything I gave you
orders to do:

3 You have now been with your brothers for a long time;
till this day you have been doing the orders of the Lord your
God.

4 And now the Lord your God has given your brothers rest,
as he said: so now you may go back to your tents, to the land

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

of your heritage, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave to
you on the other side of Jordan.

5 Only take great care to do the orders and the law which
Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you; to have love for the
Lord your God and to go in all his ways; and to keep his laws
and to be true to him and to be his servants with all your
heart and with all your soul.

6 Then Joshua gave them his blessing and sent them away:
and they went back to their tents.

7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had
given a heritage in Bashan; but to the other half, Joshua gave
a heritage among their brothers on the west side of Jordan.
Now when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he gave
them his blessing,

8 And said to them, Go back with much wealth to your
tents, and with very much cattle, with silver and gold and
brass and iron, and with a very great store of clothing; give
your brothers a part of the goods taken in the war.

9 So Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went
back, parting from the children of Israel at Shiloh in the land
of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their
heritage which had been given to them by the Lord's order to
Moses.

10 Now when they came to the country by Jordan in the
land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of
Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh put up there, by Jordan,
a great altar, seen from far.

11 And news came to the children of Israel, See, the
children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe
of Manasseh have put up an altar opposite the land of

Canaan, in the country by Jordan on the side which is Israel's.

12 Then all the meeting of the children of Israel, hearing
this, came together at Shiloh to go up against them to war.

13 And the children of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar the priest, to the children of Reuben and the children
of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead,

14 And with him they sent ten chiefs, one for every tribe of
the children of Israel, every one of them the head of his house
among the families of Israel.

15 And they came to the children of Reuben and the
children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of
Gilead, and said to them,

16 This is what all the meeting of the people of the Lord has
said, What is this wrong which you have done against the
God of Israel, turning back this day from the Lord and
building an altar for yourselves, and being false to the Lord?

17 Was not the sin of Baal-peor great enough, from which
we are not clear even to this day, though punishment came
on the people of the Lord,

18 That now you are turned back from the Lord? and,
because you are false to him today, tomorrow his wrath will
be let loose on all the people of Israel.

19 But if the land you now have is unclean, come over into
the Lord's land where his House is, and take up your heritage
among us: but do not be false to the Lord and to us by

building yourselves an altar in addition to the altar of the
Lord our God.

20 Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, do wrong about the
cursed thing, causing wrath to come on all the people of
Israel? And not on him only came the punishment of death.

21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad
and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of
the families of Israel,

22 God, even God the Lord, God, even God the Lord, he
sees, and Israel will see--if it 1s in pride or in sin against the
Lord,

23 That we have made ourselves an altar, being false to the
Lord, keep us not safe from death this day; and if for the
purpose of offering burned offerings on it and meal offerings,
or peace-offerings, let the Lord himself send punishment for
it;

24 And if we have not, in fact, done this designedly and
with purpose, having in our minds the fear that in time to
come your children might say to our children, What have
you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?

25 For the Lord has made Jordan a line of division between
us and you, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad;
you have no part in the Lord: so your children will make our
children give up fearing the Lord.

26 So we said, Let us now make an altar for ourselves, not
for burned offerings or for the offerings of beasts:

27 But to be a witness between us and you, and between the
future generations, that we have the right of worshipping the
Lord with our burned offerings and our offerings of beasts
and our peace-offerings; so that your children will not be
able to say to our children in time to come, You have no part
in the Lord.

28 For we said to ourselves, If they say this to us or to
future generations, then we will say, See this copy of the
Lord's altar which our fathers made, not for burned offerings
or offerings of beasts, but for a witness between us and you.

29 Never let it be said that we were false to the Lord,
turning back this day from him and building an altar for
burned offerings and meal offerings and offerings of beasts,
in addition to the altar of the Lord our God which is before
his House.

30 Then Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the meeting
and the heads of the families of Israel who were with him,
hearing what the children of Reuben and the children of Gad
and the children of Manasseh said, were pleased.

31 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to the
children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children
of Manasseh, Now we are certain that the Lord is among us,
because you have not done this wrong against the Lord: and
you have kept us from falling into the hands of the Lord.

32 Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the
chiefs went back from the land of Gilead, from the children
of Reuben and the children of Gad, and came to the children
of Israel in Canaan and gave them the news.

33 And the children of Israel were pleased about this; and
they gave praise to God, and had no more thought of going

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

to war against the children of Reuben and the children of
Gad for the destruction of their land.

34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad
gave to that altar the name of Ed. For, they said, It is a
witness between us that the Lord is God.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 23

1 Now after a long time, when the Lord had given Israel
rest from wars on every side, and Joshua was old and full of
years,

2 Joshua sent for all Israel, for their responsible men and
their chiefs and their judges and their overseers, and said to
them, I am old, and full of years:

3 You have seen everything the Lord your God has done to
all these nations because of you; for it is the Lord your God
who has been fighting for you.

4 Now I have given to you, as the heritage of your tribes,
all these nations which are still in the land, together with
those cut off by me, from Jordan as far as the Great Sea on
the west.

5 The Lord your God will send them away by force, driving
them out before you; and you are to take their land for your
heritage, as the Lord your God said to you.

6 So be very strong to keep and do whatever is recorded in
the book of the law of Moses, not turning away from it to the
right or to the left;

7 Have nothing to do with these nations who still are living
among you; let not their gods be named by you or used in
your oaths; do not be their servants or give them worship:

8 But be true to the Lord your God as you have been till
this day.

9 For the Lord has sent out from before you nations great
and strong: and they have all given way before you till this
day.

10 One man of you is able to put to flight a thousand; for it
is the Lord your God who is fighting for you, as he has said
to you.

11 So keep watch on yourselves, and see that you have love
for the Lord your God.

12 For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these
nations who are still among you, getting married to them
and living with them and they with you:

13 Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will
not go on driving these nations out from before you; but
they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip
for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off
from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

14 Now I am about to go the way of all the earth: and you
have seen and are certain, all of you, in your hearts and souls,
that in all the good things which the Lord said about you, he
has kept faith with you; everything has come true for you.

15 And you will see that, as all the good things which the
Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you,
so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he
has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from
the good land which the Lord your God has given you.

16 If the agreement of the Lord your God, which was given
to you by his orders, is broken, and you become the servants
of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the
Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be
cut off from the good land which he has given you.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 24

1 Then Joshua got all the tribes of Israel together at
Shechem; and he sent for the responsible men of Israel and
their chiefs and their judges and their overseers; and they
took their place before God.

2 And Joshua said to all the people, These are the words of
the Lord, the God of Israel: In the past your fathers, Terah,
the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, were living
on the other side of the River: and they were worshipping
other gods.

3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of
the River, guiding him through all the land of Canaan; I
made his offspring great in number, and gave him Isaac.

4 And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau: to Esau I gave Mount
Seir, as his heritage; but Jacob and his children went down to
Egypt.

5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, troubling Egypt by all the
signs I did among them: and after that I took you out.

6] took your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the Red
Sea; and the Egyptians came after your fathers to the Red Sea,
with their war-carriages and their horsemen.

7 And at their cry, the Lord made it dark between you and
the Egyptians, and made the sea go over them, covering them
with its waters; your eyes have seen what I did in Egypt: then
for a long time you were living in the waste land.

8 And I took you into the lands of the Amorites on the
other side of Jordan; and they made war on you, and I gave
them into your hands and you took their land; and I sent
destruction on them before you.

9 Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, went up to
war against Israel; and he sent for Balaam, the son of Beor,
to put a curse on you:

10 But I did not give ear to Balaam; and so he went on
blessing you; and I kept you safe from him.

11 Then you went over Jordan and came to Jericho: and the
men of Jericho made war on you, the Amorites and the
Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the
Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites: and I gave
them up into your hands.

12 And I sent the hornet before you, driving out the two
kings of the Amorites before you, not with your sword and
your bow.

13 And I gave you a land on which you had done no work,
and towns not of your building, and you are now living in
them; and your food comes from vine-gardens and olive-
gardens not of your planting.

14 So now, go in fear of the Lord, and be his servants with
true hearts: put away the gods worshipped by your fathers
across the River and in Egypt, and be servants of the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And if it seems evil to you to be the servants of the Lord,
make the decision this day whose servants you will be: of the
gods whose servants your fathers were across the River, or of
the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but I
and my house will be the servants of the Lord.

16 Then the people in answer said, Never will we give up
the Lord to be the servants of other gods;

17 For it is the Lord our God who has taken us and our
fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house, and
who did all those great signs before our eyes, and kept us safe
on all our journeys, and among all the peoples through
whom we went:

18 And the Lord sent out from before us all the peoples, the
Amorites living in the land: so we will be the servants of the
Lord, for he is our God.

19 And Joshua said to the people, You are not able to be
the servants of the Lord, for he is a holy God, a God who
will not let his honour be given to another: he will have no
mercy on your wrongdoing or your sins.

20 If you are turned away from the Lord and become the
servants of strange gods, then turning against you he will do
you evil, cutting you off, after he has done you good.

21 And the people said to Joshua, No! But we will be the
servants of the Lord.

22 And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against
yourselves that you have made the decision to be the servants
of the Lord. And they said, We are witnesses.

23 Then, he said, put away the strange gods among you,
turning your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.

24 And the people said to Joshua, We will be the servants of
the Lord our God, and we will give ear to his voice.

25 So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day,
and gave them a rule and a law in Shechem.

26 And Joshua put these words on record, writing them in
the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and
put it up there under the oak-tree which was in the holy place
of the Lord.

27 And Joshua said to all the people, See now, this stone is
to be a witness against us; for all the words of the Lord have
been said to us in its hearing: so it will be a witness against
you if you are false to the Lord your God.

28 Then Joshua let the people go away, every man to his
heritage.

29 Now after these things, the death of Joshua, the son of
Nun, the servant of the Lord, took place, he being then a
hundred and ten years old.

30 And they put his body in the earth in the land of his
heritage in Timnath-serah, in the hill-country of Ephraim,
to the north of Mount Gaash.

31 And Israel was true to the Lord all the days of Joshua,
and all the days of the older men who were still living after
Joshua's death, and had seen what the Lord had done for
Israel.

32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel
had taken up from Egypt, they put in the earth in Shechem,
in the property which Jacob had got from the sons of Hamor,

the father of Shechem, for a hundred shekels: and they
became the heritage of the children of Joseph.

33 Then the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, took place;
and his body was put in the earth in the hill of Phinehas his
son, which had been given to him in the hill-country of
Ephraim.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK OF JUDGES
Hebrew Title: Sefer Shofetim
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 7th—6th century B.C.

(The Book of Judges (Sefer Shofetim) is the seventh book of
the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the
narrative, it covers the time between the conquest described
in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in
the Books of Samuel. Book of Judges 1s considered one of the
16 historical book of the Bible. The author of the book of
Judges is unknown, but many the traditional view of the
Talmud believes that the prophet Samuel wrote the book.
The whole book spans a period of over 325 years of Jewish
lustory before they had kings. It includes nations who were
against God’s people, the Israelites. Their main adversaries
were: Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites, Canaanites,
Philistines, Mesopotamians.

After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, Joshua led them
into the promised land. When Joshua and his generation died,
so did the Israelites’ knowledge of God (Judges 2:10). They
began worshipping other gods. So the Lord handed them
over to their enemies and used the surrounding nations to
test them, seeing whether they would walk in his ways as
their ancestors did (Judges 2:22). That’s when the judges
came in: “Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them
out of the hands of these raiders” (Judges 2:16). But every
time a judge died, Israel went astray again, returning to
sinful practices and idolatry.

The title "judge" makes us think of someone who
determines guilt or innocence in a court case. But the
Hebrew word Shofet has a much broader meaning which
ranges from judge over leader to ruler. Before Israel had a
king, it had a sertes of tribal leaders called judges. God used
these men and women to save the Israelites from their enemies
and lead them back to him. The Book of Judges records this
dark chapter in ancient Jewish history, noting each judge’s
deeds and the circumstances surrounding them. The Book of
Judges is basically about a constant cycle of sin and
deliverance. Israel rebels. God disciplines them. Israel repents.
God delivers them.

The book of Judges lists 12 Leaders (with name of tribe,
years in office): Othniel (Judah, 40 years), Ehud (Benjamin,
80 years), Shamgar (not an Israelite, unknown time),
Deborah (the only woman-leader, Ephraim, 40 years),
Gideon (Manasseh, 40 years), Tola (Issachar, 23 years), Jair
(Manasseh, 22 years); Jephthah (Manasseh, 6 Years); Ibzan
(Judah, 7 years); Elon (Zebulun, 10 years); Abdon (Ephraim,
8 years); Samson (Dan, 20 years). Authors in Antiquity often
used "magic numbers" such as 3, 7, 10, 12, etc. They seldom
reflect reality. There are also a few other important leaders
in Judges, like Barak. However, they’re not usually grouped

with the twelve featured in the book of Judges. So, the book
of I Samuel lists also Eli the priest, Samuel the prophet, and
Samuel’s sons as leaders in this respect, too (1 Samuel 4:18; 1
Samuel 15—8:3).

Contents:

The main text (3:11—16:31) gives accounts of six major
Judges and their struggles against the oppressive kings of
surrounding nations, as well as the story of Abimelech, an
Israelite leader (a judge [shofet] in the sense of "chieftain")
who oppresses his own people. The cyclical pattern set out in
the prologue is readily apparent at the beginning, but as the
stories progress it begins to disintegrate, mirroring the
disintegration of the world of the Israelites. Although some
scholars consider the stories not to be presented in
chronological order, the judges in the order in which they
appear in the text are:

¢ Othniel (3:9-11) vs. Chushan-Rishathaim, King of Aram;
Israel has 40 years of peace until the death of Othniel. (The
statement that Israel has a certain period of peace after each
Judge 1s a recurrent theme.)

¢ Ehud (3:11—29) vs. Eglon of Moab

¢ Deborah the prophetess, accompanied by Barak the army
leader (4—5), vs. Jabin of Hazor (a city in Canaan) and Sisera,
fus captain (Battle of Mount Tabor)

¢ Gideon (6-8) vs. Midian, Amalek, and the "children of
the East" (apparently desert tribes)

¢ Abimelech (9) (who is traditionally counted as a king not
a judge, and 1s considered evil) vs. all the Israelites who
oppose him

¢ Jephthah (11—12:7) vs. the Ammonites

¢ Samson (13—16) vs. the Philistines

There are also brief glosses on six minor judges: Shamgar
(3:31), Tola and Jair (10:1—5), Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
(12:8-15). Some scholars have inferred that the minor
Judges were actual adjudicators, whereas the major judges
were leaders and did not actually make legal judgements. The
only major judge described as making legal judgements 1s
Deborah (4:4).)

JUDGES CHAPTER 1

1 Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made
request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make
war for us against the Canaanites?

2 And the Lord said, Judah is to go up: see, I have given the
land into his hands.

3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me
into my heritage, so that we may make war against the
Canaanites; and I will then go with you into your heritage.
So Simeon went with him.

4 And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites
and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten
thousand of them in Bezek.

5 And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him;
and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him
and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut
off.

7 And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and
great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table:
as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took
him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.

8 Then the children of Judah made an attack on Jerusalem,
and took it, burning down the town after they had put its
people to the sword without mercy.

9 After that the children of Judah went down to make war
on the Canaanites living in the hill-country and in the south
and in the lowlands.

10 And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now
in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put
Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword.

11 And from there he went up against the people of Debir.
(Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.)

12 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife
to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it.

13 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother,
took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife.

14 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the
idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down
from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it?

15 And she said to him, Give me a blessing; because you
have put me in a dry south-land, now give me springs of
water. So Caleb gave her the higher spring and the lower
spring.

16 Now Hobab the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, had come
up out of the town of palm-trees, with the children of Judah,
into the waste land of Arad; and he went and was living
among the Amalekites;

17 And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and
overcame the Canaanites living in Zephath, and put it under
the curse; and he gave the town the name of Hormah.

18 Then Judah took Gaza and its limit, and Ashkelon and
its limit, and Ekron and its limit.

19 And the Lord was with Judah; and he took the hill-
country for his heritage; but he was unable to make the
people of the valley go out, for they had war-carriages of
iron.

20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said; and
he took the land of the three sons of Anak, driving them out
from there.

21 And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites
who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still
living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem.

22 And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and
the Lord was with them.

23 So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now
the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.)

24 And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town,
and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the
town, we will be kind to you.

25 So he made clear to them the way into the town, and
they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his
family get away safe.

26 And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a
town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day.

27 And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people
of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its
daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-
towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or
of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving
them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land.

28 And whenever Israel became strong, they put the
Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out
completely.

29 And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were
living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in
Gezer among them.

30 Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people
of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among
them and were put to forced work.

31 And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco,
or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or
Rehob, driving them out;

32 But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites,
the people of the land, without driving them out.

33 Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-
shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was
living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people
of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work.

34 And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-
country by the Amorites, who would not let them come
down into the valley;

35 For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in
Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became
stronger than they, and put them to forced work.

36 And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of
Akrabbim from Sela and up.

JUDGES CHAPTER 2

1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to
Bochim. And he said, *“* I took you out of Egypt, guiding
you into the land which I gave by an oath to your fathers;
and I said, My agreement with you will never be broken by
me:

2 And you are to make no agreement with the people of this
land; you are to see that their altars are broken down: but
you have not given ear to my voice: what have you done?

3 And so I have said, I will not send them out from before
you; but they will be a danger to you, and their gods will be
a cause of falling to you.

4 Now on hearing these words which the angel of the Lord
said to all the children of Israel, the people gave themselves
up to loud crying and weeping.

5 And they gave that place the name of Bochim, and made
offerings there to the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And Joshua let the people go away, and the children of
Israel went, every man to his heritage, to take the land for
themselves.

7 And the people were true to the Lord all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the responsible men who were still
living after the death of Joshua, and had seen all the great
work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.

8 And death came to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of
the Lord, he being a hundred and ten years old.

9 And they put his body in the earth in the land of his
heritage in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim to
the north of Mount Gaash.

10 And in time death overtook all that generation; and
another generation came after them, having no knowledge of
the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel.

11 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord
and became servants to the Baals;

12 And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers,
who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after
other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them,
worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath.

13 And they gave up the Lord, and became the servants of
Baal and the Astartes.

14 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel,
and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently
took their property, and into the hands of their haters all

round them, so that they were forced to give way before them.

15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was
against them for evil, as the Lord had taken his oath it would
be; and things became very hard for them.

16 Then the Lord gave them judges, as their saviours from
the hands of those who were cruel to them.

17 But still they would not give ear to their judges, but
went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly
turning from the way in which their fathers had gone,
keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so.

18 And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord
was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of
their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved

by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them.

19 But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and
did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be
their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of
their sins and their hard-hearted ways.

20 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel,
and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my
agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given
ear to my voice;

21 From now on I will not go on driving out from before
them any of the nations which at the death of Joshua were
still living in this land;

22 In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep
the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not.

23 So the Lord let those nations go on living in the land,
not driving them out quickly, and did not give them up into
the hands of Joshua.

JUDGES CHAPTER 3

1 Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land
for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had
had no experience of all the wars of Canaan;

2 Only because of the generations of the children of Israel,
for the purpose of teaching them war--only those who up till
then had no experience of it;

3 The five chiefs of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites
and the Zidonians and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon,
from the mountain Baal-hermon as far as Hamath:

4 For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they
would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given
to their fathers by the hand of Moses.

5 Now the children of Israel were living among the
Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

6 And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and
gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to
their gods.

7 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became
servants to the Baals and the Astartes.

8 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and
he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king
of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants
for eight years.

9 And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord,
he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's
younger brother.

10 And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became
judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up
Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and
he overcame him.

11 Then for forty years the land had peace, till the death of
Othniel, the son of Kenaz.

12 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of
the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong
against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.

13 And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and
Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the
town of palm-trees.

14 And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king
of Moab, for eighteen years.

15 Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the
Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the
Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent
an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.

16 So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long,
which he put on at his right side under his robe.

17 And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who
was a very fat man.

18 And after giving the offering, he sent away the people
who had come with the offering.

19 But he himself, turning back from the stone images at
Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were
waiting before him went out.

20 Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by
himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word
from God for you. And he got up from his seat.

21 And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword
from his right side, and sent it into his stomach;

22 And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat
was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword
out of his stomach; and it came out behind.

23 Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the
doors of the summer-house on him and locking them.

24 Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and
saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and
they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a
private purpose.

25 And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the
doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening
them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor.

26 But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had
gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah.

27 And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the
hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went
down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head.

28 And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has
given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they
went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan
against Moab, and let no one go across.

29 At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab
to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a
man got away.

30 So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel.
And for eighty years the land had peace.

31 And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put
to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was
another saviour of Israel.

JUDGES CHAPTER 4

1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the
Lord when Ehud was dead.

2 And the Lord gave them up into the hands of Jabin, king
of Canaan, who was ruling in Hazor; the captain of his army
was Sisera, who was living in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

3 Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for
he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years
he was very cruel to the children of Israel.

4 Now Deborah, a woman prophet, the wife of Lapidoth,
was judge of Israel at that time.

5 (And she had her seat under the palm-tree of Deborah
between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim;
and the children of Israel came up to her to be judged.)

6 And she sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from
Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God
of Israel, given orders saying, Go and get your force into line
in Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the
children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

7 And I will make Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with
his war-carriages and his forces, come against you at the
river Kishon, where I will give him into your hands.

8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me then I will
go; but if you will not go with me I will not go.

9 And she said, I will certainly go with you: though you
will get no honour in your undertaking, for the Lord will
give Sisera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah got up
and went with Barak to Kedesh.

10 Then Barak sent for Zebulun and Naphtali to come to
Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up after him, and
Deborah went up with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite, separating himself from the rest
of the Kenites, from the children of Hobab, the brother-in-
law of Moses, had put up his tent as far away as the oak-tree
in Zaanannim, by Kedesh.

12 And word was given to Sisera that Barak, the son of
Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor.

13 So Sisera got together all his war-carriages, nine
hundred war-carriages of iron, and all the people who were
with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles as far as the river
Kishon.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, Up! for today the Lord has
given Sisera into your hands: has not the Lord gone out
before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten
thousand men after him.

15 And the Lord sent fear on Sisera and all his war-
carriages and all his army before Barak; and Sisera got down
from his war-carriage and went in flight on foot.

16 But Barak went after the war-carriages and the army as
far as Harosheth of the Gentiles; and all Sisera's army was
put to the sword; not a man got away.

17 But Sisera went in flight on foot to the tent of Jael, the
wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin,
king of Hazor, and the family of Heber the Kenite.

18 And Jael went out to Sisera, and said to him, Come in,
my lord, come in to me without fear. So he went into her tent,
and she put a cover over him.

19 Then he said to her, Give me now a little water, for I
have need of a drink. And opening a skin of milk, she gave
him drink, and put the cover over him again.

20 And he said to her, Take your place at the door of the
tent, and if anyone comes and says to you, Is there any man
here, say, No.

21 Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent-pin and a hammer
and went up to him quietly, driving the pin into his head,
and it went through his head into the earth, for he was in a
deep sleep from weariness; and so he came to his end.

22 Then Jael went out, and meeting Barak going after
Sisera, said to him, Come, and I will let you see the man you
are searching for. So he came into her tent and saw, and there
was Sisera stretched out dead with the tent-pin in his head.

23 So that day God overcame Jabin, king of Canaan, before
the children of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And the power of the children of Israel went on
increasing against Jabin, king of Canaan, till he was cut off.

JUDGES CHAPTER 5

1 At that time Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam,
made this song, saying:

2 Because of the flowing hair of the fighters in Israel,
because the people gave themselves freely, give praise to the
Lord.

3 Give attention, O kings; give ear, O rulers; I, even I, will
make a song to the Lord; I will make melody to the Lord, the
God of Israel.

4 Lord, when you went out from Seir, moving like an army
from the field of Edom, the earth was shaking and the
heavens were troubled, and the clouds were dropping water.

5 The mountains were shaking before the Lord, before the
Lord, the God of Israel.

6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of
Jael, the highways were not used, and travellers went by side
roads.

7 Country towns were no more in Israel, *“* were no more,
till you, Deborah, came up, till you came up as a mother in
Israel.

8 They had no one to make arms, there were no more armed
men in the towns; was there a body-cover or a spear to be
seen among forty thousand in Israel?

9 Come, you rulers of Israel, you who gave yourselves freely
among the people: give praise to the Lord.

10 Let them give thought to it, who go on white asses, and
those who are walking on the road.

11 Give ear to the women laughing by the water-springs;
there they will give again the story of the upright acts of the
Lord, all the upright acts of his arm in Israel.

12 Awake! awake! Deborah: awake! awake! give a song: Up!
Barak, and take prisoner those who took you prisoner, O son
of Abinoam.

13 Then the chiefs went down to the doors; the Lord's
people went down among the strong ones.

14 Out of Ephraim they came down into the valley; after
you, Benjamin, among your tribesmen; from Machir came
down the captains, and from Zebulun those in whose hand is
the ruler's rod.

15 Your chiefs, Issachar, were with Deborah; and Naphtali
was true to Barak; into the valley they went rushing out at
his feet. In Reuben there were divisions, and great searchings
of heart.

16 Why did you keep quiet among the sheep, hearing
nothing but the watchers piping to the flocks?

17 Gilead was living over Jordan; and Dan was waiting in
his ships; Asher kept in his place by the sea's edge, living by
his inlets.

18 It was the people of Zebulun who put their lives in
danger, even to death, with Naphtali on the high places of
the field.

19 The kings came on to the fight, the kings of Canaan were
warring; in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo: they took no
profit in money.

20 The stars from heaven were fighting; from their
highways they were fighting against Sisera.

21 The river Kishon took them violently away, stopping
their flight, the river Kishon. Give praise, O my soul, to the
strength of the Lord!

22 Then loudly the feet of the horses were sounding with
the stamping, the stamping of their war-horses.

23 A curse, a curse on Meroz! said the angel of the Lord. A
bitter curse on her townspeople! Because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord among the
strong ones.

24 Blessings be on Jael, more than on all women! Blessings
greater than on any in the tents!

25 His request was for water, she gave him milk; she put
butter before him on a fair plate.

26 She put out her hand to the tent-pin, and her right hand
to the workman's hammer; and she gave Sisera a blow,
crushing his head, wounding and driving through his brow.

27 Bent at her feet he went down, he was stretched out;
bent at her feet he went down; where he was bent down, there
he went down in death.

28 Looking out from the window she gave a cry, the
mother of Sisera was crying out through the window, Why is
his carriage so long in coming? When will the noise of his
wheels be sounding?

29 Her wise women gave answer to her, yes, she made
answer again to herself,

30 Are they not getting, are they not parting the goods
among them: a young girl or two to every man; and to Sisera
robes of coloured needlework, worked in fair colours on this
side and on that, for the neck of the queen?

31 So may destruction come on all your haters, O Lord; but
let your lovers be like the sun going out in his strength. And
for forty years the land had peace.

JUDGES CHAPTER 6

1 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord;
and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven
years.

2 And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the
Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves
in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places.

3 And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites
and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up
against them;

4 And put their army in position against them; and they
took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was
no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses.

5 For they came up regularly with their oxen and their
tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their
camels were without number; and they came into the land for
its destruction.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the
cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.

7 And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of
Midian, came before the Lord,

8 The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who
said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you
up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;

9 And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out
of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out
by force from before you and gave you their land;

10 And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not
to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land
you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice.

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under
the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite;
and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the
grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it.

12 And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said
to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war.

13 Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with
us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works
of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying,
Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given
us up, handing us over to the power of Midian.

14 And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength
you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have | not sent
you?

15 And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of
Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am
the least in my father's house.

16 Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you,

and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man.

17 So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then
give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me.

18 Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it
before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come
back.

19 Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and
with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the
meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he
put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree
and gave it to him there.

20 And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the
unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there,
draining out the soup over them. And he did so.

21 Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was
in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of
it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat
and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer.

22 Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the
Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have
seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

23 But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no
fear: you are in no danger of death.

24 Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave
it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the
Abiezrites.

25 The same night the Lord said to him, Take ten men of
your servants and an ox seven years old, and after pulling
down the altar of Baal which is your father's, and cutting
down the holy tree by its side,

26 Make an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this
rock, in the ordered way and take the ox and make a burned
offering with the wood of the holy tree which has been cut
down.

27 Then Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the
Lord had said to him; but fearing to do it by day, because of
his father's people and the men of the town, he did it by night.

28 And the men of the town got up early in the morning,
and they saw the altar of Baal broken down, and the holy
tree which was by it cut down, and the ox offered on the altar
which had been put up there.

29 And they said to one another, Who has done this thing?
And after searching with care, they said, Gideon, the son of
Joash, has done this thing.

30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, Make your son
come out to be put to death, for pulling down the altar of
Baal and cutting down the holy tree which was by it.

31 But Joash said to all those who were attacking him, Will
you take up the cause of Baal? will you be his saviour? Let
anyone who will take up his cause be put to death while it is
still morning: if he is a god, let him take up his cause himself
because of the pulling down of his altar.

32 So that day he gave him the name of Jerubbaal, saying,
Let Baal take up his cause against him because his altar has
been broken down.

33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the
people of the east, banding themselves together, went over
and put up their tents in the valley of Jezreel.

34 But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the
sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him.

35 And he sent through all Manasseh, and they came after
him; and he sent to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and
they came up and were joined to the others.

36 Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel
salvation by my hand, as you have said,

37 See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if
there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then
I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel
salvation by my hand as you have said.

38 And it was so: for he got up early on the morning after,
and twisting the wool in his hands, he got a basin full of
water from the dew on the wool.

39 Then Gideon said to God, Do not be moved to wrath
against me if I say only this: let me make one more test with
the wool; let the wool now be dry, while the earth is covered
with dew.

40 And that night God did so; for the wool was dry, and
there was dew on all the earth round it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JUDGES CHAPTER 7

1 Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people with
him, got up early and put up their tents by the side of the
water-spring of Harod; the tents of Midian were on the north
side of him, under the hill of Moreh in the valley.

2 And the Lord said to Gideon, So great is the number of
your people, that if I give the Midianites into their hands
they will be uplifted in pride over me and will say, I myself
have been my saviour.

3 So now, let it be given out to the people that anyone who
is shaking with fear is to go back from Mount Galud. So
twenty-two thousand of the people went back, but there were
still ten thousand.

4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, There are still more people
than is necessary; take them down to the water so that I may
put them to the test for you there; then whoever I say is to go
with you will go, and whoever I say is not to go will not go.

5 So he took the people down to the water; and the Lord
said to Gideon, Put on one side by themselves all those
drinking up the water with their tongues like a dog; and in
the same way, all those who go down on their knees to the
water while drinking.

6 Now the number of those who took up the water with
their tongues was three hundred; all the rest of the people
went down on their knees to the water.

7 And the Lord said to Gideon, By those three hundred
who were drinking with their tongues I will give you
salvation and give the Midianites into your hands; let the rest
of the people go away, every man to his place.

8 So they took the vessels of the people, and their horns
from their hands, and he sent them away, every man to his
tent, keeping only the three hundred; and the tents of Midian
were lower down in the valley.

9 The same night the Lord said to him, Up! go down now
against their army, for I have given them into your hands.

10 But if you have fear of going down, take your servant
Purah with you and go down to the tents;

11 And after hearing what they are saying, you will get
strength to go down against the army. So he went down with
his servant Purah to the outer line of the tents of the armed
men.

12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the
people of the east were covering the valley like locusts; and
their camels were like the sand by the seaside, without
number.

13 When Gideon came there, a man was giving his friend an
account of his dream, saying, See, I had a dream about a cake
of barley bread which, falling into the tents of Midian, came
on to the tent, overturning it so that it was stretched out flat
on the earth.

14 And his friend in answer said, This is certainly the sword
of Gideon, the son of Joash, the men of Israel: into their
hands God has given up all the army of Midian.

15 Then Gideon, hearing the story of the dream and the
sense in which they took it, gave worship; then he went back

to the tents of Israel, and said, Up! for the Lord has given the
army of Midian into your hands.

16 Then separating the three hundred men into three bands,
he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming
branch.

17 And he said to them, Keep your eyes on me, and do what
I do; when I come to the outer line of tents, whatever I do,
you are to do the same.

18 At the sound of my horn, and the horns of those who are
with me, let your horns be sounded all round the tents, and
say, For the Lord and for Gideon.

19 So Gideon and the three hundred men who were with
him came to the outer line of tents, at the start of the middle
watch, when the watchmen had only then taken their stations;
and the horns were sounded and the vessels broken.

20 So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns,
and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming
branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right
hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for
Gideon.

21 Then they made a line round the tents, every man in his
place; and all the army, awaking from sleep, came running
out, and with loud cries went in flight.

22 And the three hundred gave a loud note on their horns,
and every man's sword was turned by the Lord against his
brother all through the army; and the army went in flight as
far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, to the edge of
Abel-meholah by Tabbath.

23 And the men of Israel came together from Naphtali and
from Asher and all Manasseh, and went after Midian.

24 Then Gideon sent through all the hill-country of
Ephraim saying, Come down against Midian, and keep the
ways across Jordan before they come. So all the men of
Ephraim, massing themselves together, kept the ways across
Jordan.

25 And they took the two chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb;
and they put Oreb to death at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb
they put to death at the place of the grape-crushing in Zeeb,
and they went after Midian; but the heads of Oreb and Zeeb
they took across Jordan to Gideon.

JUDGES CHAPTER 8

1 And the men of Ephraim came and said to him, Why did
you not send for us when you went to war against Midian?
And they said sharp and angry words to him.

2 And he said to them, What have I done in comparison
with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-
cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from
the grape-cutting?

3 God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb
and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with
you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became
kinder.

4 Then Gideon came to Jordan and went over it with his
three hundred, overcome with weariness and in need of food.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And he said to the men of Succoth, Give bread cakes to
my people, for they are overcome with weariness, and I am
going on after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.

6 But the chiefs of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and
Zalmunna even now in your hand that we are to give bread
to your army?

7 Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has
given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you
stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp
stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-
floor.

8 So he went up from there to Penuel and made the same
request to the men of Penuel; but they gave him the same
answer as the men of Succoth had given.

9 So he said to the men of Penuel, When I come back in
peace, I will have this tower broken down.

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their
armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, those of all
the army of the children of the east who were still living; for
a hundred and twenty thousand of their swordsmen had been
put to death.

11 And Gideon went up by the way used by the people
living in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and made
an attack on the army when they had no thought of danger.

12 And Zebah and Zalmunna went in flight; and he went
after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and
Zalmunna, and put all the army to the curse.

13 Then Gideon, the son of Joash, went back from the fight:

14 And taking prisoner a young man of the people of
Succoth, he got from him, in answer to his questions, a list of
the chiefs of Succoth and the responsible men, seventy-seven
men.

15 So he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are
Zebah and Zalmunna, on account of whom you made sport of
me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now
in your hand, that we are to give bread to your army who are
overcome with weariness?

16 Then he took the responsible men of the town and had
them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems.

17 And he had the tower of Penuel broken down and the
men of the town put to death.

18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, Where are the
men whom you put to death at Tabor? And they gave answer,
As you are, so were they; every one of them was like a king's
son.

19 And he said, They were my brothers, my mother's sons:
by the life of the Lord, if you had kept them safe, I would not
put you to death.

20 Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, Up! Put them to
death. But the boy did not take out his sword, fearing
because he was still a boy.

21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us
yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up
and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the
ornaments which were on their camels’ necks.

22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you
and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been
our saviour from the hands of Midian.

23 But Gideon said to them, I will not be a ruler over you,
and my son will not be a ruler over you: it is the Lord who
will be ruler over you.

24 Then Gideon said to them, I have a request to make to
you; let every man give me the ear-rings he has taken. (For
they had gold ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

25 And they gave answer, We will gladly give them. So they
put down a robe, every man dropping into it the ear-rings he
had taken.

26 The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them
was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition
to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes
which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their
camels' necks.

27 And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in
his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were
false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and
his house.

28 So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and
the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land
had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon.

29 And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went back to his house
and was living there.

30 Gideon had seventy sons, the offspring of his body; for
he had a number of wives.

31 And the servant-wife he had in Shechem had a son by
him, to whom he gave the name Abimelech.

32 And Gideon, the son of Joash, came to his end when he
was very old, and his body was put in the resting-place of
Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

33 And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel
again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the
Lord, and made Baal-berith their god.

34 And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the
Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their
haters on every side;

35 And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that
is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel.

JUDGES CHAPTER 9

1 Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem
to his mother's family, and said to them and to all the family
of his mother's father,

2 Say now in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem, Is it
better for you to be ruled by all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal
or by one man only? And keep in mind that I am your bone
and your flesh.

3 So his mother's family said all this about him in the ears
of all the townsmen of Shechem: and their hearts were turned
to Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.

4 And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house
of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech got the support of a
number of uncontrolled and good-for-nothing persons.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and put his
brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, to death on the same
stone; however, Jotham, the youngest, kept himself safe by
going away to a secret place.

6 And all the townsmen of Shechem and all Beth-millo
came together and went and made Abimelech their king, by
the oak of the pillar in Shechem.

7 Now Jotham, on hearing of it, went to the top of Mount
Gerizim, and crying out with a loud voice said to them, Give
ear to me, you townsmen of Shechem, so that God may give
ear to you.

8 One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves;
and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us.

9 But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth
of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving
over the trees?

10 Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king
over us.

11 But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet
taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees?

12 Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king
over us.

13 But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine,
which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees?

14 Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be
king over us.

15 And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire
to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my
shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up
the cedars of Lebanon.

16 So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making
Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and
his house in reward for the work of his hands;

17 (For my father made war for you, and put his life in
danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian;

18 And you have gone against my father's family this day,
and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone,
and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king
over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;)

19 If then you have done what is true and upright to
Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in
Abimelech, and may he have joy in you;

20 But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning
up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire
come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for
the destruction of Abimelech.

21 Then Jotham straight away went in flight to Beer, and
was living there for fear of his brother Abimelech.

22 So Abimelech was chief over Israel for three years.

23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the
townsmen of Shechem; and the townsmen of Shechem were
false to Abimelech;

24 So that punishment for the violent attack made on the
seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and for their blood, might come
on Abimelech, their brother, who put them to death, and on

the townsmen of Shechem who gave him their help in putting
his brothers to death.

25 And the townsmen of Shechem put secret watchers on
the tops of the mountains, and they made attacks on all who
went by on the road and took their goods; and word of this
came to Abimelech.

26 Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and
went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their
faith in him.

27 And they went out into their fields and got in the fruit
of their vines, and when the grapes had been crushed, they
made a holy feast and went into the house of their god, and
over their food and drink they were cursing Abimelech.

28 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, Who is Abimelech and
who is Shechem, that we are to be his servants? Is it not right
for the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his captain to be servants
to the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? But why are we
to be his servants?

29 If only I had authority over this people! I would put
Abimelech out of the way, and I would say to Abimelech,
Make your army strong, and come out.

30 Now Zebul, the ruler of the town, hearing what Gaal,
the son of Ebed, had said, was moved to wrath.

31 And he sent to Abimelech at Arumah, saying, See, Gaal,
the son of Ebed, and his brothers have come to Shechem, and
they are working up the town against you.

32 So now, get up by night, you and your people, and keep
watch in the field secretly;

33 And in the morning, when the sun is up, get up early and
make a rush on the town; and when he and his people come
out against you, do to them whatever you have a chance to
do.

34 So Abimelech and the people with him got up by night,
in four bands, to make a surprise attack on Shechem.

35 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and took his place
at the doorway into the town; then Abimelech and his people
got up from the place where they had been waiting.

36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, See!
people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.
And Zebul said to him, You see the shade of the mountains
like men.

37 And Gaal said again, See! people are coming down from
the middle of the land, and one band 1s coming by way of the
oak-tree of the Seers.

38 Then Zebul said to him, Now where is your loud talk
when you said, Who is Abimelech that we are to be his
servants? Is this not the people whom you were rating so low?
Go out now, and make war on them.

39 So Gaal went out at the head of the townsmen of
Shechem and made war on Abimelech.

40 And Abimelech went after him and he went in flight
before him; and a great number were falling by the sword all
the way up to the town.

41 Then Abimelech went back to Arumah; and Zebul sent
Gaal and his brothers away and would not let them go on
living in Shechem.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

42 Now the day after, the people went out into the fields;
and news of it came to Abimelech.

43 And he took his people, separating them into three
bands, and was waiting secretly in the field; and when he saw
the people coming out of the town, he went up and made an
attack on them.

44 And Abimelech with his band made a rush, and took up
their position at the doorway into the town; and the other
two bands made a rush on all those who were in the fields,
and overcame them.

45 And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the
town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were
in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt.

46 Then all the townsmen of the tower of Shechem, hearing
of it, went into the inner room of the house of El-berith.

47 And word was given to Abimelech that all the men of the
tower of Shechem were there together.

48 Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, with all his
people; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and, cutting
down branches of trees, took them and put them on his back.
And he said to the people who were with him, Be quick and
do as you have seen me do.

49 So all the people got branches, every man cutting down
a branch, and they went with Abimelech at their head and,
massing the branches against the inner room, put fire to the
room over them; so all those who were in the tower of
Shechem, about a thousand men and women, were burned to
death with it.

50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and put his army in
position against Thebez and took it.

51 But in the middle of the town there was a strong tower,
to which all the men and women of the town went in flight
and, shutting themselves in, went up to the roof of the tower.

52 And Abimelech came to the tower and made an attack
on it, and got near to the door of the tower for the purpose
of firing it.

53 But a certain woman sent a great stone, such as is used
for crushing grain, on to the head of Abimelech, cracking the
bone.

54 Then quickly crying out to his body-servant, he said to
him, Take out your sword and put an end to me straight
away, so that men may not say of me, His death was the work
of a woman. So the young man put his sword through him,
causing his death.

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was
dead, they went away, every man to his place.

56 In this way Abimelech was rewarded by God for the evil
he had done to his father in putting his seventy brothers to
death;

57 And God sent back on to the heads of the men of
Shechem all the evil they had done, and the curse of Jotham,
the son of Jerubbaal, came on them.

JUDGES CHAPTER 10

1 Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of
Dodo, a man of Issachar, became the saviour of Israel; he was
living in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.

2 He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years; and at his
death his body was put to rest in the earth in Shamir.

3 And after him came Jair the Gileadite, who was judge
over Israel for twenty-two years.

4 And he had thirty sons, who went on thirty young asses;
and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are
named Havvoth-Jair to this day.

5 And at the death of Jair his body was put to rest in the
earth in Kamon.

6 And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the
Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of
Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the
gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the
Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him
no longer.

7 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel,
and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and
into the hands of the children of Ammon.

8 And that year the children of Israel were crushed under
their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the
other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in
Gilead, were cruelly crushed down.

9 And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make
war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim;
and Israel was in great trouble.

10 Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said,
Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God
and have been servants to the Baals.

11 And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the
Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and
the Philistines

12 And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing
you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you
salvation from their hands?

13 But, for all this, you have given me up and have been
servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer.

14 Go, send up your cry for help to the gods of your
selection; let them be your saviours in the time of your
trouble.

15 And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are
sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us
salvation this day.

16 So they put away the strange gods from among them,
and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry
because of the sorrows of Israel.

17 Then the children of Ammon came together and put
their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel
came together and put their army in position in Mizpah.

18 And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will
be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We
will make him head over all Gilead.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JUDGES CHAPTER 11

1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a great man of war; he
was the son of a loose woman, and Gilead was his father.

2 And Gilead's wife gave birth to sons, and when her sons
became men, they sent Jephthah away, saying, You have no
part in the heritage of our father's house, for you are the son
of another woman.

3 So Jephthah went in flight from his brothers and was
living in the land of Tob, where a number of good-for-
nothing men, joining Jephthah, went out with him on his
undertakings.

4 Now after a time the children of Ammon made war
against Israel.

5 And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel,
the responsible men of Gilead went to get Jephthah back
from the land of Tob;

6 And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief so that
we may make war against the children of Ammon.

7 But Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, Did
you not, in your hate for me, send me away from my father's
house? Why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?

8 And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, That
is the reason we have come back to you; so go with us and
make war against the children of Ammon, and we will make
you our head over all the people of Gilead.

9 Then Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, If
you take me back to make war against the children of
Ammon, and if with the help of the Lord I overcome them,
will you make me your head?

10 And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah,
May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say.

11 So Jephthah went with the responsible men of Gilead,
and the people made him head and chief over them; and
Jephthah said all these things before the Lord in Mizpah.

12 Then Jephthah sent men to the king of the children of
Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have
come to make war against my land?

13 And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men
sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of
Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the
Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those
lands quietly.

14 And Jephthah sent again to the king of the children of
Ammon,

15 And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did
not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of
Ammon;

16 But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through
the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh;

17 Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me
now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not
give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of
Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh.

18 Then he went on through the waste land and round the
land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east
side of the land of Moab, and put up their tents on the other

side of the Arnon; they did not come inside the limit of Moab,
for the Arnon was the limit of Moab.

19 And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the
king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go
through your land to my place.

20 But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through
his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his
army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel.

21 And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his
people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so
all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became
Israel's.

22 All the limit of the Amorites was theirs, from the Arnon
as far as the Jabbok and from the waste land even to Jordan.

23 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their
land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are
you then to have it?

24 Do you not keep the lands of those whom Chemosh your
god sends out from before you? So we will keep all the lands
of those whom the Lord our God sends out from before us.

25 What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor,
king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or
make war against them?

26 While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-
towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the
towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred
years, why did you not get them back at that time?

27 So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing
wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is
Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and
the children of Ammon.

28 The king of the children of Ammon, however, did not
give ear to the words which Jephthah sent to him.

29 Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he
went through Gilead and Manasseh, and came to Mizpeh of
Gilead; and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went over to the
children of Ammon.

30 And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you
will give the children of Ammon into my hands,

31 Then whoever comes out from the door of my house,
meeting me when I come back in peace from the children of
Ammon, will be the Lord's and I will give him as a burned
offering.

32 So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to
make war on them; and the Lord gave them into his hands.

33 And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way
to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-
cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the
children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel.

34 Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and
his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music
and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons
or daughters.

35 And when he saw her he was overcome with grief, and
said, Ah! my daughter! I am crushed with sorrow, and it is

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

you who are the chief cause of my trouble; for I have made an
oath to the Lord and I may not take it back.

36 And she said to him, My father, you have made an oath
to the Lord; do then to me whatever you have said; for the
Lord has sent a full reward on your haters, on the children of
Ammon.

37 Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me
have two months to go away into the mountains with my
friends, weeping for my sad fate.

38 And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two
months; and she went with her friends to the mountains,
weeping for her sad fate.

39 And at the end of two months she went back to her
father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she
had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in
Israel,

40 For the women to go year by year sorrowing for the
daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in every year.

JUDGES CHAPTER 12

1 Now the men of Ephraim came together and took up arms
and went over to Zaphon; and they said to Jephthah, Why
did you go over to make war against the children of Ammon
without sending for us to go with you? Now we will put your
house on fire over you.

2 And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in
danger, and the children of Ammon were very cruel to us,
and when I sent for you, you gave me no help against them.

3 So when I saw that there was no help to be had from you,
I put my life in my hand and went over against the children
of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hands: why then
have you come up to me this day to make war on me?

4 Then Jephthah got together all the men of Gilead and
made war on Ephraim; and the men of Gilead overcame
Ephraim.

5 And the Gileadites took the crossing-places of Jordan
against the Ephraimites; and when any of the men of
Ephraim who had gone in flight said, let me go over; the men
of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said,
No;

6 Then they said to him, Now say Shibboleth; and he said
Sibboleth, and was not able to say it in the right way; then
they took him and put him to death at the crossing-places of
Jordan; and at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites
were put to death.

7 Now Jephthah was judge of Israel for six years. And
Jephthah the Gileadite came to his death, and his body was
put to rest in his town, Mizpeh of Gilead.

8 And after him, Ibzan of Beth-lehem was judge of Israel.

9 He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he sent to
other places, and he got thirty wives from other places for his
sons. And he was judge of Israel for seven years.

10 And Ibzan came to his death and his body was put to rest
at Beth-lehem.

11 And after him, Elon the Zebulonite was judge of Israel;
and he was judge of Israel for ten years.

12 And Elon the Zebulonite came to his death, and his body
was put to rest in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

13 And after him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite,
was judge of Israel.

14 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons who went on
seventy young asses; and he was judge of Israel for eight years.

15 And Abdon, the son of Hillel, came to his death, and his
body was put to rest in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in
the hill-country of the Amalekites.

JUDGES CHAPTER 13

1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the
Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the
Philistines for forty years.

2 Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the
Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never
given birth to a child.

3 And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to
her, See now! though you have never given birth to children,
you will be with child and give birth to a son.

4 Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and
to take no unclean thing for food;

5 For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his
hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God
from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel
from the hands of the Philistines.

6 Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man
came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing
great fear; I put no question to him about where he came
from, and he did not give me his name;

7 But he said to me, You are with child and will give birth
to a son; and now do not take any wine or strong drink or let
anything unclean be your food; for the child will be separate
to God from his birth to the day of his death.

8 Then Manoah made prayer to the Lord, and said, O Lord,
let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and
make clear to us what we are to do for the child who is to
come.

9 And God gave ear to the voice of Manoah; and the angel
of God came to the woman again when she was seated in the
field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

10 So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the
news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other
day.

11 And Manoah got up and went after his wife, and came
up to the man and said to him, Are you the man who was
talking to this woman? And he said, I am.

12 And Manoah said, Now when your words come true,
what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work?

13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the
woman take note of what I have said to her.

14 She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her
food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything
which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her
orders to do.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us
keep you while we make ready a young goat for you.

16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you
keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a
burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not
come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord.

17 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is
your name, so that when your words come true we may give
you honour?

18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you
questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder?

19 So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering,
offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things.

20 And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar,
the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while
Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down
on their faces to the earth.

21 But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah
and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the
angel of the Lord.

22 And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our
fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

23 But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our
death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our
meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

24 So the woman gave birth to a son, and gave him the
name Samson; and he became a man and the blessing of the
Lord was on him.

25 And the spirit of the Lord first came on him in
Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

JUDGES CHAPTER 14

1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in
Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines;

2 And when he came back he said to his father and mother,
I have seen a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the
Philistines: get her now for me for my wife.

3 Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no
woman among the daughters of your relations or among all
my people, that you have to go for your wife to the
Philistines, who are without circumcision? But Samson said
to his father, Get her for me, for she is pleasing to me.

4 Now his father and mother had no knowledge that this
was the purpose of the Lord, who had the destruction of the
Philistines in mind. Now the Philistines at that time were
ruling over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down to Timnah (and his father and
his mother,) and came to the vine-gardens of Timnah; and a
young lion came rushing out at him.

6 And the spirit of the Lord came on him with power, and,
unarmed as he was, pulling the lion in two as one might do
to a young goat, he put him to death; (but he said nothing to
his father and mother of what he had done.)

7 So he went down and had talk with the woman; and she
was pleasing to Samson.

8 Then after a time he went back to take her; and turning
from the road to see the dead body of the lion, he saw a mass
of bees in the body of the lion, and honey there.

9 And he took the honey in his hand, and went on, tasting
it on the way; and when he came to his father and mother he
gave some to them; but did not say that he had taken the
honey from the body of the lion.

10 Then Samson went down to the woman, and made a
feast there, as was the way among young men.

11 And he took thirty friends, and they were with him.

12 And Samson said, Now I have a hard question for you: if
you are able to give me the answer before the seven days of
the feast are over, I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty
changes of clothing;

13 But if you are not able to give me the answer, then you
will have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty changes of
clothing. And they said to him, Put your hard question and
let us see what it is.

14 And he said, Out of the taker of food came food, and out
of the strong came the sweet. And at the end of three days
they were still not able to give the answer.

15 So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Get
from your husband the answer to his question by some trick
or other, or we will have you and your father's house burned
with fire; did you get us here to take all we have?

16 Then Samson's wife, weeping over him, said, Truly you
have no love for me but only hate; you have put a hard
question to the children of my people and have not given me
the answer. And he said to her, See, I have not given the
answer even to my father or my mother; am I to give it to you?

17 And all the seven days of the feast she went on weeping
over him; and on the seventh day he gave her the answer,
because she gave him no peace; and she sent word of it to the
children of her people.

18 Then on the seventh day, before he went into the bride's
room, the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than
honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them,
If you had not been ploughing with my cow you would not
have got the answer to my question.

19 And the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and he
went down to Ashkelon and, attacking thirty men there,
took their clothing from them, and gave it to the men who
had given the answer to his hard question. Then, full of
wrath, he went back to his father's house.

20 But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been
his best man.

JUDGES CHAPTER 15

1 Now a short time after, at the time of the grain-cutting,
Samson, taking with him a young goat, went to see his wife;
and he said, I will go in to my wife into the bride's room. But
her father would not let him go in.

2 And her father said, It seemed to me that you had only
hate for her; so I gave her to your friend: but is not her
younger sister fairer than she? so please take her in place of
the other.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment
in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil.

4 So Samson went and got three hundred foxes and some
sticks of fire-wood; and he put the foxes tail to tail with a
stick between every two tails;

5 Then firing the sticks, he let the foxes loose among the
uncut grain of the Philistines, and all the corded stems as
well as the living grain and the vine-gardens and the olives
went up in flames.

6 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they
said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took
his wife and gave her to his friend. So the Philistines came up
and had her and her father's house burned.

7 And Samson said to them, If you go on like this, truly I
will take my full payment from you; and that will be the end
of it.

8 And he made an attack on them, driving them in
uncontrolled flight, and causing great destruction; then he
went away to his safe place in the crack of the rock at Etam.

9 Then the Philistines went and put up their tents in Judah,
all round Lehi.

10 And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up
against us? And they said, We have come up to take Samson,
and to do to him as he has done to us.

11 Then three thousand of the men of Judah went down to
the crack of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Is it not
clear to you that the Philistines are our rulers? What is this
you have done to us? And he said to them, I only did to them
as they did to me.

12 Then they said to him, We have come down to take you
and give you up into the hands of the Philistines. And
Samson said to them, Give me your oath that you will not
make an attack on me yourselves.

13 And they said, No; we will take you and give you up
into their hands, but truly we will not put you to death. So
knotting two new cords round him they took him up from
the rock.

14 And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came out,
meeting him with loud cries; then the spirit of the Lord came
rushing on him, and the cords on his arms became like grass
which has been burned with fire, and the bands came falling
off his hands.

15 And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead,
which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a
thousand men with it.

16 And Samson said, With a red ass's mouth-bone I have
made them red with blood, with a red ass's mouth-bone I
have sent destruction on a thousand men.

17 And having said these words, he let the mouth-bone go
out of his hand; so that place was named Ramath-lehi.

18 After this, he was in great need of water, and crying out
to the Lord, he said, You have given this great salvation by
the hand of your servant, and now need of water will be my
death; and I will be given into the hands of this people who
are without circumcision.

19 Then God made a crack in the hollow rock in Lehi and
water came out of it; and after drinking, his spirit came back
to him and he was strong again; so that place was named En-
hakkore; it is in Lehi to this day.

20 And he was judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines
for twenty years.

JUDGES CHAPTER 16

1 Now Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a loose
woman and went in to her.

2 And it was said to the Gazites, Samson is here. So they
went round, watching for him all day at the doorway of the
town, but at night they kept quiet, saying, When daylight
comes we will put him to death.

3 And Samson was there till the middle of the night; then
he got up, and took a grip on the doors of the town, pulling
them up, together with their two supports and their locks,
and put them on his back and took them up to the top of the
hill in front of Hebron.

4 Now after this, he was in love with a woman in the valley
of Sorek, named Delilah.

5 And the chiefs of the Philistines came up to her, and said
to her, Make use of your power over him and see what is the
secret of his great strength, and how we may get the better of
him, and put bands on him, so that we may make him feeble;
and every one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of
silver.

6 So Delilah said to Samson, Make clear to me now what is
the secret of your great strength, and how you may be put in
bands and made feeble.

7 And Samson said to her, If seven new bow-cords which
have never been made dry are knotted round me, I will
become feeble and will be like any other man.

8 So the chiefs of the Philistines gave her seven new bow-
cords which had never been made dry, and she had them
tightly knotted round him.

9 Now she had men waiting secretly in the inner room; and
she said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. And the
cords were broken by him as a twist of thread is broken when
touched by a flame. So the secret of his strength did not come
to light.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, See, you have been making
sport of me with false words; now, say truly how may you be
put in bands?

11 And he said to her, If they only put round me new thick
cords which have never been used, then I will become feeble
and will be like any other man.

12 So Delilah took new thick cords, knotting them tightly
round him, and said to him, The Philistines are on you,
Samson. And men were waiting secretly in the inner room.
And the cords were broken off his arms like threads.

13 Then Delilah said to Samson, Up to now you have made
sport of me with false words; now say truly, how may you be
put in bands? And he said to her, If you get the seven twists
of my hair worked into the cloth you are making and fixed

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

with the pin, I will become feeble and will be like any other
man.

14 So while he was sleeping she got the seven twists of his
hair worked into her cloth and fixed with the pin, and said to
him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. Then awaking from
his sleep, he got up quickly, pulling up cloth and machine
together.

15 And she said to him, Why do you say you are my lover
when your heart is not mine? Three times you have made
sport of me, and have not made clear to me the secret of your
great strength.

16 So day after day she gave him no peace, for ever
questioning him till his soul was troubled to death.

17 And opening all his heart to her, he said to her, My head
has never been touched by a blade, for I have been separate to
God from the day of my birth: if my hair is cut off, then my
strength will go from me and I will become feeble, and will
be like any other man.

18 And when Delilah saw that he had let her see into his
heart, she sent word to the chiefs of the Philistines saying,
Come up this time, for he has let out all his heart to me. Then
the chiefs of the Philistines came to her, with the money in
their hands.

19 And she made him go to sleep on her knees; and she sent
for a man and had his seven twists of hair cut off; and while it
was being done he became feeble and his strength went from
him.

20 Then she said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. And
awaking from his sleep, he said, I will go out as at other
times, shaking myself free. But he was not conscious that the
Lord had gone from him.

21 So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes; then
they took him down to Gaza, and, chaining him with bands
of brass, put him to work crushing grain in the prison-house.

22 But the growth of his hair was starting again after it had
been cut off.

23 And the chiefs of the Philistines came together to make a
great offering to Dagon their god, and to be glad; for they
said, Our god has given into our hands Samson our hater.

24 And when the people saw him, they gave praise to their
god; for they said, Our god has given into our hands the one
who was fighting against us, who made our country waste,
and who put great numbers of us to death.

25 Now when their hearts were full of joy, they said, Send
for Samson to make sport for us. And they sent for Samson
out of the prison-house, and he made sport before them; and
they put him between the pillars.

26 And Samson said to the boy who took him by the hand,
Let me put my hand on the pillars supporting the house, so
that I may put my back against them.

27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the
lords of the Philistines were there; and about three thousand
men and women were on the roof, looking on while Samson
made sport.

28 And Samson, crying out to the Lord, said, O Lord God,
do have me now in mind, and do make me strong only this

once, O God, so that I may take one last payment from the
Philistines for my two eyes.

29 Then Samson put his arms round the two middle pillars
supporting the house, putting his weight on them, on one
with his right hand and on the other with his left.

30 And Samson said, Let death overtake me with the
Philistines. And he put out all his strength, and the house
came down on the chiefs and on all the people who were in it.
So the dead whom he sent to destruction by his death were
more than all those on whom he had sent destruction in his
life.

31 Then his brothers and his father's people came down and
took him up and put his body to rest in the earth between
Zorah and Eshtaol in the resting-place of Manoah his father.
And he had been judge of Israel for twenty years.

JUDGES CHAPTER 17

1 Now there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim
named Micah.

2 And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of
silver which were taken from you, about which you took an
oath and said in my hearing, I have given this silver to the
Lord from my hand for myself, to make a pictured image and
a metal image: see, I have the silver, for I took it: so now I
will give it back to you. And his mother said, May the
blessing of the Lord be on my son.

3 And he gave back the eleven hundred shekels of silver to
his mother, and his mother said, I have made the silver holy
to the Lord from me for my son, to make a pictured image
and a metal image.

4 So he gave the silver back to his mother. Then his mother
took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a metal-
worker who made a pictured image and a metal image from
them: and it was in the house of Micah.

5 And the man Micah had a house of gods; and he made an
ephod and family gods and put one of his sons in the position
of priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did as
seemed right to him.

7 Now there was a young man living in Beth-lehem-judah,
of the family of Judah and a Levite, who was not a townsman
of the place.

8 And he went away from the town of Beth-lehem-judah,
looking for somewhere to make his living-place; and on his
journey he came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house
of Micah.

9 And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he
said to him, I am a Levite from Beth-lehem-judah, and I am
looking for a living-place.

10 Then Micah said to him, Make your living-place with me,
and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten
shekels of silver a year and your clothing and food.

11 And the Levite said he would make his living-place with
the man, and he became to him as one of his sons.

12 And Micah gave the position to the Levite, and the
young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 Then Micah said, Now I am certain that the Lord will
do me good, seeing that the Levite has become my priest.

JUDGES CHAPTER 18

1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those
days the Danites were looking for a heritage for themselves,
to be their living-place; for up to that time no distribution of
land had been made to them among the tribes of Israel.

2 So the children of Dan sent five men from among their
number, strong men, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to take a
look at the land and make a search through it; and they said
to them, Go and make a search through the land; and they
came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah,
where they made a stop for the night.

3 When they were near the house of Micah, hearing a voice
which was not strange to them, that of the young Levite,
they went out of their road to his place, and said to him,
How did you come here? and what are you doing in this place?
and why are you here?

4 And he said to them, This is what Micah did for me, and
he gave me payment and I became his priest.

5 Then they said, Do get directions from God for us, to see
if the journey on which we are going will have a good
outcome.

6 And the priest said to them, Go in peace: your way is
guided by the Lord.

7 Then the five men went on their way and came to Laish
and saw the people who were there, living without thought
of danger, like the Zidonians, quiet and safe; for they had
everything on earth for their needs, and they were far from
the Zidonians and had no business with Aram.

8 So they came back to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol,
and their brothers said to them, What news have you?

9 And they said, Up! and let us go against Laish; for we
have seen the land, and it is very good: why are you doing
nothing? Do not be slow to go in and take the land for your
heritage.

10 When you come there you will come to a people living
without thought of danger; and the land is wide, and God
has given it into your hands: a place where there is
everything on earth for man's needs.

11 So six hundred men of the Danites from Zorah and
Eshtaol went out armed with instruments of war.

12 And they went up and put up their tents in Kiriath-
jearim in Judah: so that place is named Mahaneh-dan to this
day. It is to the west of Kiriath-jearim.

13 From there they went on to the hill-country of Ephraim
and came to the house of Micah.

14 Then the five men who had gone to make a search
through the country of Laish, said to their brothers, Have
you knowledge that in these houses there is an ephod and
family gods and a pictured image and a metal image? So now
you see what to do.

15 And turning from their road they came to the house of
the young Levite, the house of Micah, and said to him, Is it
well with you?

16 And the six hundred armed men of the Danites took
their places by the doorway.

17 Then the five men who had gone to make a search
through the land, went in and took the pictured image and
the ephod and the family gods and the metal image; and the
priest was by the doorway with the six hundred armed men.

18 And when they went into Micah's house and took out
the pictured image and the ephod and the family gods and
the metal image, the priest said to them, What are you doing?

19 And they said to him, Be quiet; say nothing, and come
with us and be our father and priest; is it better for you to be
priest to one man's house or to be priest to a tribe and a
family in Israel?

20 Then the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod
and the family gods and the pictured image and went with
the people.

21 So they went on their way again, putting the little ones
and the oxen and the goods in front of them.

22 When they had gone some way from the house of Micah,
the men from the houses near Micah's house came together
and overtook the children of Dan,

23 Crying out to them. And the Danites, turning round,
said to Micah, What is your trouble, that you have taken up
arms?

24 And he said, You have taken my gods which I made, and
my priest, and have gone away; what is there for me now?
Why then do you say to me, What is your trouble?

25 And the children of Dan said to him, Say no more, or
men of bitter spirit may make an attack on you, causing loss
of your life and the lives of your people.

26 Then the children of Dan went on their way; and when
Micah saw that they were stronger than he, he went back to
his house.

27 And they took that which Micah had made, and his
priest, and came to Laish, to a people living quietly and
without thought of danger, and they put them to the sword
without mercy, burning down their town.

28 And they had no saviour, because it was far from Zidon,
and they had no business with Aram; and it was in the valley
which is the property of Beth-rehob. And building up the
town again they took it for their living-place.

29 And they gave the town the name of Dan, after Dan
their father, who was the son of Israel: though the town had
been named Laish at first.

30 (And the children of Dan put up the pictured image for
themselves; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of
Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of the Danites
till the day when the ark was taken prisoner.)

31 And they put up for themselves the image which Micah
had made, and it was there all the time that the house of God
was in Shiloh.

JUDGES CHAPTER 19
1 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a
certain Levite was living in the inmost parts of the hill-

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

country of Ephraim, and he got for himself a servant-wife
from Beth-lehem-judah.

2 And his servant-wife was angry with him, and went away
from him to her father's house at Beth-lehem-judah, and was
there for four months.

3 Then her husband got up and went after her, with the
purpose of talking kindly to her, and taking her back with
him; he had with him his young man and two asses: and she
took him into her father's house, and her father, when he saw
him, came forward to him with joy.

4 And his father-in-law, the girl's father, kept him there for
three days; and they had food and drink and took their rest
there.

5 Now on the fourth day they got up early in the morning
and he made ready to go away; but the girl's father said to his
son-in-law, Take a little food to keep up your strength, and
then go on your way.

6 So seating themselves they had food and drink, the two of
them together; and the girl's father said to the man, If it is
your pleasure, take your rest here tonight, and let your heart
be glad.

7 And the man got up to go away, but his father-in-law
would not let him go, so he took his rest there again for the
night.

8 Then early on the morning of the fifth day he got up to go
away; but the girl's father said, Keep up your strength; so the
two of them had a meal, and the man and his woman and his
servant did not go till after the middle of the day.

9 And when they got up to go away, his father-in-law, the
girl's father, said to him, Now evening is coming on, so do
not go tonight; see, the day is almost gone; take your rest
here and let your heart be glad, and tomorrow early, go on
your way back to your house.

10 But the man would not be kept there that night, and he
got up and went away and came opposite to Jebus (which is
Jerusalem); and he had with him the two asses, ready for
travelling, and his woman.

11 When they got near Jebus the day was far gone; and the
servant said to his master, Now let us go from our road into
this town of the Jebusites and take our night's rest there.

12 But his master said to him, We will not go out of our
way into a strange town, whose people are not of the
children of Israel; but we will go on to Gibeah.

13 And he said to his servant, Come, let us go on to one of
these places, stopping for the night in Gibeah or Ramah.

14 So they went on their way; and the sun went down when
they were near Gibeah in the land of Benjamin.

15 And they went off the road there with the purpose of
stopping for the night in Gibeah: and he went in, seating
himself in the street of the town, for no one took them into
his house for the night.

16 Now when it was evening they saw an old man coming
back from his work in the fields; he was from the hill-country
of Ephraim and was living in Gibeah: but the men of the
place were Benjamites.

17 And when he saw the traveller in the street of the town,
the old man said, Where are you going? and where do you
come from?

18 And he said to him, We are on our way from Beth-
lehem-judah to the inmost parts of the hill-country of
Ephraim: I came from there and went to Beth-lehem-judah:
now I am on my way back to my house, but no man will take
me into his house.

19 But we have dry grass and food for our asses, as well as
bread and wine for me, and for the woman, and for the
young man with us: we have no need of anything.

20 And the old man said, Peace be with you; let all your
needs be my care; only do not take your rest in the street.

21 So he took them into his house and gave the asses food;
and after washing their feet they took food and drink.

22 While they were taking their pleasure at the meal, the
good-for-nothing men of the town came round the house,
giving blows on the door; and they said to the old man, the
master of the house, Send out that man who came to your
house, so that we may take our pleasure with him.

23 So the man, the master of the house, went out to them,
and said, No, my brothers, do not this evil thing; this man
has come into my house, and you are not to do him this
wrong.

24 See, here is my daughter, a virgin, and his servant-wife: I
will send them out for you to take them and do with them
whatever you will. But do no such thing of shame to this man.

25 But the men would not give ear to him: so the man took
his woman and sent her out to them; and they took her by
force, using her for their pleasure all night till the morning;
and when dawn came they let her go.

26 Then at the dawn of day the woman came, and, falling
down at the door of the man's house where her master was,
was stretched there till it was light.

27 In the morning her master got up, and opening the door
of the house went out to go on his way; and he saw his
servant-wife stretched on the earth at the door of the house
with her hands on the step.

28 And he said to her, Get up and let us be going; but there
was no answer; so he took her up and put her on the ass, and
went on his way and came to his house.

29 And when he had come to his house, he got his knife,
and took the woman, cutting her up bone by bone into
twelve parts, which he sent through all Israel.

30 And he gave orders to the men whom he sent, saying,
This is what you are to say to all the men of Israel, Has ever
an act like this been done from the day when the children of
Israel came out of Egypt to this day? Give thought to it,
turning it over in your minds, and give your opinion of it.

JUDGES CHAPTER 20

1 Then all the children of Israel took up arms, and the
people came together like one man, from Dan to Beer-sheba,
and the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 And the chiefs of the people, out of all the tribes of Israel,
took their places in the meeting of the people of God, four
hundred thousand footmen armed with swords.

3 (Now the children of Benjamin had word that the
children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the children
of Israel said, Make clear how this evil thing took place.

4 Then the Levite, the husband of the dead woman, said in
answer, I came to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin, I and my
servant-wife, for the purpose of stopping there for the night.

5 And the townsmen of Gibeah came together against me,
going round the house on all sides by night; it was their
purpose to put me to death, and my servant-wife was
violently used by them and is dead.

6 So I took her, cutting her into parts which I sent through
all the country of the heritage of Israel: for they have done an
act of shame in Israel.

7 Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your
suggestions about what is to be done.

8 Then all the people got up as one man and said, Not one
of us will go to his tent or go back to his house:

9 But this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up
against it by the decision of the Lord;

10 And we will take ten men out of every hundred, through
all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, a
thousand out of every ten thousand, to get food for the
people, so that they may give to Gibeah of Benjamin the
right punishment for the act of shame they have done in
Israel.

11 So all the men of Israel were banded together against the
town, united like one man.

12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of
Benjamin saying, What is this evil which has been done
among you?

13 Now give up those good-for-nothing persons in Gibeah
so that we may put them to death, clearing away the evil
from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not give ear
to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.

14 And the children of Benjamin came together from all
their towns to Gibeah, to go to war with the children of
Israel.

15 And the children of Benjamin who came that day from
the towns were twenty-six thousand men armed with swords,
in addition to the people of Gibeah, numbering seven
hundred of the best fighting-men,

16 Who were left-handed, able to send a stone at a hair
without error.

17 And the men of Israel, other than Benjamin, were four
hundred thousand in number, all armed with swords; they
were all men of war.

18 And they got up and went up to Beth-el to get directions
from God, and the children of Israel said, Who is to be the
first to go up to the fight against the children of Benjamin?
And the Lord said, Judah is to go up first.

19 So the children of Israel got up in the morning and put
themselves in position against Gibeah.

20 And the men of Israel went out to war against Benjamin
(and the men of Israel put their forces in fighting order
against them at Gibeah).

21 Then the children of Benjamin came out from Gibeah,
cutting down twenty-two thousand of the Israelites that day.

22 But the people, the men of Israel, taking heart again,
put their forces in order and took up the same position as on
the first day.

23 Now the children of Israel went up, weeping before the
Lord till evening, requesting the Lord and saying, Am I to
go forward again to the fight against the children of
Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him.

24 So the children of Israel went forward against the
children of Benjamin the second day.

25 And the second day Benjamin went out against them
from Gibeah, cutting down eighteen thousand men of the
children of Israel, all swordsmen.

26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went
up to Beth-el, weeping and waiting there before the Lord,
going without food all day till evening, and offering burned
offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord.

27 And the children of Israel made request to the Lord, (for
the ark of the agreement of the Lord was there in those days,

28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was
in his place before it,) and said, Am I still to go on with the
fight against the children of Benjamin my brother, or am I to
give it up? And the Lord said, Go on; for tomorrow I will
give him into your hands.

29 So Israel put men secretly all round Gibeah to make a
surprise attack on it.

30 And the children of Israel went up against the children
of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in fighting
order against Gibeah as before.

31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the
people, moving away from the town; and as before, at their
first attack, they put to death about thirty men of Israel on
the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el and the other
to Gibeah, and in the open country.

32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are giving way
before us as at first. But the children of Israel said, Let us go
in flight and get them away from the town, into the
highways.

33 So all the men of Israel got up and put themselves in
fighting order at Baal-tamar: and those who had been
waiting secretly to make a surprise attack came rushing out
of their place on the west of Geba.

34 And they came in front of Gibeah, ten thousand of the
best men in all Israel, and the fighting became more violent;
but the children of Benjamin were not conscious that evil was
coming on them.

35 Then the Lord sent sudden fear on Benjamin before
Israel; and that day the children of Israel put to death
twenty-five thousand, one hundred men of Benjamin, all of
them swordsmen.

36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were
overcome: and the men of Israel had given way before

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Benjamin, putting their faith in the watchers who were to
make the surprise attack on Gibeah.

37 And the watchers, rushing on Gibeah and overrunning
it, put all the town to the sword without mercy.

38 Now the sign fixed between the men of Israel and those
making the surprise attack was that when they made a pillar
of smoke go up from the town,

39 The men of Israel were to make a turn about in the fight.
And Benjamin had overcome and put to death about thirty
of the men of Israel, and were saying, Certainly they are
falling back before us as in the first fight.

40 Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of
smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town
going up in smoke to heaven.

41 And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the
men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that
evil had overtaken them.

42 So turning their backs on the men of Israel, they went in
the direction of the waste land; but the fight overtook them;
and those who came out of the town were heading them off
and putting them to the sword.

43 And crushing Benjamin down, they went after them,
driving them from Nohah as far as the east side of Gibeah.

44 Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin came to their death,
all strong men of war.

45 And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon
in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them
were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after
them to Geba, put to death two thousand more.

46 So twenty-five thousand of the swordsmen of Benjamin
came to their end that day, all strong men of war.

47 But six hundred men, turning back, went in flight to the
rock of Rimmon in the waste land, and were living on the
rock of Rimmon for four months.

48 And the men of Israel, turning again against the
children of Benjamin, put to the sword without mercy all the
towns and the cattle and everything there was, burning every
town which came into their hands.

JUDGES CHAPTER 21

1 Now the men of Israel had taken an oath in Mizpah,
saying, Not one of us will give his daughter as a wife to
Benjamin.

2 And the people came to Beth-el, waiting there till evening
before God, and gave themselves up to bitter weeping.

3 And they said, O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this
fate come on Israel, that today one tribe has been cut off from
Israel?

4 Then on the day after, the people got up early and made
an altar there, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings.

5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all
the tribes of Israel, who did not come up to the Lord at the
meeting of all Israel? For they had taken a great oath that
whoever did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord was to be
put to death.

6 And the children of Israel were moved with pity for
Benjamin their brother, saying, Today one tribe has been cut
off from Israel.

7 What are we to do about wives for those who are still
living? For we have taken an oath by the Lord that we will
not give them our daughters for wives.

8 And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not
come up to Mizpah to the Lord? And it was seen that no one
had come from Jabesh-gilead to the meeting.

9 For when the people were numbered, not one man of the
people of Jabesh-gilead was present.

10 So they (the meeting) sent twelve thousand of the best
fighting-men, and gave them orders, saying, Go and put the
people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword without mercy, with
their women and their little ones.

11 And this is what you are to do: every male, and every
woman who has had sex relations with a man, you are to put
to the curse, but you are to keep safe the virgins. And they
did so.

12 Now there were among the people of Jabesh-gilead four
hundred young virgins who had never had sex relations with
a man; these they took to their tents in Shiloh in the land of
Canaan.

13 And all the meeting sent to the men of Benjamin who
were in the rock of Rimmon, offering them peace.

14 Then Benjamin came back; and they gave them the
women whom they had kept from death among the women of
Jabesh-gilead: but still there were not enough for them.

15 And the people were moved with pity for Benjamin,
because the Lord had let his wrath loose on the tribes of
Israel.

16 Then the responsible men of the meeting said, What are
we to do about wives for the rest of them, seeing that the
women of Benjamin are dead?

17 And they said, How is the rest of Benjamin to be given
offspring so that one tribe of Israel may not be put out of
existence,

18 Seeing that we may not give them our daughters as wives?
For the children of Israel had taken an oath, saying, Cursed
is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.

19 And they said, See, every year there is a feast of the Lord
in Shiloh, which is to the north of Beth-el, on the east side of
the highway which goes up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on
the south of Lebonah.

20 And they said to the men of Benjamin, Go into the vine-
gardens, waiting there secretly,

21 And watching; and if the daughters of Shiloh come out
to take part in the dances, then come from the vine-gardens
and take a wife for every one of you from among the
daughters of Shiloh, and go back to the land of Benjamin.

22 And when their fathers or their brothers come and make
trouble, you are to say to them, Give them to us as an act of
grace; for we did not take them as wives for ourselves in war;
and if you yourselves had given them to us you would have
been responsible for the broken oath.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OER ERY oN EOE
FE OY

23 So the men of Benjamin did this, and got wives for
themselves for every one of their number, taking them away
by force from the dance; then they went back to their
heritage, building up their towns and living in them.

24 Then the children of Israel went away from there, every
man to his tribe and his family, every man went back to his
heritage.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did
what seemed right to him.

ES
LEDS

THE SCROLL OF RUTH
Hebrew title: Megilath Rut
Estimated Range of Dating: Sth—4th centuries B.C.

(The Book of Ruth (Hebrew: Megilath Rut, "the Scroll of
Ruth", one of the Five Megillot) 1s included in the third
division, or the Writings (Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible; in
most Christian canons it is treated as a history book and
placed between Judges and I Samuel. It is one of the shortest
books in both the Jewish and Christian holy books,
consisting of only four chapters. The name Ruth means
compassion, pity, remorse, sorrow or grief. It 1s unknown
who wrote the book. It is traditionally ascribed to the
prophet Samuel, but Ruth's identity as a non-Israelite and
the stress on the need for an inclusive attitude towards
foreigners suggests an origin in the fifth century BC, when
intermarriage had become controversial (as seen in Ezra 9:1
and Nehemiah 13:1). A substantial number of scholars
therefore date it to the Persian period (5th-4th centuries
BC). The genealogy that concludes the book is believed to be
a post-exilic Priestly addition, as 1t adds nothing to the plot;
nevertheless, it 1s carefully crafted and integrates the book
into the history of Israel running from Genesis to Kings.

Contents and Structure

The book ts structured in four chapters:

1. Prologue and Problem: Death and Emptiness (1:1—22)

A. Setting the scene (1:1—5)

B. Naomi returns home (1:6—18)

C. Arrival of Naomi and Ruth in Bethlehem (1:19—22)

2. Ruth Meets Boaz, Naomu's Relative, on the Harvest Field
(2:1-23)

A. Ruth in the field of Boaz (2: 1-17)

B. Ruth reports to Naomi (2:18—23)

3. Naomi Sends Ruth to Boaz on the Threshing Floor
(3:1-18)

A. Naomi Reveals Her Plan (3:1—5)

B. Ruth at the threshing-floor of Boaz (3:6—15)

C. Ruth reports to Naomi (3:16—18)

4. Resolution and Epilogue: Life and Fullness (4: 1—22)

A. Boaz with the men at the gate (4: 1-12)

B. A son is born to Ruth (4:13—17)

Genealogical appendix (4:18—22)

The book tells of Ruth accepting the god of the Israelites as
her god and the Israelite people as her own. In Ruth 1:16—17,
Ruth tells Naomi, her Israelite mother-in-law, "Where you
go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will
be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die,
and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it
ever so severely, if even death separates you and me." The

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

book is held in esteem by Jews who fall under the category of
Jews-by-choice, as 1s evidenced by the considerable presence
of Boaz in rabbinic literature. The Book of Ruth also
functions Iiturgically, as it 1s read during the Jewish holiday
of Shavuot ("Weeks").

The book can be read as a political parable relating to
issues around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (the 4th
century BC). The realistic nature of the story is established
from the start through the names of the participants: the
husband and father is Elimelech, meaning "My God 1s King",
and his wife 1s Naomi, "Pleasing", but after the deaths of her
sons Mahlon, "Sickness", and Chilion, "Wasting", she asks
to be called Mara, "Bitter". The reference to Moab raises
questions, since in the rest of the biblical literature it is
associated with hostility to Israel, sexual perversity, and
idolatry, and Deuteronomy 23:3—6 excluded an Ammonite
or a Moabite from "the congregation of the LORD; even to
their tenth generation". Despite this, Ruth the Moabite
married a Judahite and even after his death still regarded
herself a member of his family; she then married another
Judahite and bore him a son who became an ancestor of
David. Contrary to the message of Ezra—Nehemiah, where
marriages between Jewish men and non-Jewish women were
broken up, Ruth teaches that foreigners who convert to
Judaism can become good Jews, foreign wives can become
exemplary followers of Jewish law, and there 1s no reason to
exclude them or their offspring from the community.)

RUTH CHAPTER |

1 Now there came a time, in the days of the judges, when
there was no food in the land. And a certain man went from
Beth-lehem-judah, he and his wife and his two sons, to make
a living-place in the country of Moab.

2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of
his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and
Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah. And they came
into the country of Moab, and were there for some time.

3 And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, came to his end; and
only her two sons were with her.

4 And they took two women of Moab as their wives: the
name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth;
and they went on living there for about ten years.

5 And Mahlon and Chilion came to their end; and the
woman was without her two sons and her husband.

6 So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to go back
from the country of Moab, for news had come to her in the
country of Moab that the Lord, in mercy for his people, had
given them food.

7 And she went out of the place where she was, and her two
daughters-in-law with her; and they went on their way to go
back to the land of Judah.

8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back to
your mothers’ houses: may the Lord be good to you as you
have been good to the dead and to me:

9 May the Lord give you rest in the houses of your
husbands. Then she gave them a kiss; and they were weeping
bitterly.

10 And they said to her, No, but we will go back with you
to your people.

11 But Naomi said, Go back, my daughters; why will you
come with me? Have I more sons in my body, to become your
husbands?

12 Go back, my daughters, and go on your way; I am so old
now that I may not have another husband. If I said, I have
hopes, if I had a husband tonight, and might have sons,

13 Would you keep yourselves till they were old enough?
would you keep from having husbands for them? No, my
daughters; but I am very sad for you that the hand of the
Lord is against me.

14 Then again they were weeping; and Orpah gave her
mother-in-law a kiss, but Ruth would not be parted from her.

15 And Naomi said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back
to her people and to her gods: go back after your sister-in-
law.

16 But Ruth said, Give up requesting me to go away from
you, or to go back without you: for where you go I will go;
and where you take your rest I will take my rest; your people
will be my people, and your God my God.

17 Wherever death comes to you, death will come to me,
and there will be my last resting-place; the Lord do so to me
and more if we are parted by anything but death.

18 And when she saw that Ruth was strong in her purpose
to go with her she said no more.

19 So the two of them went on till they came to Beth-lehem.
And when they came to Beth-lehem all the town was moved
about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

20 And she said to them, Do not let my name be Naomi,
but Mara, for the Ruler of all has given me a bitter fate.

21 I went out full, and the Lord has sent me back again
with nothing; why do you give me the name Naomi, seeing
that the Lord has given witness against me, and the Ruler of
all has sent sorrow on me?

22 So Naomi came back out of the country of Moab, and
Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her; and they
came to Beth-lehem in the first days of the grain-cutting.

RUTH CHAPTER 2

1 And Naomi had a relation of her husband, a man of
wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Now let me go
into the field and take up the heads of grain after him in
whose eyes I may have grace. And she said to her, Go, my
daughter.

3 And she went, and came and took up the heads of grain in
the field after the cutters; and by chance she went into that
part of the field which was the property of Boaz, who was of
the family of Elimelech.

4 And Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said to the grain-
cutters, The Lord be with you. And they made answer, The
Lord give you his blessing.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was in authority over
the cutters, Whose girl is this?

6 And the servant who was in authority over the cutters
said, It is a Moabite girl who came back with Naomi out of
the country of Moab;

7 And she said to me, Let me come into the grain-field and
take up the grain after the cutters. So she came, and has been
here from morning till now, without resting even for a
minute.

8 Then said Boaz to Ruth, Give ear to me, my daughter: do
not go to take up the grain in another field, or go away from
here, but keep here by my young women:

9 Keep your eyes on the field they are cutting, and go after
them; have I not given orders to the young men not to put a
hand on you? And when you are in need of drink go to the
vessels and take of what the young men have put there.

10 Then she went down on her face to the earth, and said to
him, Why have I grace in your eyes, that you give attention
to me, seeing I am from a strange people?

11 And Boaz answering said to her, I have had news of
everything you have done for your mother-in-law after the
death of your husband; how you went away from your father
and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people
who are strange to you.

12 The Lord give you a reward for what you have done,
and may a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God
of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take cover.

13 Then she said, May I have grace in your eyes, my lord,
for you have given me comfort, and you have said kind words
to your servant, though I am not like one of your servants.

14 And at meal-time Boaz said to her, Come here, and take
some of the bread, and put your bit into the wine. And she
took her seat among the grain-cutters: and he gave her dry
grain, and she took it, and there was more than enough for
her meal.

15 And when she got ready to take up the grain, Boaz gave
his young men orders, saying, Let her take it even from
among the cut grain, and say nothing to her.

16 And let some heads of grain be pulled out of what has
been corded up, and dropped for her to take, and let no
sharp word be said to her.

17 So she went on getting together the heads of grain till
evening; and after crushing out the seed it came to about an
ephah of grain.

18 And she took it up and went into the town; and she let
her mother-in-law see what she had got, and after taking
enough for herself she gave her the rest.

19 And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you take
up the grain today, and where were you working? May a
blessing be on him who gave such attention to you. And she
gave her mother-in-law an account of where she had been
working, and said, The name of the man with whom I was
working today is Boaz.

20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May the
blessing of the Lord, who has at all times been kind to the

living and to the dead, be on him. And Naomi said to her,
The man is of our family, one of our near relations.

21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, Truly, he said to me, Keep
near my young men till all my grain is cut.

22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is
better, my daughter, for you to go out with his servant-girls,
so that no danger may come to you in another field.

23 So she kept near the servant-girls of Boaz to take up the
grain till the cutting of the early grain and the cutting of the
late grain were ended; and she went on living with her
mother-in-law.

RUTH CHAPTER 3

1 And Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter,
am I not to get you a resting-place where you may be in
comfort?

2 And now, is there not Boaz, our relation, with whose
young women you were? See, tonight he is separating the
grain from the waste in his grain-floor.

3 So take a bath, and, after rubbing your body with sweet
oil, put on your best robe, and go down to the grain-floor;
but do not let him see you till he has come to the end of his
meal.

4 But see to it, when he goes to rest, that you take note of
the place where he is sleeping, and go in there, and,
uncovering his feet, take your place by him; and he will say
what you are to do.

5 And she said, I will do all you say.

6 So she went down to the grain-floor and did all her
mother-in-law had said to her.

7 Now when Boaz had taken meat and drink, and his heart
was glad, he went to take his rest at the end of the mass of
grain; then she came softly and, uncovering his feet, went to
rest.

8 Now in the middle of the night, the man awaking from
his sleep in fear, and lifting himself up, saw a woman
stretched at his feet.

9 And he said, Who are you? And she answering said, I am
your servant Ruth: take your servant as wife, for you are a
near relation.

10 And he said, May the Lord give you his blessing, my
daughter: even better than what you did at the first is this
last kind act you have done, in not going after young men,
with or without wealth.

11 And now, my daughter, have no fear; I will do for you
whatever you say: for it is clear to all my townspeople that
you are a woman of virtue.

12 Now it is true that I am a near relation: but there is a
relation nearer than I.

13 Take your rest here tonight; and in the morning, if he
will do for you what it is right for a relation to do, very well,
let him do so: but if he will not, then by the living Lord I
myself will do so.

14 And she took her rest at his feet till the morning: and she
got up before it was light enough for one to see another. And

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

he said, Let it not come to anyone's knowledge that the
woman came to the grain-floor.

15 And he said, Take your robe, stretching it out in your
hands: and she did so, and he took six measures of grain and
put them into it, and gave it her to take: and she went back
to the town.

16 And when she came back her mother-in-law said to her,
How did it go with you, my daughter? And she gave her an
account of all the man had done to her.

17 And she said, He gave me these six measures of grain,
saying, Do not go back to your mother-in-law with nothing
in your hands.

18 Then she said, Do nothing now, my daughter, till you
see what will come of this; for the man will take no rest till he
has put this thing through.

RUTH CHAPTER 4

1 And Boaz went up to the public place of the town, and
took his seat there: and the near relation of whom he had
been talking came by; and Boaz, crying out to him by name,
said, Come and be seated here. And he came and was seated.

2 Then he got ten of the responsible men of the town, and
said, Be seated here. And they took their seats.

3 Then he said to the near relation, Naomi, who has come
back from the country of Moab, is offering for a price that
bit of land which was our brother Elimelech's:

4 And it was in my mind to give you the chance of taking it,
with the approval of those seated here and of the responsible
men of my people. If you are ready to do what it is right for a
relation to do, then do it: but if you will not do it, say so to
me now; for there is no one who has the right to do it but
you, and after you myself. And he said, I will do it.

5 Then Boaz said, On the day when you take this field, you
will have to take with it Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the
dead, so that you may keep the name of the dead living in his
heritage.

6 And the near relation said, I am not able to do the
relation's part, for fear of damaging the heritage I have: you
may do it in my place, for I am not able to do it myself.

7 Now, in earlier times this was the way in Israel when
property was taken over by a near relation, or when there
was a change of owner. To make the exchange certain one
man took off his shoe and gave it to the other; and this was a
witness in Israel.

8 So the near relation said to Boaz, Take it for yourself.
And he took off his shoe.

9 Then Boaz said to the responsible men and to all the
people, You are witnesses today that I have taken at a price
from Naomi all the property which was Elimelech's, and
everything which was Chilion's and Mahlon's.

10 And, further, I have taken Ruth, the Moabitess, who was
the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to keep the name of the
dead man living in his heritage, so that his name may not be
cut off from among his countrymen, and from the memory of
his town: you are witnesses this day.

11 And all the people who were in the public place, and the
responsible men, said, We are witnesses. May the Lord make
this woman, who is about to come into your house, like
Rachel and Leah, which two were the builders of the house of
Israel: and may you have wealth in Ephrathah, and be great
in Beth-lehem;

12 May your family be like the family of Perez, the son
whom Tamar gave to Judah, from the offspring which the
Lord may give you by this young woman.

13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went
in to her, and the Lord made her with child and she gave
birth to a son.

14 And the women said to Naomi, A blessing on the Lord,
who has not let you be this day without a near relation, and
may his name be great in Israel.

15 He will be a giver of new life to you, and your comforter
when you are old, for your daughter-in-law, who, in her love
for you, is better than seven sons, has given birth to him.

16 And Naomi took the child and put her arms round it,
and she took care of it.

17 And the women who were her neighbours gave it a name,
saying, Naomi has a child; and they gave him the name of
Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez became
the father of Hezron;

19 And Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became
the father of Amminadab;

20 And Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and
Nahshon became the father of Salmon;

21 And Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz
became the father of Obed;

22 And Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became
the father of David.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL
Hebrew Title: Sefer Shemuel |
(also called: The First Book of Kings or | Reigns)
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 630-540 B.C

(The Book of Samuel, or 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, form part
of the narrative history of Israel in the Nevi'im or "prophets"
section of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, called the
Deuteronomustic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges,
Samuel and Kings) that constitute a theological history of
the Israelites and aim to explain God's law for Israel under
the guidance of the prophets.

The German biblical scholar Martin Noth coined in 1943
the term "Deuterononustic History" in order to explain the
origin and purpose of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
These, he argued, were the work of a single 6th-century BC
author seeking to explain recent events (the fall of Jerusalem
and the Babylonian exile) using the theology and language of
the Book of Deuteronomy. The author used his sources with
a heavy hand, depicting Joshua as a grand, divinely guided
conquest, Judges as a cycle of rebellion and salvation, and the
story of the kings as recurring disaster due to disobedience to
God. The essence of Deuteronomistic theology 1s that Israel
has entered into a covenant (a treaty, a binding agreement)
with the God Yahweh, under which they agree to accept
Yahweh as their God (hence the phrase "God of Israel") and
Yahweh promises them a land where they can live in peace
and prosperity. Deuteronomy contains the laws by which
Israel 1s to live in the promised land, Joshua chronicles the
conquest of Canaan, the promised land, and its allotment
among the tribes, Judges describes the settlement of the land,
Samuel the consolidation of the land and people under David,
and Kings the destruction of kingship and loss of the land.
The final tragedy described in Kings 1s the result of Israel's
failure to uphold its part of the covenant: faithfulness to
Yahweh brings success, economic, military and political, but
unfaithfulness brings defeat and oppression.

1 and 2 Samuel were originally (and, in most Jewish bibles,
still are) treated as one single book, but the Septuagint, the
first Greek translation from the 3rd and the 2nd century BC,
noted that the book was written on two scrolls due to its
large size; this was adopted, at least in name, by the Latin
translations used in the early Christian church of the West.
The division of the Chronicles had the same reason. What it
is now commonly known as I Samuel and 2 Samuel was
called 1 Kings (or Reigns) and 2 Kings respectively in the
Vulgate and the Septuagint. Then, what it is now commonly
known as I Kings and 2 Kings would have been 3 Kings (or
Reigns) and 4 Kings in old Bibles before the year 1516.

Samuel begins with the prophet Samuel's birth and God's
call to him as a boy. The story of the Ark of the Covenant

that follows tells of Israel's oppression by the Philistines,
which brought about Samuel's anointing of Saul as Israel's
first king. But Saul proved unworthy and God's choice
turned to David, who defeated Israel's enemies, purchased
the threshing floor (2 Samuel 24:24), where his son,
Solomon built the Temple and brought the Ark to Jerusalem.
The narrative stresses that he gained the throne lawfully,
always respecting "the Lord's anointed" (i.e. Saul) and never
taking any of his numerous chances to seize the throne by
violence. As God's chosen king over Israel, David 1s also the
son of God ("I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to
me..." — 2 Samuel 14). God enters into an eternal covenant
(treaty) with David and his line, promising divine protection
of the dynasty and of Jerusalem through all time.

The Philistines appear already in Genesis but they seem to
have been different people from the Philistines of the
Deuteronomustic history (the series of books Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, Kings, and also the Book of Jeremiah). The
Philistines originated as an immigrant Greek Mycenaean
group of Sea Peoples or pirates from the Aegean Sea that
settled in southern Canaan circa 1175 BC during the Late
Bronze Age collapse. By Iron Age II (between the 12th and
11th century BC), the Philistines had formed an ethnic state
centered around a pentapolis (5 cities) consisting of Gaza,
Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. Over time, they
gradually assimilated elements of the indigenous Levantine
Semitic societies while preserving their own unique culture.
old canonical books of the Hebrew nation, their writers
describe a series of conflicts between the Philistines and the
Israelites during the period of the Judges, and, allegedly, the
Philistines exercised lordship over Israel in the days of Saul
and Samuel the prophet, forbidding the Israelites from
making iron implements of war. According to their
chronicles, the Philistines were eventually subjugated by
David, before regaining independence in the wake of the
United Monarchy’s dissolution, after which there are only
sparse references to them. The accuracy of these narratives is
a subject of debate among scholars. Sure is that the
Philistines (like the Hebrew states, Phoenicia, and anybody
else) were crushed by Assyrians (between 745 and 681 BC),
by Egyptians in 609 BC and finally by Babylonians in
604 BC.)

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 1

1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite of
the hill-country of Ephraim, named Elkanah; he was the son
of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of
Zuph, an Ephraimite:

2 And he had two wives, one named Hannah and the other
Peninnah: and Peninnah was the mother of children, but
Hannah had no children.

3 Now this man went up from his town every year to give
worship and to make offerings to the Lord of armies in
Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the
priests of the Lord, were there.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And when the day came for Elkanah to make his offering,
he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and
daughters, their part of the feast:

5 But to Hannah he gave one part, though Hannah was
very dear to him, but the Lord had not let her have children.

6 And the other wife did everything possible to make her
unhappy, because the Lord had not let her have children;

7 And year by year, whenever she went up to the house of
the Lord, she kept on attacking her, so that Hannah gave
herself up to weeping and would take no food.

8 Then her husband Elkanah said to her, Hannah, why are
you weeping? and why are you taking no food? why is your
heart troubled? am I not more to you than ten sons?

9 So after they had taken food and wine in the guest room,
Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was seated by the pillars
of the doorway of the Temple of the Lord.

10 And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made
her prayer to the Lord.

11 And she made an oath, and said, O Lord of armies, if
you will truly take note of the sorrow of your servant, not
turning away from me but keeping me in mind, and will give
me a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days
of his life, and his hair will never be cut.

12 Now while she was a long time in prayer before the Lord,
Eli was watching her mouth.

13 For Hannah's prayer came from her heart, and though
her lips were moving she made no sound: so it seemed to Eli
that she was overcome with wine.

14 And Eli said to her, How long are you going to be the
worse for drink? Put away the effects of your wine from you.

15 And Hannah, answering him, said, No, my lord, ama
woman whose spirit is broken with sorrow: I have not taken
wine or strong drink, but I have been opening my heart
before the Lord.

16 Do not take your servant to be a good-for-nothing
woman: for my words have come from my stored-up sorrow
and pain.

17 Then Eli said to her, Go in peace: and may the God of
Israel give you an answer to the prayer you have made to him.

18 And she said, May your servant have grace in your eyes.
So the woman went away, and took part in the feast, and her
face was no longer sad.

19 And early in the morning they got up, and after
worshipping before the Lord they went back to Ramah, to
their house: and Elkanah had connection with his wife; and
the Lord kept her in mind.

20 Now the time came when Hannah, being with child,
gave birth to a son; and she gave him the name Samuel,
Because, she said, I made a prayer to the Lord for him.

21 And the man Elkanah with all his family went up to
make the year's offering to the Lord, and to give effect to his
oath.

22 But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I
will not go till the child has been taken from the breast, and
then I will take him with me and put him before the Lord,
where he may be for ever.

23 And her husband Elkanah said to her, Do whatever
seems right to you, but not till you have taken him from the
breast; only may the Lord do as he has said. So the woman,
waiting there, gave her son milk till he was old enough to be
taken from the breast.

24 Then when she had done so, she took him with her, with
a three-year old ox and an ephah of meal and a skin full of
wine, and took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh: now
the child was still very young.

25 And when they had made an offering of the ox, they
took the child to Eli.

26 And she said, O my lord, as your soul is living, my lord,
I am that woman who was making a prayer to the Lord here
by your side:

27 My prayer was for this child; and the Lord has given him
to me in answer to my request:

28 So I have given him to the Lord; for all his life he is the
Lord's. Then he gave the Lord worship there.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 2

1 And Hannah, in prayer before the Lord, said, My heart is
glad in the Lord, my horn is lifted up in the Lord: my mouth
is open wide over my haters; because my joy is in your
salvation.

2 No other is holy as the Lord, for there is no other God
but you: there is no Rock like our God.

3 Say no more words of pride; let not uncontrolled sayings
come out of your mouths: for the Lord is a God of
knowledge, by him acts are judged.

4 The bows of the men of war are broken, and the feeble are
clothed with strength.

5 Those who were full are offering themselves as servants
for bread; those who were in need are at rest; truly, she who
had no children has become the mother of seven; and she who
had a family is wasted with sorrow.

6 The Lord is the giver of death and life: sending men down
to the underworld and lifting them up.

7 The Lord gives wealth and takes a man's goods from him:
crushing men down and again lifting them up;

8 Lifting the poor out of the dust, and him who is in need
out of the lowest place, to give them their place among rulers,
and for their heritage the seat of glory: for the pillars of the
earth are the Lord's and he has made them the base of the
world.

9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the evil-doers
will come to their end in the dark night, for by strength no
man will overcome.

10 Those who make war against the Lord will be broken;
against them he will send his thunder from heaven: the Lord
will be judge of the ends of the earth, he will give strength to
his king, lifting up the horn of him on whom the holy oil has
been put.

11 Then Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the
child became the servant of the Lord under the direction of
Eli the priest.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Now the sons of Eli were evil and good-for-nothing men,
having no knowledge of the Lord.

13 And the priests' way with the people was this: when any
man made an offering, the priest's servant came while the
flesh was being cooked, having in his hand a meat-hook with
three teeth;

14 This he put into the pot, and everything which came up
on the hook the priest took for himself: This they did in
Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

15 And more than this, before the fat was burned, the
priest's servant would come and say to the man who was
making the offering, Give me some of the flesh to be cooked
for the priest; he has no taste for meat cooked in water, but
would have you give it uncooked.

16 And if the man said to him, First let the fat be burned,
then take as much as you will; then the servant would say, No,
you are to give it to me now, or I will take it by force.

17 And the sin of these young men was very great before the
Lord; for they gave no honour to the Lord's offerings.

18 But Samuel did the work of the Lord's house, while he
was a child, dressed in a linen ephod.

19 And his mother made him a little robe and took it to
him every year when she came with her husband for the year's
offering.

20 And every year Eli gave Elkanah and his wife a blessing,
saying, May the Lord give you offspring by this woman in
exchange for the child you have given to the Lord. And they
went back to their house.

21 And the Lord had mercy on Hannah and she gave birth
to three sons and two daughters. And the young Samuel
became older before the Lord.

22 Now Eli was very old; and he had news from time to
time of what his sons were doing to all Israel.

23 And he said to them, Why are you doing such things? for
from all this people I get accounts of your evil ways.

24 No, my sons, the account which is given me, which the
Lord's people are sending about, is not good.

25 If one man does wrong to another, God will be his judge:
but if a man's sin is against the Lord, who will take up his
cause? But they gave no attention to the voice of their father,
for it was the Lord's purpose to send destruction on them.

26 And the young Samuel, becoming older, had the
approval of the Lord and of men.

27 And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, The
Lord says, Did I let myself be seen by your father's people
when they were in Egypt, servants in Pharaoh's house?

28 Did I take him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my
priest and to go up to my altar to make the smoke of the
offerings go up and to take up the ephod? Did I give to your
father's family all the offerings made by fire by the children
of Israel?

29 Why then are you looking with envy on my offerings of
meat and of meal which were ordered by my word,
honouring your sons before me, and making yourselves fat
with all the best of the offerings of Israel, my people?

30 For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I
did say that your family and your father's people would have
their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it
not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am
honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of
small value in my eyes.

31 See, the days are coming when your arm and the arm of
your father's people will be cut off;

32 And never again will there be an old man in your family.

33 But one man of your family will not be cut off by my
hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his
heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their
end by the sword of men.

34 And this will be the sign to you, which will come on
Hophni and Phinehas, your sons; death will overtake them
on the same day.

35 And I will make a true priest for myself, one who will do
what is in my heart and in my mind: and I will make for him
a family which will not come to an end; and his place will be
before my holy one for ever.

36 Then it will be that the rest of your family, anyone who
has not been cut off, will go down on his knees to him for a
bit of silver or a bit of bread, and say, Be pleased to put me
into one of the priest's places so that I may have a little food.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 3

1 Now the young Samuel was the servant of the Lord before
Eli. In those days the Lord kept his word secret from men;
there was no open vision.

2 And at that time, when Eli was resting in his place, (now
his eyes were becoming clouded so that he was not able to see,)

3 And the light of God was still burning, while Samuel was
sleeping in the Temple of the Lord where the ark of God was,

4 The voice of the Lord said Samuel's name; and he said,
Here am I.

5 And running to Eli he said, Here am J, for you said my
name. And Eli said, I did not say your name; go to your rest
again. So he went back to his bed.

6 And again the Lord said, Samuel. And Samuel got up and
went to Eli and said, Here am I; for you certainly said my
name. But he said in answer, I said nothing, my son; go to
your rest again.

7 Now at that time Samuel had no knowledge of the Lord,
and the revelation of the word of the Lord had not come to
him.

8 And for the third time the Lord said Samuel's name. And
he got up and went to Eli and said, Here am J; for you
certainly said my name. Then it was clear to Eli that the
voice which had said the child's name was the Lord's.

9 So Eli said to Samuel, Go back: and if the voice comes
again, let your answer be, Say on, Lord; for the ears of your
servant are open. So Samuel went back to his bed.

10 Then the Lord came and said as before, Samuel, Samuel.
Then Samuel made answer, Say on, Lord; for the ears of your
servant are open.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And the Lord said to Samuel, See, I will do a thing in
Israel at which the ears of everyone hearing of it will be
burning.

12 In that day I will do to Eli everything which I have said
about his family, from first to last.

13 And you are to say to him that I will send punishment on
his family for ever, for the sin which he had knowledge of;
because his sons have been cursing God and he had no
control over them.

14 So I have made an oath to the family of Eli that no
offering of meat or of meal which they may make will ever
take away the sin of his family.

15 And Samuel kept where he was, not moving till the time
came for opening the doors of the house of God in the
morning. And fear kept him from giving Eli an account of
his vision.

16 Then Eli said, Samuel, my son. And Samuel answering
said, Here am I.

17 And he said, What did the Lord say to you? Do not keep
it from me: may God's punishment be on you if you keep
from me anything he said to you.

18 Then Samuel gave him an account of everything,
keeping nothing back. And he said, It is the Lord; let him do
what seems good to him.

19 And Samuel became older, and the Lord was with him
and let not one of his words be without effect.

20 And it was clear to all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
that Samuel had been made a prophet of the Lord.

21 And the Lord was seen again in Shiloh; for the Lord
gave to Samuel in Shiloh the revelation of his word.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 4

1 Now at that time the Philistines came together to make
war against Israel, and the men of Israel went out to war
against the Philistines and took up their position at the side
of Eben-ezer: and the Philistines put their forces in position
in Aphek.

2 And the Philistines put their forces in order against Israel,
and the fighting was hard, and Israel was overcome by the
Philistines, who put to the sword about four thousand of
their army in the field.

3 And when the people came back to their tents, the
responsible men of Israel said, Why has the Lord let the
Philistines overcome us today? Let us get the ark of the
Lord's agreement here from Shiloh, so that it may be with us
and give us salvation from the hands of those who are against
us.

4 So the people sent to Shiloh and got the ark of the
agreement of the Lord of armies whose resting-place is
between the winged ones; and Hophni and Phinehas, the two
sons of Eli, were there with the ark of God's agreement.

5 And when the ark of the Lord's agreement came into the
tent-circle, all Israel gave a great cry, so that the earth was
sounding with it.

6 And the Philistines, hearing the noise of their cry, said,
What is this great cry among the tents of the Hebrews? Then

it became clear to them that the ark of the Lord had come to
the tent-circle.

7 And the Philistines, full of fear, said, God has come into
their tents. And they said, Trouble is ours! for never before
has such a thing been seen.

8 Trouble is ours! Who will give us salvation from the
hands of these great gods? These are the gods who sent all
sorts of blows on the Egyptians in the waste land.

9 Be strong, O Philistines, be men! Do not be servants to
the Hebrews as they have been to you: go forward to the
fight without fear.

10 So the Philistines went to the fight, and Israel was
overcome, and every man went in flight to his tent: and great
was the destruction, for thirty thousand footmen of Israel
were put to the sword.

11 And the ark of God was taken; and Hophni and
Phinehas, the sons of Eli, were put to the sword.

12 And a man of Benjamin went running from the fight and
came to Shiloh the same day with his clothing out of order
and earth on his head.

13 And when he came, Eli was seated by the wayside
watching: and in his heart was fear for the ark of God. And
when the man came into the town and gave the news, there
was a great outcry.

14 And Eli, hearing the noise and the cries, said, What is
the reason of this outcry? And the man came quickly and
gave the news to Eli.

15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were
fixed so that he was not able to see.

16 And the man said to Eli, I have come from the army and
have come in flight today from the fight. And he said, How
did it go, my son?

17 And the man said, Israel went in flight from the
Philistines, and there has been great destruction among the
people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead,
and the ark of God has been taken.

18 And at these words about the ark of God, Eli, falling
back off his seat by the side of the doorway into the town,
came down on the earth so that his neck was broken and
death overtook him, for he was an old man and of great
weight. He had been judging Israel for forty years.

19 And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with
child and near the time when she would give birth; and when
she had the news that the ark of God had been taken and that
her father-in-law and her husband were dead, her pains came
on her suddenly and she gave birth.

20 And when she was very near death the women who were
with her said, Have no fear, for you have given birth to a son.
But she made no answer and gave no attention to it.

21 And she gave the child the name of Ichabod, saying, The
glory has gone from Israel: because the ark of God was taken
and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

22 And she said, The glory is gone from Israel, for the ark
of God has been taken.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 5

1 Now the Philistines, having taken the ark of God, took it
with them from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.

2 They took the ark of God into the house of Dagon and
put it by the side of Dagon.

3 And when the people of Ashdod got up early on the
morning after, they saw that Dagon had come down to the
earth on his face before the ark of the Lord. And they took
Dagon up and put him in his place again.

4 And when they got up early on the morning after, Dagon
had come down to the earth on his face before the ark of the
Lord; and his head and his hands were broken off on the
doorstep; only the base was in its place.

5 So to this day no priest of Dagon, or any who come into
Dagon's house, will put his foot on the doorstep of the house
of Dagon in Ashdod.

6 But the hand of the Lord was hard on the people of
Ashdod and he sent disease on them through all the country
of Ashdod.

7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said,
Let not the ark of the God of Israel be with us, for his hand is
hard on us and on Dagon our god.

8 So they sent for all the lords of the Philistines to come
together there, and said, What are we to do with the ark of
the God of Israel? And their answer was, Let the ark of the
God of Israel be taken away to Gath. So they took the ark of
the God of Israel away.

9 But after they had taken it away, the hand of the Lord
was stretched out against the town for its destruction: and
the signs of disease came out on all the men of the town,
small and great.

10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And when the ark
of God came to Ekron, the people of the town made an
outcry, saying, They have sent the ark of the God of Israel to
us for the destruction of us and of our people.

11 So they sent and got together all the lords of the
Philistines, and they said, Send away the ark of the God of
Israel, and let it go back to its place, so that it may not be the
cause of death to us and to our people: for there was a great
fear of death through all the town; the hand of God was very
hard on them there.

12 And those men who were not overtaken by death were
cruelly diseased: and the cry of the town went up to heaven.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 6

1 Now the ark of the Lord was in the country of the
Philistines for seven months.

2 And the Philistines sent for the priests and those who
were wise in secret arts, and said to them, What are we to do
with the ark of the Lord? How are we to send it away to its
place?

3 And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of
Israel, do not send it without an offering, but send him a sin-
offering with it: then you will have peace again, and it will be
clear to you why the weight of his hand has not been lifted
from you.

4 Then they said, What sin-offering are we to send to him?
And they said, Five gold images of the growths caused by
your disease and five gold mice, one for every lord of the
Philistines: for the same disease came on you and on your
lords.

5 So make images of the growths caused by your disease and
of the mice which are damaging your land; and give glory to
the God of Israel: it may be that the weight of his hand will
be lifted from you and from your gods and from your land.

6 Why do you make your hearts hard, like the hearts of
Pharaoh and the Egyptians? When he had made sport of
them, did they not let the people go, and they went away?

7 So now, take and make ready a new cart, and two cows
which have never come under the yoke, and have the cows
yoked to the cart, and take their young ones away from them:

8 And put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the gold
images which you are sending as a sin-offering in a chest by
its side; and send it away so that it may go.

9 If it goes by the land of Israel to Beth-shemesh, then this
great evil is his work; but if not, then we may be certain that
the evil was not his doing, but was the working of chance.

10 And the men did so; they took two cows, yoking them to
the cart and shutting up their young ones in their living-
place:

11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the
chest with the gold images.

12 And the cows took the straight way, by the road to
Beth-shemesh; they went by the highway, not turning to the
right or to the left, and the sound of their voices was clear on
the road; and the lords of the Philistines went after them as
far as the edge of Beth-shemesh.

13 And the people of Beth-shemesh were cutting their grain
in the valley, and lifting up their eyes they saw the ark and
were full of joy when they saw it.

14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-
shemite, and came to a stop there by a great stone: and
cutting up the wood of the cart they made a burned offering
of the cows to the Lord.

15 Then the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the
chest in which were the gold images, and put them on the
great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh made burned
offerings and gave worship that day before the Lord.

16 And the five lords of the Philistines, having seen it, went
back to Ekron the same day.

17 Now these are the gold images which the Philistines sent
as a sin-offering to the Lord; one for Ashdod, one for Gaza,
one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;

18 And the gold mice, one for every town of the Philistines,
the property of the five lords, walled towns as well as country
places: and the great stone where they put the ark of the
Lord is still in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite to this
day.

19 But the Lord sent destruction on seventy men of the
people of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark of the Lord;
and great was the sorrow of the people for the destruction
which the Lord had sent on them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to keep
his place before the Lord, this holy God? and to whom may
he go from us?

21 And they sent men to the people living in Kiriath-jearim,
saying, The Philistines have sent back the ark of the Lord;
come and take it up to your country.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 7

1 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the
Lord to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, and they made his
son Eleazar holy and put the ark in his care.

2 And the ark was in Kiriath-jearim for a long time, as
much as twenty years: and all Israel was searching after the
Lord with weeping.

3 Then Samuel said to all Israel, If with all your hearts you
would come back to the Lord, then put away all the strange
gods and the Astartes from among you, and let your hearts
be turned to the Lord, and be servants to him only: and he
will make you safe from the hands of the Philistines.

4 So the children of Israel gave up the worship of Baal and
Astarte, and became worshippers of the Lord only.

5 Then Samuel said, Let all Israel come to Mizpah and I
will make prayer to the Lord for you.

6 So they came together to Mizpah, and got water,
draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that
day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And
Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah.

7 Now when the Philistines had news that the children of
Israel had come together at Mizpah, the lords of the
Philistines went up against Israel. And the children of Israel,
hearing of it, were full of fear.

8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Go on crying to
the Lord our God for us to make us safe from the hands of
the Philistines.

9 And Samuel took a young lamb, offering all of it as a
burned offering to the Lord; and Samuel made prayers to the
Lord for Israel and the Lord gave him an answer.

10 And while Samuel was offering the burned offering, the
Philistines came near for the attack on Israel; but at the
thunder of the Lord's voice that day the Philistines were
overcome with fear, and they gave way before Israel.

11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and went
after the Philistines, attacking them till they came under
Beth-car.

12 Then Samuel took a stone and put it up between Mizpah
and Jeshanah, naming it Eben-ezer, and saying, Up to now
the Lord has been our help.

13 So the Philistines were overcome, and did not come into
the country of Israel again: and all the days of Samuel the
hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.

14 And the towns which the Philistines had taken were
given back to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and all the country
round them Israel made free from the power of the Philistines.
And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

15 And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life.

16 From year to year he went in turn to Beth-el and Gilgal
and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.

17 And his base was at Ramah, where his house was; there
he was judge of Israel and there he made an altar to the Lord.

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 8

1 Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over
Israel.

2 The name of his first son was Joel and the name of his
second Abijah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

3 And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the
love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

4 Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and
went to Samuel at Ramah,

5 And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do
not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so
that we may be like the other nations.

6 But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give
us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the
Lord.

7 And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the
people and what they say to you: they have not been turned
away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not
desiring me to be king over them.

8 As they have done from the first, from the day when I
took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me
and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the
same way to you.

9 Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to
them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be
their ruler.

10 And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the
people who were desiring a king.

11 And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your
ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his
horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go
running before his war-carriages;

12 And he will make them captains of thousands and of
fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his
grain and making his instruments of war and building his
war-carriages.

13 Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes
and cooks and bread-makers.

14 He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your
olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his
servants.

15 He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your
vines and give it to his servants.

16 He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls,
and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his
work.

17 He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his
servants.

18 Then you will be crying out because of your king whom
you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you
an answer in that day.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel;
and they said, No, but we will have a king over us,

20 So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our
king may be our judge and go out before us to war.

21 Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say,
went and gave an account of it to the Lord.

22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and
make a king for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel,
Let every man go back to his town.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 9

1 Now there was a man of Benjamin named Kish, the son of
Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of
Aphiah, a Benjamite, a man of wealth.

2 He had a son named Saul, a specially good-looking young
man; there was no one better-looking among the children of
Israel: he was taller by a head than any other of the people.

3 Now the asses of Saul's father Kish had gone wandering
away. And Kish said to his son Saul, Take one of the servants
with you, and get up and go in search of the asses.

4 So they went through the hill-country of Ephraim and
through the land of Shalishah, but they saw no sign of them:
then they went through the land of Shaalim, but they were
not there: and they went through the land of the Benjamites,
but they did not come across them.

5 And when they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to
the servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, or my
father may give up caring about the asses and be troubled
about us.

6 But the servant said to him, See now, in this town there is
a man of God, who is highly honoured, and everything he
says comes true: let us go there now; it may be that he will
give us directions about our journey.

7 Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what are we to
take the man? all our bread is gone, and we have no offering
to take to the man of God: what are we to do?

8 But the servant said in answer, I have here a fourth part
of a shekel of silver: I will give that to the man of God, and
he will give us directions about our way.

9 (In the past in Israel, when a man went to get directions
from God, he said, Come let us go to the Seer, for he who
now is named Prophet was in those days given the name of
Seer.)

10 Then Saul said to his servant, You have said well; come,
let us go. So they went to the town where the man of God
was.

11 And when they were on the way up to the town, they saw
some young girls going out to get water and said to them, Is
the seer here?

12 And they said, He is; in fact he is before you: go quickly
now, for he has come into the town today, for the people are
making an offering in the high place today:

13 When you come into the town you will see him straight
away, before he goes up to the high place for the feast: the
people are waiting for his blessing before starting the feast,

and after that the guests will take part in it. So go up now
and you will see him.

14 So they went up to the town, and when they came inside
the town, Samuel came face to face with them on his way to
the high place.

15 Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had
come to Samuel, saying,

16 Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from
the land of Benjamin, and on him you are to put the holy oil,
making him ruler over my people Israel, and he will make my
people safe from the hands of the Philistines: for I have seen
the sorrow of my people, whose cry has come up to me.

17 And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, This
is the man of whom I gave you word! he it is who is to have
authority over my people.

18 Then Saul came up to Samuel in the doorway of the
town and said, Give me directions, if you will be so good, to
the house of the seer.

19 Then Samuel said to Saul, I am the seer; go up before me
to the high place and take food with me today: and in the
morning I will let you go, after opening to you all the secrets
of your heart.

20 As for your asses which have been wandering for three
days, give no thought to them, for they have come back. And
for whom are all the desired things in Israel? are they not for
you and your father's family?

21 And Saul said, Am I not a man of Benjamin, the smallest
of all the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of the
families of Benjamin? why then do you say these words to me?

22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest
room, and made them take the chief place among all the
guests who were there, about thirty persons.

23 And Samuel said to the cook, Give me that part which I
gave you orders to keep by you.

24 And the cook took up the leg with the fat tail on it, and
put it before Saul. And Samuel said, This is the part which
has been kept for you: take it as your part of the feast;
because it has been kept for you till the right time came and
till the guests were present. So that day Saul took food with
Samuel.

25 And when they had come down from the high place into
the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to
rest.

26 And about dawn Samuel said to Saul on the roof, Get up
so that I may send you away. So Saul got up, and he and
Samuel went out together.

27 And on their way down to the end of the town, Samuel
said to Saul, Give your servant orders to go on in front of us,
(so he went on,) but you keep here, so that I may give you the
word of God.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 10

1 Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on his
head and gave him a kiss and said, Is not the Lord with the
holy oil making you ruler over Israel, his people? and you
will have authority over the people of the Lord, and you will

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

make them safe from the hands of their attackers round
about them, and this will be the sign for you:

2 When you have gone away from me today, you will see
two men by the resting-place of Rachel's body, in the land of
Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The asses which
you went in search of have come back, and now your father,
caring no longer for the asses, is troubled about you, saying,
What am I to do about my son?

3 Then you are to go on from there, and when you come to
the oak-tree of Tabor, you will see three men going up to
God to Beth-el, one having with him three young goats and
another three cakes of bread and another a skin full of wine:

4 They will say, Peace be with you, and will give you two
cakes of bread, which you are to take from them.

5 After that you will come to Gibeah, the hill of God,
where an armed force of the Philistines is stationed: and
when you come to the town, you will see a band of prophets
coming down from the high place with instruments of music
before them; and they will be acting like prophets:

6 And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power,
and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be
changed into another man.

7 And when these signs come to you, see that you take the
chance which is offered you; for God is with you.

8 Then you are to go down before me to Gilgal, where I
will come to you, for the offering of burned offerings and
peace-offerings: go on waiting there for seven days till I come
to you and make clear to you what you have to do.

9 And it came about, that when he went away from Samuel,
God gave him a changed heart: and all those signs took place
that day.

10 And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came
face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with
power and he took his place among them as a prophet.

11 Now when Saul's old friends saw him among the band of
prophets, the people said to one another, What has come to
Saul, the son of Kish? Is even Saul among the prophets?

12 And one of the people of that place said in answer, And
who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even
Saul among the prophets?

13 Then going away from the prophets, he came to the
house.

14 And Saul's father's brother said to him and his servant,
Where have you been? And he said, Searching for the asses:
and when we saw no sign of them, we came to Samuel.

15 Then he said, And what did Samuel say to you?

16 And Saul, answering him, said, He gave us word that the
asses had come back. But he said nothing to him of Samuel's
words about the kingdom.

17 Then Samuel sent for the people to come together before
the Lord at Mizpah;

18 And he said to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God
of Israel, has said, I took Israel out of Egypt, and made you
free from the hands of the Egyptians and from all the
kingdoms which kept you down:

19 But today you are turned away from your God, who
himself has been your saviour from all your troubles and
sorrows; and you have said to him, Put a king over us. So
now, take your places before the Lord by your tribes and by
your thousands.

20 So Samuel made all the tribes of Israel come near, and
the tribe of Benjamin was taken.

21 Then he made the tribe of Benjamin come near by
families, and the family of the Matrites was taken: and from
them, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken: but when they went
in search of him he was nowhere to be seen.

22 So they put another question to the Lord, Is the man
present here? And the answer of the Lord was, He is keeping
himself from view among the goods.

23 So they went quickly and made him come out; and when
he took his place among the people, he was taller by a head
than any of the people.

24 And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the man of
the Lord's selection, how there is no other like him among all
the people? And all the people with loud cries said, Long life
to the king!

25 Then Samuel gave the people the laws of the kingdom,
writing them in a book which he put in a safe place before the
Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his
house.

26 And Saul went to Gibeah, to his house; and with him
went the men of war whose hearts had been touched by God.

27 But certain good-for-nothing persons said, How is this
man to be our saviour? And having no respect for him, they
gave him no offering.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 11

1 Then about a month after this, Nahash the Ammonite
came up and put his forces in position for attacking Jabesh-
gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make an
agreement with us and we will be your servants.

2 And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make an
agreement with you on this condition, that all your right
eyes are put out; so that I may make it a cause of shame to all
Israel.

3 Then the responsible men of Jabesh said to him, Give us
seven days, so that we may send men to every part of Israel:
and then, if no one comes to our help, we will come out to
you.

4 So they sent representatives to Saul's town Gibeah, and
these gave the news to the people: and all the people gave
themselves to weeping.

5 Now Saul came from the field, driving the oxen before
him; and he said, Why are the people weeping? And they
gave him word of what the men of Jabesh had said.

6 And at their words, the spirit of God came on Saul with
power, and he became very angry.

7 And he took two oxen and, cutting them up, sent them
through all the land of Israel by the hand of runners, saying,
If any man does not come out after Saul and Samuel, this will

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

be done to his oxen. And the fear of the Lord came on the
people and they came out like one man.

8 And he had them numbered in Bezek: the children of
Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah
thirty thousand.

9 Then he said to the representatives who had come, Say to
the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is
high, you will be made safe. And the representatives came
and gave the news to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.

10 So the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out
to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.

11 Now on the day after, Saul put the people into three
bands, and in the morning watch they came to the tents of
the Ammonites, and they went on attacking them till the
heat of the day: and those who were not put to death were
put to flight in every direction, so that no two of them were
together.

12 And the people said to Samuel, Who was it who said, Is
Saul to be our king? give the men up, so that we may put
them to death.

13 And Saul said, Not a man is to be put to death today:
for today the Lord has made Israel safe.

14 Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to
Gilgal and there make the kingdom strong in the hands of
Saul.

15 So all the people went to Gilgal; and there in Gilgal
they made Saul king before the Lord; and peace-offerings
were offered before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men
of Israel were glad with great joy.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 12

1 And Samuel said to all Israel, You see that I have given
ear to everything you said to me, and have made a king over
you.

2 And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and
grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living
before your eyes from my early days till now.

3 Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and
before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or
ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been
crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price
for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you.

4 And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel
to us; you have taken nothing from any man.

5 Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the
man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that
you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.

6 And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness, who
gave authority to Moses and Aaron, and who took your
fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

7 Keep your places now, while I take up the argument with
you before the Lord, and give you the story of the
righteousness of the Lord, which he has made clear by his
acts to you and to your fathers.

8 When Jacob and his sons had come into Egypt, and were
crushed by the Egyptians, the prayers of your fathers came

up to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who
took your fathers out of Egypt, and he put them into this
place.

9 But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave
them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin,
king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into
the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them.

10 Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done
evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord,
worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us
safe from those who are against us and we will be your
servants.

11 So the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and
Samuel and took you out of the power of those who were
fighting against you on every side, and made you safe.

12 And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the
Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, No
more of this; we will have a king for our ruler: when the
Lord your God was your king.

13 Here, then, is the king marked out by you: the Lord has
put a king over you.

14 Ifin the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his
voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being
true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you,
then all will be well:

15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but
go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be
against you and against your king for your destruction, as it
was against your fathers.

16 Now keep where you are and see this great thing which
the Lord will do before your eyes.

17 Is it not now the time of the grain cutting? My cry will
go up to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain: so that
you may see and be conscious of your great sin which you
have done in the eyes of the Lord in desiring a king for
yourselves.

18 So Samuel made prayer to the Lord; and the Lord sent
thunder and rain that day: and all the people were in fear of
the Lord and of Samuel.

19 And all the people said to Samuel, Make prayer for us to
the Lord your God so that death may not overtake us: for in
addition to all our sins we have done this evil, in desiring a
king.

20 Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you
have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be
his servants with all your heart;

21 And do not go from the right way turning to those false
gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are
false.

22 For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the
honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of
you a people for himself.

23 And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the
Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on
teaching you the good and right way.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 Only go in the fear of the Lord, and be his true servants
with all your heart, keeping in mind what great things he has
done for you.

25 But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and
your king.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 13

1 Saul was [forty] years old at the beginning of his rule; and
after two years of his rule over Israel he made a decision,

2 And Saul took for himself three thousand men of Israel, of
whom he kept two thousand with him in Michmash and in
the mountain of Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan
in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: the rest of the people he
sent back to their tents.

3 And Jonathan made an attack on the armed force of the
Philistines stationed at Gibeah; and news was given to the
Philistines that the Hebrews were turned against them. And
Saul had a horn sounded through all the land,

4 And all Israel had the news that Saul had made an attack
on the Philistines, and that Israel was bitterly hated by the
Philistines. And the people came together after Saul to
Gilgal.

5 And the Philistines came together to make war on Israel,
three thousand war-carriages and six thousand horsemen and
an army of people like the sands of the sea in number: they
came up and took up their position in Michmash, to the east
of Beth-aven.

6 When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, (for
the people were troubled,) they took cover in cracks in the

hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows.

7 And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan
to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal,
and all the people went after him shaking in fear.

8 And he went on waiting there for seven days, the time
fixed by Samuel: but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the
people were starting to go away from him.

9 Then Saul said, Come here and give me the burned
offering and the peace-offerings. And he made a burned
offering to the Lord.

10 And when the burned offering was ended, Samuel came;
and Saul went out to see him and to give him a blessing.

11 And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said,
Because I saw that the people were going away from me, and
you had not come at the time which had been fixed, and the
Philistines had come together at Michmash;

12 I said, Now the Philistines will come down on me at
Gilgal, and I have made no prayer for help to the Lord: and
so, forcing myself to do it, I made a burned offering.

13 And Samuel said to Saul, You have done a foolish thing:
you have not kept the rules which the Lord your God gave
you; it was the purpose of the Lord to make your authority
over Israel safe for ever.

14 But now, your authority will not go on: the Lord,
searching for a man who is pleasing to him in every way, has
given him the place of ruler over his people, because you have
not done what the Lord gave you orders to do.

15 Then Samuel went up from Gilgal and the rest of the
people went up after Saul against the men of war, and they
came from Gilgal to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: and
Saul took the number of the people who were with him,
about six hundred men.

16 And Saul, with Jonathan his son and the people who
were with them, was waiting in Geba in the land of Benjamin:
but the tents of the Philistines were in Michmash.

17 And three bands of men came out from the Philistines to
make an attack; one band went by the road which goes to
Ophrah, into the land of Shual:

18 And another went in the direction of Beth-horon: and
another went by the hill looking down on the valley of
Zeboiim, in the direction of the waste land.

19 Now there was no iron-worker in all the land of Israel:
for the Philistines said, For fear the Hebrews make
themselves swords or spears:

20 But all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get
their ploughs and blades and axes and hooks made sharp;

21 For they had instruments for putting an edge on their
ploughs and blades and forks and axes, and for putting iron
points on their ox-driving rods.

22 So on the day of the fight at Michmash, not a sword or a
spear was to be seen in the hands of any of the people with
Saul and Jonathan: only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

23 And the armed force of the Philistines went out to the
narrow way of Michmash.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 14

1 Now one day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young
man who was with him, looking after his arms, Come, let us
go over to the Philistine force over there. But he said
nothing to his father.

2 And Saul was still waiting in the farthest part of Geba,
under the fruit-tree in Migron: there were about six hundred
men with him;

3 And Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, the
son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in
Shiloh, who had the ephod. And the people had no idea that
Jonathan had gone.

4 Now between the narrow roads over the mountains by
which Jonathan was making his way to the Philistines’ forces,
there was a sharp overhanging rock on one side, and a sharp
rock on the other side: one was named Bozez and the other
Seneh.

5 The one rock went up on the north in front of Michmash
and the other on the south in front of Geba.

6 And Jonathan said to his young servant who had his arms,
Come, let us go over to the armies of these men who have no
circumcision: it may be that the Lord will give us help, for
there is no limit to his power; the Lord is able to give
salvation by a great army or by a small band.

7 And his servant said to him, Do whatever is in your mind:
see, | am with you in every impulse of your heart.

8 Then Jonathan said, Now we will go over to these men
and let them see us.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 If they say to us, Keep quiet where you are till we come to
you; then we will keep our places and not go up to them.

10 But if they say, Come up to us; then we will go up, for
the Lord has given them into our hands: and this will be the
sign to us.

11 And they let the Philistine force see the two of them: and
the Philistines said, Look! the Hebrews are coming out of the
holes where they have taken cover.

12 And the armed men of the force gave Jonathan and his
servant their answer, saying, Come up here to us, and we will
let you see something. Then Jonathan said to his servant,
Come up after me: for the Lord has given them up into the
hands of Israel.

13 And Jonathan went up, gripping with his hands and his
feet, his servant going up after him; and the Philistines gave
way before Jonathan when he made an attack on them, and
his servant put them to death after him.

14 And at their first attack, Jonathan and his servant put to
the sword about twenty men, all inside the space of half an
acre of land.

15 And there was great fear in the tents and in the field and
among all the men of the armed force, and the attackers were
shaking with fear; even the earth was moved with a great
shaking and there was a fear as from God.

16 And the watchmen of Saul, looking out from Geba in
the land of Benjamin, saw all the army flowing away and
running here and there.

17 Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Let
everyone be numbered and let us see who has gone from us.
And when they had been numbered, it was seen that Jonathan
and his servant were not there.

18 And Saul said to Ahijah, Let the ephod come here. For
he went before Israel with the ephod at that time.

19 Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the noise in
the tents of the Philistines became louder and louder; and
Saul said to the priest, Take back your hand.

20 And Saul and all the people with him came together and
went forward to the fight: and every man's sword was turned
against the man at his side, and there was a very great noise.

21 Then the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines for
some time, and had gone up with them to their tents, turning

round were joined to those who were with Saul and Jonathan.

22 And all the men of Israel who had taken cover in the
hill-country of Ephraim, hearing that the Philistines had
been put to flight, went after them, attacking them.

23 So the Lord made Israel safe that day: and the fight went
over to Beth-aven.

24 And all the people were with Saul, about twenty
thousand men, and the fight was general through all the hill-
country of Ephraim; but Saul made a great error that day, by
putting the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be
cursed who takes food before evening comes and I have given
punishment to those who are against me. So the people had
not a taste of food.

25 And there was honey on the face of the field, and all the
people came to the honey, the bees having gone from it;

26 But not a man put his hand to his mouth for fear of the
curse.

27 But Jonathan, having no knowledge of the oath his
father had put on the people, stretching out the rod which
was in his hand, put the end of it in the honey, and put it to
his mouth; then his eyes were made bright.

28 Then one of the people said to him, Your father put the
people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who
takes any food this day. And the people were feeble, needing
food.

29 Then Jonathan said, My father has made trouble come
on the land: now see how bright my eyes have become because
Ihave taken a little of this honey.

30 How much more if the people had freely taken their food
from the goods of those who were fighting against them!
would there not have been much greater destruction among
the Philistines?

31 That day they overcame the Philistines from Michmash
to Aijalon: and the people were feeble from need of food.

32 And rushing at the goods taken in the fight, the people
took oxen and sheep and young oxen, and put them to death
there on the earth, and had a meal, taking the flesh with the
blood in it.

33 Then it was said to Saul, See, the people are sinning
against the Lord, taking the blood with the flesh. And he
said to those who gave him the news, Now let a great stone
be rolled to me here.

34 And Saul said, Go about among the people and say to
them, Let every man come here to me with his ox and his
sheep, and put them to death here, and take his meal: do no
sin against the Lord by taking the blood with the flesh. So all
the people took their oxen with them that night and put
them to death there.

35 And Saul put up an altar to the Lord: this was the first
altar which he put up to the Lord.

36 And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by
night, attacking them till the morning, till there is not a man
of them living. And they said, Do whatever seems right to
you. Then the priest said, Let us come near to God.

37 And Saul, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to
go down after the Philistines? will you give them up into the
hands of Israel? But he gave him no answer that day.

38 And Saul said, Come near, all you chiefs of the people,
and let us get word from God and see in whom is this sin
today.

39 For, by the living Lord, the saviour of Israel, even if the
sinner is Jonathan, my son, death will certainly be his fate.
But not a man among all the people gave him any answer.

40 Then he said to all Israel, You be on one side, and I with
Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people
said to Saul, Do whatever seems good to you.

41 Then Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, Why have
you not given me an answer today? If the sin is in me or in
Jonathan my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim, and if it
is in your people Israel, give Thummim. And by the decision

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

of the Lord, Saul and Jonathan were marked out, and the
people went free.

42 And Saul said, Give your decision between my son
Jonathan and me. And Jonathan was taken.

43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, Give me an account of what
you have done. And Jonathan gave him the story and said,
Certainly I took a little honey on the end of my rod; and now
death is to be my fate.

44 And Saul said, May God's punishment be on me if death
is not your fate, Jonathan.

45 And the people said to Saul, Is death to come to
Jonathan, the worker of this great salvation for Israel? Let it
not be so: by the living Lord, not one hair of his head is to be
touched, for he has been working with God today. So the
people kept Jonathan from death.

46 Then Saul, turning back, went after the Philistines no
longer: and the Philistines went back to their place.

47 Now when Saul had taken his place as ruler of Israel, he
made war on those who were against him on every side,
Moab and the Ammonites and Edom and the kings of Zobah
and the Philistines: and whichever way he went, he overcame
them.

48 And he did great things, and overcame the Amalekites,
and made Israel safe from the hands of their attackers.

49 Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan and Ishvi and
Malchi-shua; and these are the names of his daughters: the
older was named Merab and the younger Michal;

50 The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of
Ahimaaz; the captain of his army was Abner, the son of Ner,
brother of Saul's father.

51 Kish, the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner,
were sons of Abiel.

52 All through the life of Saul there was bitter war against
the Philistines; and whenever Saul saw any strong man or
any good fighting man, he kept him near himself.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 15

1 And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to put the
holy oil on you and to make you king over his people, over
Israel: so give ear now to the words of the Lord.

2 The Lord of armies says, I will give punishment to
Amalek for what he did to Israel, fighting against him on the
way when Israel came out of Egypt.

3 Go now and put Amalek to the sword, putting to the
curse all they have, without mercy: put to death every man
and woman, every child and baby at the breast, every ox and
sheep, camel and ass.

4 And Saul sent for the people and had them numbered in
Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand
men of Judah.

5 And Saul came to the town of Amalek, and took up his
position in the valley secretly.

6 And Saul said to the Kenites, Go away, take yourselves
out from among the Amalekites, or destruction will overtake
you with them: for you were kind to the children of Israel

when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites went away from
among the Amalekites.

7 And Saul made an attack on the Amalekites from Havilah
on the road to Shur, which is before Egypt.

8 He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, prisoner, and put
all the people to the sword without mercy.

9 But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and
they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts
and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put
them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no
use they put to the curse.

10 Then the Lord said to Samuel,

11 It is no longer my pleasure for Saul to be king; for he is
turned back from going in my ways, and has not done my
orders. And Samuel was very sad, crying to the Lord in
prayer all night.

12 And early in the morning he got up and went to Saul;
and word was given to Samuel that Saul had come to Carmel
and put up a pillar, and had gone from there down to Gilgal.

13 And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, May the
blessing of the Lord be with you: I have done what was
ordered by the Lord.

14 And Samuel said, What then is this sound of the crying
of sheep and the noise of oxen which comes to my ears?

15 And Saul said, They have taken them from the
Amalekites: for the people have kept the best of the sheep and
of the oxen as an offering to the Lord your God; all the rest
we have given up to destruction.

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, Say no more! Let me give you
word of what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said
to him, Say on.

17 And Samuel said, Though you may seem little to
yourself, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? for the Lord
with the holy oil made you king over Israel,

18 And the Lord sent you on a journey and said, Go and
put to the curse those sinners, the Amalekites, fighting
against them till every one is dead.

19 Why then did you not do the orders of the Lord, but by
violently taking their goods did evil in the eyes of the Lord?

20 And Saul said, Truly, I have done the orders of the Lord
and have gone the way the Lord sent me; I have taken Agag,
the king of Amalek, and have given the Amalekites up to
destruction.

21 But the people took some of their goods, sheep and oxen,
the chief of the things which were put to the curse, to make
an offering of them to the Lord your God in Gilgal.

22 And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in
offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders?
Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and
to give ear to him than the fat of sheep.

23 For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who
make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to
images. Because you have put away from you the word of the
Lord, he has put you from your place as king.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And Saul said to Samuel, Great is my sin: for I have
gone against the orders of the Lord and against your words:
because, fearing the people, I did what they said.

25 So now, let my sin have forgiveness, and go back with
me to give worship to the Lord.

26 And Samuel said to Saul, I will not go back with you:
for you have put away from you the word of the Lord, and
the Lord has put you from your place as king over Israel.

27 And when Samuel was turning round to go away, Saul
took the skirt of his robe in his hand, and the cloth came
away.

28 And Samuel said to him, The Lord has taken away the
kingdom of Israel from you this day by force, and has given it
to a neighbour of yours who is better than you.

29 And further, the Glory of Israel will not say what is false,
and his purpose may not be changed: for he is not a man,
whose purpose may be changed.

30 Then he said, Great is my sin: but still, give me honour
now before the heads of my people and before Israel, and
come back with me so that I may give worship to the Lord
your God.

31 So Samuel went back after Saul, and Saul gave worship
to the Lord.

32 Then Samuel said, Make Agag, the king of the
Amalekites, come here to me. And Agag came to him shaking
with fear. And Agag said, Truly the pain of death is past.

33 And Samuel said, As your sword has made women
without children, so now your mother will be without
children among women. And Agag was cut up by Samuel,
bone from bone, before the Lord in Gilgal.

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his
house in Gibeah, in the land of Saul.

35 And Samuel never saw Saul again till the day of his
death; but Samuel was sorrowing for Saul: and it was no
longer the Lord's pleasure for Saul to be king over Israel.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 16

1 And the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you go on
sorrowing for Saul, seeing that I have put him from his place
as king over Israel? Take oil in your vessel and go; I will send
you to Jesse, the Beth-lehemite: for I have got a king for
myself among his sons.

2 And Samuel said, How is it possible for me to go? If Saul
gets news of it he will put me to death. And the Lord said,
Take a young cow with you and say, I have come to make an
offering to the Lord.

3 And send for Jesse to be present at the offering, and I will
make clear to you what you are to do: and you are to put the
holy oil on him whose name I give you.

4 And Samuel did as the Lord said and came to Beth-lehem.
And the responsible men of the town came out to him in fear
and said, Do you come in peace?

5 And he said, In peace: I have come to make an offering to
the Lord: make yourselves clean and come with me to make
the offering. And he made Jesse and his sons clean, and sent
for them to be present at the offering.

6 Now when they came, looking at Eliab, he said, Clearly
the man of the Lord's selection is before him.

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not take note of his face
or how tall he is, because I will not have him: for the Lord's
view is not man's; man takes note of the outer form, but the
Lord sees the heart.

8 Then Jesse sent for Abinadab and made him come before
Samuel. And he said, The Lord has not taken this one.

9 Then Jesse made Shammah come before him. And he said,
The Lord has not taken this one.

10 And Jesse made his seven sons come before Samuel. And
Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not taken any of these.

11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your children here?
And he said, There is still the youngest, and he is looking
after the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and make him
come here: for we will not take our seats till he is here.

12 So he sent and made him come in. Now he had red hair
and beautiful eyes and pleasing looks. And the Lord said,
Come, put the oil on him, for this is he.

13 Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on
him there among his brothers: and from that day the spirit of
the Lord came on David with power. So Samuel went back to
Ramah.

14 Now the spirit of the Lord had gone from Saul, and an
evil spirit from the Lord was troubling him.

15 And Saul's servants said to him, See now, an evil spirit
from God is troubling you.

16 Now give orders to your servants who are here before
you to go in search of a man who is an expert player on a
corded instrument: and it will be that when the evil spirit
from God is on you, he will make music for you on his
instrument, and you will get well.

17 And Saul said to his servants, Then get me a man who is
an expert player, and make him come to me.

18 Then one of the servants in answer said, I have seen a son
of Jesse, the Beth-lehemite, who is expert at playing, and a
strong man and a man of war; and he is wise in his words,
and pleasing in looks, and the Lord is with him.

19 So Saul sent his servants to Jesse and said, Send me your
son David who is with the sheep.

20 And Jesse took five cakes of bread and a skin of wine and
a young goat and sent them to Saul by David.

21 And David came to Saul, waiting before him: and he
became very dear to Saul, who made him his servant, giving
him the care of his arms.

22 And Saul sent to Jesse saying, Let David be with me, for
he is pleasing to me.

23 And whenever the evil spirit from God came on Saul,
David took his instrument and made music: so new life came
to Saul, and he got well, and the evil spirit went away from
him.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 17
1 Now the Philistines got their armies together for war,
and came together at Socoh in the land of Judah, and took

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

up their position between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-
dammim.

2 And Saul and the men of Israel came together and took up
their position in the valley of Elah, and put their forces in
order against the Philistines.

3 The Philistines were stationed on the mountain on one
side and Israel on the mountain on the other side: and there
was a valley between them.

4 And a fighter came out from the tents of the Philistines,
named Goliath of Gath; he was more than six cubits tall.

5 And he had a head-dress of brass on his head, and he was
dressed in a coat of metal, the weight of which was five
thousand shekels of brass.

6 His legs were covered with plates of brass and hanging on
his back was a javelin of brass.

7 The stem of his spear was as long as a cloth-worker's rod,
and its head was made of six hundred shekels' weight of iron:
and one went before him with his body-cover.

8 He took up his position and in a loud voice said to the
armies of Israel, Why have you come out to make war? Am I
not a Philistine and you servants of Saul? Send out a man for
yourselves and let him come down to me.

9 If he is able to have a fight with me and overcome me,
then we will be your servants: but if I am able to overcome
him, then you will be our servants and do work for us.

10 And the Philistine said, I have put to shame the armies
of Israel this day; give me a man so that we may have a fight
together.

11 And Saul and all Israel, hearing those words of the
Philistine, were troubled and full of fear.

12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-
lehem-judah named Jesse, who had eight sons; and he was an
old man in Saul's day, and far on in years.

13 And the three oldest sons of Jesse had gone with Saul to
the fight: the names of the three who went to the fight were
Eliab, the oldest, and Abinadab the second, and Shammah
the third.

14 And David was the youngest: and the three oldest were
with Saul's army.

15 Now David went to and from Saul, looking after his
father's sheep at Beth-lehem.

16 And the Philistine came near every morning and evening
for forty days.

17 And Jesse said to his son David, Take now for your
brothers an ephah of this dry grain and these ten cakes of
bread, and go quickly with them to the tents to your
brothers;

18 And take these ten cheeses to the captain of their
thousand, and see how your brothers are and come back with
asign to say how they are.

19 Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel were in the
valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

20 And David got up early in the morning, and, giving the
sheep into the care of a keeper, took the things and went as
Jesse had said; and he came to the lines where the carts were,

when the army was going out to the fight giving their war-
cry.

21 And Israel and the Philistines had put their forces in
position, army against army.

22 And David gave his parcels into the hands of the keeper
of the army stores, and went running to the army and came
to his brothers to get knowledge about them.

23 And while he was talking to them, the fighter, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came out from the
Philistines’ lines and said the same words, in David's hearing.

24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, went in
flight, overcome with fear.

25 And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man?
Clearly he has come out to put shame on Israel: and it is
certain that if any man overcomes him, the king will give
that man great wealth, and will give him his daughter, and
make his father's family free in Israel.

26 And David said to the men near him, What will be done
to the man who overcomes this Philistine and takes away the
shame from Israel? for who is this Philistine, a man without
circumcision, that he has put shame on the armies of the
living God?

27 And the people gave him this answer, So it will be done
to the man who overcomes him.

28 And Ehiab, his oldest brother, hearing what David said
to the men, was moved to wrath against David, and said,
Why have you come here? Into whose care have you given
that little flock of sheep in the waste land? I have knowledge
of your pride and the evil of your heart, you have come down
to see the fight.

29 And David said, What have I done now? was it not only
a word?

30 And turning away from him to one of the other men, he
said the same words: and the people gave him the same
answer.

31 And, hearing what David said, they gave Saul word of it:
and he sent for him.

32 And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart become
feeble because of him; I, your servant, will go out and have a
fight with this Philistine.

33 And Saul said to David, You are not able to go out
against this Philistine and have a fight with him: for you are
only a boy, and he has been a man of war from his earliest
days.

34 And David said to Saul, Your servant has been keeper of
his father's sheep; and if a lion or a bear came and took a
lamb from the flock,

35 I went out after him, and overcame him, and took it out
of his mouth: and if, turning on me, he came at me, I took
him by the hair and overcame him and put him to death.

36 Your servant has overcome lion and bear: and the fate of
this Philistine, who is without circumcision, will be like
theirs, seeing that he has put shame on the armies of the
living God.

37 And David said, The Lord, who kept me safe from the
grip of the lion and the bear, will be my saviour from the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

hands of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go! and
may the Lord be with you.

38 Then Saul gave David his clothing of war, and put a
head-dress of brass on his head and had him clothed with a
coat of metal.

39 And David took Saul's sword and put the band round
him over the metal coat, and was unable to go forward; for
he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, It is not
possible for me to go out with these, for I am not used to
them. So David took them off.

40 Then he took his stick in his hand, and got five smooth
stones from the bed of the stream and put them in a bag such
as is used by sheep-keepers; and in his hand was a leather
band used for sending stones: and so he went in the direction
of the Philistine.

41 And the Philistine came nearer to David; and the man
who had his body-cover went before him.

42 And when the Philistine, taking note, saw David, he had
a poor opinion of him: for he was only a boy, red-haired and
good-looking.

43 And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you
come out to me with sticks? And the Philistine put curses on
David by all his gods.

44 And the Philistine said to David, Come here to me, and I
will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of
the field.

45 Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with
a sword and a spear and a javelin: but I come to you in the
name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel
on which you have put shame.

46 This day the Lord will give you up into my hands, and I
will overcome you, and take your head off you; and I will
give the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air
and the beasts of the earth today, so that all the earth may see
that Israel has a God;

47 And all these people who are here today may see that the
Lord does not give salvation by sword and spear: for the
fight is the Lord's, and he will give you up into our hands.

48 Now when the Philistine made a move and came near to
David, David quickly went at a run in the direction of the
army, meeting the Philistine face to face.

49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone
and sent it from his leather band straight at the Philistine,
and the stone went deep into his brow, and he went down to
the earth, falling on his face.

50 So David overcame the Philistine with his leather band
and a stone, wounding the Philistine and causing his death:
but David had no sword in his hand.

51 So running up to the Philistine and putting his foot on
him, David took his sword out of its cover, and put him to
death, cutting off his head with it. And when the Philistines
saw that their fighter was dead, they went in flight.

52 And the men of Israel and of Judah got up, and gave a
cry, and went after the Philistines as far as Gath and the
town doors of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines

were falling down by the road from Shaaraim all the way to
Gath and Ekron.

53 Then the children of Israel came back from going after
the Philistines, and took their goods from the tents.

54 And David took the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem,
but the metal war-dress and the arms he put in his tent.

55 And when Saul saw David going out against the
Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, Abner,
whose son is this young man? And Abner said, On your life,
O king, I have no idea.

56 And the king said, Make search and see whose son this
young man is.

57 And when David was coming back after the destruction
of the Philistine, Abner took him to Saul, with the head of
the Philistine in his hand.

58 And Saul said to him, Young man, whose son are you?
And David in answer said, I am the son of your servant Jesse
of Beth-lehem.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 18

1 Now after David's talk with Saul was ended, the soul of
Jonathan was joined with the soul of David, and David
became as dear to him as his very life.

2 And that day Saul took David and would not let him go
back to his father's house.

3 Then Jonathan and David made an agreement together,
because of Jonathan's love for David.

4 And Jonathan took off the robe he had on and gave it to
David, with all his military dress, even to his sword and his
bow and the band round his body.

5 And David went wherever Saul sent him, and did wisely:
and Saul put him at the head of his men of war, and this was
pleasing to all the people as well as to Saul's servants.

6 Now on their way, when David came back after the
destruction of the Philistine, the women came out of all the
towns of Israel, with songs and dances, meeting David with
melody and joy and instruments of music.

7 And the women, answering one another in their song,
said, Saul has put to death his thousands and David his tens
of thousands.

8 And Saul was very angry and this saying was unpleasing
to him; and he said, They have given David credit for tens of
thousands, and to me for only thousands: what more is there
for him but the kingdom?

9 And from that day Saul was looking with envy on David.

10 Now on the day after, an evil spirit from God came on
Saul with great force and he was acting like a prophet among
the men of his house, while David was making music for him,
as he did day by day: and Saul had his spear in his hand.

11 And Saul, balancing the spear in his hand, said, I will
give David a blow, pinning him to the wall. And David got
away from him twice.

12 And Saul went in fear of David, because the Lord was
with David and had gone away from Saul.

13 So Saul sent him away, and made him a captain over a
thousand; and he went about his business before the people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And in all his undertakings David did wisely; and the
Lord was with him.

15 And when Saul saw how wisely he did, he was in fear of
him.

16 But David was loved by all Israel and Judah, for he went
out and came in before them.

17 And Saul said to David, Here is my oldest daughter
Merab, whom I will give you for your wife: only be strong
for me, fighting in the Lord's wars. For Saul said, Let it not
be through me that his fate comes to him, but through the
Philistines.

18 And David said to Saul, Who am I, and what is my
father's family in Israel, that I am to be son-in-law to the
king?

19 But when the time came to give Merab, Saul's daughter,
to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholath.

20 And Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David: and
Saul had word of it and was pleased.

21 And Saul said, I will give her to him, so that she may be
a cause of danger to him, and so that the hands of the
Philistines may be against him. So Saul said to David, Today
you are to become my son-in-law for the second time.

22 And Saul gave his servants orders saying, Have talk with
David secretly and say to him, See how the king has delight
in you, and how you are loved by all his servants: then be the
king's son-in-law.

23 And Saul's servants said these things to David. And
David said, Does it seem to you a small thing to be the king's
son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, of no great name?

24 And the servants of Saul gave him an account of what
David had said.

25 And Saul said, Then say to David, The king has no
desire for any bride-price, but only for the private parts of a
hundred Philistines so that the king may get the better of his
haters. But it was in Saul's mind that David might come to
his end by the hands of the Philistines.

26 And when his servants said these words to David, he was
well pleased to be the son-in-law of the king. And the days
were still not past.

27 So David and his men got up and went, and put to death
two hundred of the Philistines; and David took their private
parts and gave the full number of them to the king, so that he
might be the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his
daughter Michal for his wife.

28 And it was clear to Saul that the Lord was with David;
and he was loved by all Israel.

29 And Saul's fear of David became all the greater, and he
went on hating him, day by day.

30 Then the rulers of the Philistines went out to war: and
whenever they went out, David did more wisely than all the
other servants of Saul, so that his name became greatly
honoured.

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 19

1 And Saul gave orders to his son Jonathan and to all his
servants to put David to death. But Saul's son Jonathan had
great delight in David.

2 And Jonathan said to David, Saul, my father, is
purposing your death: so now, take care in the morning, and
keep yourself safe in a secret place:

3 And I will go out and take my place by my father's side in
the field near where you are; and I will get into talk with my
father about you, and when I see how things are, I will give
you word.

4 And Jonathan gave his father Saul a good account of
David, and said to him, Let not the king do wrong against
his servant, against David; because he has done you no
wrong, and all his acts have had a good outcome for you:

5 For he put his life in danger and overcame the Philistine,
and the Lord gave all Israel salvation: you saw it and were
glad: why then are you sinning against him who has done no
wrong, desiring the death of David without cause?

6 And Saul gave ear to the voice of Jonathan, and said with
an oath, By the living Lord, he is not to be put to death.

7 Then Jonathan sent for David and gave him word of all
these things. And Jonathan took David to Saul, who kept
him by his side as in the past.

8 And there was war again: and David went out fighting
the Philistines, causing great destruction among them; and
they went in flight before him.

9 And an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul, when he
was seated in his house with his spear in his hand; and David
made music for him.

10 And Saul would have sent his spear through him,
pinning him to the wall, but he got away and the spear went
into the wall: and that night David went in flight and got
away.

11 Then in that night Saul sent men to David's house to
keep watch on him so as to put him to death in the morning:
and David's wife Michal said to him, If you do not go away
to a safe place tonight you will be put to death in the
morning.

12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he
went in flight and got away.

13 Then Michal took the image and put it in the bed, with a
cushion of goat's hair at its head, and she put clothing over it.

14 And when Saul sent men to take David, she said, He is ill.

15 And Saul sent his men to see David, saying, Do not come
back without him, take him in his bed, so that I may put him
to death.

16 And when the men came in, there was the image in the
bed, with the cushion of goat's hair at its head

17 And Saul said to Michal, why have you been false to me,
letting my hater go and get safely away? And in answer
Michal said to Saul, He said to me, Let me go, or I will put
you to death.

18 So David went in flight and got away and came to
Ramah, to Samuel, and gave him an account of all Saul had

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

done to him. And he and Samuel went and were living in
Naioth.

19 And word was given to Saul that David was at Naioth in
Ramah.

20 And Saul sent men to take David; and when they saw the
band of prophets at work, with Samuel in his place at their
head, the spirit of God came on Saul's men, and they became
like prophets.

21 And Saul, having news of this, sent other men, who in
the same way became like prophets. And a third time Saul
sent men, and they like the others became like prophets.

22 Then he himself went to Ramah, and came to the great
water-spring in Secu; and questioning the people he said,
Where are Samuel and David? And one said, They are at
Naioth in Ramah.

23 And he went on from there to Naioth in Ramah: and the
spirit of God came on him, and he went on, acting like a
prophet, till he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 And he took off his clothing, acting like a prophet
before Samuel, and falling down he was stretched out,
without his clothing, all that day and all that night. This is
the reason for the saying, Is even Saul among the prophets?

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 20

1 And David went in flight from Naioth in Ramah and
came to Jonathan and said, What have I done? What is my
crime and my sin against your father that he is attempting to
take my life?

2 And he said to him, Far be the thought: you will not be
put to death: see, my father does nothing, great or small,
without giving me word of it: would he keep this secret from
me? It is not so.

3 But David took his oath again and said, Your father sees
that I am dear to you; so he says to himself, Let Jonathan
have no idea of this, for it will be a grief to him; but as the
Lord is living, and as your soul is living, there is only a step
between me and death.

4 Then Jonathan said to David, Whatever your desire is, I
will do it for you.

5 And David said to Jonathan, Tomorrow is the new moon,
and I will not be seated with the king at his table: but let me
go to a safe place in the country till the evening.

6 And if your father takes note of the fact that I am away,
say, David made a request to me for himself that he might go
to Beth-lehem, to his town: for it is the time when his family
make their offering year by year.

7 If he says, It is well, your servant will be at peace: but if he
is angry, then it will be clear to you that he has an evil
purpose in mind against me.

8 So, then, be kind to your servant; for you have been
united with your servant in an agreement made before the
Lord: but if there is any wrongdoing in me, put me to death
yourself; why take me to your father?

9 And Jonathan said, Do not have such a thought: for if I
saw that my father was designing evil against you, would I
not give you word of it?

10 Then David said to Jonathan, Who will give me word if
your father gives you a rough answer?

11 And Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go out into
the country. And the two of them went out together into the
open country.

12 And Jonathan said to David, May the Lord, the God of
Israel, be witness; when I have had a chance of talking to my
father, about this time tomorrow, if his feelings to David are
good, will I not send and give you the news?

13 May the Lord's punishment be on Jonathan, if it is my
father's pleasure to do you evil and I do not give you word of
it and send you away so that you may go in peace: and may
the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.

14 And may you, while I am still living, O may you be kind
to me, as the Lord is kind, and keep me from death!

15 And let not your mercy ever be cut off from my family,
even when the Lord has sent destruction on all David's haters,
cutting them off from the face of the earth.

16 And if it comes about that the name of Jonathan is cut
off from the family of David, the Lord will make David
responsible.

17 And Jonathan again took an oath to David, because of
his love for him: for David was as dear to him as his very soul.

18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon:
and it will be seen that you are not present, for there will be
no one in your seat.

19 And on the third day it will be specially noted, and you
will go to the place where you took cover when the other
business was in hand, waiting by the hill over there.

20 And on the third day I will send arrows from my bow
against its side as if at a mark.

21 And I will send my boy to have a look for the arrow.
And if I say to him, See, the arrow is on this side of you; take
it up! then you may come; for there is peace for you and no
evil, by the living Lord.

22 But if I say to the boy, See, the arrow has gone past you:
then go on your way, for the Lord has sent you away.

23 As for what you and I were talking of, the Lord is
between you and me for ever.

24 So David went to a secret place in the country: and when
the new moon came, the king took his place at the feast.

25 And the king took his seat, as at other times, by the wall:
and Jonathan was in front, and Abner was seated by Saul's
side, but there was no one in David's seat.

26 But Saul said nothing that day, for his thought was,
Something has taken place making him unclean; it is clear
that he is not clean.

27 And on the day after the new moon, that is, the second
day, there was still no one in David's seat: and Saul said to
his son Jonathan, Why has the son of Jesse not come to the
feast yesterday or today?

28 And answering Saul, Jonathan said, He made a request
to me that he might go to Beth-lehem,

29 Saying, Our family is making an offering in the town,
and my brothers have given me orders to be there: so now, if

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Ihave grace in your eyes, let me go away and see my brothers.
This is why he has not come to the king's table.

30 Then Saul was moved to wrath against Jonathan, and he
said to him, You son of an evil and uncontrolled woman,
have I not seen how you have given your love to the son of
Jesse, to your shame and the shame of your mother?

31 For while the son of Jesse is living on the earth, your
position is unsafe and your kingdom is in danger. So make
him come here to me, for it is certainly right for him to be
put to death.

32 And Jonathan, answering his father Saul, said to him,
Why is he to be put to death? What has he done?

33 And Saul, pointing his spear at him, made an attempt to
give him a wound: from which it was clear to Jonathan that
his father's purpose was to put David to death.

34 So Jonathan got up from the table, burning with wrath,
and took no part in the feast the second day of the month,
being full of grief for David because his father had put shame
on him.

35 Now in the morning, Jonathan went out into the fields
at the time he had said to David, and he had a little boy with
him.

36 And he said to the boy, Go and get the arrow I let loose
from my bow. And while the boy was running, he sent an
arrow past him.

37 And when the boy came to the place where the arrow
was, Jonathan, crying out after the boy, said, Has it not gone
past you?

38 And Jonathan went on crying out after the boy, Be
quick, do not keep waiting about, go quickly. And
Jonathan's boy got the arrow and came back to his master.

39 But the boy had no idea what was going on; only
Jonathan and David had knowledge of it.

40 And Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy, and
said to him, Take these and go back to the town.

41 And when the boy had gone, David came from his secret
place by the hill, and falling to the earth went down on his
face three times: and they gave one another a kiss, weeping
together, till David's grief was the greater.

42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, for we two
have taken an oath, in the name of the Lord, saying, The
Lord will be between me and you, and between my seed and
your seed for ever. Then David went away, and Jonathan
went into the town.

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 21

1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest: and
Ahimelech was full of fear at meeting David, and said to him,
Why are you by yourself, having no man with you?

2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has
given me orders and has said to me, Say nothing to anyone
about the business on which I am sending you and the orders
I have given you: and a certain place has been fixed to which
the young men are to go.

3 So now, if you have here five cakes of bread, give them
into my hand, or whatever you have.

4 And the priest, answering David, said, I have no common
bread here but there is holy bread; if only the young men
have kept themselves from women.

5 And David in answer said to the priest, Certainly women
have been kept from us; and as has been done before when I
have gone out the arms of the young men were made holy,
even though it was a common journey; how much more today
will their arms be made holy.

6 So the priest gave him the holy bread: there was no other,
only the holy bread which had been taken from before the
Lord, so that new bread might be put in its place on the day
when it was taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that
day, kept back before the Lord; his name was Doeg, an
Edomite, the strongest of Saul's runners.

8 And David said to Ahimelech, Have you no sword or
spear with you here? for I have come without my sword and
other arms, because the king's business had to be done
quickly.

9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine,
whom you put to death in the valley of Elah, is here folded in
a cloth at the back of the ephod: take that, if you will, for
there is no other sword here. And David said, there is no
other sword like that; give it to me.

10 Then David got up and went in flight that day for fear
of Saul, and went to Achish, the king of Gath.

11 And the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David,
the king of the land? did they not make songs about him in
their dances, saying, Saul has put to death thousands, and
David tens of thousands?

12 And David took these words to heart, fearing Achish,
the king of Gath.

13 So changing his behaviour before them, he made it seem
as if he was off his head, hammering on the doors of the town,
and letting the water from his mouth go down his chin.

14 Then Achish said to his servants, Look! the man is
clearly off his head; why have you let him come before me?

15 Are there not enough unbalanced men about me, that
you have let this person come and do such tricks before me? is
such a man to come into my house?

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 22

1 So David went away from there and took cover in a
strong place at Adullam; and his brothers and all his father's
people, hearing of it, went down to him there.

2 And everyone who was in trouble, and everyone who was
in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, came together
to him, and he became captain over them: about four
hundred men were joined to him.

3 And from there David went to Mizpeh in the land of
Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Let my father and
mother come and make their living-place with you till it is
clear to me what God will do for me.

4 And he took them to the king of Moab and they went on
living with him while David was in his safe place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not go on living
in this place but go into the land of Judah. Then David went
away and came to the woodland of Hereth.

6 And news was given to Saul that David had been seen,
and the men who were with him: now Saul was in Gibeah,
seated under the tree in the high place, with his spear in his
hand, and all his servants were in their places before him.

7 Then Saul said to his servants who were there about him,
Give ear now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give to
every one of you fields and vine-gardens, will he make you all
captains of hundreds and captains of thousands;

8 That all of you have made designs against me, and not one
of you gave me word when my son made an agreement with
the son of Jesse, and not one of you has pity for me or has
made my eyes open to the fact that my servant has been
moved by my son against me, as at this day?

9 Then Doeg, the Edomite, who was by the side of the
servants of Saul, in answer said, I saw the son of Jesse coming
to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub.

10 And he got directions from the Lord for him, and gave
him food, and put in his hand the sword of Goliath the
Philistine.

11 Then the king sent for Ahimelech the priest, the son of
Ahitub, and for all the men of his father's family who were
priests in Nob: and they all came to the king.

12 And Saul said, Give ear now, O son of Ahitub. And
answering he said, Here I am, my lord.

13 And Saul said to him, Why have you made designs
against me with the son of Jesse, giving him food and a sword
and getting directions from the Lord for him, and helping
him to take up arms against me, and to be on the watch to
make a secret attack on me as he is doing now?

14 Then Ahimelech answering said to the king, Who
among all your servants is so true to you as David, who is the
king's son-in-law, and is a captain of your armed men, and
has a place of honour in your house?

15 Is this the first time I have got directions from God for
him? Far be the thought! let the king make no such statement
against his servant or my father's family, for your servant has
no knowledge, great or small, of this thing.

16 And the king said, You will certainly be put to death,
Ahimelech, you and all your father's family.

17 Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near
him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on
David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give
me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out
their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.

18 Then the king said to Doeg, You are to put the priests to
death. And Doeg the Edomite, turning on the priests and
attacking them, put to death that day eighty-five men who
took up the ephod.

19 And Nob, the town of the priests, he put to the sword,
all the men and women, children and babies at the breast,
and oxen and asses and sheep.

20 And Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of
Ahitub, got away and went in flight after David;

21 And gave him the news of how Saul had put to death the
Lord's priests.

22 And David said to Abiathar, I was certain that day,
when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would take the
news to Saul: Iam responsible for the lives of all your father's
family.

23 Keep here with me and have no fear; for he who has
designs on my life has designs on yours: but with me you will
be safe.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 23

1 And they sent word to David, saying, The Philistines are
fighting against Keilah and taking the grain from the grain-
floors.

2 So David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go and
make an attack on these Philistines? And the Lord said to
David, Go and make an attack on the Philistines so that
Keilah may be kept from falling into their hands.

3 And David's men said to him, Even here in Judah we are
full of fear: how much more then if we go to Keilah against
the armies of the Philistines?

4 Then David put the question to the Lord again, and the
Lord answering said, Up! go down to Keilah; for I will give
the Philistines into your hands.

5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and had a fight
with the Philistines, and took away their cattle, and put
them to the sword with great destruction. So David was the
saviour of the people of Keilah.

6 Now when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, went in flight
to David, he came down to Keilah with the ephod in his hand.

7 And news was given to Saul that David had come to
Keilah. And Saul said, Now God has given him into my
hands; for by going into a walled town with locked doors, he
has let himself be shut in.

8 And Saul sent for all the people to come to the fight, and
go down to Keilah to make an attack on David and his men.

9 And it was clear to David that Saul had evil designs
against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Come here
with the ephod.

10 Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, news has
been given to your servant that it is Saul's purpose to come to
Keilah and send destruction on the town because of me.

11 And now, is it true, as they have said to me, that Saul is
coming? O Lord, the God of Israel, give ear to your servant,
and say if these things are so. And the Lord said, He is
coming down.

12 Then David said, Will the men of Keilah give me and my
men up to Saul? and the Lord said, They will give you up.

13 Then David and his men, about six hundred of them,
went out of Keilah, and got away wherever they were able to
go. And Saul, hearing that David had got away from Keilah,
did not go there.

14 And David kept in the waste land, in safe places, waiting
in the hill-country in the waste land of Ziph. And Saul was
searching for him every day, but God did not give him up
into his hands.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And David was full of fear, in the knowledge that Saul
had come out to take his life; and David was in the waste
land of Ziph, in Horesh.

16 And Saul's son Jonathan went to David in Horesh, and
made his hands strong in God;

17 And said to him, Have no fear, for Saul my father will
not get you into his power; and you will be king of Israel,
and I will be by your side, and my father Saul is certain of
this.

18 And the two of them made an agreement before the Lord:

and David went on living in Horesh, and Jonathan went
back to his house.

19 Then the Ziphites came up to Gibeah to see Saul, and
said, Is not David living secretly among us in the strong
places in Horesh, in the hill of Hachilah to the south of the
waste land?

20 So now, O king, have your soul's desire and come down,
and we, for our part, will give him up into the king's hands.

21 And Saul said, The Lord's blessing will be yours, for you
have had pity on me.

22 Go now, and take more steps, and see where he is living:
for they say that he is expert in deceit.

23 So take care to get knowledge of all the secret places
where he is taking cover, and be certain to come back to me,
and I will go with you: and without doubt, if he is anywhere
in the land, I will get him, among all the families of Judah.

24 And they went back and came to Ziph before Saul: but
David and his men were in the waste land of Maon, in the dry
land south of the waste land.

25 And Saul and his men went in search of him. And David
had word of it, so he came down to the rock in the waste land
of Maon. And Saul, hearing of this, went after David into
the waste land of Maon.

26 And Saul and his men went on one side of the mountain,
and David and his men went on the other: and David's
purpose was to get away as quickly as possible, for fear of
Saul; for Saul and his men were making a circle round David
and his men in order to take them.

27 But a man came to Saul saying, Be quick and come; for
the Philistines have made an attack on the land.

28 So turning back from going after David, Saul went
against the Philistines: so that place was named Sela-
hammah-lekoth.

29 And from there, David went up and took cover in the
safe place of En-gedi.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 24

1 Now when Saul came back from fighting the Philistines,
news was given him that David was in the waste land of En-
gedi.

2 Then Saul took three thousand of the best men out of all
Israel, and went in search of David and his men on the rocks
of the mountain goats.

3 And on the way he came to a place where sheep were kept,
where there was a hollow in the rock; and Saul went in for a

private purpose. Now David and his men were in the deepest
part of the hollow.

4 And David's men said to him, Now is the time when the
Lord says to you, I will give up your hater into your hands to
do with him whatever seems good to you. Then David,
getting up, took the skirt of Saul's robe in his hand, cutting
off the end of it without his knowledge.

5 And later, David was full of regret for cutting off Saul's
skirt.

6 And David said to his men, Before the Lord, never let it
be said that my hand was lifted up against my lord, the man
of the Lord's selection, for the Lord's holy oil has been put
on him.

7So with these words David kept his servants back, and did
not let them make an attack on Saul. And Saul got up and
went on his way.

8 And after that David came out of the hollow rock, and
crying after Saul said, My lord the king. And when Saul gave
a look back, David went down on his face and gave him
honour.

9 And David said to Saul, Why do you give any attention
to those who say that it is my desire to do you wrong?

10 Look! you have seen today how the Lord gave you up
into my hands even now in the hollow of the rocks: and some
would have had me put you to death, but I had pity on you:
for I said, Never will my hand be lifted up against my lord,
who has been marked with the holy oil.

11 And see, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand:
for the fact that I took off the skirt of your robe and did not
put you to death is witness that I have no evil purpose, and I
have done you no wrong, though you are waiting for my life
to take it.

12 May the Lord be judge between me and you, and may
the Lord give me my rights against you, but my hand will
never be lifted up against you.

13 There is an old saying, From the evil-doer comes evil:
but my hand will never be lifted up against you.

14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? for whom
are you searching? for a dead dog, an insect.

15 So let the Lord be judge, and give a decision between me
and you, and see and give support to my cause, and keep me
from falling into your hands.

16 Now when David had said these words to Saul, Saul said,
Is this your voice, David, my son? And Saul was overcome
with weeping.

17 And he said to David, You are right and I am wrong: for
you have given me back good, but I have given you evil.

18 And you have made clear to me how good you have been
to me today: because, when the Lord gave me up into your
hands, you did not put me to death.

19 Ifa man comes across his hater, will he let him get away
safe? so may you be rewarded by the Lord for what you have
done for me today.

20 And now I am certain that you will be king, and that the
kingdom of Israel will be made strong under your authority.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 So give me your oath by the Lord, that you will not put
an end to my seed after me or let my name be cut off from my
father's family.

22 And David gave Saul his oath. And Saul went back to
his house; but David and his men went up to their safe place.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 25

1 And death came to Samuel; and all Israel came together,
weeping for him, and put his body in its resting-place in his
house at Ramah. Then David went down to the waste land of
Maon.

2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in
Carmel; he was a great man and had three thousand sheep
and a thousand goats: and he was cutting the wool of his
sheep in Carmel.

3 Now this man was named Nabal, and his wife's name was
Abigail: she was a woman of good sense and pleasing looks:
but the man was cruel and evil in his ways; he was of the
family of Caleb.

4 And David had word in the waste land that Nabal was
cutting the wool of his sheep.

5 And David sent ten young men, and said to them, Go up
to Carmel and go to Nabal, and say kind words to him in my
name;

6 And say this to my brother, May all be well for you: peace
be to you and your house and all you have.

7 I have had word that you have wool-cutters: now the
keepers of your sheep have been with us, and we have done
them no evil, and taken nothing of theirs while they were in
Carmel.

8 If your young men are questioned they will say the same
thing. So now, let my young men have grace in your eyes, for
we are come at a good time; please give anything you may
have by you to your servants and to your son David.

9 And when David's young men came, they said all this to
Nabal, in David's name, and said nothing more.

10 And Nabal gave them his answer and said, Who is David?
who is the son of Jesse? there are a number of servants in
these days running away from their masters.

11 AmI to take my bread and my wine and the meat I have
got ready for my wool-cutters and give it to men coming
from I have no idea where?

12 So David's young men, turning away, went back and
gave him an account of everything he had said.

13 And David said to his men, Put on your swords, every
one of you. And every man put on his sword; and David did
the same; and about four hundred men went up with David,
and two hundred kept watch over their goods.

14 But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail,
David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our
master, and he gave them a rough answer.

15 But these men have been very good to us; they did us no
wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with
them in the fields:

16 But day and night they were like a wall round us while
we were with them, looking after the sheep.

17 So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for
evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such
a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say
anything to him.

18 Then Abigail quickly took two hundred cakes of bread
and two skins full of wine and five sheep ready for cooking
and five measures of dry grain and a hundred parcels of dry
grapes and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on asses.

19 And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and
I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband
Nabal.

20 Now while she was going down under cover of the
mountain on her ass, David and his men came down against
her, and suddenly she came face to face with them.

21 Now David had said, What was the use of my taking
care of this man's goods in the waste land, so that there was
no loss of anything which was his? he has only given me back
evil for good.

22 May God's punishment be on David, if when morning
comes there is so much as one male of his people still living.

23 And when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her ass,
falling down on her face before him.

24 And falling at his feet she said, May the wrong be on me,
my lord, on me: let your servant say a word to you, and give
ear to the words of your servant.

25 Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-
nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but
I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord
sent.

26 So now, my lord, by the living God and by your living
soul, seeing that the Lord has kept you from the crime of
blood and from taking into your hands the punishment for
your wrongs, may all your haters, and those who would do
evil to my lord, be like Nabal.

27 And let this offering, which your servant gives to my
lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord.

28 And may the sin of your servant have forgiveness: for the
Lord will certainly make your family strong, because my lord
is fighting in the Lord's war; and no evil will be seen in you
all your days.

29 And though a man has taken up arms against you,
putting your life in danger, still the soul of my lord will be
kept safe among the band of the living with the Lord your
God; and the souls of those who are against you he will send
violently away from him, like stones from a bag.

30 And when the Lord has done for my lord all those good
things which he has said he will do for you, and has made you
aruler over Israel;

31 Then you will have no cause for grief, and my lord's
heart will not be troubled because you have taken life
without cause and have yourself given punishment for your
wrongs: and when the Lord has been good to you, then give
a thought to your servant.

32 And David said to Abigail, May the Lord, the God of
Israel, be praised, who sent you to me today:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 A blessing on your good sense and on you, who have
kept me today from the crime of blood and from taking into
my hands the punishment for my wrongs.

34 For truly, by the living Lord, the God of Israel, who has
kept me from doing you evil, if you had not been so quick in
coming to me and meeting me, by dawn there would not have
been in Nabal's house so much as one male living.

35 Then David took from her hands her offering: and he
said to her, Go back to your house in peace; see, I have given
ear to your voice, and taken your offering with respect.

36 And Abigail went back to Nabal; and he was feasting in
his house like a king; and Nabal's heart was full of joy, for he
had taken much wine; so she said nothing to him till dawn
came.

37 And in the morning, when the effect of the wine was
gone, Nabal's wife gave him an account of all these things,
and all the heart went out of him, and he became like stone.

38 And about ten days after, the Lord sent disease on Nabal
and death came to him.

39 And David, hearing that Nabal was dead, said, May the
Lord be praised, who has taken up my cause against Nabal
for the shame which he put on me, and has kept back his
servant from evil, and has sent on Nabal's head the reward of
his evil-doing. And David sent word to Abigail, desiring to
take her as his wife.

40 And when David's servants came to Carmel, to Abigail,
they said to her, David has sent us to you to take you to him
as his wife.

41 And she got up, and going down on her face to the earth,
said, See, I am ready to be a servant-girl, washing the feet of
the servants of my lord.

42 Then Abigail got up quickly and went on her ass, with
five of her young women, after the men whom David had sent;
and she became David's wife.

43 And David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, to be his wife;
these two were his wives.

44 Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife,
to Palti the son of Laish of Gallim.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 26

1 And the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, and said, Is not
David waiting secretly near us in the hill of Hachilah, before
the waste land?

2 Then Saul went down to the waste land of Ziph, taking
with him three thousand of the best men of Israel, to make
search for David in the waste land of Ziph.

3 And Saul put up his tents on the hill of Hachilah, which is
in front of the waste land on the road. But David was in the
waste land, and he saw that Saul was coming after him.

4 And so David sent out watchers, and got word from them
that Saul was certainly coming.

5 And David got up and came to the place where Saul's
tents were: and David had a view of the place where Saul was
sleeping with Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his army:
and Saul was sleeping inside the ring of carts, and the tents of
the people were all round him.

6 Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai,
the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, Who will go down with
me to the tents of Saul? And Abishai said, I will go down
with you.

7 So David and Abishai came down to the army by night:
and Saul was sleeping inside the ring of carts with his spear
planted in the earth by his head: and Abner and the people
were sleeping round him.

8 Then Abishai said to David, God has given up your hater
into your hands today; now let me give him one blow
through to the earth with his spear, and there will be no need
to give him a second.

9 And David said to Abishai Do not put him to death; for
who, without sin, may put out his hand against the man on
whom the Lord has put the holy oil?

10 And David said, By the living Lord, the Lord will send
destruction on him; the natural day of his death will come, or
he will go into the fight and come to his end.

11 Never will my hand be stretched out against the man
marked with the holy oil; but take the spear which is by his
head and the vessel of water, and let us go.

12 So David took the spear and the vessel of water from
Saul's head; and they got away without any man seeing them,
or being conscious of their coming, or awaking; for they
were all sleeping because a deep sleep from the Lord had
come on them.

13 Then David went over to the other side, and took his
place on the top of a mountain some distance away, with a
great space between them;

14 And crying out to the people and to Abner, the son of
Ner, David said, Have you no answer to give, Abner? Then
Abner said, Who is that crying out to the king?

15 And David said to Abner, Are you not a man of war? is
there any other like you in Israel? why then have you not
kept watch over your lord the king? for one of the people
came in to put the king your lord to death.

16 What you have done is not good. By the living Lord,
death is the right fate for you, because you have not kept
watch over your lord, the man on whom the Lord has put the
holy oil. Now see, where is the king's spear, and the vessel of
water which was by his head?

17 And Saul, conscious that the voice was David's, said, Is
that your voice, David, my son? And David said, It is my
voice, O my lord king.

18 And he said, Why does my lord go armed against his
servant? what have I done? or what evil is there in me?

19 Let my lord the king give ear now to the words of his
servant. If it is the Lord who is moving you against me, let
him take an offering: but ifit is the children of men, may they
be cursed before the Lord, for driving me out today and
keeping me from my place in the heritage of the Lord, saying,
Go, be the servant of other gods.

20 Then do not let my blood be drained out on the earth
away from the face of the Lord: for the king of Israel has
come out to take my life, like one going after birds in the
mountains.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Then Saul said, I have done wrong: come back to me,
David my son: I will do you no more wrong, because my life
was dear to you today truly, I have been foolish and my error
is very great.

22 Then David said, Here is the king's spear! let one of the
young men come over and get it.

23 And the Lord will give to every man the reward of his
righteousness and his faith: because the Lord gave you into
my hands today, and I would not put out my hand against
the man who has been marked with the holy oil.

24 And so, as your life was dear to me today, may my life be
dear to the Lord, and may he make me free from all my
troubles.

25 Then Saul said to David, May a blessing be on you,
David, my son; you will do great things and without doubt
you will overcome. Then David went on his way, and Saul
went back to his place.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 27

1 And David said to himself, Some day death will come to
me by the hand of Saul: the only thing for me to do is to get
away into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up
hope of taking me in any part of the land of Israel: and so I
may be able to get away from him.

2 So David and the six hundred men who were with him
went over to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

3 And David and his men were living with Achish at Gath;
every man had his family with him, and David had his two
wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, who had
been the wife of Nabal.

4 And Saul, hearing that David had gone to Gath, went
after him no longer.

5 Then David said to Achish, If now I have grace in your
eyes, let me have a place in one of the smaller towns of your
land, to be my living-place; for it is not right for your
servant to be living with you in the king's town.

6 So Achish straight away gave him Ziklag: and for that
reason Ziklag has been the property of the kings of Judah to
this day.

7 And David was living in the land of the Philistines for the
space of a year and four months.

8 And David and his men went up and made attacks on the
Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for these
were the people who were living in the land from Telam on
the way to Shur, as far as Egypt.

9 And David again and again made attacks on the land till
not a man or a woman was still living; and he took away the
sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the
clothing; and he came back to Achish.

10 And every time Achish said, Where have you been
fighting today? David said, Against the South of Judah and
the South of the Jerahmeelites and the South of the Kenites.

11 Not one living man or woman did David ever take back
with him to Gath, fearing that they might give an account of
what had taken place, and say, This is what David did, and

so has he been doing all the time while he has been living in
the land of the Philistines.

12 And Achish had belief in what David said, saying, He
has made himself hated by all his people Israel, and so he will
be my servant for ever.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 28

1 Now in those days the Philistines got their forces together
to make war on Israel. And Achish said to David, Certainly
you and your men are to go out with me to the fight.

2 And David said to Achish, You will see now what your
servant will do. And Achish said to David, Then I will make
you keeper of my head for ever.

3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel, after weeping for
him, had put his body in its last resting-place in Ramah, his
town. And Saul had put away from the land all those who
had control of spirits and who made use of secret arts.

4 And the Philistines came together and put their forces in
position in Shunem; and Saul got all Israel together and they
took up their positions in Gilboa.

5 And when Saul saw the Philistine army he was troubled,
and his heart was moved with fear.

6 And when Saul went for directions to the Lord, the Lord
gave him no answer, by a dream or by the Urim or by the
prophets.

7 Then Saul said to his servants, Get me a woman who has
control of a spirit so that I may go to her and get directions.
And his servants said to him, There is such a woman at En-
dor.

8 So Saul, putting on other clothing, so that he might not
be seen to be the king, took two men with him and went to
the woman by night; and he said, Now, with the help of the
spirit which you have, make the person whose name I will
give you come up.

9 And the woman said to him, But you have knowledge of
what Saul has done, how he has put away out of the land
those who have control of spirits and the users of secret arts:
why would you, by a trick, put me in danger of death?

10 And Saul made an oath to her by the Lord, saying, By
the living Lord, no punishment will come to you for this.

11 Then the woman said, Who am I to let you see? And he
said, Make Samuel come up for me.

12 And the woman saw that it was Saul, and she gave a
loud cry, and said to Saul, Why have you made use of deceit?
for you are Saul.

13 And the king said to her, Have no fear: what do you see?
And the woman said to Saul, I see a god coming up out of the
earth.

14 And he said to her, What is his form? And she said, It is
an old man coming up covered with a robe. And Saul saw
that it was Samuel, and with his face bent down to the earth
he gave him honour.

15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you made me come
up, troubling my rest? And Saul in answer said, I am in great
danger; for the Philistines are making war on me, and God
has gone away from me and will no longer give me any

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

answer, by the prophets or by dreams: so I have sent for you
to make clear to me what I am to do.

16 And Samuel said, Why do you put your questions to me,
seeing that God has gone away from you and is on the side of
him who is against you?

17 And the Lord himself has done what J said: the Lord has
taken the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your
neighbour David;

18 Because you did not do what the Lord said, and did not
give effect to his burning wrath against Amalek. So the Lord
has done this thing to you today.

19 And more than this, the Lord will give Israel up with
you into the hands of the Philistines: and tomorrow you and
your sons will be with me: and the Lord will give up the
army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.

20 Then Saul went down flat on the earth, and was full of
fear because of Samuel's words: and there was no strength in
him, for he had taken no food all that day or all that night.

21 And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was in
great trouble, and said to him, See now, your servant has
given ear to your words, and I have put my life in danger by
doing what you said.

22 So now, give ear to the voice of your servant, and let me
give you a little bread; and take some food to give you
strength when you go on your way.

23 But he would not, saying, I have no desire for food. But
his servants, together with the woman, made him take food,
and he gave way to them. So he got up from the earth, and
took his seat on the bed.

24 And the woman had in the house a young cow, made fat
for food; and she put it to death straight away; and she took
meal and got it mixed and made unleavened bread;

25 And she put it before Saul and his servants, and they had
a meal. Then they got up and went away the same night.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 29

1 Now the Philistines got all their army together at Aphek:
and the Israelites put their forces in position by the fountain
in Jezreel.

2 And the lords of the Philistines went on with their
hundreds and their thousands, and David and his men came
after with Achish.

3 Then the rulers of the Philistines said, What are these
Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the rulers of the
Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of
Israel, who has been with me for a year or two, and I have
never seen any wrong in him from the time when he came to
me till now?

4 But the rulers of the Philistines were angry with him, and
said to him, Make the man go back to the place you have
given him; do not let him go down with us to the fight, or he
may be turned against us and be false to us: for how will this
man make peace with his lord? will it not be with the heads
of these men?

5 Is this not David, who was named in their songs, when in
the dance they said to one another, Saul has put to death
thousands, and David tens of thousands?

6 Then Achish sent for David and said to him, By the living
Lord, you are upright, and everything you have done with
me in the army has been pleasing to me: I have seen no evil in
you from the day when you came to me till now: but still, the
lords are not pleased with you.

7So now go back, and go in peace, so that you do not make
the lords of the Philistines angry.

8 And David said to Achish, But what have I done? what
have you seen in your servant while I have been with you till
this day, that I may not go and take up arms against those
who are now making war on my lord the king?

9 And Achish in answer said, It is true that in my eyes you
are good, like an angel of God: but still, the rulers of the
Philistines have said, He is not to go up with us to the fight.

10 So get up early in the morning, with the servants of your
lord who are with you, and go to the place I have given you,
and have no evil design in your heart, for you are good in my
eyes; but when there is light enough in the morning, go away.

11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to go
back to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went
up to Jezreel.

| SAMUEL CHAPTER 30

1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third
day, the Amalekites had made an attack on the South and on
Ziklag, and had overcome Ziklag and put it on fire;

2 And had made the women and all who were there, small
and great, prisoners: they had not put any of them to death,
but had taken them all away.

3 And when David and his men came to the town, they saw
that it had been burned down, and their wives and their sons
and daughters had been made prisoners.

4 Then David and the people who were with him gave
themselves up to weeping till they were able to go on
weeping no longer.

5 And David's two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail,
the wife of Nabal of Carmel, had been made prisoners.

6 And David was greatly troubled; for the people were
talking of stoning him, because their hearts were bitter,
every man sorrowing for his sons and his daughters: but
David made himself strong in the Lord his God.

7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of
Ahimelech, Come here to me with the ephod. And Abiathar
took the ephod to David.

8 Then David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go after
this band? will I be able to overtake them? And in answer he
said, Go after them, for you will certainly overtake them,
and get back everything.

9 So David went, and his six hundred men went with him,
and they came to the stream Besor.

10 And David, with four hundred men, went on: but two
hundred of them were overcome with weariness, and not able
to go across the stream.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And in the fields they saw an Egyptian whom they took
to David, and they gave him bread, and he had a meal, and
they gave him water for drink;

12 And they gave him part of a cake of figs and some dry
grapes; and after the food, his spirit came back to him, for he
had had no food or drink for three days and nights.

13 And David said to him, Whose man are you and where
do you come from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt,
servant to an Amalekite; and my master went on without me
because three days back I became ill.

14 We made an attack on the south part of the country of
the Cherethites, and on the land which is Judah's, and on the
south of Caleb; and we put Ziklag on fire.

15 And David said to him, Will you take me down to this
band? And he said, If you give me your oath that you will not
put me to death or give me up to my master, I will take you
to them.

16 And when he had taken him down, they saw them all,
seated about on all sides, feasting and drinking among all the
mass of goods which they had taken from the land of the
Philistines and the land of Judah.

17 And David went on fighting them from evening till the
evening of the day after; and not one of them got away but
only four hundred young men who went in flight on camels.

18 And David got back everything the Amalekites had
taken; and he got back his two wives.

19 There was no loss of anything, small or great, sons or
daughters or goods or anything which they had taken away:
David got it all back.

20 And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them
in front of him, said, These are David's.

21 And David came to the two hundred men, who because
of weariness had not gone with him, but were waiting at the
stream Besor: and they went out, meeting David and the
people who were with him; and when they came near them,
they said, How are you?

22 Then the bad and good-for-nothing men among those
who went with David said, Because they did not go with us,
we will give them nothing of the goods which we have got
back, but only to every man his wife and children, so that he
may take them and go.

23 Then David said, You are not to do this, my brothers,
after what the Lord has given us, who has kept us safe and
given up the band which came against us into our hands.

24 Who is going to give any attention to you in this
question? for an equal part will be given to him who went to
the fight and to him who was waiting by the goods: they are
all to have the same.

25 And so he made it a rule and an order for Israel from
that day till now.

26 And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the
goods to the responsible men of Judah, and to his friends,
saying, Here is an offering for you from the goods of those
who were fighting against the Lord;

27 He sent to those who were in Beth-el, and in Ramah of
the South, and in Jattir;

28 And to those in Arara and Eshtemoa

29 and Carmel and in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, and in
the towns of the Kenites;

30 And to those who were in Hormah and in Bor-ashan and
in Athach;

31 And in Hebron, and to all the places where David and
his men had been living.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 31

1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel: and the
men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling
down wounded in Mount Gilboa.

2 And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and they
put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the
sons of Saul.

3 And the fight was going badly for Saul, and the archers
came across him, and he was wounded by the archers.

4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms,
Take out your sword and put it through me, before these
men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But
his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out
his sword, and falling on it, put an end to himself.

5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the
same, and was united with him in death.

6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons and his servant
on the same day.

7 And when the men of Israel across the valley and on the
other side of Jordan saw that the army of Israel was in flight
and that Saul and his sons were dead, they came out of their
towns and went in flight; and the Philistines came and took
them for themselves.

8 Now on the day after, when the Philistines came to take
their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his three sons
dead on the earth in Mount Gilboa.

9 And cutting off his head and taking away his war-dress,
they sent word into the land of the Philistines round about,
to take the news to their gods and to the people.

10 His war-dress they put in the house of Astarte; and his
body was fixed on the wall of Beth-shan.

11 And when the people of Jabesh-gilead had news of what
the Philistines had done to Saul,

12 All the fighting men got up and, travelling all night,
took Saul's body and the bodies of his sons from the wall of
Beth-shan; and they came to Jabesh and had them burned
there.

13 And their bones they put in the earth under a tree in
Jabesh; and for seven days they took no food.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL
Hebrew Title: SHEMUEL 2
(also called: The Second Book of Kings or 2 Reigns)
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 630-540 B.C

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER |

1 Now after the death of Saul, when David, having come
back from the destruction of the Amalekites, had been in
Ziklag for two days;

2 On the third day a man came from Saul's tents, with his
clothing out of order and earth on his head: and when he
came to David, he went down on the earth and gave him
honour.

3 And David said to him, Where have you come from? And
he said, I have come in flight from the tents of Israel.

4 And David said to him, How did things go? Give me the
news. And in answer he said, The people have gone in flight
from the fight, and a great number of them are dead; and
Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.

5 And David said to the young man who gave him the news,
Why are you certain that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?

6 And the young man said, I came by chance to Mount
Gilboa, and I saw Saul supporting himself on his spear; and
the war-carriages and horsemen overtook him.

7 And looking back, he saw me and gave a cry to me. And
answering him I said, Here am I.

8 And he said to me, Who are you? And I said, I am an
Amalekite.

9 Then he said to me, Come here to my side, and put me to
death, for the pain of death has me in its grip but my life is
still strong in me.

10 So I put my foot on him and gave him his death-blow,
because I was certain that he would not go on living after his
fall: and I took the crown from his head and the band from
his arm, and I have them here for my lord.

11 Then David gave way to bitter grief, and so did all the
men who were with him:

12 And till evening they gave themselves to sorrow and
weeping, and took no food, weeping for Saul and for
Jonathan, his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the
men of Israel; because they had come to their end by the
sword.

13 And David said to the young man who had given him
the news, Where do you come from? And he said, I am the
son of a man from a strange land; I am an Amalekite.

14 And David said to him, Had you no fear of stretching
out your hand to put to death the one marked with the holy
oil?

15 And David sent for one of his young men and said, Go
near and put an end to him. And he put him to death.

16 And David said to him, May your blood be on your head;
for your mouth has given witness against you, saying, I have
put to death the man marked with the holy oil.

17 Then David made this song of grief for Saul and
Jonathan, his son:

18 (It is recorded in the book of Jashar for teaching to the
sons of Judah) and he said:

19 The glory, O Israel, is dead on your high places! How
have the great ones been made low!

20 Give no news of it in Gath, let it not be said in the
streets of Ashkelon; or the daughters of the Philistines will
be glad, the daughters of men without circumcision will be
uplifted in joy.

21 O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on
you, you fields of death: for there the arms of the strong have
been shamed, the arms of Saul, as if he had not been marked
with the holy oil.

22 From the blood of the dead, from the fat of the strong,
the bow of Jonathan was not turned back, the sword of Saul
did not come back unused.

23 Saul and Jonathan were loved and pleasing; in their lives
and in their death they were not parted; they went more
quickly than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

24 O daughters of Israel, have sorrow for Saul, by whom
you were delicately clothed in robes of red, with ornaments
of gold on your dresses.

25 How have the great ones been made low in the fight!
Jonathan is dead on your high places.

26 I am full of grief for you, my brother Jonathan: very
dear have you been to me: your love for me was a wonder,
greater than the love of women.

27 How have the great ones been made low, and the arms of
war broken!

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 2

1 Now after this, David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I
to go up into any of the towns of Judah? And the Lord said
to him, Go up. And David said, Where am I to go? And he
said, To Hebron.

2 So David went there, taking with him his two wives,
Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel.

3 And David took all his men with him, every man with his
family: and they were living in the towns round Hebron.

4 And the men of Judah came there, and with the holy oil
made David king over the people of Judah. And word came
to David that it was the men of Jabesh-gilead who put Saul's
body in its last resting-place.

5 And David sent to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to
them, May the Lord give you his blessing, because you have
done this kind act to Saul your lord, and have put his body
to rest!

6 May the Lord be good and true to you: and I myself will
see that your kind act is rewarded, because you have done
this thing.

7 Then let your hands be strong, and have no fear: though
Saul your lord is dead, the people of Judah have made me
their king.

8 Now Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul's army, had
taken Saul's son Ish-bosheth over to Mahanaim,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And made him king over Gilead and the Asherites and
over Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin, that is, over all
Israel.

10 (Saul's son Ish-bosheth was forty years old when he
became king over Israel, and he was ruler for two years.) But
Judah was on the side of David.

11 And the time when David was king in Hebron over the
people of Judah was seven years and six months.

12 And Abner, the son of Ner, with the servants of Saul's
son Ish-bosheth, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

13 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David,
went out and came face to face with them by the pool of
Gibeon; and they took up their position, facing one another
on opposite sides of the pool.

14 And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men give a test of
their strength before us. And Joab said, Let them do so.

15 So they got up and went over by number: twelve for
Benjamin and Ish-bosheth and twelve of the servants of
David.

16 And every one got the other by the head, driving his
sword into the other's side, so they all went down together:
and that place was named the Field of Sides, and it is in
Gibeon.

17 And there was hard fighting that day; and Abner and
the men of Israel gave way before the servants of David.

18 There were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab and
Abishai and Asahel: and Asahel was as quick-footed as a roe
of the fields.

19 Asahel went running after Abner, not turning to the
right or to the left.

20 Then Abner, looking back, said, Is it you, Asahel? And
he said, It is I.

21 And Abner said, Then go to the right or to the left and
put your hands on one of the fighting-men and take his arms.
But Asahel would not be turned away from going after
Abner.

22 Then again Abner said to Asahel, Go to one side, do not
keep on coming after me: why will you make me put an end
to you? for then I will be shamed before your brother Joab.

23 But still he did not go to one side: so Abner gave him a
back blow in the stomach with his spear, so that the spear
came out at his back; and he went down on the earth,
wounded to death: and all those who came to the place where
Asahel went down dead, came to a stop.

24 But Joab and Abishai went after Abner: and the sun
went down when they came to the hill of Ammah, which is to
the east of the road through the waste land of Geba.

25 And the men of Benjamin came together after Abner in
one band, and took their places on the top ofa hill.

26 Then crying out to Joab, Abner said, Are fighting and
destruction to go on for ever? do you not see that the end
will only be bitter? how long will it be before you send the
people back and make them give up attacking their
countrymen?

27 And Joab said, By the living God, if you had not given
the word, the people would have gone on attacking their
countrymen till the morning.

28 So Joab had a horn sounded, and all the people came to
astop, and gave up going after Israel and fighting them.

29 And all that night Abner and his men went through the
Arabah; they went over Jordan and through all Bithron and
came to Mahanaim.

30 And Joab came back from fighting Abner: and when he
had got all his men together, it was seen that nineteen of
David's men, in addition to Asahel, were not with them.

31 But David's men had put to death three hundred and
sixty of the men of Benjamin and of Abner's men

32 And they took Asahel's body and put it in the last
resting-place of his father in Beth-lehem. And Joab and his
men, travelling all night, came to Hebron at dawn.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 3

1 Now there was a long war between Saul's people and
David's people; and David became stronger and stronger,
but those on Saul's side became more and more feeble.

2 While David was in Hebron he became the father of sons:
the oldest was Amnon, son of Ahinoam of Jezreel;

3 And the second, Chileab, whose mother was Abigail, the
wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom, son of
Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur;

4 And the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith; and the
fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital;

5 And the sixth, Ithream, whose mother was David's wife
Eglah. These were the sons of David, whose birth took place
in Hebron.

6 Now while there was war between Saul's people and
David's people, Abner was making himself strong among the
supporters of Saul.

7 Now Saul had among his wives a woman named Rizpah,
the daughter of Aiah: and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why
have you taken my father's wife?

8 And Abner was very angry at the words of Ish-bosheth,
and he said, Am I a dog's head of Judah? I am this day doing
all in my power for the cause of your father Saul and for his
brothers and his friends, and have not given you up into the
hands of David, and now you say I have done wrong with a
woman.

9 May God's punishment be on Abner, if I do not for David
as the Lord in his oath has said,

10 And if I do not take away the kingdom from the family
of Saul and make David ruler over Israel and Judah from
Dan as far as Beer-sheba!

11 And so great was Ish-bosheth's fear of Abner that he was
not able to say a word in answer.

12 And Abner sent men to David at Hebron, saying, Make
an agreement with me, and I will give you my support in
getting all Israel on your side.

13 And he said, It is well; I will make an agreement with
you, but on one condition, which is, that when you come

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

before me, Saul's daughter Michal is to come with you; till
she comes you will not see my face.

14 And David sent men to Saul's son Ish-bosheth, saying,
Give me back Michal, my wife, whom I made mine for the
price of the private parts of a hundred Philistines.

15 So Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband
Paltiel, the son of Laish.

16 And her husband went with her as far as Bahurim,
weeping while he went. Then Abner said to him, Go back.
And he went back.

17 Then Abner had a talk with the chief men of Israel,
saying, In the past it was your desire to make David your
king: so now, do it:

18 For the Lord has said of David, By the hand of my
servant David I will make my people Israel safe from the
Philistines, and from all who are against them.

19 And Abner said the same things to Benjamin: and he
went to David in Hebron to make clear to him what seemed
good to Israel and to all the people of Benjamin.

20 So Abner, with twenty men, came to Hebron, to David.
And David made a feast for Abner and the men who were
with him.

21 And Abner said to David, Now I will go, and make all
Israel come to my lord the king, so that they may make an
agreement with you, and your kingdom may be as wide as
your heart's desire. Then David sent Abner away and he went
in peace.

22 Now the servants of David and Joab had been out
attacking a band of armed men, and they came back with a
great store of goods taken in the fight: but Abner was no
longer in Hebron with David, for he had sent him away and
he had gone in peace.

23 When Joab and his men came, news was given them that
Abner, the son of Ner, had come to the king, who had let him
go away again in peace.

24 Then Joab came to the king, and said, What have you
done? when Abner came to you why did you send him away
and let him go?

25 Is it not clear to you that Abner, the son of Ner, came
with deceit to get knowledge of your going out and your
coming in and of all you are doing?

26 And when Joab had come out from David, he sent men
after Abner, and they overtook him at the water-spring of
Sirah, and made him come back with them: but David had no
knowledge of it.

27 And when Abner was back in Hebron, Joab took him on
one side by the doorway of the town to have a word with him
quietly, and there he gave him a wound in the stomach,
causing his death in payment for the death of his brother
Asahel.

28 And when David had word of it he said, May I and my
kingdom be clear for ever in the eyes of the Lord from the
blood of Abner, the son of Ner:

29 May it come on the head of Joab and all his father's
family: among the men of Joab's family may there ever be
some who are diseased or lepers, or who do the work of

women, or are put to the sword, or are wasted from need of
food!

30 So Joab and Abishai his brother put Abner to death,
because he had put to death their brother Asahel in the fight
at Gibeon.

31 And David said to Joab and all the people who were
with him, Go in grief and put haircloth about you, in sorrow
for Abner. And King David went after the dead body.

32 And they put Abner's body to rest in Hebron; and the
king and all the people were weeping loudly by the resting-
place of Abner's body.

33 And the king made a song of grief for Abner and said,
Was the death of Abner to be like the death of a foolish man?

34 Your hands were free, your feet were not chained: like
the downfall of a man before evil men, so was your fall. And
the weeping of the people over him went on again.

35 And the people came to make David take food, while it
was still day, but David with an oath said, May God's
punishment be on me if I take a taste of bread or any other
thing till the sun has gone down!

36 And all the people took note of it and were pleased: like
everything the king did, it was pleasing to the people.

37 So it was clear to Israel and to all the people on that day
that the king was not responsible for the death of Abner, the
son of Ner.

38 And the king said to his servants, Do you not see that a
chief and a great man has come to his end today in Israel?

39 While I, though I am crowned king, have little strength,
and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are out of my control:
may the Lord give to the evil-doer the reward of his evil-
doing!

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 4

1 And when Saul's son Ish-bosheth had news that Abner
was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the
Israelites were troubled.

2 And Saul's son had two men, captains of bands, one
named Baanah and the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the
Beerothite, of the tribe of Benjamin; (for Beeroth was at one
time taken to be part of Benjamin:

3 But the people of Beeroth had gone in flight to Gittaim,
where they have been living to this day.)

4 Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son whose feet were
damaged. He was five years old when news of the death of
Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and the woman who
took care of him took him up and went in flight: and while
she was getting him away as quickly as she was able, he had a
fall and his feet were damaged. His name was Mephibosheth.

5 And Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the
Beerothite, went out and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in
the heat of the day, when he was resting in the middle of the
day. Now the woman who kept the door was cleaning grain,
and sleep overcame her.

6 And Rechab and his brother Baanah got in without being
seen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 And when they came into the house, Ish-bosheth was
stretched on his bed in his bedroom; and they made an attack
on him and put him to death, and, cutting off his head, they
took it with them and went by the road through the Arabah
all night.

8 And they took the head of Ish-bosheth to David in
Hebron, and said to the king, Here is the head of Ish-bosheth,
the son of Saul your hater, who would have taken your life;
the Lord has taken payment for the wrongs of my lord the
king from Saul and his seed today.

9 And David made answer to Rechab and his brother
Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them,
By the living Lord, who has kept me safe from all my trouble,

10 When one came to me with the news of Saul's death, in
the belief that it would be good news, I took him and put him
to death in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his
news:

11 How much more, when evil men have put an upright
person to death, in his house, sleeping on his bed, will I take
payment from you for his blood, and have you cut off from
the earth?

12 And David gave orders to his young men and they put
them to death, cutting off their hands and their feet and
hanging them up by the side of the pool in Hebron. But they
took the head of Ish-bosheth and put it in its last resting-
place with Abner's body in Hebron.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 5

1 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and
said, Truly, we are your bone and your flesh.

2 In the past when Saul was king over us, it was you who
went at the head of Israel when they went out or came in: and
the Lord said to you, You are to be the keeper of my people
Israel and their ruler.

3 So all the responsible men of Israel came to the king at
Hebron; and King David made an agreement with them in
Hebron before the Lord: and they put the holy oil on David
and made him king over Israel.

4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he
was king for forty years,

5 Ruling over Judah in Hebron for seven years and six
months, and in Jerusalem, over all Israel and Judah, for
thirty-three years.

6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the
Jebusites, the people of the land: and they said to David, You
will not come in here, but the blind and the feeble-footed will
keep you out; for they said, David will not be able to come in
here.

7 But David took the strong place of Zion, which is the
town of David.

8 And that day David said, Whoever makes an attack on the
Jebusites, let him go up by the water-pipe, and put to death
all the blind and feeble-footed who are hated by David. And
this is why they say, The blind and feeble-footed may not
come into the house.

9 So David took the strong tower for his living-place,
naming it the town of David. And David took in hand the
building of the town all round, starting from the Millo.

10 And David became greater and greater; for the Lord,
the God of armies, was with him.

11 And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent men to David, with
cedar-trees and woodworkers and stoneworkers: and they
made David a house.

12 And David saw that the Lord had made his position safe
as king over Israel, and that he had made his kingdom great
because of his people Israel.

13 And David took more women and wives in Jerusalem,
after he had come from Hebron: and he had more sons and
daughters.

14 These are the names of those whose birth took place in
Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon

15 And Ibhar and Elishua and Nepheg and Japhia

16 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet.

17 And when the Philistines had news that David had been
made king over Israel, they all went up in search of David;
and David, hearing of it, went down to the strong place.

18 And when the Philistines came, they went in every
direction in the valley of Rephaim.

19 And David, desiring directions from the Lord, said, Am
I to go up against the Philistines? will you give them up into
my hands? And the Lord said, Go up, for I will certainly give
up the Philistines into your hands.

20 And David went to Baal-perazim, and overcame them
there; and he said, The Lord has let the forces fighting
against me be broken before me as a wall is broken by
rushing waters. So that place was named Baal-perazim.

21 And the Philistines, when they went in flight, did not
take their images with them, and David and his men took
them away.

22 And the Philistines came up again, and went in every
direction in the valley of Rephaim.

23 And when David went for directions to the Lord, he said,
You are not to go up against them in front; but make a circle
round them from the back and come on them opposite the
spice-trees.

24 Then at the sound of footsteps in the tops of the trees, go
forward quickly, for the Lord has gone out before you to
overcome the army of the Philistines.

25 And David did as the Lord had said; and he overcame
the Philistines, attacking them from Gibeon to near Gezer.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 6

1 And David got together all the fighting-men of Israel to
the number of thirty thousand;

2 And David, and all the people who were with him, went
to Baal of Judah to get the ark of God, over which the holy
name is named, the name of the Lord of armies, whose place
is between the winged ones.

3 And they put the ark of God on a new cart and took it out
of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill: and Uzzah
and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were the drivers of the cart.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And Uzzah went by the side of the ark, while Ahio went
before it.

5 And David and all the men of Israel made melody before
the Lord with all their power, with songs and with corded
instruments and instruments of brass.

6 And when they came to Nacon's grain-floor, Uzzah put
his hand on the ark of God to keep it safe in its place, for the
oxen were out of control.

7 And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzzah, sent
destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark,
and death came to him there by the ark of God.

8 And David was angry because of the Lord's outburst of
wrath against Uzzah: and he gave that place the name Perez-
uzzah, which is its name to this day.

9 And such was David's fear of the Lord that day, that he
said, How may I let the ark of God come to me?

10 So David did not let the ark of the Lord come back to
him to the town of David: but had it turned away and put
into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

11 And the ark of the Lord was in the house of Obed-edom
the Gittite for three months: and the Lord sent a blessing on
Obed-edom and all his family.

12 And they said to King David, The blessing of the Lord is
on the family of Obed-edom and on all he has, because of the
ark of God. And David went and took the ark of God from
the house of Obed-edom into the town of David with joy.

13 And when those who were lifting the ark of the Lord
had gone six steps, he made an offering of an ox and a fat
young beast.

14 And David, clothed in a linen ephod, was dancing before
the Lord with all his strength.

15 So David and all the men of Israel took up the ark of the
Lord with cries of joy and sounding of horns.

16 And when the ark of the Lord came into the town of
David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looking out of the window,
saw King David dancing and jumping before the Lord; and
to her mind he seemed foolish.

17 And they took in the ark of the Lord, and put it in its
place inside the tent which David had put up for it: and

David made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord.

18 And after David had made the burned offerings and the
peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of
the Lord of armies.

19 And he gave to every man and woman among all the
people, among all the masses of Israel, a cake of bread and a
measure of wine and a cake of dry grapes. Then all the people
went away, every man to his house.

20 Then David came back to give a blessing to his family.
And Michal, Saul's daughter, came out to him and said, How
full of glory was the king of Israel today, who let himself be
seen uncovered by his servant-girls like a foolish person
uncovering himself without shame!

21 And David said to Michal, I was dancing before the
Lord, who put me over your father and all his sons, to make
me a ruler over the people of the Lord, over his people Israel:
and J will go on playing before the Lord;

22 And I will do even worse than this, and make myself even
lower in your eyes: but the servant-girls of whom you were
talking will give me honour.

23 And Michal, Saul's daughter, had no child till the day of
her death.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 7

1 Now when the king was living in his house, and the Lord
had given him rest from war on every side;

2 The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I am
living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God is housed inside
the curtains of a tent.

3 And Nathan said to the king, Go and do whatever is in
your heart; for the Lord is with you.

4 Now that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan,
saying,

5 Go and say to my servant David, The Lord says, Are you
to be the builder of a house, a living-place for me?

6 For from the day when IJ took the children of Israel up out
of Egypt till this day, I have had no house, but have gone
from place to place in a tent.

7 In all the places where I went with all the children of
Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, to whom I
gave the care of my people Israel, Why have you not made me
a house of cedar?

8 Then say these words to my servant David, The Lord of
armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping the
sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people, over my
people Israel:

9 And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off
before you all those who were against you; and I will make
your name great, like the name of the greatest ones of the
earth.

10 And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel,
planting them there, so that they may be living in the place
which is theirs, and never again be moved; and never again
will they be troubled by evil men as they were at the first,

11 From the time when I put judges over my people Israel;
and I will give you peace from all who are against you. And
the Lord says to you that he will make you the head of a line
of kings.

12 And when the time comes for you to go to rest with your
fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, the
offspring of your body, and I will make his kingdom strong.

13 He will be the builder of a house for my name, and I will
make the seat of his authority certain for ever.

14 I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son: if he
does wrong, I will give him punishment with the rod of men
and with the blows of the children of men;

15 But my mercy will not be taken away from him, as I took
it from him who was before you.

16 And your family and your kingdom will keep their place
before me for ever: the seat of your authority will never be
overturned.

17 So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and
this vision.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 Then David the king went in and took his seat before the
Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my
family, that you have been my guide till now?

19 And this was only a small thing to you, O Lord God;
but your words have even been about the far-off future of
your servant's family, O Lord God!

20 What more may David say to you? for you have
knowledge of your servant, O Lord God.

21 Because of your word and from your heart, you have
done all this great work, and let your servant see it.

22 Truly you are great, O Lord God: there is no one like
you and no other God but you, as is clear from everything
which has come to our ears.

23 And what other nation in the earth, like your people
Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people,
and to make a name for himself, and to do great and strange
things for them, driving out a nation and its gods from
before his people?

24 But you took and made strong for yourself your people
Israel, to be your people for ever; and you, Lord, became
their God.

25 And now, O Lord God, may the word which you have
said about your servant and about his family, be made
certain for ever, and may you do as you have said!

26 And let your name be made great for ever, and let men
say, The Lord of armies is God over Israel: and let the family
of David your servant be made strong before you!

27 For you, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, have
clearly said to your servant, I will make you the head of a
family of kings: and so it has come into your servant's heart
to make this prayer to you.

28 And now, O Lord God, you are God and your words are
true and you have said you will give your servant this good
thing;

29 So may it be your pleasure to give your blessing to the
family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before
you: (for you, O Lord God, have said it,) and may your
blessing be on your servant's family line for ever!

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 8

1 And it came about after this that David made an attack
on the Philistines and overcame them; and David took the
authority of the mother-town from the hands of the
Philistines.

2 And he overcame the Moabites, and he had them
measured with a line when they were stretched out on the
earth; marking out two lines for death and one full line for
life. So the Moabites became servants to David and gave him
offerings.

3 And David overcame Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king
of Zobah, when he went to make his power seen by the River.

4 And David took from him one thousand, seven hundred
horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and David had the
leg-muscles of the horses cut, only keeping enough of them
for a hundred war-carriages.

5 And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of
Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-
two thousand of the Aramaeans.

6 And David put armed forces in Aram of Damascus: and
the Aramaeans became servants to David and gave him
offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he
went.

7 And David took their gold body-covers from the servants
of Hadadezer and took them to Jerusalem.

8 And from Tebah and Berothai, towns of Hadadezer, King
David took a great store of brass.

9 And when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David
had overcome all the army of Hadadezer,

10 He sent his son Hadoram to David, with words of peace
and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight,
for Hadadezer had wars with Tou; and Hadoram took with
him vessels of silver and gold and brass:

11 These King David made holy to the Lord, together with
the silver and gold which he had taken from the nations he
had overcome--

12 The nations of Edom and Moab, and the children of
Ammon and the Philistines and the Amalekites and the goods
he had taken from Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of
Zobah.

13 And David got great honour for himself, when he came
back, by the destruction of Edom in the valley of Salt, to the
number of eighteen thousand men.

14 And he put armed forces in Edom; all through Edom he
had armed forces stationed, and all the Edomites became
servants to David. And the Lord made David overcome
wherever he went.

15 And David was king over all Israel, judging and giving
right decisions for all his people.

16 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and
Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records;

17 And Zadok and Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, the son
of Ahitub, were priests; and Seraiah was the scribe;

18 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the
Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were priests.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 9

1 And David said, Is there still anyone of Saul's family
living, so that I may be a friend to him, because of Jonathan?

2 Now there was of Saul's people a servant named Ziba, and
they sent him to David; and the king said to him, Are you
Ziba? And he said, I am.

3 And the king said, Is there anyone of Saul's family still
living, to whom I may be a friend in God's name? And Ziba
said, There is a son of Jonathan, whose feet are damaged.

4 And the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to
the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in
Lo-debar.

5 Then King David sent, and had him taken from Lo-debar,
from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel.

6 And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, came to David,
and falling down on his face, gave him honour. And David

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

said, Mephibosheth. And answering he said, Your servant is
here.

7 And David said to him, Have no fear: for truly I will be
good to you, because of your father Jonathan, and IJ will give
back to you all the land which was Saul's; and you will have a
place at my table at all times.

8 And he went down on his face before the king, and said,
What is your servant, for you to take note of a dead dog such
as lam?

9 Then the king sent for Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to
him, All the property of Saul and of his family I have given to
your master's son.

10 And you and your sons and your servants are to take
care of the land for him, and get in the fruit of it, so that
your master's son may have food: but Mephibosheth, your
master's son, will have a place at my table at all times. Now
Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

11 Then Ziba said to the king, Every order which you have
given to your servant will be done. As for Mephibosheth, he
had a place at David's table, like one of the king's sons.

12 And Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. And
all the people living in the house of Ziba were servants to
Mephibosheth.

13 So Mephibosheth went on living in Jerusalem; for he
took all his meals at the king's table; and he had not the use
of his feet.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 10

1 Now after this, death came to the king of the children of
Ammon, and Hanun, his son, became king in his place.

2 And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of
Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his
servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his
father. And David's servants came into the land of the
children of Ammon.

3 But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun
their lord, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your
father by sending comforters to you? has he not sent his
servants to go through the town and make secret observation
of it, and overcome it?

4 So Hanun took David's servants, and after cutting off half
the hair on their chins, and cutting off the skirts of their
robes up to the middle, he sent them away.

5 When David had news of it, he sent men out with the
purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were
greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your
hair is long again, and then come back.

6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made
themselves hated by David, they sent to the Aramaeans of
Beth-rehob and Zobah, and got for payment twenty
thousand footmen, and they got from the king of Maacah a
thousand men, and from Tob twelve thousand.

7 And hearing of this, David sent Joab and all the army and
the best fighting-men.

8 And the children of Ammon came out and put their forces
in position at the way into the town: and the Aramaeans of

Zobah and of Rehob, with the men of Tob and Maacah, were
by themselves in the field.

9 Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position
against him in front and at his back, he took the best of the
men of Israel and put them in line against the Aramaeans;

10 And the rest of the people he put in position against the
children of Ammon, with Abishai, his brother, at their head.

11 And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the
better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the
children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your
help.

12 Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for
the towns of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good
to him.

13 Then Joab and the people with him went forward to the
fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before
him.

14 And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the
Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, and
came into the town. So Joab went back from fighting the
children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

15 And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome
them, they got themselves together.

16 And Hadadezer sent for the Aramaeans who were on the
other side of the River: and they came to Helam, with
Shobach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

17 And word of this was given to David: and he got all
Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam.
And the Aramaeans put their forces in position against
David, and made an attack on him.

18 And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and
David put to the sword the men of seven hundred Aramaean
war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and Shobach, the
captain of the army, was wounded, and came to his death
there.

19 And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer
saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with
Israel and became their servants. So the Aramaeans, in fear,
gave no more help to the children of Ammon.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 11

1 Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war,
David sent Joab and his servants and all Israel with him; and
they made waste the land of the children of Ammon, and
took up their position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But
David was still at Jerusalem.

2 Now one evening, David got up from his bed, and while
he was walking on the roof of the king's house, he saw from
there a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

3 And David sent to get knowledge who the woman was.
And one said, Is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam
and wife of Uriah the Hittite?

4 And David sent and took her; and she came to him, and
he took her to his bed: (for she had been made clean;) then
she went back to her house.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And the woman became with child; and she sent word to
David that she was with child.

6 And David sent to Joab saying, Send Uriah the Hittite to
me. And Joab sent Uriah to David.

7 And when Uriah came to him, David put questions to him
about how Joab and the people were, and how the war was
going.

8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and let
your feet be washed. And Uriah went away from the king's
house, and an offering from the king was sent after him.

9 But Uriah took his rest at the door of the king's house,
with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his
house.

10 And when word was given to David that Uriah had not
gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not
come from a journey? why did you not go down to your
house?

11 And Uriah said to David, Israel and Judah with the ark
are living in tents, and my lord Joab and the other servants
of my lord are sleeping in the open field; and am I to go to
my house and take food and drink, and go to bed with my
wife? By the living Lord, and by the life of your soul, I will
not do such a thing.

12 And David said to Uriah, Be here today, and after that I
will let you go. So Uriah was in Jerusalem that day and the
day after.

13 And when David sent for him, he took meat and drink
with him, and David made him the worse for drink: and
when evening came, he went to rest on his bed with the
servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 Now in the morning, David gave Uriah a letter to take
to Joab.

15 And in the letter he said, Take care to put Uriah in the
very front of the line, where the fighting is most violent, and
go back from him, so that he may be overcome and put to
death.

16 So while Joab was watching the town, he put Uriah in
the place where it was clear to him the best fighters were.

17 And the men of the town went out and had a fight with
Joab: and a number of David's men came to their death in the
fight, and with them Uriah the Hittite.

18 Then Joab sent David news of everything which had
taken place in the war:

19 And he gave orders to the man who took the news,
saying, After you have given the king all the news about the
war,

20 If the king is angry and says, Why did you go so near the
town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers
would be on the wall?

21 Who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did
not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall,
putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the
wall? Then say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is
among the dead.

22 So the man went, and came to David, and gave him all
the news which Joab had sent him to give; then David was

angry with Joab and said, Why did you go so near the town
for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be
on the wall? who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to
death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him
from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you
go so near the wall?

23 And the man said to David, Truly the men got the better
of us, and came out against us into the open country, but we
sent them back to the very doors of the town.

24 And the archers sent their arrows at your servants from
the wall, and some of the king's servants are dead, and among
them is your servant Uriah the Hittite.

25 Then David said to the man, Go and say to Joab, Do not
let this be a grief to you; for one man may come to his death
by the sword like another: put up an even stronger fight
against the town, and take it: and do you put heart into him.

26 And when the wife of Uriah had news that her husband
was dead, she gave herself'up to weeping for him.

27 And when the days of weeping were past, David sent for
her, and took her into his house, and she became his wife and
gave him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with the thing
David had done.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 12

1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to
him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a
man of great wealth, and the other a poor man.

2 The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds;

3 But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he
had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him
like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his
cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a
daughter to him.

4 Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth,
but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to
make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he
took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who
had come.

5 And David was full of wrath against that man; and he
said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right
punishment for the man who has done this:

6 And he will have to give back four times the value of the
lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity.

7 And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord
God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy
oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul;

8 I gave you your master's daughter and your master's wives
for yourself, and I gave you the daughters of Israel and Judah;
and if that had not been enough, I would have given you such
and such things.

9 Why then have you had no respect for the word of the
Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the
Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be
your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the
children of Ammon.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 So now the sword will never be turned away from your
family; because you have had no respect for me, and have
taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

11 The Lord says, From those of your family I will send evil
against you, and before your very eyes I will take your wives
and give them to your neighbour, and he will take your wives
to his bed by the light of this sun.

12 You did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all
Israel and in the light of the sun.

13 And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the
Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away
your sin; death will not come on you.

14 But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord,
death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come
to birth.

15 Then Nathan went back to his house. And the hand of
the Lord was on David's son, the child of Uriah's wife, and it
became very ill.

16 So David made prayer to God for the child; and he took
no food day after day, and went in and, stretching himself
out on the earth, was there all night.

17 And the chief men of his house got up and went to his
side to make him get up from the earth, but he would not;
and he would not take food with them.

18 And then on the seventh day the child's death took place.
And David's servants were in fear of giving him the news of
the child's death: for they said, Truly, while the child was
still living he gave no attention when we said anything to
him: what will he do to himself if we give him word that the
child is dead?

19 But when David saw that his servants were talking
together quietly, he was certain that the child was dead: and
he said to his servants, Is the child dead? and they said, He is.

20 Then David got up from the earth, and after washing
and rubbing himself with oil and changing his clothing, he
went into the house of the Lord and gave worship: then he
went back to his house, and at his order they put food before
him and he had a meal.

21 Then his servants said to him, Why have you been acting
in this way? you were weeping and going without food while
the child was still living; but when the child was dead, you
got up and had a meal.

22 And he said, While the child was still living I went
without food and gave myself up to weeping: for I said, Who
is able to say that the Lord will not have mercy on me and
give the child life?

23 But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me
to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life?
I will go to him, but he will never come back to me.

24 And David gave comfort to his wife Bath-sheba, and he
went in to her and had connection with her: and she had a
son to whom she gave the name Solomon. And he was dear to
the Lord.

25 And he sent word by Nathan the prophet, who gave him
the name Jedidiah, by the word of the Lord.

26 Now Joab was fighting against Rabbah, in the land of
the children of Ammon, and he took the water-town.

27 And Joab sent men to David, saying, I have made war
against Rabbah and have taken the water-town.

28 So now, get the rest of the people together, and put
them in position against the town and take it, for if I take it,
it will be named after my name.

29 Then David got all the people together and went to
Rabbah and made war on it and took it.

30 And he took the crown of Milcom from his head; the
weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it were stones of
great price; and it was put on David's head. And he took a
great store of goods from the town.

31 And he took the people out of the town and put them to
work with wood-cutting instruments, and iron grain-
crushers, and iron axes, and at brick-making: this he did to
all the towns of the children of Ammon. Then David and all
the people went back to Jerusalem.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 13

1 Now after this, it came about that Absalom, David's son,
had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and David's
son Amnon was in love with her.

2 And he was so deeply in love that he became ill because of
his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin, and so it seemed hard
to Amnon to do anything to her.

3 But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the
son of Shimeah, David's brother: and Jonadab was a very
wise man.

4 And he said to him, O son of the king, why are you
getting thinner day by day? will you not say what your
trouble is? And Amnon said to him, I am in love with Tamar,
my brother Absalom's sister.

5 Then Jonadab said to him, Go to your bed, and let it seem
that you are ill: and when your father comes to see you, say
to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread, and get
the food ready before my eyes, so that I may see it and take it
from her hand.

6 So Amnon went to bed and made himself seem ill: and
when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king,
Please let my sister Tamar come and make me one or two
cakes before my eyes, so that I may take food from her hand.

7 Then David sent to the house for Tamar and said, Go now
to your brother Amnon's house and get a meal for him.

8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was
in bed. And she took paste and made cakes before his eyes,
cooking them over the fire.

9 And she took the cooking-pot, and put the cakes before
him, but he would not take them. And Amnon said, Let
everyone go away from me. So they all went out.

10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, Take the food and come
into my bedroom, so that I may take it from your hand. So
Tamar took the cakes she had made and went with them into
her brother Amnon's bedroom.

11 And when she took them to give them to him, he put his
arms round her and said, Come to bed, my sister.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 And answering him, she said, O my brother, do not put
shame on me; it is not right for such a thing to be done in
Israel: do not this evil thing.

13 What will become of me in my shame? and as for you,
you will be looked down on with disgust by all Israel. Now
then, go and make your request to the king, for he will not
keep me from you.

14 But he would not give attention to what she said: but
being stronger than she, he took her by force, and had
connection with her.

15 Then Amnon was full of hate for her, hating her with a
hate greater than his earlier love for her. And he said to her,
Get up and be gone.

16 And she said to him, Not so, my brother, for this great
wrong in sending me away is worse than what you did to me
before. But he gave no attention to her.

17 Then he gave a cry to the servant who was waiting on
him and said, Put this woman out, and let the door be locked
after her.

18 Now she had on a long robe, such as in past times the
king's virgin daughters were dressed in. Then the servant put
her out, locking the door after her.

19 And Tamar, in her grief, put dust on her head; and she
put her hand on her head and went away crying loudly.

20 And her brother Absalom said to her, Has your brother
Amnon been with you? but now, let there be an end to your
crying, my sister: he is your brother, do not take this thing
to heart. So Tamar went on living uncomforted in her
brother's house.

21 But when King David had news of all these things he
was very angry; but he did not make trouble for Amnon his
son, for he was dear to David, being his oldest son.

22 But Absalom said nothing to his brother Amnon, good
or bad: for he was full of hate for him, because he had taken
his sister Tamar by force.

23 Now after two full years, Absalom had men cutting the
wool of his sheep in Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim: and
he sent for all the king's sons to come to his feast.

24 And Absalom came to the king and said, See now, your
servant is cutting the wool of his sheep; will the king and his
servants be pleased to come?

25 And the king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all
go, or the number will be over-great for you. And he made
his request again, but he would not go, but he gave him his
blessing.

26 Then Absalom said, If you will not go, then let my
brother Amnon go with us. And the king said to him, Is
there any reason for him to go with you?

27 But Absalom went on requesting him till he let Amnon
and all the king's sons go with him. And Absalom made a
great feast like a feast for a king.

28 Now Absalom had given orders to his servants, saying,
Now take note when Amnon's heart is glad with wine; and
when I say to you, Make an attack on Amnon, then put him
to death without fear: have I not given you orders? be strong
and without fear.

29 So Absalom's servants did to Amnon as Absalom had
given them orders. Then all the king's sons got up, and every
man got on his beast and went in flight.

30 Now while they were on their way, news was given to
David that Absalom had put to death all the sons of the king
and that not one of them was still living.

31 Then the king got up in great grief, stretching himself
out on the earth: and all his servants were by his side, with
their clothing parted.

32 And Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, said,
Let not my lord have the idea that all the sons of the king
have been put to death; for only Amnon is dead: this has been
purposed by Absalom from the day when he took his sister
Tamar by force.

33 So now, let not my lord the king take this thing to heart,
with the idea that all the king's sons are dead: for only
Amnon is dead.

34 But Absalom went in flight. And the young man who
kept the watch, lifting up his eyes, saw that a great band of
people was coming down the slope by the way of the Horons;
and the watchman came and gave word to the king, saying, I
saw men coming down by the way of the Horons, from the
hillside.

35 And Jonadab said to the king, See, the king's sons are
coming; as your servant said, so it is.

36 And while he was talking, the king's sons came, with
weeping and loud cries: and the king and all his servants
were weeping bitterly.

37 So Absalom went in flight and came to Talmai, the son
of Ammihud, the king of Geshur, where he was for three
years.

38 And the king was sorrowing for his son all the time.

39 And the heart of David was wasted with desire for
Absalom: for he was comforted for the death of Amnon.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 14

1 Now it was clear to Joab, the son of Zeruiah, that the
king's heart was turning to Absalom.

2 And Joab sent to Tekoa and got from there a wise woman,
and said to her, Now make yourself seem like one given up to
grief, and put on the clothing of sorrow, not using any sweet
oil for your body, but looking like one who for a long time
has been weeping for the dead:

3 And come to the king and say these words to him. So Joab
gave her words to say.

4 And the woman of Tekoa came to the king, and falling on
her face, gave him honour and said, Give me help, O king.

5 And the king said to her, What is your trouble? And her
answer was, Truly I ama widow, and my husband is dead.

6 And I had two sons, and the two of them had a fight in
the field, and there was no one to come between them, and
one with a blow put the other to death.

7 And now all the family is turned against me, your servant,
saying, Give up him who was the cause of his brother's death,
so that we may put him to death in payment for the life of his
brother, whose life he took; and we will put an end to the one

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

who will get the heritage: so they will put out my last
burning coal, and my husband will have no name or
offspring on the face of the earth.

8 And the king said to the woman, Go to your house and I
will give orders about this.

9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O
king, may the sin be on me and on my family, and may the
king and the seat of his kingdom be clear of sin!

10 And the king said, If anyone says anything to you, make
him come to me, and he will do you no more damage.

11 Then she said, Let the king keep in mind the Lord your
God, so that he who gives punishment for blood may be kept
back from further destruction and that no one may send
death on my son. And he said, By the living Lord, not a hair
of your son's head will come to the earth.

12 Then the woman said, Will the king let his servant say
one word more? And he said, Say on.

13 And the woman said, Why have you had such a thought
about the people of God? (for in saying these very words the
king has put himself in the wrong because he has not taken
back the one whom he sent far away.)

14 For death comes to us all, and we are like water drained
out on the earth, which it is not possible to take up again;
and God will not take away the life of the man whose
purpose is that he who has been sent away may not be
completely cut off from him.

15 And now it is my fear of the people which has made me
come to say these words to my lord the king: and your
servant said, I will put my cause before the king, and it may
be that he will give effect to my request.

16 For the king will give ear, and take his servant out of
the power of the man whose purpose is the destruction of me
and my son together from the heritage of God.

17 Then your servant said, May the word of my lord the
king give me peace! for my lord the king is as the angel of
God in his hearing of good and bad: and may the Lord your
God be with you!

18 Then the king said to the woman, Now give me an
answer to the question I am going to put to you; keep
nothing back. And the woman said, Let my lord the king say
on.

19 And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with you in
all this? And the woman in answer said, By the life of your
soul, my lord the king, it is not possible for anyone to go to
the right hand or to the left from anything said by the king:
your servant Joab gave me orders, and put all these words in
my mouth:

20 This he did, hoping that the face of this business might
be changed: and my lord is wise, with the wisdom of the
angel of God, having knowledge of everything on earth.

21 And the king said to Joab, See now, I will do this thing:
go then and Come back with the young man Absalom.

22 Then Joab, falling down on his face on the earth, gave
the king honour and blessing; and Joab said, Today it is clear
to your servant that I have grace in your eyes, my lord king,
because the king has given effect to the request of his servant.

23 So Joab got up and went to Geshur and came back again
to Jerusalem with Absalom.

24 And the king said, Let him go to his house, but let him
not see my face. So Absalom went back to his house and did
not see the face of the king.

25 Now in all Israel there was no one so greatly to be
praised for his beautiful form as Absalom: from his feet to the
crown of his head he was completely beautiful.

26 And when he had his hair cut, (which he did at the end
of every year, because of the weight of his hair;) the weight of
the hair was two hundred shekels by the king's weight.

27 And Absalom was the father of three sons and of one
daughter named Tamar, who was very beautiful.

28 For two full years Absalom was living in Jerusalem
without ever seeing the face of the king.

29 Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but
he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time,
but he would not come.

30 So he said to his servants, See, Joab's field is near mine,
and he has barley in it; go and put it on fire. And Absalom's
servants put the field on fire.

31 Then Joab came to Absalom in his house and said to him,
Why have your servants put my field on fire?

32 And Absalom's answer was, See, I sent to you saying,
Come here, so that I may send you to the king to say, Why
have I come back from Geshur? it would be better for me to
be there still: let me now see the king's face, and if there is
any sin in me, let him put me to death.

33 So Joab went to the king and said these words to him:
and when the king had sent for him, Absalom came, and went
down on his face on the earth before the king: and the king
gave him a kiss.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 15

1 Now after this, Absalom got for himself a carriage and
horses, and fifty runners to go before him.

2 And Absalom got up early, morning after morning, and
took his place at the side of the public meeting-place: and
when any man had a cause which had to come to the king to
be judged, then Absalom, crying out to him, said, What is
your town? and he would say, Your servant is of one of the
tribes of Israel.

3 And Absalom would say to him, See, your cause is true
and right; but no man has been named by the king to give
you a hearing.

4 And more than this, Absalom said, If only I was made
judge in the land, so that every man who has any cause or
question might come to me, and I would give a right decision
for him!

5 And if any man came near to give him honour, he took
him by the hand and gave him a kiss.

6 And this Absalom did to everyone in Israel who came to
the king to have his cause judged: so Absalom, like a thief,
took away the hearts of the men of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 Now at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king,
Let me go to Hebron and give effect to the oath which I made
to the Lord:

8 For while I was living in Geshur in Aram, your servant
made an oath, saying, If ever the Lord lets me come back to
Jerusalem, I will give him worship in Hebron.

9 And the king said to him, Go in peace. So he got up and
went to Hebron.

10 But Absalom at the same time sent watchers through all
the tribes of Israel to say, At the sound of the horn you are to
say, Absalom is king in Hebron.

11 And with Absalom, at his request, went two hundred
men from Jerusalem, who were completely unconscious of his
designs.

12 And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of
David's helpers, from Giloh his town, while he was making
the offerings. And the design against David became strong,
for more and more people were joined to Absalom.

13 And one came to David and said, The hearts of the men
of Israel have gone after Absalom.

14 And David said to all his servants who were with him at
Jerusalem, Come, let us go in flight, or not one of us will be
safe from Absalom: let us go without loss of time, or he will
overtake us quickly and send evil on us, and put the town to
the sword.

15 And the king's servants said to the king, See, your
servants are ready to do whatever the king says is to be done.

16 So the king went out, taking with him all the people of
his house, but for ten of his women, who were to take care of
the house.

17 And the king went out, and all his servants went after
him, and made a stop at the Far House.

18 And all the people went on by his side; and all the
Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the men of Ittai of
Gath, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, went
on before the king.

19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why are you
coming with us? go back and keep with the king: for you are
a man of another country, you are far from the land of your
birth.

20 It was only yesterday you came to us; why then am I to
make you go up and down with us? for I have to go where I
may; go back then, and take your countrymen with you, and
may the Lord's mercy and good faith be with you.

21 And Ittai the Gittite in answer said, By the living Lord,
and by the life of my lord the king, in whatever place my lord
the king may be, for life or death, there will your servant be.

22 And David said to Ittai, Go forward, then. And Ittai the
Gittite went on, with all his men and all the little ones he had
with him.

23 And there was great weeping in all the country when all
the people went through; and the king himself was waiting in
the Kidron valley and all the people went by him in the
direction of the olive-tree on the edge of the waste land.

24 Then Zadok came, and Abiathar, and with them the ark
of God's agreement: and they put down the ark of God, till
all the people from the town had gone by.

25 And the king said to Zadok, Take the ark of God back
into the town: if I have grace in the eyes of the Lord, he will
let me come back and see it and his House again:

26 But ifhe says, I have no delight in you: then, here I am;
let him do to me what seems good to him.

27 The king said further to Zadok the priest, See, you and
Abiathar are to go back to the town in peace, with your two
sons, Ahimaaz, your son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar.

28 See, I will be waiting at the way across the river, in the
waste land, till I get news from you.

29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to
Jerusalem, and did not go away from there.

30 And David went up the slopes of the Mount of Olives
weeping all the way, with his head covered and no shoes on
his feet: and all the people who were with him, covering their
heads, went up weeping.

31 And word came to David, saying, Ahithophel is among
those who are joined to Absalom. And David said, O Lord,
let the wisdom of Ahithophel be made foolish.

32 Now when David had come to the top of the slope,
where they gave worship to God, Hushai the Archite came to
him in great grief with dust on his head:

33 David said to him, If you go on with me, you will be a
trouble to me:

34 But if you go back to the town and say to Absalom, I
will be your servant, O king; as in the past I have been your
father's servant, so now I will be yours: then you will be able
to keep Ahithophel's designs against me from being put into
effect.

35 And have you not there Zadok and Abiathar the priests?
so whatever comes to your ears from the king's house, give
word of it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

36 See, they have with them their two sons, Ahimaaz,
Zadok's son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar; by them you
may send word to me of everything which comes to your ears.

37 So Hushai, David's friend, went into the town, and
Absalom came to Jerusalem.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 16

1 And when David had gone a little way past the top of the
slope, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, came to him, with
two asses on which were two hundred cakes of bread and a
hundred stems of dry grapes and a hundred summer fruits
and a skin of wine.

2 And David said to Ziba, What is your reason for this?
And Ziba said, The asses are for the use of the king's people,
and the bread and the fruit are food for the young men; and
the wine is for drink for those who are overcome by weariness
in the waste land.

3 And the king said, And where is your master's son? And
Ziba said, He is still at Jerusalem: for he said, Today Israel
will give back to me the kingdom of my father.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 Then the king said to Ziba, Truly everything which was
Mephibosheth's is yours. And Ziba said, I give honour to my
lord, may I have grace in your eyes, my lord, O king!

5 And when King David came to Bahurim, a man of Saul's
family named Shimei, the son of Gera, came out from there,
calling curses after him.

6 And he sent stones at David and at all the king's servants
and at all the people and at all the men of war by his side, on
the right hand and on the left.

7 And Shimei said, with curses, Be gone, be gone, you man
of blood, you good-for-nothing:

8 The Lord has sent punishment on you for all the blood of
the family of Saul, whose kingdom you have taken; and the
Lord has given the kingdom to Absalom, your son: now you
yourself are taken in your evil, because you are a man of
blood.

9 Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Is this
dead dog to go on cursing my lord the king? let me go over
and take off his head.

10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons
of Zeruiah? Let him go on cursing, for the Lord has said, Put
a curse on David, and who then may say, Why have you done
so?

11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, You
see how my son, the offspring of my body, has made designs
against my life: how much more then may this Benjamite do
so? Let him be, and let him go on cursing; for the Lord has
given him orders.

12 It may be that the Lord will take note of my wrongs, and
give me back good in answer to his cursing of me today.

13 So David and his men went on their way: and Shimei
went by the hillside parallel with them, cursing and sending
stones and dust at him.

14 And the king and his people came tired to Jordan, and
took their rest there.

15 And Absalom and the men of Israel came to Jerusalem,
and Ahithophel was with him.

16 Then Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to
Absalom and said, Long life to the king, long life to the king!

17 And Absalom said, Is this your love for your friend? why
did you not go with your friend?

18 And Hushai said to Absalom, Not so; I am for that man
whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have
taken as king, and I will take my place with him.

19 And more than this! where is my place as a servant? is it
not before his son? as I have been your father's servant, so
will I be yours.

20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, Give your opinion
now, what are we to do?

21 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's
women who are here looking after his house; then all Israel
will have the news that you are hated by your father, and the
hands of your supporters will be strong.

22 So they put up the tent for Absalom on the top of the
house, and Absalom went in to his father's women before the
eyes of all Israel.

23 In those days the opinions of Ahithophel were valued as
highly as if through him a man might get direction from God;
so were they valued by David as much as by Absalom.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 17

1 Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve
thousand men and this very night I will go after David:

2 And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble,
and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go
in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only:

3 And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride
comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you
are going after; so all the people will be at peace.

4 And the saying was pleasing to Absalom and to the
responsible men of Israel.

5 Then Absalom said, Now send for Hushai the Archite,
and let us give ear to what he has to say.

6 And when Hushai came, Absalom said to him, This is
what Ahithophel has said: are we to do as he says? if not,
what is your suggestion?

7 And Hushai said to Absalom, Ahithophel's idea is not a
good one at this time.

8 Hushai said further, You have knowledge of your father
and his men, that they are men of war, and that their feelings
are bitter, like those of a bear in the field whose young ones
have been taken from her: and your father is a man of war,
and will not take his night's rest with the people;

9 But he will certainly have taken cover now in some hole
or secret place; and if some of our people, at the first attack,
are overcome, then any hearing of it will say, There is
destruction among the people who are on Absalom's side.

10 Then even the strongest, whose heart is like the heart of
a lion, will become like water; for all Israel is conscious that
your father is a man of war, and those who are with him are
strong and without fear.

11 But my suggestion is that all Israel, from Dan as far as
Beer-sheba, comes together to you, a great army like the
sands of the sea in number; and that you yourself go out
among them.

12 Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he
may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of
him and all the men who are with him not one will get away
with his life.

13 And if he has gone into some town, then let all Israel
take strong cords to that town, and we will have it pulled
into the valley, till not one small stone is to be seen there.

14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, Hushai's
suggestion is better than that of Ahithophel. For it was the
purpose of the Lord to make the wise designs of Ahithophel
without effect, so that the Lord might send evil on Absalom.

15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests,
This is the suggestion made by Ahithophel to Absalom and
the responsible men of Israel, and this is what I said to them.

16 So now send the news quickly to David, and say, Do not
take your night's rest by the way across the river to the waste

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

land, but be certain to go over; or the king and all the people
with him will come to destruction.

17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting by En-rogel;
and a servant-girl went from time to time and gave them
news and they went with the news to King David, for it was
not wise for them to let themselves be seen coming into the
town.

18 But a boy saw them, and gave word of it to Absalom: so
the two of them went away quickly, and came to the house of
a man in Bahurim who had a water-hole in his garden, and
they went down into it.

19 And a woman put a cover over the hole, and put crushed
grain on top of it, and no one had any knowledge of it.

20 And Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house
and said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman
said to them, They have gone from here to the stream. And
after searching for them, and seeing nothing of them, they
went back to Jerusalem.

21 Then after the servants had gone away, they came up out
of the water-hole and went to give King David the news; and
they said, Get up and go quickly over the water, for such and
such are Ahithophel's designs against you.

22 So David and all the people who were with him went up
over Jordan: when dawn came, every one of them had gone
over Jordan.

23 Now when Ahithophel saw that his suggestion was not
acted on, he got his ass ready, and went back to his house, to
the town where he came from, and having put his house in
order, he put himself to death by hanging; so he came to his
end and was put in the resting-place of his father.

24 And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom, with all
the men of Israel, went over Jordan.

25 And Absalom put Amasa at the head of the army in place
of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the
Ishmaelite, who had been the lover of Abigail, the daughter
of Jesse, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

26 And Israel and Absalom put up their tents in the land of
Gilead.

27 Now when David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi, the
son of Nahash of Rabbah, the Ammonite, and Machir, the
son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of
Rogelim,

28 Came with beds and basins and pots, and grain and meal,
and all sorts of dry foods,

29 And honey and butter and sheep and milk-cheeses, for
David and his people: for they said, This people is in the
waste land, needing food and drink and rest.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 18

1 And David had the people who were with him numbered,
and he put over them captains of thousands and captains of
hundreds.

2 And David sent the people out, a third of them under the
orders of Joab, and a third under the orders of Abishai, son
of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third under Ittai the Gittite.

And the king said to the people, And I myself will certainly
go out with you.

3 But the people said, It is better for you not to go out: for
if we are put to flight, they will not give a thought to us, and
if death overtakes half of us, it will be nothing to them: but
you are of more value than ten thousand of us: so it is better
for you to be ready to come to our help from this town.

4 And the king said to them, I will do whatever seems best
to you. So the king took his place by the door of the town,
and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

5 And the king gave orders to Joab and Abishai and Ittai,
saying, Because of me, be gentle to the young man Absalom.
And this order about Absalom was given in the hearing of all
the people.

6 So the people went out into the field against Israel, and
the fight took place in the woods of Ephraim.

7 And the people of Israel were overcome there by the
servants of David, and there was a great destruction that day,
and twenty thousand men were put to the sword.

8 And the fighting went on over all the face of the country:
and the woods were responsible for more deaths than the
sword.

9 And Absalom came across some of David's men. And
Absalom was seated on his mule, and the mule went under
the thick branches of a great tree, and his head became fixed
in the tree and he was lifted up between earth and heaven,
and the beast under him went on.

10 And a certain man saw it and said to Joab, I saw
Absalom hanging in a tree.

11 And Joab said to the man who had given him the news,
If you saw this, why did you not put your sword through him,
and I would have given you ten bits of silver and a band for
your robe?

12 And the man said to Joab, Even if you gave me a
thousand bits of silver, I would not put out my hand against
the king's son: for in our hearing the king gave orders to you
and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Take care that the young man
Absalom is not touched.

13 And if I had falsely put him to death (and nothing may
be kept secret from the king), you would have had nothing to
do with me.

14 Then Joab said, I would have made it safe for you. And
he took three spears in his hand, and put them through
Absalom's heart, while he was still living, in the branches of
the tree.

15 And ten young men, servants of Joab, came round
Absalom and put an end to him.

16 And Joab had the horn sounded, and the people came
back from going after Israel, for Joab kept them back.

17 And they took Absalom's body and put it into a great
hole in the wood, and put a great mass of stones over it: and
every man of Israel went in flight to his tent.

18 Now Absalom, before his death, had put up for himself'a
pillar in the king's valley, naming it after himself; for he said,
I have no son to keep my name in memory: and to this day it
is named Absalom's pillar.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said, Let me go and
give the king news of how the Lord has done right in his
cause against those who took up arms against him.

20 And Joab said, You will take no news today; another
day you may give him the news, but you will take no news
today, because the king's son is dead.

21 Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go and give the king
word of what you have seen. And the Cushite, making a sign
of respect to Joab, went off running.

22 Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said to Joab again,
Whatever may come of it, let me go after the Cushite. And
Joab said, Why have you a desire to go, my son, seeing that
you will get no reward for your news?

23 Whatever may come of it, he said, I will go. Then he said
to him, Go. So Ahimaaz went running by the lowland road
and overtook the Cushite.

24 Now David was seated between the two town doors; and
the watchman went up to the roof of the doorways, on the
wall, and, lifting up his eyes, saw a man running by himself.

25 And the watchman gave news of it to the king. And the
king said, If he is coming by himself, then he has news. And
the man was travelling quickly, and came near.

26 Then the watchman saw another man running: and
crying out in the direction of the door he said, Here is
another man running by himself. And the king said, He, like
the other, comes with news.

27 And the watchman said, It seems to me that the running
of the first is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok.
And the king said, He is a good man, and his news will be
good.

28 And Ahimaaz, crying out to the king, said, It is well.
And falling down before the king, with his face to the earth,
he said, May the Lord your God be praised, who has given up
the men who took up arms against my lord the king!

29 And the king said, Is it well with the young man
Absalom? And Ahimaaz said in answer, When Joab sent me,
your servant, I saw a great outcry going on, but I had no
knowledge of what it was.

30 And the king said, Get back and take your place here. So
turning to one side, he took his place there.

31 And then the Cushite came and said, I have news for my
lord the king: today the Lord has done right in your cause
against all those who took up arms against you.

32 And the king said to the Cushite, Is the young man
Absalom safe? And the Cushite said in answer, May all the
king's haters and those who do evil against the king, be as
that young man is!

33 Then the king was much moved, and went up into the
room over the door, weeping, and saying, O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom! if only my life might have been
given for yours, O Absalom, my son, my son!

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 19
1 And word was given to Joab that the king was weeping
and sorrowing for Absalom.

2 And the salvation of that day was changed to sorrow for
all the people: for it was said to the people, The king is in
bitter grief for his son.

3 And the people made their way back to the town quietly
and secretly, as those who are shamed go secretly when they
go in flight from the war.

4 But the king, covering his face, gave a great cry, O my son
Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!

5 And Joab came into the house to the king and said, Today
you have put to shame the faces of all your servants who even
now have kept you and your sons and your daughters and
your wives and all your women safe from death;

6 For your haters, it seems, are dear to you, and your
friends are hated. For you have made it clear that captains
and servants are nothing to you: and now I see that if
Absalom was living and we had all been dead today, it would
have been right in your eyes.

7 So get up now, and go out and say some kind words to
your servants; for, by the Lord, I give you my oath, that if
you do not go out, not one of them will keep with you
tonight; and that will be worse for you than all the evil
which has overtaken you from your earliest years.

8 Then the king got up and took his seat near the town-
door. And word was given to all the people that the king was
in the public place: and all the people came before the king.
Now all the men of Israel had gone back in flight to their
tents.

9 And through all the tribes of Israel the people were
having arguments, saying, The king made us safe from the
hands of those who were against us and made us free from the
hands of the Philistines; and now he has gone in flight from
the land, because of Absalom.

10 And Absalom, whom we made a ruler over us, is dead in
the fight. So now why do you say nothing about getting the
king back? And word of what all Israel was saying came to
the king.

11 And King David sent word to Zadok and Abiathar, the
priests, Say to the responsible men of Judah, Why are you the
last to take steps to get the king back to his house?

12 You are my brothers, my bone and my flesh; why are you
the last to get the king back again?

13 And say to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh?
May God's punishment be on me, if I do not make you chief
of the army before me at all times in place of Joab!

14 And the hearts of the men of Judah were moved like one
man; so that they sent to the king, saying, Come back, with
all your servants.

15 So the king came back, and came as far as Jordan. And
Judah came to Gilgal, meeting the king there, to take him
back with them over Jordan.

16 And Shimei, the son of Gera, the Benjamite from
Bahurim, got up quickly and went down with the men of
Judah for the purpose of meeting King David;

17 And with him a thousand men of Benjamin, and Ziba,
the servant of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants,
came rushing to Jordan before the king,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 And kept going across the river to take the people of the
king's house over, and to do whatever was desired by the
king. And Shimei, the son of Gera, went down on his face in
the dust before the king, when he was about to go over
Jordan,

19 And said to him, Let me not be judged as a sinner in
your eyes, O my lord, and do not keep in mind the wrong I
did on the day when my lord the king went out of Jerusalem,
or take it to heart.

20 For your servant is conscious of his sin: and so, as you
see, I have come today, the first of all the sons of Joseph, for
the purpose of meeting my lord the king.

21 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said, Is not death the
right fate for Shimei, because he has been cursing the one
marked by the holy oil?

22 And David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of
Zeruiah, that you put yourselves against me today? 1s it right
for any man in Israel to be put to death today? for I am
certain today that I am king in Israel.

23 So the king said to Shimei, You will not be put to death.
And the king gave him his oath.

24 And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son, came down for
the purpose of meeting the king; his feet had not been cared
for or his hair cut or his clothing washed from the day when
the king went away till the day when he came back in peace.

25 Now when he had come from Jerusalem to see the king,
the king said to him, Why did you not come with me,
Mephibosheth?

26 And he said in answer, Because of the deceit of my
servant, my lord king: for I, your servant, said to him, You
are to make ready an ass and on it I will go with the king, for
your servant has not the use of his feet.

27 He has given you a false account of me: but my lord the
king is like the angel of God: do then whatever seems good to
you.

28 For all my father's family were only dead men before my
lord the king: and still you put your servant among those
whose place is at the king's table. What right then have I to
say anything more to the king?

29 And the king said, Say nothing more about these things.
I say, Let there be a division of the land between Ziba and
you.

30 And Mephibosheth said, Let him take it all, now that
my lord the king has come back to his house in peace!

31 And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim;
and he went on as far as Jordan with the king to take him
across Jordan.

32 Now Barzillai was a very old man, as much as eighty
years old: and he had given the king everything he had need
of, while he was at Mahanaim, for he was a very great man.

33 And the king said to Barzillai, Come over with me, and I
will take care of you in Jerusalem.

34 And Barzillai said to the king, How much of my life is
still before me, for me to go up to Jerusalem with the king?

35 Tam now eighty years old: good and bad are the same to
me; have meat and drink any taste for me now? am | able to

take pleasure in the voices of men or women in song? why
then am I to be a trouble to my lord the king?

36 Your servant's desire was only to take the king over
Jordan; why is the king to give me such a reward?

37 Let your servant now go back again, so that when death
comes to me, it may be in my town and by the resting-place
of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham:
let him go with my lord the king, and do for him what seems
good to you.

38 And the king said in answer, Let Chimham go over with
me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you: and
whatever your desire is, I will do it for you.

39 Then all the people went over Jordan, and the king went
over: and the king gave Barzillai a kiss, with his blessing;
and he went back to his place.

40 So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went
with him: and all the people of Judah, as well as half the
people of Israel, took the king on his way.

41 Then the men of Israel came to the king and said, Why
have our countrymen of Judah taken you away in secret and
come over Jordan with the king and all his family, because all
his people are David's men?

42 And all the men of Judah gave this answer to the men of
Israel, Because the king is our near relation: why then are
you angry about this? have we taken any of the king's food,
or has he given us any offering?

43 And in answer to the men of Judah, the men of Israel
said, We have ten parts in the king, and we are the first in
order of birth: why did you make nothing of us? and were we
not the first to make suggestions for getting the king back?
And the words of the men of Judah were more violent than
the words of the men of Israel.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 20

1 Now by chance there was present a good-for-nothing
person named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he,
sounding the horn, said, We have no part in David, or any
interest in the son of Jesse: let every man go to his tent, O
Israel.

2 So all the men of Israel, turning away from David, went
after Sheba, the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah were true
to their king, going with him from Jordan as far as Jerusalem.

3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem: and the king
took the ten women to whom he had given the care of the
house, and had them shut up, and gave them the necessaries
of life, but did not go near them. So they were shut up till the
day of their death, living as widows.

4 Then the king said to Amasa, Get all the men of Judah
together, and in three days be here yourself.

5 So Amasa went to get all the men of Judah together, but
he took longer than the time David had given him.

6 And David said to Abishai, Sheba, the son of Bichri, will
do us more damage than Absalom did; so take some of your
lord's servants and go after him, before he makes himself safe
in the walled towns, and gets away before our eyes.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 So there went after Abishai, Joab and the Cherethites and
the Pelethites and all the fighting-men; they went out of
Jerusalem to overtake Sheba, the son of Bichri.

8 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon,
Amasa came face to face with them. Now Joab had on his
war-dress, and round him a band from which his sword was
hanging in its cover; and while he was walking, it came out,
falling to the earth.

9 And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well, my brother? And with
his right hand he took him by the hair of his chin to give him
a kiss.

10 But Amasa did not see danger from the sword which was
now in Joab's left hand, and Joab put it through his stomach
so that his inside came out on to the earth, and he did not
give him another blow. So Joab and his brother Abishai went
on after Sheba, the son of Bichri.

11 And one of Joab's young men, taking his place at
Amasa's side, said, Whoever is for Joab and for David, let
him go after Joab!

12 And Amasa was stretched out in a pool of blood in the
middle of the highway. And when the man saw that all the
people were stopping, he took Amasa out of the highway and
put him in a field, with a cloth over him, when he saw that
everyone who went by came to a stop.

13 When he had been taken off the road, all the people went
on after Joab in search of Sheba, the son of Bichri.

14 And Sheba went through all the tribes of Israel, to Abel
of Beth-maacah; and all the Bichrites came together and
went in after him.

15 And Joab and his men got him shut up in Abel of Beth-
maacah, and put up an earthwork against the town: and all
Joab's men did their best to get the wall broken down.

16 Then a wise woman got up on the wall, and crying out
from the town, said, Give ear, give ear; say now to Joab,
Come near, so that I may have talk with you.

17 And he came near, and the woman said, Are you Joab?
And he said in answer, I am. Then she said, Give ear to your
servant's words. And he said, I am giving ear.

18 Then she said, In the old days, there was a saying, Let
them put the question in Abel and in Dan, saying, Has what
was ordered by men of good faith in Israel ever come to an
end?

19 Your purpose is the destruction of a mother-town in
Israel: why would you put an end to the heritage of the Lord?

20 And Joab, answering her, said, Far, far be it from me to
be a cause of death or destruction;

21 Not so: but a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba,
son of Bichri, by name, has taken up arms against the king,
against David: give up this man only, and I will go away
from the town. And the woman said to Joab, His head will be
dropped over the wall to you.

22 Then the woman in her wisdom had talk with all the
town. And they had Sheba's head cut off and sent out to Joab.
And he had the horn sounded, and sent them all away from
the town, every man to his tent. And Joab went back to
Jerusalem to the king.

23 Now Joab was over all the army; and Benaiah, the son of
Jehoiada, was at the head of the Cherethites and the
Pelethites;

24 And Adoram was overseer of the forced work; and
Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder;

25 And Sheva was the scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were
priests;

26 And in addition, Ira the Jairite was a priest to David.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 21

1 In the days of David they were short of food for three
years, year after year; and David went before the Lord for
directions. And the Lord said, On Saul and on his family
there is blood, because he put the Gibeonites to death.

2 Then the king sent for the Gibeonites; (now the
Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were the
last of the Amorites, to whom the children of Israel had given
an oath; but Saul, in his passion for the children of Israel and
Judah, had made an attempt on their lives:)

3 So David said to the Gibeonites, What may I do for you?
how am I to make up to you for your wrongs, so that you
may give a blessing to the heritage of the Lord?

4 And the Gibeonites said to him, It is not a question of
silver and gold between us and Saul or his family; and it is
not in our power to put to death any man in Israel. And he
said, Say, then, what am I to do for you?

5 And they said to the king, As for the man by whom we
were wasted, and who made designs against us to have us
completely cut off from the land of Israel,

6 Let seven men of his family be given up to us and we will
put an end to them by hanging them before the Lord in
Gibeon, on the hill of the Lord. And the king said, I will give
them.

7 But the king did not give up Mephibosheth, the son of
Saul's son Jonathan, because of the Lord's oath made
between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.

8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two
sons of Saul to whom Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had
given birth; and the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab,
whose father was Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

9 And he gave them up to the Gibeonites, and they put
them to death, hanging them on the mountain before the
Lord; all seven came to their end together in the first days of
the grain-cutting, at the start of the cutting of the barley.

10 And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took haircloth,
placing it on the rock as a bed for herself, from the start of
the grain-cutting till rain came down on them from heaven;
and she did not let the birds of the air come near them by day,
or the beasts of the field by night.

11 And news was given to David of what Rizpah, the
daughter of Aiah, one of Saul's wives, had done.

12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and his son
Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had taken
them away secretly from the public place of Beth-shan, where
the Philistines had put them, hanging up the bodies there on
the day when they put Saul to death in Gilboa:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And he took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan
from that place; and they got together the bones of those
who had been put to death by hanging.

14 And they put them with the bones of Saul and his son
Jonathan in the resting-place of Kish, his father, in Zela in
the country of Benjamin; they did all the king had given
them orders to do. And after that, God gave ear to their
prayers for the land.

15 And the Philistines went to war again with Israel; and
David went down with his people, and while they were at
Gob they had a fight with the Philistines:

16 And there came against David one of the offspring of the
Rephaim, whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in
weight, and having a new sword, he made an attempt to put
David to death.

17 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his help, and,
turning on the Philistine, gave him his death-blow. Then
David's men took an oath, and said, Never again are you to
go out with us to the fight, so that you may not put out the
light of Israel.

18 Now after this there was war with the Philistines again
at Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Saph, one
of the offspring of the Rephaim.

19 And again there was war with the Philistines at Gob,
and Elhanan, the son of Jair the Beth-lehemite, put to death
Goliath the Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-
worker's rod.

20 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a
very tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six
fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the
offspring of the Rephaim.

21 And when he was purposing to put shame on Israel,
Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's brother, put him to
death.

22 These four were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath;
and they came to their end by the hands of David and his
servants.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 22

1 And David made a song to the Lord in these words, on
the day when the Lord made him free from the hands of all
his haters, and from the hand of Saul:

2 And he said, The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and
my saviour, even mine;

3 My God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my
breastplate, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower,
and my safe place; my saviour, who keeps me safe from the
violent man.

4] will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so
will I be made safe from those who are against me.

5 For the waves of death came round me, and the seas of
evil put me in fear;

6 The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came
on me.

7 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry
to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple,
and my prayer came to his ears.

8 Then the earth was moved with a violent shock; the bases
of heaven were moved and shaking, because he was angry.

9 There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of
destruction from his mouth: coals were lighted by it.

10 The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and
it was dark under his feet.

11 And he went through the air, seated on a storm-cloud:
going quickly on the wings of the wind.

12 And he made the dark his tent round him, a mass of
waters, thick clouds of the skies.

13 Before his shining light his dark clouds went past,
raining ice and coals of fire.

14 The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of
the Highest was sounding out.

15 And he sent out his arrows, driving them in all
directions; by his flames of fire they were troubled.

16 Then the deep beds of the sea were seen, and the bases of
the world were uncovered, because of the Lord's wrath,
because of the breath of his mouth.

17 He sent from on high, he took me, pulling me out of
great waters.

18 He made me free from my strong hater, from those who
were against me, because they were stronger than I.

19 They came on me in the day of my trouble: but the Lord
was my support.

20 He took me out into a wide place; he was my saviour
because he had delight in me.

21 The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness,
because my hands are clean before him.

22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been
turned away in sin from my God.

23 For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put
away his laws from me.

24 And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin.

25 Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my
righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes.

26 On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the
upright you will be upright;

27 He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man
whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge.

28 For you are the saviour of those who are in trouble; but
your eyes are on men of pride, to make them low.

29 For you are my light, O Lord; and the Lord will make
the dark bright for me.

30 By your help I have made a way through the wall which
was shutting me in: by the help of my God I have gone over a
wall.

31 As for God, his way is all good: the word of the Lord is
tested; he is a safe cover for all those who put their faith in
him.

32 For who is God but the Lord? and who is a Rock but
our God?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 God puts a strong band about me, guiding me in a
straight way.

34 He makes my feet like roes' feet, and puts me on high
places.

35 He makes my hands expert in war, so that a bow of brass
is bent by my arms.

36 You have given me the breastplate of your salvation,
and your mercy has made me great.

37 You have made my steps wide under me, so that my feet
make no slip.

38 I go after my haters and overtake them; not turning
back till they are all overcome.

39 I have sent destruction on them and given them wounds,
so that they are not able to get up: they are stretched under
my feet.

40 For I have been armed by you with strength for the fight:

you have made low under me those who came out against me.

41 By you their backs are turned in flight, so that my haters
are cut off.

42 They were crying out, but there was no one to come to
their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer.

43 Then they were crushed as small as the dust of the earth,
stamped down under my feet like the waste of the streets.

44 You have made me free from the fightings of my people;
you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom
Thad no knowledge will be my servants.

45 Men of other countries will, with false hearts, put
themselves under my authority: from the time when my name
comes to their ears, they will be ruled by me.

46 They will be wasted away, they will come out of their
secret places shaking with fear.

47 The Lord is living; praise be to my Rock, and let the
God of my salvation be honoured:

48 It is God who sends punishment on my haters, and puts
peoples under my rule.

49 He makes me free from my haters: I am lifted up over
those who come up against me: you have made me free from
the violent man.

50 Because of this I will give you praise, O Lord, among the
nations, and will make a song of praise to your name.

51 Great salvation does he give to his king; he has mercy on
the king of his selection, David, and on his seed for ever.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 23

1 Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of
Jesse, says, the man who was lifted up on high, the man on
whom the God of Jacob put the holy oil, the loved one of
Israel's songs, says:

2 The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word
was on my tongue.

3 The God of Israel said, the word of the Rock of Israel
came to me: When an upright king is ruling over men, when
he is ruling in the fear of God,

4 It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a
morning without clouds; making young grass come to life
from the earth.

5 For is not my house so with God? For he has made with
me an eternal agreement, ordered in all things and certain: as
for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not give it
increase?

6 But the evil-doers, all of them, will be like thorns to be
pushed away, because they may not be gripped in the hand:

7 But anyone touching them has to be armed with iron and
the rod of a spear; and they will be burned with fire, every
one of them.

8 These are the names of David's men of war: Ishbaal the
Hachmonite, chief of the three; his axe was lifted up against
eight hundred put to death at one time.

9 After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, one
of the three great fighters, who was with David in Pas-
dammim when the Philistines came together there for the
fight; and when the men of Israel had gone in flight,

10 He was with David and went on fighting the Philistines
till his hand became tired and stiff from gripping his sword:
and that day the Lord gave a great salvation, and the people
came back after him only to take the goods of the Philistines.

11 After him was Shammah, the son of Ela the Hararite.
And the Philistines came together in Lehi, where there was a
bit of land full of seed; and the people went in flight from the
Philistines.

12 But he kept his place in the middle of the bit of land, and
kept back their attack and overcame the Philistines: and the
Lord gave a great salvation.

13 And three of the thirty went down at the start of the
grain-cutting, and they came to David at the strong place of
Adullam; and the band of Philistines had taken up their
position in the valley of Rephaim.

14 And at that time David had taken cover in the strong
place, and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-
lehem.

15 And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only
someone would give me a drink of water from the water-hole
of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town!

16 And the three men, forcing their way through the
Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-
lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to
David: but he would not take it, but, draining it out, made
an offering of it to the Lord.

17 And he said, Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this; how
may | take as my drink the life-blood of men who have put
their lives in danger? So he would not take it. These things
did the three great men of war.

18 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah,
was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with
his spear, and he got for himself'a name among the thirty.

19 Was he not the noblest of the thirty? so he was made
their captain: but he was not equal to the first three.

20 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a fighting man of
Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death the two sons of
Ariel of Moab: he went down into a hole and put a lion to
death in time of snow:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a tall man: and
the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to
him with a stick, and pulling the spear out of the hands of the
Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear.

22 These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who
had a great name among the thirty men of war.

23 He was honoured over the rest of the thirty, but he was
not equal to the first three. And David put him over the
fighting men who kept him safe.

24 Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the thirty; and
Elhanan, the son of Dodai, of Beth-lehem,

25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

26 Helez the Paltite, Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

27 Abiezer the Anathothite, Sibbecai the Hushathite,

28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

29 Heldai, the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai, the
son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

30 Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai of the valleys of Gaash,

31 Abiel the Arbathite, Azmaveth of Bahurim,

32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite,

33 Jonathan, the son of Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam, the
son of Sharar the Hararite,

34 Eliphelet, the son of Ahasbai the Maacathite, Eliam, the
son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

35 Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Archite,

36 Igal, the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,

37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, who had
the care of the arms of Joab, son of Zeruiah,

38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

39 Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in number.

2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 24

1 Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel,
and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the
number of Israel and Judah.

2 And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army,
who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel,
from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people
numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the
people.

3 And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the
people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and
may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord
the king take pleasure in doing this thing?

4 But the king's order was stronger than Joab and the
captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army
went out from the king, to take the number of the children of
Israel.

5 And they went over Jordan, and starting from Aroer,
from the town which is in the middle of the valley, they went
in the direction of the Gadites, and on to Jazer;

6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of the Hittites
under Hermon; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they
came round to Zidon,

7 And to the walled town of Tyre, and to all the towns of
the Hivites and the Canaanites: and they went out to the
South of Judah at Beer-sheba.

8 So after going through all the land in every direction,
they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty
days.

9 And Joab gave the king the number of all the people:
there were in Israel eight hundred thousand fighting men
able to take up arms; and the men of Judah were five hundred
thousand.

10 And after the people had been numbered, David's heart
was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been
my sin in doing this; but now, O Lord, be pleased to take
away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly

11 And David got up in the morning; now the word of the
Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

12 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are
offered to you: say which of them you will have, and I will do
it to you.

13 So Gad came to David, and gave him word of this and
said to him, Are there to be three years when there is not
enough food in your land? or will you go in flight from your
haters for three months, while they go after you? or will you
have three days of violent disease in your land? take thought
and say what answer I am to give to him who sent me.

14 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to
make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are
his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.

15 So David made selection of the disease; and the time was
the days of the grain-cutting, when the disease came among
the people, causing the death of seventy thousand men from
Dan as far as Beer-sheba.

16 And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the
direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had
regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending
destruction on the people, It is enough; do no more. And the
angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the
Jebusite.

17 And when David saw the angel who was causing the
destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin
is mine; I have done wrong: but these are only sheep; what
have they done? let your hand be against me and against my
family.

18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up,
and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of
Araunah the Jebusite.

19 So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had
given orders.

20 And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his
servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went
down on his face to the earth before the king.

21 And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to
his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your
grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and
the disease may be stopped among the people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OER ERY oN EOE
FPG OY

22 And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take
whatever seems right to him, and make an offering of it: see,
here are the oxen for the burned offering, and the grain-
cleaning instruments and the ox-yokes for wood:

23 All this does the servant of my lord the king give to the
king. And Araunah said, May the Lord your God be pleased
with your offering!

24 And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will give you a
price for it; I will not give to the Lord my God burned
offerings for which I have given nothing. So David got the
grain-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

25 And there David put up an altar to the Lord, making
burned offerings and peace-offerings. So the Lord gave ear to
his prayer for the land, and the disease came to an end in
Israel.

SLEDS

THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS
Hebrew Title: Melakhim |
(also called The Third Book of Kings or 3 Reigns;
the previous two Books of Samuel bear then the names
The First and the Second Book of Kings)
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 7th—6th century B.C

(The Book of Kings is the ninth book of the Hebrew Bible
or the eleventh and twelfth books of the Christian Old
Testament. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a
history of Israel also comprising the books of Joshua and
Judges and the Book of Samuel, which biblical
commentators believe was written to provide a theological
explanation for the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by
Babylon in c. 586 BC and a foundation for a return from
exile. The two books of Kings present a history of ancient
Israel and Judah from the death of King David to the release
of Jehotachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of
some 400 years (c. 960 —c. 560 BC). After a long description
of Solomon's rule, 1 and 2 Kings writes of how the kingdom
of Israel was divided and then shows how the Kingdom of
Israel and the Kingdom of Judah developed. 1 and 2 Kings,
like 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Books of Chronicles are
actually one book. It was simply called "Kings." However, it
was divided into two books by the translators of the
Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made
in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC), and so it was written as 1
and 2 Kings by the Latin translation and many other
versions.

Author and Sources: /¢ is not known for sure who ts the
author (writer) of 1,2 Kings. Jewish tradition says that
Jeremiah wrote I and 2 Kings, but people do not usually
think so today. Whoever the author was, he knew the book
of Deuteronomy, like many of Israel's prophets. He also used
lots of sources, like "the books of the annals of Solomon"
(11:41, NIV), "the book of the annals of the kings of Israel"
(14:19 NIV), and "the book of the annals of the kings of
Judah" (14:29 NIV)". Probably other sources were used, like
those inside Chronicles).

Chronology: / and 2 Kings give lots of chronological
information. The length of time each king rules is given, and
often other information 1s given, such as the age of the ruler
at the time of becoming king and whether they were a good
ruler. By putting in Biblical data with those given from
Assyrian chronological records, the year 853 B.C. 1s
probable as the year of Ahab's death, and the year 841 as the
year Jehu began to reign. So, it can be known that the
division of the kingdom happened in 930 B.C, and that
Samaria was defeated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and that
Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The information about the connection between the reigns
of the kings of Israel and Judah have some problems, which
have, for a long time, been wondered about. Recently,
though, most of these problems have been solved by
recognizing things like possibilities of reigns that overlap,
sons ruling with their fathers, differences in the time of the
year in which the rule of a king officially began, and
differences in the way a king's first year was seen.

Kings and Covenants: / and 2 Kings do not exactly say its
purpose or theme, but it is most probable that the author
wanted to write his material as a sequel, the next book after
the books of Samuel: a history about the kings by covenant.

The writer was not trying to show a social, or political, or
economical history of Israel's kings like most histories today.
He writes about Omri, who was a very powerful king and an
important political person, in only six verses (16:23-28),
simply saying that he "did evil in the eyes of the Lord"
(16:25, NIV). Also, Jeroboam the second, who was king over
northern Israel when 1t was most powerful, is written about
very shortly (2 Kings 14:23-29). He also writes nothing
about the first years of Josiah king of Judah, but says a long
description of how they begin again to keep the covenant in
his 18th year as king (2 Kings 22:3-23:28).

The kings who are most written about in the books of
Kings are the kings who either kept the covenant well, broke
it very badly, or had an important encounter with one of
God's prophets. Ahab son of Omri and Manasseh broke the
covenant so that it was dangerous to Israel, so the author
wrote a lot about them both; Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:1-20:21)
and Josiah (2 Kings 22:1 - 23:29) are written a lot about
because they tried to remind the people of their covenant
promises. They are the only two kings who the writer is
really happy with for their loyalty to the Lord.

Another important part of I and 2 Kings 1s that the writer
shows the relationship between prophecy and how it comes
true in lustory. At least 11 prophecies are written to be true.
The writer also shows the importance of the prophets as
messengers from God to tell the kings and people of Israel to
come back to God. Usually, nobody listened to their
warnings (for example, Ahijah, Shematah, Micaiah, Jonah,
Isaiah, Huldah), but the writer writes very much about the
prophets Elijah and Elisha. A well known story 1s that of
Elyah on Mount Carmel, when he calls upon God and a
miracle occurs, thereby showing that the God of Israel to be
the one true God. Shortly before the miracle another tribe
had called upon their false gods, which leads to no miracle
occurring. .)

1 KINGS CHAPTER 1

1 Now King David was old and far on in years; and though
they put covers over him, his body was cold.

2 So his servants said to him, Let search be made for a
young virgin for my lord the king, to take care of him and be
waiting on him; and you may take her in your arms, and so
my lord the king will be warm.

3 So after searching through all the land of Israel for a fair
young girl, they saw Abishag the Shunammite, and took her
to the king.

4 Now she was very beautiful; and she took care of the king,
waiting on him at all times; but the king had no connection
with her.

5 Then Adoniyjah, the son of Haggith, lifting himself up in
pride, said, I will become king; and he made ready his
carriages of war and his horsemen, with fifty runners to go
before him.

6 Now all his life his father had never gone against him or
said to him, Why have you done so? and he was a very good-
looking man, and younger than Absalom.

7 And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with
Abiathar the priest; and they were on his side and gave him
their support.

8 But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada,
and Nathan the prophet and Shimei and Rei, and David's
men of war did not take the side of Adonijah.

9 Then Adonijah put to death sheep and oxen and fat beasts
by the stone of Zoheleth, by En-rogel; and he sent for all his
brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's
servants, to come to him:

10 But he did not send for Nathan the prophet and Benaiah
and the other men of war and Solomon his brother.

11 Then Nathan said to Bath-sheba, the mother of
Solomon, Has it not come to your ears that Adoniyah, the
son of Haggith, has made himself king without the
knowledge of David our lord?

12 So now, let me make a suggestion, so that you may keep
your life safe and the life of your son Solomon.

13 Come now, go to King David and say to him, Did you
not, O my lord, take an oath to me, your servant, saying,
Truly Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the
seat of my kingdom? why then is Adonijah acting as king?

14 And while you are still talking there with the king, see, I
will come in after you and say that your story is true.

15 Then Bath-sheba went into the king's room; now the
king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was waiting
on him.

16 And Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth
before the king giving him honour. And he said, What is
your desire?

17 And she said to him, My lord, you took an oath by the
Lord your God and gave your word to your servant, saying,
Truly, Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the
seat of my kingdom.

18 And now, see, Adonijah has made himself king without
my lord's knowledge;

19 And has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in
great numbers, and has sent for all the sons of the king, and
Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the captain of the army; but he
has not sent for Solomon your servant.

20 And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on
you, waiting for you to say who is to take the place of my
lord the king after him.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 For as things are, it will come about, when my lord the
king is sleeping with his fathers, that I and Solomon my son
will be made outlaws.

22 And while she was still talking with the king, Nathan
the prophet came in.

23 And they said to the king, Here is Nathan the prophet.
And when he came in before the king, he went down on his
face on the earth.

24 And Nathan said, O my lord king, have you said,
Adonijah is to be king after me, seated on the seat of my
kingdom?

25 Because today he has gone down and has put to death
oxen and fat beasts and sheep in great numbers, and has sent
for all the king's sons to come to him, with the captains of
the army and Abiathar the priest; and they are feasting
before him and crying, Long life to King Adonijah!

26 But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah,
the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not
sent for.

27 Has this thing been done by my lord the king, without
giving word to your servants who was to be placed on my
lord the king's seat after him?

28 Then King David in answer said, Send for Bath-sheba to
come to me. And she came in and took her place before the
king.

29 And the king took an oath, and said, By the living Lord,
who has been my saviour from all my troubles,

30 As I took an oath to you by the Lord, the God of Israel,
saying, Certainly Solomon your son will become king after
me, seated on my seat in my place; so will I do this day.

31 Then Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth
before the king giving him honour, and said, May my lord
King David go on living for ever.

32 And King David said, Send for Zadok the priest, and
Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. And
they came before the king.

33 And the king said to them, Take with you the servants of
your lord, and put Solomon my son on my beast, yes, mine,
and take him down to Gihon;

34 And there let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
put the holy oil on him to make him king over Israel; and
sounding the horn say, Long life to King Solomon!

35 Then come up after him and he will come in and take his
place on the seat of my kingdom; for he is to be king in my
place, and I have given orders that he is to be ruler over
Israel and over Judah.

36 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answering the king,
said, So be it: and may the Lord, the God of my lord the king,
say SO.

37 As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may
he be with Solomon and make the seat of his authority
greater than that of my lord King David.

38 So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and
Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the
Pelethites, went down and put Solomon on King David's
beast and took him to Gihon.

39 And Zadok the priest took the vessel of oil out of the
Tent, and put the holy oil on Solomon. And when the horn
was sounded, all the people said, Long life to King Solomon!

40 And all the people came up after him, piping with pipes,
and they were glad with great joy, so that the earth was
shaking with the sound.

41 And it came to the ears of Adonijah and all the guests
who were with him, when their meal was ended. And Joab,
hearing the sound of the horn, said, What is the reason of
this noise as if the town was worked up?

42 And while the words were on his lips, Jonathan, the son
of Abiathar the priest, came; and Adonijah said, Come in; for
you are a man of good faith and the news which you have for
us will be good.

43 And Jonathan, answering, said to Adonijah, Not so, but
our lord King David has made Solomon king:

44 And he sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the
Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they put him on the
king's beast:

45 And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the
holy oil on him and made him king in Gihon; and they came
back from there with joy, and the town was all worked up.
This is the noise which has come to your ears.

46 And now Solomon is seated on the seat of the kingdom.

47 And the king's servants came to our lord King David,
blessing him and saying, May God make the name of
Solomon better than your name, and the seat of his authority
greater than your seat; and the king was bent low in worship
on his bed.

48 Then the king said, May the God of Israel be praised,
who has given one of my seed to be king in my place this day
and has let my eyes see it.

49 And all the guests of Adonijah got up in fear and went
away, every man to his place.

50 And Adonijah himself was full of fear because of
Solomon; and he got up and went to the altar, and put his
hands on its horns.

51 And they gave Solomon word of it, saying, See,
Adonijah goes in such fear of King Solomon, that he has put
his hands on the horns of the altar, saying, Let King
Solomon first give me his oath that he will not put his
servant to death with the sword.

52 And Solomon said, Ifhe is seen to be a man of good faith,
not a hair of him will be touched; but if any wrongdoing is
seen in him, he is to be put to death.

53 So King Solomon sent, and they took him down from
the altar. And he came and gave honour to King Solomon;
and Solomon said to him, Go to your house.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 2

1 Now the time of David's death came near; and he gave
orders to Solomon his son, saying,

2 1 am going the way of all the earth: so be strong and be a
man;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And keep the orders of the Lord your God, walking in his
ways, keeping his laws and his orders and his rules and his
words, as they are recorded in the law of Moses; so that you
may do well in all you do and wherever you go,

4 So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me, If
your children give attention to their ways, living uprightly
before me with all their heart and their soul, you will never
be without a man to be king in Israel.

5 Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of
Zeruiah, did to me, and to the two captains of the army of
Israel, Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether,
whom he put to death, taking payment for the blood of war
in time of peace, and making the band of my clothing and the
shoes on my feet red with the blood of one put to death
without cause.

6 So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head
go down to the underworld in peace.

7 But be good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let
them be guests at your table; for so they came to me when I
went in flight from Absalom your brother.

8 Now you have with you Shimei, the son of Gera the
Benjamite of Bahurim, who put a bitter curse on me on the
day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to see me
at Jordan, and I gave him my oath by the Lord, saying, I will
not put you to death by the sword.

9 But do not let him be free from punishment, for you are a
wise man; and it will be clear to you what you have to do
with him; see that his white head goes down to the
underworld in blood.

10 Then David went to rest with his fathers, and his body
was put into the earth in the town of David.

11 David was king over Israel for forty years: for seven
years he was king in Hebron and for thirty-three years in
Jerusalem.

12 And Solomon took his place on the seat of David his
father, and his kingdom was made safe and strong.

13 Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bath-sheba,
the mother of Solomon. And she said, Come you in peace?
And he said, Yes, in peace.

14 Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she
said, Say on.

15 And he said, You saw how the kingdom was mine, and
all Israel had the idea that I would be their king; but now the
kingdom 1s turned about, and has become my brother's, for it
was given to him by the Lord.

16 Now I have one request to make to you, and do not say,
No, to me. And she said to him, Say on.

17 Then he said, Will you go to Solomon the king (for he
will not say, No, to you) and put before him my request that
he will give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife?

18 And Bath-sheba said, Good! I will make your request to
the king.

19 So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to have talk with
him on Adonijah's account. And the king got up to come to
her, and went down low to the earth before her; then he took

his place on the king's seat and had a seat made ready for the
king's mother and she took her place at his right hand.

20 Then she said, I have one small request to make to you;
do not say, No, to me. And the king said, Say on, my mother,
for I will not say, No, to you.

21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to
Adonijah your brother for a wife.

22 Then King Solomon made answer and said to his mother,
Why are you requesting me to give Abishag the Shunammite
to Adonijah? Take the kingdom for him in addition, for he is
my older brother, and Abiathar the priest and Joab, the son
of Zeruiah, are on his side.

23 Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord, saying,
May God's punishment be on me if Adonijah does not give
payment for these words with his life.

24 Now by the living Lord, who has given me my place on
the seat of David my father, and made me one of a line of
kings, as he gave me his word, truly Adonijah will be put to
death this day.

25 And King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada,
and he made an attack on him and put him to death.

26 And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to
Anathoth, to your fields; for death would be your right
reward; but I will not put you to death now, because you
took up the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and
you were with him in all his troubles.

27 So Solomon let Abiathar be priest no longer, so that he
might make the word of the Lord come true which he said
about the sons of Eli in Shiloh.

28 And news of this came to Joab; for Joab had been one of
Adonijah's supporters, though he had not been on Absalom's
side. Then Joab went in flight to the Tent of the Lord, and
put his hands on the horns of the altar.

29 And they said to King Solomon, Joab has gone in flight
to the Tent of the Lord and is by the altar. Then Solomon
sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, make an
attack on him.

30 And Benaiah came to the Tent of the Lord and said to
him, The king says, Come out. And he said, No; but let death
come to me here. And Benaiah went back to the king and
gave him word of the answer which Joab had given.

31 And the king said, Do as he has said and make an attack
on him there, and put his body into the earth; so that you
may take away from me and from my family the blood of one
put to death by Joab without cause.

32 And the Lord will send back his blood on his head,
because of the attack he made on two men more upright and
better than himself, putting them to the sword without my
father's knowledge; even Abner, the son of Ner, captain of
the army of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of
the army of Judah.

33 So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the
head of his seed for ever; but for David and his seed and his
family and the seat of his kingdom, there will be peace for
ever from the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

34 So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling on
him, put him to death; and his body was put to rest in his
house in the waste land.

35 And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his
place over the army; and Zadok the priest he put in the place
of Abiathar.

36 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Make a
house for yourself in Jerusalem and keep there and go to no
other place.

37 For be certain that on the day when you go out and go
over the stream Kidron, death will overtake you: and your
blood will be on your head.

38 And Shimei said to the king, Very well! as my lord the
king has said, so will your servant do. And for a long time
Shimei went on living in Jerusalem.

39 But after three years, two of the servants of Shimei went
in flight to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And word
was given to Shimei that his servants had gone to Gath.

40 Then Shimei got up, and making ready his ass, he went
to Gath, to Achish, in search of his servants; and he sent and
got them from Gath.

41 And news was given to Solomon that Shimei had gone
from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back again.

42 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I
not make you take an oath by the Lord, protesting to you
and saying, Be certain that on the day when you go out from
here, wherever you go, death will overtake you? and you said
to me, Very well!

43 Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and
the order which I gave you?

44 And the king said to Shimei, You have knowledge of all
the evil which you did to David my father; and now the Lord
has sent back your evil on yourself.

45 But a blessing will be on King Solomon, and the

kingdom of David will keep its place before the Lord for ever.

46 So the king gave orders to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada;
and he went out and, falling on him, put him to death. And
Solomon's authority over the kingdom was complete.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 3

1 Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her
in the town of David, till the house he was building for
himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round
Jerusalem, were complete.

2 But all this time the people were making their offerings in
the high places, because no house had been put up to the
name of the Lord till those days.

3 And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of
David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in
smoke on the high places.

4 And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there,
because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way
to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar.

5 In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream
by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you.

6 And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my
father, as his life before you was true and upright and his
heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this
greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day.

7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant
king in the place of David my father; and I am only a young
boy, with no knowledge of how to go out or come in.

8 And your servant has round him the people of your
selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered,
and no account of them may be given.

9 Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your
people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is
able to be the judge of this great people?

10 Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing
to the Lord.

11 And God said to him, Because your request is for this
thing, and not for long life for yourself or for wealth or for
the destruction of your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge
of causes;

12 [have done as you said: I have given you a wise and far-
seeing heart, so that there has never been your equal in the
past, and never will there be any like you in the future.

13 And with this I have given you what you made no
request for: wealth and honour, so that no king was ever
your equal.

14 And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my
orders as your father David did, I will give you a long life.

15 And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then
he came to Jerusalem, where he went before the ark of the
agreement of the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-
offerings; and he made a feast for all his servants.

16 Then two loose women of the town came and took their
places before the king;

17 And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are
living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her
side in the house.

18 And three days after the birth of my child, this woman
had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us
in the house but we two only.

19 In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the
cause of its death.

20 And she got up in the middle of the night and took my
son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she
took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms.

21 And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that
it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I
saw that it was not my son.

22 And the other woman said, No; but the living child is
my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the
dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept
on talking before the king.

23 Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son,
and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your
son is the dead one and mine is the living.

24 Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a
sword before the king.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and
one half given to one woman and one to the other.

26 Then the mother of the living child came forward, for
her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give
her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the
other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut
in two.

27 Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child,
and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it.

28 And news of this decision which the king had made went
through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw
that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 4

1 Now Solomon was king over all Israel.

2 And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok,
was the priest;

3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes;
Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder;

4 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army;
Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

5 Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority
in the different divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of
Nathan, was priest and the king's friend;

6 Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the
son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work.

7 And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be
responsible for the stores needed for the king and those of his
house; every man was responsible for one month in the year.

8 And these are their names: ben Hur [the son of Hur] in the
hill country of Ephraim;

9 The son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-
shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;

10 The son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of
Hepher were under his control;

11 The son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife was
Taphath, the daughter of Solomon.

12 Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and
all Beth-shean which is by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel,
from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of
Jokmeam;

13 The son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns of
Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and the
country of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great towns with
walls and locks of brass.

14 Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter
of Solomon, as his wife;

16 Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth;

17 Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

18 Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

19 Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country
of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and
one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in
the land.

20 Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by
the seaside, and they took their food and drink with joy in
their hearts.

21 And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the
River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of
Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the
days of his life.

22 And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was
thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal;

23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a
hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and
fat fowls.

24 For he had authority over all the country on this side of
the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this
side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side.

25 So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under
his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all
the days of Solomon.

26 And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for
horses for his carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen.

27 And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that
food was produced for Solomon and all his guests, they took
care that nothing was overlooked.

28 And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the
carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was
ordered.

29 And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and
good sense, and a mind of wide range, as wide as the sand by
the seaside.

30 And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of
all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the
Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of
Mahol; and he had a great name among all the nations round
about.

32 He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of
songs to the number of a thousand and five.

33 He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in
Lebanon to the hyssop hanging on the wall; and about all
beasts and birds and fishes and the small things of the earth.

34 People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom
of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had word of
his wisdom.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 5

1 Now Hiram, king of Tyre, hearing that Solomon had
been made king in place of his father, sent his servants to him;
for Hiram had ever been a friend to David.

2 And Solomon sent back word to Hiram, saying,

3 You have knowledge that David my father was not able
to make a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of
the wars which were round him on every side, till the Lord
put all those who were against him under his feet.

4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side;
no one is making trouble, and no evil is taking place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And so it is my purpose to make a house for the name of
the Lord my God, as he said to David my father, Your son,
whom I will make king in your place, will be the builder of a
house for my name.

6 So now, will you have cedar-trees from Lebanon cut
down for me, and my servants will be with your servants; and
I will give you payment for your servants at whatever rate
you say; for it is common knowledge that we have no such
wood-cutters among us as the men of Zidon.

7 And these words of Solomon made Hiram glad, and he
said, Now may the Lord be praised who has given to David a
wise son to be king over this great people.

8 Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying; The words you sent
have been given to me: I will do all your desire in the
question of cedar-wood and cypress-wood.

9 My men will take them down from Lebanon to the sea,
where I will have them corded together to go by sea to
whatever place you say, and I will have them cut up there so
that you may take them away; as for payment, it will be
enough if you give me food for my people.

10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar-wood and cypress-
wood he had need of;

11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of
grain, as food for his people, and twenty measures of clear oil;
this he did every year.

12 Now the Lord had given Solomon wisdom, as he had
said to him; and there was peace between Hiram and
Solomon, and they made an agreement together.

13 Then King Solomon got together men for the forced
work through all Israel, thirty thousand men in number;

14 And sent them to Lebanon in bands of ten thousand
every month: for a month they were working in Lebanon and
for two months in their country, and Adoniram was in
control of them.

15 Then he had seventy thousand for the work of transport,
and eighty thousand stone-cutters in the mountains;

16 In addition to the chiefs of the responsible men put by
Solomon to oversee the work, three thousand and three
hundred in authority over the workmen.

17 By the king's orders great stones, stones of high price,
were cut out, so that the base of the house might be made of
squared stone.

18 Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did the work of
cutting them, and put edges on them, and got the wood and
the stone ready for the building of the house.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 6

1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children
of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year
that Solomon was king of Israel, in the month Ziv, which is
the second month, the building of the Lord's house was
started.

2 The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty
cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.

3 The covered way before the Temple of the house was
twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and ten cubits wide
in front of the house.

4 And for the house he made windows, with network across.

5 And against the walls all round, and against the walls of
the Temple and of the inmost room, he put up wings, with
side rooms all round:

6 The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the middle
six cubits wide and the third seven cubits; for there was a
space all round the outside walls of the house so that the
boards supporting the rooms did not have to be fixed in the
walls of the house.

7 (And the stones used in the building of the house were
squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no
sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they
were building the house.)

8 The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side of
the house; and they went up by twisting steps into the middle
rooms, and from the middle into the third.

9 So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it
with boards of cedar-wood.

10 And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls of
the house, fifteen cubits high, resting against the house on
boards of cedar-wood.

11 (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying,

12 About this house which you are building: if you will
keep my laws and give effect to my decisions and be guided by
my rules, I will give effect to my word which I gave to David
your father.

13 And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and will
not go away from my people.

14 So Solomon made the building of the house complete.)

15 The walls of the house were covered inside with cedar-
wood boards; from the floor to the roof of the house they
were covered inside with wood; and the floor was covered
with boards of cypress-wood.

16 And at the back of the house a further space of twenty
cubits was shut in with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost
room.

17 And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the holy
place was forty cubits long.

18 (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented
with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be
seen inside.)

19 And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the
house, in which to put the ark of the agreement of the Lord.

20 And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and
twenty cubits high, plated over with clear gold, and he made
an altar of cedar-wood, plating it with gold.

21 Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with
gold, and he put chains of gold across in front of the inmost
room, which itself was covered with gold.

22 Plates of gold were put all through the house till it was
covered completely (and the altar in the inmost room was all
covered with gold).

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 In the inmost room he made two winged beings of olive-
wood, ten cubits high;

24 With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance
from the edge of one wing to the edge of the other was ten
cubits.

25 The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same
size and form.

26 The two of them were ten cubits high.

27 These were placed inside the inner house, their
outstretched wings touching the walls of the house, one
touching one wall and one the other, while their other wings
were touching in the middle.

28 These winged ones were plated over with gold.

29 And all the walls of the house inside and out were
ornamented with forms of winged ones and palm-trees and
open flowers.

30 And the floor of the house was covered with gold, inside
and out.

31 For the way into the inmost room he made doors of
olive-wood, the arch and the door supports forming a five-
sided opening.

32 On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged
ones and palm-trees and open flowers, all of them, with the
doors, plated with gold.

33 Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the
Temple; the pillars were square:

34 And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves.

35 These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and
palm-trees and open flowers, plated over with gold.

36 And the inner space was walled with three lines of
squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards.

37 In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its
place, in the month Ziv.

38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the
eighth month, the building of the house was complete in
every detail, as it had been designed. So he was seven years
building it.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 7

1 Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself
till it was complete.

2 And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which
was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty
cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with
cedar-wood supports on the pillars.

3 And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports
which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line.

4 There were three lines of window-frames, window facing
window in every line.

5 And all the doors and windows had square frames, with
the windows facing one another in three lines.

6 And he made a covered room [porch] of pillars before the
door, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and a door step
with before it.

7 Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he
gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was
covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof.

8 And the house for his living-place, the other open square
in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he
made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon
had taken as his wife.

9 All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base
to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of
highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-
instruments.

10 And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone,
some ten cubits and some eight cubits square.

11 Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and
cedar-wood.

12 The great outer square all round was walled with three
lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards,
round about the open square inside the house of the Lord
and the covered room of the king's house.

13 Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre.

14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and
his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of
wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He
came to King Solomon and did all his work for him.

15 He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar
was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went
round it; and the second was the same.

16 And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the
pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five
cubits high.

17 There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops
of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-
work for the other.

18 And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of
apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of
the pillars, the two crowns in the same way.

19 The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented
with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across.

20 And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round
part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in
lines round every crown.

21 He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple,
naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz.

22 The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the
work of making the pillars was complete.

23 And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across
from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round.

24 And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten
cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it
from liquid metal.

25 It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts
turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north,
three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east;
the vessel was resting on top of them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like
the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two
thousand baths.

27 And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four
cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.

28 And the bases were made in this way; their sides were
square, fixed in a framework;

29 And on the square sides between the frames were lions,
oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over
and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were
steps.

30 Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass
rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the
angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were
ornaments at the side of every one.

31 The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit
across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it
had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round.

32 The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on
which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were
acubit and a half high.

33 The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on
which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their
rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of
liquid metal.

34 And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of
every base, forming part of the structure of the base.

35 And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half
a cubit high;

36 In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them,
he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with
ornamented edges all round.

37 All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same
design, of the same size and form.

38 And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking
forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed
on every one of the ten bases.

39 And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side
and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the
right side of the house, to the east, facing south.

40 And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So
Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King
Solomon in the house of the Lord:

41 The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which
were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering
the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars,

42 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines
of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the
crowns on the pillars;

43 And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them;

44 And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under
it;

45 And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the
vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house
of the Lord, were of polished brass.

46 He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan,
at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and
Zarethan.

47 The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because
there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get
the weight of the brass.

48 And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the
house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on
which the holy bread was placed;

49 And the supports for the lights, five on the right side
and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and
the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold;

50 And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the
spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which
the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most
holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold.

51 So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of
the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things
which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and
all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house
of the Lord.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 8

1 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel,
and all the chiefs of the tribes, and the heads of families of the
children of Israel, to come to him in Jerusalem to take the
ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David,
which is Zion.

2 And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon
at the feast, in the month Ethanim, the seventh month.

3 And all the responsible men of Israel came, and the priests
took up the ark.

4 They took up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of
meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all
these the priests and the Levites took up.

5 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had
come together there, were with him before the ark, making
offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered.

6 And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the Lord
and put it in its place in the inner room of the house, in the
most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones.

7 For their wings were outstretched over the place where
the ark was, covering the ark and its rods.

8 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the
holy place, in front of the inmost room; but they were not
seen from outside: and there they are to this day.

9 There was nothing in the ark but the two flat stones
which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an
agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of
the land of Egypt.

10 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place,
the house of the Lord was full of the cloud,

11 So that the priests were not able to keep their places to
do their work because of the cloud, for the house of the Lord
was full of the glory of the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given
the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not
seen by men;

13 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which
you may be for ever present.

14 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to
all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together.

15 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
who himself gave his word to David my father, and with his
strong hand has made his word come true, saying,

16 From the day when I took my people Israel out of Egypt,
no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me
for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name;
but I made selection of David to be king over my people
Israel.

17 Now it was in the heart of David my father to put up a
house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

18 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to
have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name;

19 But you yourself will not be the builder of my house; but
your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up
a house for my name.

20 And the Lord has made his word come true; for I have
taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of
Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made a house
for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

21 In it I have made a place for the ark, in which is the
agreement which the Lord made with our fathers, when he
took them out of the land of Egypt.

22 Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the
Lord, all the men of Israel being present, and stretching out
his hands to heaven,

23 Said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you
in heaven or on the earth; keeping faith and mercy
unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways
with all their hearts.

24 And you have kept the word which you gave to your
servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and
with your hand you have made it come true this day.

25 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to
your servant David, my father, come true, when you said,
You will never be without a man to take his place on the seat
of the kingdom of Israel before me, if only your children give
attention to their ways, walking before me as you have done.

26 So now, O God of Israel, it is my prayer that you will
make your word come true which you said to your servant
David, my father.

27 But is it truly possible that God may be housed on earth?
see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to
be your resting-place; how much less this house which I have
made!

28 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your
servant, O Lord God, and to his prayer for grace; give ear to
the cry and the prayer which your servant sends up to you
this day;

29 That your eyes may be open to this house night and day,
to this place of which you have said, My name will be there;
hearing the prayer which your servant may make, turning to
this place.

30 Give ear to the prayers of your servant, and the prayers
of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning
to this place; give ear in heaven your living-place, and
hearing, have mercy.

31 Ifa man does wrong to his neighbour, and has to take an
oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this
house:

32 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of
your servants, giving your decision against the wrongdoer,
so that punishment for his sins may come on his head; and, by
your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong.

33 When your people Israel are overcome in war, because of
their sin against you; if they are turned to you again,
honouring your name, making prayers to you and requesting
your grace in this house:

34 Then give ear in heaven, and let the sin of your people
Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again into the
land which you gave to their fathers.

35 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of
their sin against you; if they make prayers with their faces
turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away
from their sin when you send trouble on them:

36 Then give ear in heaven, so that the sin of your servants,
and of your people Israel, may have forgiveness, when you
make clear to them the good way in which they are to go;
and send rain on your land which you have given to your
people for their heritage.

37 If there is no food in the land, or if there is disease, or if
the fruits of the earth are damaged through heat or water,
locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers;
whatever trouble, whatever disease there may be:

38 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by
any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble
may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house:

39 Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy;
and give to every man whose secret heart is open to you, the
reward of all his ways; for you, and you only, have
knowledge of the hearts of all the children of men:

40 So that they may give you worship all the days of their
life in the land which you gave to our fathers.

41 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of
your people Israel; when he comes from a far country because
of the glory of your name:

42 (For they will have news of your great name and your
strong hand and your out-stretched arm;) when he comes to
make his prayer, turning to this house:

43 Give ear in heaven your living-place, and give him his
desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth
may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do
your people Israel, and that they may see that this house
which I have put up is truly named by your name.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

44 If your people go out to war against their attackers, by
whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayer
to the Lord, turning their faces to this town of yours and to
this house which I have made for your name:

45 Give ear in heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace,
and see right done to them.

46 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,)
and you are angry with them and give them up into the
power of those who are fighting against them, so that they
take them away as prisoners into a strange land, far off or
near;

47 And if they take thought, in the land where they are
prisoners, and are turned again to you, crying out in prayer
to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done
wrong, we have done evil;

48 And with all their heart and soul are turned again to
you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make
their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you
gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for
yourself, and the house which I made for your name:

49 Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in heaven
your living-place, and see right done to them;

50 Answering with forgiveness the people who have done
wrong against you, and overlooking the evil which they have
done against you; let those who made them prisoners be
moved with pity for them, and have pity on them;

51 For they are your people and your heritage, which you
took out of Egypt, out of the iron fireplace;

52 Let your eyes be open to your servant's prayer for grace
and to the prayer of your people Israel, hearing them when
their cry comes to you.

53 For you made them separate from all the peoples of the
earth, to be your heritage, as you said by Moses your servant,
when you took our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

54 Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and
requests for grace to the Lord, got up from his knees before
the altar of the Lord, where his hands had been stretched out
in prayer to heaven;

55 And, getting on his feet, he gave a blessing to all the men
of Israel, saying with a loud voice,

56 Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people
Israel, as he gave them his word to do; every word of all his
oath, which he gave by the hand of Moses his servant, has
come true.

57 Now may the Lord our God be with us as he was with
our fathers; let him never go away from us or give us up;

58 Turning our hearts to himself, guiding us to go in all his
ways, to keep his orders and his laws and his decisions, which
he gave to our fathers.

59 And may these my words, the words of my prayer to the
Lord, be before the Lord our God day and night, so that he
may see right done to his servant and to his people Israel, day
by day as we have need.

60 So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the Lord
is God, and there is no other.

61 Then let your hearts be without sin before the Lord our
God, walking in his laws and keeping his orders as at this
day.

62 Now the king, and all Israel with him, were making
offerings before the Lord.

63 And Solomon gave to the Lord for peace-offerings,
twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty
thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel
kept the feast of the opening of the Lord's house.

64 The same day the king made holy the middle of the open
square in front of the house of the Lord, offering there the
burned offering and the meal offering and the fat of the
peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar of
the Lord for the burned offerings and the meal offerings and
the fat of the peace-offerings.

65 So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great
meeting, (for the people had come together from the way
into Hamath to the river of Egypt,) kept the feast at that
time before the Lord our God, for two weeks, even fourteen
days.

66 And on the eighth day he sent the people away, and,
blessing the king, they went to their tents full of joy and glad
in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had
done to David his servant and to Israel his people.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 9

1 Now when Solomon came to the end of building the
house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's
desires, which he had in mind were effected;

2 The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done at
Gibeon;

3 And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your
requests for grace have come to my ears: I have made holy
this house which you have made, and I have put my name
there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

4 As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as
David your father did, uprightly and with a true heart,
doing what I have given you orders to do, keeping my laws
and my decisions;

5 Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel certain
for ever, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You
will never be without a man to be king in Israel.

6 But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children,
and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put
before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other
gods and give them worship:

7 Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have
given them; and this house, which I have made holy for
myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be
a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.

8 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and
everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and
make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord
done so to this land and to this house?

9 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away
from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave
them worship and became their servants: that is why the
Lord has sent all this evil on them.

10 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon
had put up the two houses, the house of the Lord and the
king's house,

11 (Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees
and cypress-trees and gold, as much as he had need of,) King
Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.

12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which
Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.

13 And he said, What sort of towns are these which you
have given me, my brother? So they were named the land of
Cabul, to this day.

14 And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents
of gold.

15 Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced
work for the building of the Lord's house and of the king's
house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo
and Gezer.

16 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning
it down and putting to death the Canaanites living in the
town, and he gave it for a bride-offering to his daughter,
Solomon's wife.

17 And Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon
the lower,

18 And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land;

19 And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon
had for his war-carriages and for his horsemen, and
everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem
and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.

20 As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not
children of Israel;

21 Their children who were still in the land, and whom the
children of Israel had not been able to put to complete
destruction, them did Solomon put to forced work, to this
day.

22 But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced
work; they were the men of war, his servants, his captains,
and his chiefs, captains of his war-carriages and of his
horsemen.

23 These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's work,
five hundred and fifty, in authority over the people who did
the work.

24 At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come
up from the town of David to the house which he had made
for her: then he made the Millo.

25 Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give
burned offerings and peace-offerings on the altar he had
made to the Lord, causing his fire-offering to go up on the
altar before the Lord.

26 And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in Ezion-
geber, by Eloth, on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

27 Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen,
in the sea-force with Solomon's men.

28 And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred
and twenty talents of gold, and took it back to King
Solomon.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 10

1 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon,
came to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions.

2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with
camels weighted down with spices, and stores of gold and
jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him
of everything in her mind.

3 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there
was no secret which the king did not make clear to her.

4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of
Solomon, and the house which he had made,

5 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there,
and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their
robes, and his wine-servants, and the burned offerings which
he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in
her.

6 And she said to the king, The account which was given to
me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true.

7 But [had no faith in what was said about you, till I came
and saw for myself; and now I see that it was not half the
story; your wisdom and your wealth are much greater than
they said.

8 Happy are your wives, happy are these your servants
whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of
wisdom.

9 May the Lord your God be praised, whose pleasure it was
to put you on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; because the
Lord's love for Israel is eternal, he has made you king, to be
their judge in righteousness.

10 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of
gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never again was
such a wealth of spices seen as that which the queen of Sheba
gave King Solomon.

11 And the sea-force of Hiram, in addition to gold from
Ophir, came back with much sandal-wood and jewels.

12 And from the sandal-wood the king made pillars for the
house of the Lord, and for the king's house, and instruments
of music for the makers of melody: never has such sandal-
wood been seen to this day.

13 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her
desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what he
gave her freely from the impulse of his heart. So she went
back to her country, she and her servants.

14 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one
year was six hundred and sixty-six talents;

15 In addition to what came to him from the business of the
traders, and from all the kings of the Arabians, and from the
rulers of the country.

16 And Solomon made two hundred body-covers of
hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold
init.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of
hammered gold, with three pounds of gold in every cover:
and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon.

18 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the
best gold.

19 There were six steps going up to it, and the top of it was
round at the back, there were arms on the two sides of the
seat, and two lions by the side of the arms;

20 And twelve lions were placed on the one side and on the
other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any
kingdom.

21 And all King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold,
and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were
of the best gold; not one was of silver, for no one gave a
thought to silver in the days of King Solomon.

22 For the king had Tarshish-ships at sea with the ships of
Hiram; once every three years the Tarshish-ships came with
gold and silver and ivory and monkeys and peacocks.

23 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the
earth in wealth and in wisdom.

24 And from all over the earth they came to see Solomon
and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put in his
heart.

25 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver
and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices,
and horses, and beasts of transport, regularly year by year.

26 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen;
he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve
thousand horsemen, whom he kept, some in the carriage-
towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

27 And the king made silver as common as stones in
Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands
in number.

28 And Solomon's horses came from Egypt and from Kue;
the king's traders got them at a price from Kue.

29 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred
shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; they got
them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the
kings of Aram.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 11

1 Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon,
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians,
and Hittites:

2 The nations of which the Lord had said to the children of
Israel, You are not to take wives from them and they are not
to take wives from you; or they will certainly make you go
after their gods: to these Solomon was united in love.

3 He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and
three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart
was turned away.

4 For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart
was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart
was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his
father David had been.

5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the
Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the
Ammonites.

6 And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not
walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his
father did.

7 Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the
disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem,
and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the
children of Ammon.

8 And so he did for all his strange wives, who made
offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.

9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart
was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had
twice come to him ina vision;

10 And had given him orders about this very thing, that he
was not to go after other gods; but he did not keep the orders
of the Lord.

11 So the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done
this, and have not kept my agreement and my laws, which I
gave you, I will take the kingdom away from you by force
and will give it to your servant.

12 I will not do it in your life-time, because of your father
David, but I will take it from your son.

13 Still I will not take all the kingdom from him; but I will
give one tribe to your son, because of my servant David, and
because of Jerusalem, the town of my selection.

14 So the Lord sent Hadad the Edomite to make trouble
for Solomon: he was of the king's seed in Edom.

15 And when David had sent destruction on Edom, and
Joab, the captain of the army, had gone to put the dead into
the earth, and had put to death every male in Edom;

16 (For Joab and all Israel were there six months till every
male in Edom had been cut off;)

17 Hadad, being still a young boy, went in flight to Egypt,
with certain Edomites, servants of his father;

18 And they went on from Midian and came to Paran; and,
taking men from Paran with them, they came to Egypt, to
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave him a house and gave
orders for his food and gave him land.

19 Now Hadad was very pleasing to Pharaoh, so that he
gave him the sister of his wife, Tahpenes the queen, for his
wife.

20 And the sister of Tahpenes had a son by him, Genubath,
whom Tahpenes took care of in Pharaoh's house; and
Genubath was living in Pharaoh's house among Pharaoh's
sons.

21 Now when Hadad had news in Egypt that David had
been put to rest with his fathers, and that Joab, the captain
of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, Send me back to
my country.

22 But Pharaoh said to him, What have you been short of
while you have been with me, that you are desiring to go
back to your country? And he said, Nothing; but even so,
send me back.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 And God sent another trouble-maker, Rezon, the son of
Eliada, who had gone in flight from his lord, Hadadezer,
king of Zobah:

24 He got some men together and made himself captain of a
band of outlaws; and went to Damascus and became king
there.

25 He was a trouble to Israel all through the days of
Solomon. And this is the damage Hadad did: he was cruel to
Israel while he was ruler over Edom.

26 And there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an
Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose
mother was Zeruah, a widow; and his hand was lifted up
against the king.

27 The way in which his hand came to be lifted up against
the king was this: Solomon was building the Millo and
making good the damaged parts of the town of his father
David;

28 And Jeroboam was an able and responsible man; and
Solomon saw that he was a good worker and made him
overseer of all the work given to the sons of Joseph.

29 Now at that time, when Jeroboam was going out of
Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite came across him
on the road; now Ahijah had put on a new robe; and the two
of them were by themselves in the open country.

30 And Ahijah took his new robe in his hands, parting it
violently into twelve.

31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten of the parts, for this
is what the Lord has said: See, I will take the kingdom away
from Solomon by force, and will give ten tribes to you;

32 (But one tribe will be his, because of my servant David,
and because of Jerusalem, the town which, out of all the
tribes of Israel, I have made mine,)

33 Because they are turned away from me to the worship of
Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Chemosh, the
god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites; they
have not been walking in my ways or doing what is right in
my eyes or keeping my laws and my decisions as his father
David did.

34 But I will not take the kingdom from him; I will let him
be king all the days of his life, because of David my servant,
in whom I took delight because he kept my orders and my
laws.

35 But I will take the kingdom from his son, and give it to
you.

36 And one tribe I will give to his son, so that David my
servant may have a light for ever burning before me in
Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine to put my name
there.

37 And you I will take, and you will be king over Israel,
ruling over whatever is the desire of your soul.

38 And if you give attention to the orders I give you,
walking in my ways and doing what is right in my eyes and
keeping my laws and my orders as David my servant did;
then I will be with you, building up for you a safe house, as I
did for David, and I will give Israel to you.

39 (So that I may send trouble for this on the seed of David,
but not for ever.)

40 And Solomon was looking for a chance to put Jeroboam
to death; but he went in flight to Egypt, to Shishak, king of
Egypt, and was in Egypt till the death of Solomon.

41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all he did, and
his wisdom, are they not recorded in the book of the acts of
Solomon?

42 And the time Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all
Israel was forty years.

43 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in the town of David his father: and Solomon
went to rest with his fathers and Rehoboam his son became
king in his place.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 12

1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had
come together to make him king,

2 And, hearing of it, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was
still in Egypt, where he had gone in flight from Solomon,
and was living there, came back to his town Zeredah, in the
hill-country of Ephraim;

3 And all the men of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the
conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel,
and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we
will be your servants.

5 And he said to them, Go away for three days and then
come back to me again. So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men
who had been with Solomon his father when he was living,
and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this
people?

7 And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this
people today, caring for them and giving them a gentle
answer, then they will be your servants for ever.

8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men,
and went to the young men of his generation who were
waiting before him:

9 And said to them, What is your opinion? What answer
are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less
the weight of the yoke which your father put on us?

10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This is
the answer to give to the people who came to you saying,
Your father put a hard yoke on us; will you make it less? say
to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body;

11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it
harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will
give you blows with snakes.

12 So all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as
the king had given orders, saying, Come back to me the third
day.

13 And the king gave them a rough answer, giving no
attention to the suggestion of the old men;

14 But giving them the answer put forward by the young
men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I
will give it with snakes.

15 So the king did not give ear to the people; and this came
about by the purpose of the Lord, so that what he had said
by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be
effected.

16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no
attention to them, the people in answer said to the king,
What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son
of Jesse? to your tents, O Israel; now see to your people,
David. So Israel went away to their tents.

17 (But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children
of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah.)

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of
the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel.
And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage
to go in flight to Jerusalem.

19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to
this day.

20 Now when all Israel had news that Jeroboam had come
back, they sent for him to come before the meeting of the
people, and made him king over Israel: not one of them was
joined to the family of David but only the tribe of Judah.

21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he got together all
the men of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and
eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war
against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon.

22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God,
saying,

23 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah,
and to all the men of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the
people:

24 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against
your brothers, the children of Israel; go back, every man to
his house, because this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear
to the word of the Lord, and went back, as the Lord had said.

25 Then Jeroboam made the town of Shechem in the hill-
country of Ephraim a strong place, and was living there; and
from there he went out and did the same to Penuel.

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will
go back to the family of David:

27 If the people go up to make offerings in the house of the
Lord at Jerusalem, their heart will be turned again to their
lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah; and they will put me to
death and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah.

28 So after taking thought the king made two oxen of gold;
and he said to the people, You have been going up to
Jerusalem long enough; see! these are your gods, O Israel,
who took you out of the land of Egypt.

29 And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan.

30 And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to
give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan.

31 And he made places for worship at the high places, and
made priests, who were not Levites, from among all the
people.

32 And Jeroboam gave orders for a feast in the eighth
month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which
is kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. And in the same
way, in Beth-el, he gave offerings to the oxen which he had
made, placing in Beth-el the priests of the high places he had
made.

33 He went up to the altar he had made in Beth-el on the
fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month fixed by him at
his pleasure; and he gave orders for a feast for the people of
Israel, and went up to the altar, and there he made the smoke
of his offerings go up.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 13

1 Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the
Lord to Beth-el, where Jeroboam was by the altar, burning
offerings.

2 And by the order of the Lord he made an outcry against
the altar, saying, O altar, altar, the Lord has said, From the
seed of David will come a child, named Josiah, and on you he
will put to death the priests of the high places, who are
burning offerings on you, and men's bones will be burned on
you.

3 The same day he gave them a sign, saying, This is the sign
which the Lord has given: See, the altar will be broken and
the burned waste on it overturned.

4 Then the king, hearing the man of God crying out against
the altar at Beth-el, put out his hand from the altar, saying,
Take him prisoner. And his hand, stretched out against him,
became dead, and he had no power of pulling it back.

5 And the altar was broken and the burned waste on it
overturned; this was the sign which the man of God had
given by the word of the Lord.

6 Then the king made answer and said to the man of God,
Make a prayer now for the grace of the Lord your God, and
for me, that my hand may be made well. And in answer to the
prayer of the man of God, the king's hand was made well
again, as it was before.

7 And the king said to the man of God, Come with me to
my house for food and rest, and I will give you a reward.

8 But the man of God said to the king, Even if you gave me
half of all you have, I would not go in with you, and I would
not take food or a drink of water in this place;

9 For so I was ordered by the word of the Lord, who said,
You are not to take food or a drink of water, and you are not
to go back the way you came.

10 So he went another way, and not by the way he came to
Beth-el.

11 Now there was an old prophet living in Beth-el; and one
of his sons came and gave him word of all the man of God
had done that day in Beth-el, and they gave their father an
account of the words he had said to the king.

12 Then their father said to them, Which way did he go?
Now his sons had seen which way the man of God who came
from Judah had gone.

13 So the prophet said to his sons, Make ready an ass for me.
So they made an ass ready, and he got on it,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And went after the man of God, and came up with him
while he was seated under an oak-tree. And he said to him,
Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said,
Tam.

15 Then he said to him, Come back to the house with me
and have a meal.

16 But he said, I may not go back with you or go into your
house; and I will not take food or a drink of water with you
in this place;

17 For the Lord said to me, You are not to take food or
water there, or go back again by the way you came.

18 Then he said to him, I am a prophet like you; and an
angel said to me by the word of the Lord, Take him back
with you and give him food and water. But he said false
words to him.

19 So he went back with him, and had a meal in his house
and a drink of water.

20 But while they were seated at the table, the word of the
Lord came to the prophet who had taken him back;

21 And crying out to the man of God who came from Judah,
he said, The Lord says, Because you have gone against the
voice of the Lord, and have not done as you were ordered by
the Lord,

22 But have come back, and have taken food and water in
this place where he said you were to take no food or water;
your dead body will not be put to rest with your fathers.

23 Now after the meal he made ready the ass for him, for
the prophet whom he had taken back.

24 And he went on his way; but on the road a lion came
rushing at him and put him to death; and his dead body was
stretched in the road with the ass by its side, and the lion was
there by the body.

25 And some men, going by, saw the body stretched out in
the road with the lion by its side; and they came and gave
news of it in the town where the old prophet was living.

26 Then the prophet who had made him come back,
hearing it, said, It is the man of God, who went against the
word of the Lord; that is why the Lord has given him to the
lion to be wounded to death, as the Lord said.

27 And he said to his sons, Make ready the ass for me. And
they did so.

28 And he went and saw the dead body stretched out in the
road with the ass and the lion by its side: the lion had not
taken the body for its food or done any damage to the ass.

29 Then the prophet took up the body of the man of God
and put it on the ass and took it back; and he came to the
town to put the body to rest with weeping.

30 And he put the body in the resting-place made ready for
himself, weeping and sorrowing over it, saying, O my
brother!

31 And when he had put it to rest, he said to his sons, When
I am dead, then you are to put my body into the earth with
the body of this man of God, and put me by his bones so that
my bones may be kept safe with his bones.

32 For the outcry he made by the word of the Lord against
the altar in Beth-el and against all the houses of the high
places in the towns of Samaria, will certainly come about.

33 After this Jeroboam, not turning back from his evil ways,
still made priests for his altars from among all the people; he
made a priest of anyone desiring it, so that there might be
priests of the high places.

34 And this became a sin in the family of Jeroboam, causing
it to be cut off and sent to destruction from the face of the
earth.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 14

1 At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became ill.

2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on
different clothing so that you may not seem to be the wife of
Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; see, Ahijah is there, the prophet
who said I would be king over this people.

3 And take with you ten cakes of bread and dry cakes and a
pot of honey, and go to him: he will give you word of what is
to become of the child.

4 So Jeroboam's wife did so, and got up and went to Shiloh
and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was unable to
see, because he was very old.

5 And the Lord had said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam is
coming to get news from you about her son, who is ill; give
her such and such an answer; for she will make herself seem to
be another woman.

6 Then Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps coming
in at the door, said, Come in, O wife of Jeroboam; why do
you make yourself seem like another? for I am sent to you
with bitter news.

7 Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord,
the God of Israel: Though I took you from among the people,
lifting you up to be a ruler over my people Israel,

8 And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of
David and gave it to you, you have not been like my servant
David, who kept my orders, and was true to me with all his
heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

9 But you have done evil more than any before you, and
have made for yourself other gods, and images of metal,
moving me to wrath, and turning your back on me.

10 So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting off
from his family every male child, those who are shut up and
those who go free in Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be
brushed away like a man brushing away waste till it is all
gone.

11 Those of the family of Jeroboam who come to death in
the town, will become food for the dogs; and those on whom
death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of
the air; for the Lord has said it.

12 Up, then! go back to your house; and in the hour when
your feet go into the town, the death of the child will take
place.

13 And all Israel will put his body to rest, weeping over
him, because he only of the family of Jeroboam will be put
into his resting-place in the earth; for of all the family of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Jeroboam, in him only has the Lord, the God of Israel, seen
some good.

14 And the Lord will put up a king over Israel who will
send destruction on the family of Jeroboam in that day;

15 And even now the hand of the Lord has come down on
Israel, shaking it like a river-grass in the water; and,
uprooting Israel from this good land, which he gave to their
fathers, he will send them this way and that on the other side
of the River; because they have made for themselves images,
moving the Lord to wrath.

16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins which
Jeroboam has done and made Israel do.

17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and went away and came to
Tirzah; and when she came to the doorway of the house,
death came to the child.

18 And all Israel put his body to rest, weeping over him, as
the Lord had said by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

19 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war
and how he became king, are recorded in the book of the
history of the kings of Israel.

20 And Jeroboam was king for twenty-two years, and was
put to rest with his fathers, and Nadab his son became king
in his place.

21 And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king in Judah.
Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and
he was king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which
the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put
his name there; his mother's name was Naamah, an
Ammonite woman.

22 And Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and made
him more angry than their fathers had done by their sins.

23 For they made high places and upright stones and wood
pillars on every high hill and under every green tree;

24 And more than this, there were those in the land who
were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, doing
the same disgusting crimes as the nations which the Lord had
sent out before the children of Israel.

25 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king
of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem;

26 And took away all the stored wealth from the house of
the Lord, and from the king's house, and all the gold body-
covers which Solomon had made.

27 So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers
made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of
the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's
house.

28 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord,
the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and
then took them back to their room.

29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all
their days.

31 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was
put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; his

mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. And
Abyam his son became king in his place.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 15

1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.

2 For three years he was king in Jerusalem: and his mother's
name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

3 And he did the same sins which his father had done before
him: his heart was not completely true to the Lord his God,
like the heart of David his father.

4 But because of David, the Lord gave him a light in
Jerusalem, making his sons king after him, so that Jerusalem
might be safe;

5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
and never in all his life went against his orders, but only in
the question of Uriah the Hittite.

6 Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all
the days of his life.

7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

8 Then Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they put
him into the earth in the town of David: and Asa his son
became king in his place.

9 In the twentieth year that Jeroboam was king of Israel,
Asa became king over Judah.

10 And he was king for forty-one years in Jerusalem; his
mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David
his father did.

12 Those used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods
he sent out of the country, and he took away all the images
which his fathers had made.

13 And he would not let Maacah his mother be queen,
because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and
Asa had the image cut down and burned by the stream
Kidron.

14 The high places, however, were not taken away: but still
the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

15 He took into the house of the Lord all the things which
his father had made holy, and those which he himself had
made holy, silver and gold and vessels.

16 Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of
Israel, all their days.

17 And Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah,
building Ramah, so that no one was able to go out or in to
Asa, king of Judah.

18 Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still
stored in the Lord's house, and in the king's house, and sent
them, in the care of his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of
Tabrimmon, son of Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus,
saying,

19 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there
was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you
an offering of silver and gold; go and put an end to your

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up
attacking me.

20 So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the
captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking
Tjon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as
far as all the land of Naphtali.

21 And Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of
Ramah, and was living in Tirzah.

22 Then King Asa got all Judah together, making every
man come; and they took away the stones and the wood with
which Baasha was building Ramah, and King Asa made use
of them for building Geba in the land of Benjamin, and
Mizpah.

23 Now the rest of the acts of Asa, and his power, and all he
did, and the towns of which he was the builder, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
But when he was old he had a disease of the feet.

24 So Asa went to rest with his fathers and was put into the
earth in the town of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his
son became king in his place.

25 Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in
the second year that Asa was king of Judah; and he was king
of Israel for two years.

26 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways
of his father, and the sin which he did and made Israel do.

27 And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the family of Issachar,
made a secret design against him, attacking him at
Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines; for Nadab and the
armies of Israel were making war on Gibbethon.

28 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah,
Baasha put him to death, and became king in his place.

29 And straight away when he became king, he sent
destruction on all the offspring of Jeroboam; there was not
one living person of all the family of Jeroboam whom he did
not put to death, so the word of the Lord, which he said by
his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, came about;

30 Because of the sins which Jeroboam did and made Israel
do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Israel?

32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of
Israel, all their days.

33 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah,
Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became king over all Israel in
Tirzah, and was king for twenty-four years.

34 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways
of Jeroboam and the sin which he made Israel do.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 16

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jehu, son of Hanani,
protesting against Baasha and saying,

2 Because I took you up out of the dust, and made you ruler
over my people Israel; and you have gone in the ways of
Jeroboam, and made my people Israel do evil, moving me to
wrath by their sins;

3 Truly, I will see that Baasha and all his family are
completely brushed away; I will make your family like the
family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

4 Anyone of the family of Baasha who comes to death in the
town, will become food for the dogs; and he to whom death
comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the
air.

5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and
his power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Israel?

6 And Baasha went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth at Tirzah; and Elah his son became king in his
place.

7 And the Lord sent his word against Baasha and his family
by the mouth of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, because
of all the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to
wrath by the work of his hands, because he was like the
family of Jeroboam, and because he put it to death.

8 In the twenty-sixth year that Asa was king of Judah, Elah,
the son of Baasha, became king of Israel in Tirzah, and he
was king for two years.

9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his war-carriages,
made secret designs against him: now he was in Tirzah,
drinking hard in the house of Arza, controller of the king's
house in Tirzah.

10 And Zimri went in and made an attack on him and put
him to death, in the twenty-seventh year that Asa was king of
Judah, and made himself king in his place.

11 And straight away when he became king and took his
place on the seat of the kingdom, he put to death all the
family of Baasha: not one male child of his relations or his
friends kept his life.

12 So Zimri put to death all the family of Baasha, so that
the word which the Lord said against him by the mouth of
Jehu the prophet came about;

13 Because of all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his
son, which they did and made Israel do, moving the Lord,
the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish acts.

14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all he did, are they
not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri
was king for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were
attacking Gibbethon in the land of the Philistines.

16 And news came to the people in the tents that Zimri had
made a secret design and had put the king to death: so all
Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king that day in
the tents.

17 Then Omri went up from Gibbethon, with all the army
of Israel, and they made an attack on Tirzah, shutting in the
town on every side.

18 And when Zimri saw that the town was taken, he went
into the inner room of the king's house, and burning the
house over his head, came to his end,

19 Because of his sin in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, in
going in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made
Israel do.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the secret design
he made, are they not recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Israel?

21 Then there was a division among the people of Israel;
half the people were for making Tibni, son of Ginath, king,
and half were supporting Omri.

22 But the supporters of Omri overcame those who were on
the side of Tibni, the son of Ginath; and death came to Tibni
and to his brother Joram at that time: and Omri became king
in the place of Tibni.

23 In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri
became king over Israel, and he was king for twelve years; for
six years he was ruling in Tirzah.

24 He got the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of two
talents of silver, and he made a town there, building it on the
hill and naming it Samaria, after Shemer the owner of the
hill.

25 And Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse
than all those before him,

26 Copying all the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
and all the sins he did and made Israel do, moving the Lord,
the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish ways.

27 Now the rest of the acts which Omri did, and his great
power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the
kings of Israel?

28 So Omri went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
the earth in Samaria; and Ahab his son became king in his
place.

29 In the thirty-eighth year that Asa was king of Judah,
Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel; and Ahab
was king in Samaria for twenty-two years.

30 And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the eyes of the
Lord, even worse than all who went before him.

31 And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, was a small thing for him, he took as his wife Jezebel,
daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant
and worshipper of Baal.

32 And he put up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal
which he had made in Samaria.

33 And Ahab made an image of Asherah and did more than
all the kings of Israel before him to make the Lord, the God
of Israel, angry.

34 In his days Hiel made Jericho; he put its base in position
at the price of Abiram, his oldest son, and he put its doors in
place at the price of his youngest son Segub; even as the Lord
had said by Joshua, the son of Nun.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 17

1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab,
By the living Lord, the God of Israel, whose servant I am,
there will be no dew or rain in these years, but only at my
word.

2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

3 Go from here in the direction of the east, and keep
yourself in a secret place by the stream Cherith, east of
Jordan.

4 The water of the stream will be your drink, and by my
orders the ravens will give you food there.

5 So he went and did as the Lord said, living by the stream
Cherith, east of Jordan.

6 And the ravens took him bread in the morning and meat
in the evening; and the water of the stream was his drink.

7 Now after a time the stream became dry, because there
was no rain in the land.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

9 Up! go now to Zarephath, in Zidon, and make your
living-place there; I have given orders to a widow woman
there to see that you have food.

10 So he got up and went to Zarephath; and when he came
to the door of the town, he saw a widow woman getting
sticks together; and crying out to her he said, Will you give
me a little water in a vessel for my drink?

11 And when she was going to get it, he said to her, And
get me with it a small bit of bread.

12 Then she said, By the life of the Lord your God, I have
nothing but a little meal in my store, and a drop of oil in the
bottle; and now I am getting two sticks together so that I
may go in and make it ready for me and my son, so that we
may have a meal before our death.

13 And Elijah said to her, Have no fear; go and do as you
have said, but first make me a little cake of it and come and
give it to me, and then make something for yourself and your
son.

14 For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: The
store of meal will not come to an end, and the bottle will
never be without oil, till the day when the Lord sends rain on
the earth.

15 So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and
her family had food for a long time.

16 The store of meal did not come to an end, and the bottle
was never without oil, as the Lord had said by the mouth of
Elijah.

17 Now after this, the son of the woman of the house
became ill, so ill that there was no breath in him.

18 And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O
man of God? have you come to put God in mind of my sin,
and to put my son to death?

19 And he said to her, Give your son to me. And lifting him
out of her arms, he took him up to his room and put him
down on his bed.

20 And crying to the Lord he said, O Lord my God, have
you sent evil even on the widow whose guest I am, by causing
her son's death?

21 And stretching herself out on the child three times, he
made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord my God, be
pleased to let this child's life come back to him again.

22 And the Lord gave ear to the voice of Elijah, and the
child's spirit came into him again, and he came back to life.

23 And Elijah took the child down from his room into the
house and gave him to his mother and said to her, See, your
son is living.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I am certain that
you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your
mouth is true.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 18

1 Now after a long time, the word of the Lord came to
Elijah, in the third year, saying, Go and let Ahab see you, so
that I may send rain on the earth.

2 So Elijah went to let Ahab see him. Now there was no
food to be had in Samaria.

3 And Ahab sent for Obadiah, the controller of the king's
house. (Now Obadiah had the fear of the Lord before him
greatly;

4 For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the Lord,
Obadiah took a hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a
hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and
water.)

5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, Come, let us go through all
the country, to all the fountains of water and all the rivers,
and see if there is any grass to be had for the horses and the
transport beasts, so that we may be able to keep some of the
beasts from destruction.

6 So they went through all the country, covering it between
them; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah
went in another by himself.

7 And while Obadiah was on his way, he came face to face
with Elijah; and seeing who it was, he went down on his face
and said, Is it you, my lord Elijah?

8 And Elijah in answer said, It is I; now go and say to your
lord, Elijah is here.

9 And he said, What sin have I done, that you would give
up your servant into the hand of Ahab, and be the cause of
my death?

10 By the life of the Lord your God, there is not a nation or
kingdom where my lord has not sent in search of you; and
when they said, He is not here; he made them take an oath
that they had not seen you.

11 And now you say, Go, say to your lord, Elijah is here.

12 And straight away, when I have gone from you, the
spirit of the Lord will take you away, I have no idea where,
so that when I come and give word to Ahab, and he sees you
not, he will put me to death: though IJ, your servant, have
been a worshipper of the Lord from my earliest years.

13 Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel
was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a
hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time,
and gave them bread and water?

14 And now you say, Go and say to your Lord, Elijah is
here; and he will put me to death.

15 And Elijah said, By the life of the Lord of armies, whose
servant I am, I will certainly let him see me today.

16 So Obadiah went to Ahab and gave him the news; and
Ahab went to see Elijah.

17 And when he saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you, you
troubler of Israel?

18 Then he said in answer, I have not been troubling Israel,
but you and your family; because, turning away from the
orders of the Lord, you have gone after the Baals.

19 Now send, and get Israel together before me at Mount
Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal
who get their food at Jezebel's table.

20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and got the
prophets together at Mount Carmel.

21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How
long will you go on balancing between two opinions? if the
Lord is God, then give worship to him; but if Baal, give
worship to him. And the people said not a word in answer.

22 Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I, am the only
living prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four
hundred and fifty men.

23 Now, let them give us two oxen; and let them take one
for themselves, and have it cut up, and put it on the wood,
but put no fire under it; I will get the other ox ready, and put
it on the wood, and put no fire under it.

24 And do you make prayers to your god, and J will make a
prayer to the Lord: and it will be clear that the one who
gives an answer by fire is God. And all the people in answer
said, It is well said.

25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Take one ox
for yourselves and get it ready first, for there are more of you;
and make your prayers to your god, but put no fire under.

26 So they took the ox which was given them, and made it
ready, crying out to Baal from morning till the middle of the
day, and saying, O Baal, give ear to us. But there was no
voice and no answer. And they were jumping up and down
before the altar they had made.

27 And in the middle of the day, Elijah made sport of them,
saying, Give louder cries, for he is a god; he may be deep in
thought, or he may have gone away for some purpose, or he
may be on a journey, or by chance he is sleeping and has to be
made awake.

28 So they gave loud cries, cutting themselves with knives
and swords, as was their way, till the blood came streaming
out all over them.

29 And from the middle of the day they went on with their
prayers till the time of the offering; but there was no voice,
or any answer, or any who gave attention to them.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me; and
all the people came near. And he put up again the altar of the
Lord which had been broken down.

31 And Elijah took twelve stones, the number of the tribes
of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, Israel will
be your name:

32 And with the stones he made an altar to the name of the
Lord; and he made a deep drain all round the altar, great
enough to take two measures of seed.

33 And he put the wood in order, and, cutting up the ox,
put it on the wood. Then he said, Get four vessels full of
water and put it on the burned offering and on the wood.
And he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second
time;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

34 And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third
time.

35 And the water went all round the altar, till the drain
was full.

36 Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came
near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Israel, let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and
that Iam your servant, and that I have done all these things
by your order.

37 Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that
this people may see that you are God, and that you have
made their hearts come back again.

38 Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the
offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and
drinking up the water in the drain.

39 And when the people saw it, they all went down on their
faces, and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

40 And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal, let
not one of them get away. So they took them, and Elijah
made them go down to the stream Kishon, and put them to
death there.

41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, Up! take food and drink, for
there is a sound of much rain.

42 So Ahab went up to have food and drink, while Elijah
went up to the top of Carmel; and he went down on the earth,
putting his face between his knees.

43 And he said to his servant, Go now, and take a look in
the direction of the sea. And he went up, and after looking
said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times;
and he went seven times.

44 And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up
out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up
and say to Ahab, Get your carriage ready and go down or
the rain will keep you back.

45 And after a very little time, the heaven became black
with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab
went in his carriage to Jezreel.

46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made
himself strong, and went running before Ahab till they came
to Jezreel.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 19

1 Ahab gave Jezebel news of all Elijah had done, and how
he had put all the prophets to death with the sword.

2 Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the
gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the
life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

3 And he got up, fearing for his life, and went in flight, and
came to Beer-sheba in Judah, parting there from his servant;

4 While he himself went a day's journey into the waste land,
and took a seat under a broom-plant, desiring for himself
only death; for he said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away
my life, for Iam no better than my fathers.

5 And stretching himself on the earth, he went to sleep
under the broom-plant; but an angel, touching him, said to
him, Get up and have some food.

6 And looking up, he saw by his head a cake cooked on the
stones and a bottle of water. So he took food and drink and
went to sleep again.

7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and
touching him said, Get up and have some food, or the
journey will be overmuch for your strength.

8 So he got up and took food and drink, and in the strength
of that food he went on for forty days and nights, to Horeb,
the mountain of God.

9 And there he went into a hole in the rock for the night;
then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, What are you
doing here, Elijah?

10 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the
Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not
kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your
altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword:
till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are
attempting to take away my life.

11 Then he said, Go out and take your place on the
mountain before the Lord. Then the Lord went by, and
mountains were parted by the force of a great wind, and
rocks were broken before the Lord; but the Lord was not in
the wind. And after the wind there was an earth-shock, but
the Lord was not in the earth-shock.

12 And after the earth-shock a fire, but the Lord was not in
the fire. And after the fire, the sound ofa soft breath.

13 And Elijah, hearing it, went out, covering his face with
his robe, and took his place in the opening of the hole. And
there a voice came to him saying, What are you doing here,
Elijah?

14 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the
Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not
kept your agreement; they have had your altars broken down,
and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I,
even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting
to take away my life.

15 And the Lord said to him, Go back on your way
through the waste land to Damascus; and when you come
there, put the holy oil on Hazael to make him king over
Aram;

16 And on Jehu, son of Nimshi, making him king over
Israel; and on Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, to
be prophet in your place.

17 And it will come about that the man who gets away safe
from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will put to death; and
whoever gets away safe from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will
put to death.

18 But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all those
whose knees have not been bent to Baal, and whose mouths
have given him no kisses.

19 So he went away from there and came across Elisha, the
son of Shaphat, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, he
himself walking with the twelfth; and Elijah went up to him
and put his robe on him.

20 And letting the oxen be where they were, he came
running after Elijah, and said, Only let me give a kiss to my

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

father and mother, and then I will come after you. But he
said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you?

21 And he went back, and took the oxen and put them to
death, and cooking their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, he
gave the people a feast. Then he got up and went after Elijah
and became his servant.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 20

1 Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together,
and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of
war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in.

2 And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king
of Israel;

3 And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and
your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine.

4 And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you
say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have.

5 Then the representatives came back again, and said, These
are the words of Ben-hadad: J sent to you saying, Give up to
me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children;

6 But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this
time, to make a search through your house and the houses of
your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes
they will take away in their hands.

7 Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible men of
the land, and said, Now will you take note and see the evil
purpose of this man: he sent for my wives and my children,
my silver and my gold, and I did not keep them back.

8 And all the responsible men and the people said to him,
Do not give attention to him or do what he says.

9 So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to my
lord the king, All the orders you sent the first time I will do;
but this thing I may not do. And the representatives went
back with this answer.

10 Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods'
punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of
Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their
hands.

11 And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The
time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms,
but when he is taking them off.

12 Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was
drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men,
Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position
for attacking the town.

13 Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and
said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I
will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am
the Lord.

14 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says,
By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the
land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started?
And he made answer, By you.

15 Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who
were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-

two of them; and after them, he got together all the people,
all the children of Israel, seven thousand.

16 And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-
hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings
who were helping him.

17 And the servants of the chiefs who were over the
divisions of the land went forward first; and when Ben-hadad
sent out, they gave him the news, saying, Men have come out
from Samaria.

18 And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them
living, and if they have come out for war, take them living.

19 So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land
went out of the town, with the army coming after them.

20 And every one of them put his man to death, and the
Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-
hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his
horsemen.

21 And the king of Israel went out and took the horses and
the war-carriages, and made great destruction among the
Aramaeans.

22 Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said
to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you
do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up
against you again.

23 Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god
is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we:
but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will
certainly be stronger than they.

24 This is what you have to do: take away the kings from
their positions, and put captains in their places;

25 And get together another army like the one which came
to destruction, horse for horse, and carriage for carriage;
and let us make war on them in the lowlands, and certainly
we will be stronger than they. And he gave ear to what they
said, and did so.

26 So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together
and went up to Aphek to make war on Israel.

27 And the children of Israel got themselves together, and
food was made ready and they went against them; the tents of
the children of Israel were like two little flocks of goats
before them, but all the country was full of the Aramaeans.

28 And a man of God came up and said to the king of Israel,
The Lord says, Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is
a god of the hills and not of the valleys; I will give all this
great army into your hands, and you will see that I am the
Lord.

29 Now the two armies kept their positions facing one
another for seven days. And on the seventh day the fight was
started; and the children of Israel put to the sword a hundred
thousand Aramaean footmen in one day.

30 But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town,
where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who
were still living. And Ben-hadad went in flight into the town,
into an inner room.

31 Then his servants said to him, It is said that the kings of
Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel; it may be
that he will give you your life.

32 So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and
came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad
says, Let me now keep my life. And he said, Is he still living?
he is my brother.

33 Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his
words; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he
said, Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he
made him get up into his carriage.

34 And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took
from your father I will give back; and you may make streets
for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as
for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So
he made an agreement with him and let him go.

35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his
neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But
the man would not.

36 Then he said to him, Because you have not given ear to
the voice of the Lord, straight away when you have gone
from me a lion will put you to death. And when he had gone,
straight away a lion came rushing at him and put him to
death.

37 Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a
wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him.

38 So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band
over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the
road waiting for the king.

39 And when the king went by, crying out to him he said,
Your servant went out into the fight; and a man came out to
me with another man and said, Keep this man: if by any
chance he gets away, your life will be the price of his life, or
you will have to give a talent of silver in payment.

40 But while your servant was turning this way and that, he
was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, You are
responsible; you have given the decision against yourself.

41 Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and
the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets.

42 And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord:
Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I
had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and
your people for his people.

43 Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter
and angry, and came to Samaria.

| KINGS CHAPTER 21

1 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vine-garden in Jezreel,
near the house of Ahab, king of Samaria.

2 And Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vine-garden so
that I may have it for a garden of sweet plants, for it is near
my house; and let me give you a better vine-garden in
exchange, or, if it seems good to you, let me give you its
value in money.

3 But Naboth said to Ahab, By the Lord, far be it from me
to give you the heritage of my fathers.

4 So Ahab came into his house bitter and angry because
Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, I will not give you the
heritage of my fathers. And stretching himself on the bed
with his face turned away, he would take no food.

5 But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is your
spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food?

6 And he said to her, Because I was talking to Naboth the
Jezreelite, and I said to him, Let me have your vine-garden
for a price, or, if it is pleasing to you, I will give you another
vine-garden for it: and he said, I will not give you my vine-
garden.

7 Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of
Israel? Get up, take food, and let your heart be glad; I will
give you the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.

8 So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his
stamp, to the responsible men and the chiefs who were in
authority with Naboth.

9 And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow be
fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people;

10 And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before
him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the
king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death.

11 So the responsible men and the chiefs who were in
authority in his town, did as Jezebel had said in the letter she
sent them.

12 They gave orders for a day of public sorrow, and put
Naboth at the head of the people.

13 And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took
their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in
front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God
and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had
him stoned to death.

14 And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been
stoned and is dead.

15 Then Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and
was dead, said to Ahab, Get up and take as your heritage the
vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he would not
give you for money, for Naboth is no longer living but is
dead.

16 So Ahab, hearing that Naboth was dead, went down to
the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite to take it as his
heritage.

17 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying,

18 Go down to Ahab, king of Israel, in Samaria; see, he is
in the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, where he has
gone to take it as his heritage.

19 Say to him, The Lord says, Have you put a man to death
and taken his heritage? Then say to him, The Lord says, In
the place where dogs have been drinking the blood of Naboth,
there will your blood become the drink of dogs.

20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face
with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you
because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of
the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 See, I will send evil on you and put an end to you
completely, cutting off from Ahab every male child, him who
is shut up and him who goes free in Israel;

22 And I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat, and like the family of Baasha, the son of
Ahijah, because you have made me angry, and have made
Israel do evil.

23 And of Jezebel the Lord said, Jezebel will become food
for dogs in the heritage of Jezreel.

24 Any man of the family of Ahab who comes to his death
in the town will become food for the dogs; and he who comes
to his death in the open country will be food for the birds of
the air.

25 (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do
evil in the eyes of the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife.

26 He did a very disgusting thing in going after false gods,
doing all the things the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent
out before the children of Israel.)

27 Hearing these words, Ahab, in great grief, put haircloth
on his flesh and went without food, sleeping in haircloth,
and going about quietly.

28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying,

29 Do you see how Ahab has made himself low before me?
because he has made himself low before me, I will not send
the evil in his life-time, but in his son's time I will send the
evil on his family.

1 KINGS CHAPTER 22

1 Now for three years there was no war between Aram and
Israel.

2 And it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat,
king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel.

3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not see
that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get
it back from the hands of the king of Aram.

4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to
Ramoth-gilead to make war? And Jehoshaphat said to the
king of Israel, Iam as you are: my people as your people, my
horses as your horses.

5 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now
get directions from the Lord.

6 So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about
four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-
gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the
Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

7 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the
Lord here from whom we may get directions?

8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still
one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord,
Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a
prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said,
Let not the king say so.

9 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants
and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of
Imlah.

10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in
their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the
prophets were acting as prophets before them.

11 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself
horns of iron and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the
Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them
completely.

12 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up
to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord
will give it into the hands of the king.

13 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to
him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying
good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs and
say good things.

14 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the
Lord says to me I will say.

15 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah,
are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in
answer he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and the
Lord will give it into the hands of the king.

16 Then the king said to him, Have I not, again and again,
put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in
the name of the Lord?

17 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the
mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said,
These have no master: let them go back, every man to his
house in peace.

18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say
that he would not be a prophet of good but of evil?

19 And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I
saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of
heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his
left.

20 And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into
going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one
thing and one another.

21 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the
Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick.

22 And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and
be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he
said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.

23 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the
mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has said evil
against you.

24 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and
gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the face, saying, Where is
the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?

25 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when
you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

26 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him
back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's
son;

27 And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be put
in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the
Lord has not sent his word by me.

29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,
went up to Ramoth-gilead.

30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a
change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king,
and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So
the king of Israel made a change in his dress and went into
the fight.

31 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-
two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on
small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

32 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw
Jehoshaphat, they said, Truly, this is the king of Israel; and
turning against him, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat
gave a cry.

33 And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he
was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after
him.

34 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without
thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound
where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to
the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me
away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

35 But the fight became more violent while the day went on;
and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the
Aramaeans, and the floor of the carriage was covered with
the blood from his wound, and by evening he was dead.

36 And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the
army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his
country, for the king is dead.

37 And they came to Samaria, and put the king's body to
rest in Samaria.

38 And the war-carriage was washed by the pool of
Samaria, which was the bathing-place of the loose women,
and the dogs were drinking his blood there, as the Lord had
said.

39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and his
ivory house, and all the towns of which he was the builder,
are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings
of Israel?

40 So Ahab was put to rest with his fathers; and Ahaziah
his son became king in his place.

41 And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over
Judah in the fourth year of Ahab's rule over Israel.

42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became
king, and he was king for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

43 He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away
from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but
the high places were not taken away: the people went on
making offerings and burning them in the high places.

44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great
power, and how he went to war, are they not recorded in the
book of the history of the kings of Judah?

46 He put an end to the rest of those who were used for sex
purposes in the worship of the gods, all those who were still
in the land in the time of his father Asa.

47 At that time there was no king in Edom;

48 And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a
Tarshish-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but it did not go,
because it was broken at Ezion-geber.

49 Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let
my men go with yours in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would
not let them.

50 Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his
body was put into the earth in the town of David his father;
and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

51 Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in
Samaria in the seventeenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat,
the king of Judah, and he was king over Israel for two years.

52 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways of
his father and his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil.

53 He was a servant and worshipper of Baal, moving the
Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had done.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS
Hebrew Title: Melakhim 2
(also called The Fourth Book of Kings or 4 Reigns;
the previous two Books of Samuel bear then the names
The First and the Second Book of Kings)
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 7th—6th century B.C.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 1

1 After the death of Ahab, Moab made itself free from the
authority of Israel.

2 Now Ahaziah had a fall from the window of his room in
Samaria, and was ill. And he sent men, and said to them, Put
a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, about the
outcome of my disease, to see if] will get well or not.

3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go
now, and, meeting the men sent by the king of Samaria, say
to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you are
going to get directions from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?

4 Give ear then to the words of the Lord: You will never
again get down from the bed on to which you have gone up,
but death will certainly come to you. Then Elijah went away.

5 And the men he had sent came back to the king; and he
said to them, Why have you come back?

6 And they said to him, On our way we had a meeting with
aman who said, Go back to the king who sent you and say to
him, The Lord says, Is it because there is no God in Israel
that you send to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of
Ekron? For this reason, you will not come down from the
bed on to which you have gone up, but death will certainly
come to you.

7 And he said to them, What sort of a man was it who came
and said these words to you?

8 And they said in answer, He was a man clothed in a coat
of hair, with a leather band about his body. Then he said, It
is Elijah the Tishbite.

9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty
men; and he went up to him where he was seated on the top
of a hill, and said to him, O man of God, the king has said,
Come down.

10 And Elijah in answer said to the captain of fifty, If] am
a man of God, may fire come down from heaven on you and
on your fifty men, and put an end to you. Then fire came
down from heaven and put an end to him and his fifty men.

11 Then the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty
men; and he said to Elijah, O man of God, the king says,
Come down quickly.

12 And Elijah in answer said, If 1 am a man of God, may
fire come down from heaven on you and on your fifty men,
and put an end to you. And the fire of God came down from
heaven, and put an end to him and his fifty men.

13 Then he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men;
and the third captain of fifty went up, and falling on his
knees before Elijah, requesting mercy of him, said, O man of
God, let my life and the life of these your fifty servants be of
value to you.

14 For fire came down from heaven and put an end to the
first two captains of fifty and their fifties; but now let my life
be of value in your eyes.

15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, Go down with
him; have no fear of him. So he got up and went down with
him to the king.

16 And he said to him, This is the word of the Lord:
Because you sent men to put a question to Baal-zebub, the
god of Ekron, for this reason you will never again get down
from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death will
certainly come to you.

17 So death came to him, as the Lord had said by the mouth
of Elijah. And Jehoram became king in his place in the
second year of the rule of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king
of Judah; because he had no son.

18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

2 KINGS CHAPTER 2

1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to
heaven in a great wind, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

2 And Elijah said to Elisha, Come no farther for the Lord
has sent me to Beth-el. But Elisha said, As the Lord is living
and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So
they went down to Beth-el.

3 And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha
and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is
going to take away your master from over you today? And he
said, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more.

4 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord
has sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord is living and
as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they
went on to Jericho.

5 And at Jericho the sons of the prophets came up to Elisha
and said to him, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord
is going to take away your master from over you today? And
he said in answer, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more.

6 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord
has sent me to Jordan. But he said, As the Lord is living and
as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they
went on together.

7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went out and
took their places facing them a long way off, while the two of
them were by the edge of Jordan.

8 Then Elijah took off his robe, and, rolling it up, gave the
water a blow with it, and the waters were parted, flowing
back this way and that, so that they went over on dry land.

9 And when they had come to the other side, Elijah said to
Elisha, Say what you would have me do for you before I am
taken from you. And Elisha said, Be pleased to let a special
measure of your spirit be on me.

10 And he said, You have made a hard request: still, if you
see me when I am taken from you, you will get your desire;
but if not, it will not be so.

11 And while they went on their way, going on talking
together, suddenly there were carriages and horses of fire

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

separating them from one another and Elijah went up to
heaven in a great wind.

12 And when Elisha saw it he gave a cry, My father, my
father, the carriages of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw
him no longer; and he was full of grief.

13 Then he took up Elijah's robe, which had been dropped
from him, and went back till he came to the edge of Jordan.

14 And he took Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from
him, and giving the water a blow with it, said, Where is the
Lord, the God of Elijah? and at his blow the waters were
parted this way and that; and Elisha went over.

15 And when the sons of the prophets who were facing him
at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah is resting
on Elisha. And they came out to him, and went down on the
earth before him.

16 And they said, Your servants have with us here fifty
strong men; be pleased to let them go in search of Elijah; for
it may be that the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and put
him down on some mountain or in some valley. But he said,
Do not send them.

17 But when they kept on requesting him, he was shamed
and said, Send, then. So they sent fifty men; but after
searching for three days, they came back without having seen
him.

18 And they came back to him, while he was still at Jericho;
and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Go not?

19 Now the men of the town said to Elisha, You see that the
position of this town is good; but the water is bad, causing
the young of the cattle to come to birth dead.

20 So he said, Get me a new vessel, and put salt in it; and
they took it to him.

21 Then he went out to the spring from which the water
came, and put salt in it, and said, The Lord says, Now I have
made this water sweet; no longer will it be death-giving or
unfertile.

22 And the water was made sweet again to this day, as
Elisha said.

23 Then from there he went up to Beth-el; and on his way,
some little boys came out from the town and made sport of
him, crying, Go up, old no-hair! go up, old no-hair!

24 And turning back, he saw them, and put a curse on them
in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the
wood and put forty-two of the children to death.

25 From there he went to Mount Carmel, and came back
from there to Samaria.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 3

1 And Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in
Samaria in the eighteenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat,
king of Judah; and he was king for twelve years.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; but not like his father
and his mother, for he put away the stone pillar of Baal
which his father had made.

3 But still he did the same sins which Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, did and made Israel do; he went on in them.

4 Now Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-farmer; and he
gave regularly to the king of Israel the wool from a hundred
thousand lambs and a hundred thousand sheep.

5 But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab got free from
the authority of the king of Israel.

6 At that time, King Jehoram went out from Samaria and
got all Israel together in fighting order.

7 And he sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying, The
king of Moab has got free from my authority: will you go
with me to make war on Moab? And he said, I will go with
you: I am as you are, my people as your people, and my
horses as your horses.

8 And he said, Which way are we to go? And he said in
answer, By the waste land of Edom.

9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the
king of Edom by a roundabout way for seven days: and there
was no water for the army or for the beasts they had with
them.

10 And the king of Israel said, Here is trouble: for the Lord
has got these three kings together to give them into the
hands of Moab.

11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord
here, through whom we may get directions from the Lord?
And one of the king of Israel's men said in answer, Elisha, the
son of Shaphat, is here, who was servant to Elijah.

12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him.
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom
went down to him.

13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do
with you? go to the prophets of your father and your mother.
And the king of Israel said, No; for the Lord has got these
three kings together to give them up into the hands of Moab.

14 Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose
servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you,
or see you.

15 But now, get me a player of music, and it will come
about that while the man is playing, the hand of the Lord
will come on me and I will give you the word of the Lord:
and they got a player of music, and while the man was
playing, the hand of the Lord was on him.

16 And he said, The Lord says, I will make this valley full of
water-holes.

17 For the Lord says, Though you see no wind or rain, the
valley will be full of water, and you and your armies and
your beasts will have drink.

18 And this will be only a small thing to the Lord: in
addition he will give the Moabites into your hands.

19 And you are to put every walled town to destruction,
cutting down every good tree, and stopping up every water-
spring, and making all the good land rough with stones.

20 Now in the morning, about the time when the offering
was made, they saw water flowing from the direction of
Edom till the country was full of water.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Now all Moab, hearing that the kings had come to make
war against them, got together all who were able to take up
arms and went forward to the edge of the country.

22 And early in the morning they got up, when the sun was
shining on the water, and they saw the water facing them as
red as blood.

23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction
has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another:
now come, Moab, let us take their goods.

24 But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites
came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that
they went in flight before them; and they went forward still
attacking them;

25 Pulling down the towns, covering every good field with
stones, stopping up all the water-springs, and cutting down
all the good trees; they went on driving Moab before them
till only in Kir-hareseth were there any Moabites; and the
fighting-men went round the town raining stones on it.

26 And when the king of Moab saw that the fight was
going against him, he took with him seven hundred men
armed with swords, with the idea of forcing a way through
to the king of Aram, but they were not able to do so.

27 Then he took his oldest son, who would have been king
after him, offering him as a burned offering on the wall. So
there was great wrath against Israel; and they went away
from him, back to their country.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 4

1 Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the
prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my
husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper
of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two
children as servants in payment of his debt.

2 Then Elisha said to her, What am I to do for you? say
now, what have you in the house? And she said, Your servant
has nothing in the house but a pot of oil.

3 Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get
vessels, a very great number of them.

4 Then go in, and, shutting the door on yourself and your
sons, put oil into all these vessels, putting on one side the full
ones.

5 So she went away, and when the door was shut on her and
her sons, they took the vessels to her and she put oil into
them.

6 And when all the vessels were full, she said to her son, Get
me another vessel. And he said, There are no more. And the
flow of oil was stopped.

7 So she came to the man of God and gave him word of
what she had done. And he said, Go and get money for the
oil and make payment of your debt, and let the rest be for the
needs of yourself and your sons.

8 Now there came a day when Elisha went to Shunem, and
there was a woman of high position living there, who made
him come in and have a meal with her. And after that, every
time he went by, he went into her house for a meal.

9 And she said to her husband, Now I see that this is a holy
man of God, who comes by day after day.

10 So let us make a little room on the wall; and put a bed
there for him, and a table and a seat and a light; so that when
he comes to us, he will be able to go in there.

11 Now one day, when he had gone there, he went into the
little room and took his rest there.

12 And he said to Gehazi, his servant, Send for this
Shunammite. So in answer to his voice she came before him.

13 And he said to him, Now say to her, See, you have taken
all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? will you
have any request made for you to the king or the captain of
the army? But she said, I am living among my people.

14 So he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi
made answer, Still there is this, she has no son and her
husband is old.

15 Then he said, Send for her. And in answer to his voice
she took her place at the door.

16 And Elisha said, At this time in the coming year you will
have a son in your arms. And she said, No, my lord, O man of
God, do not say what is false to your servant.

17 Then the woman became with child and gave birth to a
son at the time named, in the year after, as Elisha had said to
her.

18 Now one day, when the child was older, he went out to
his father to where the grain was being cut.

19 And he said to his father, My head, my head! And the
father said to a servant, Take him in to his mother.

20 And he took him in to his mother, and she took him on
her knees and kept him there till the middle of the day, when
his life went from him.

21 Then she went up and put him on the bed of the man of
God, shutting the door on him, and went out.

22 And she said to her husband, Send me one of the servants
and one of the asses so that I may go quickly to the man of
God and come back again.

23 And he said, Why are you going to him today? it is not a
new moon or a Sabbath. But she said, It is well.

24 Then she made the ass ready and said to her servant,
Keep driving on; do not make a stop without orders from me.

25 So she went, and came to Mount Carmel, to the man of
God. And when the man of God saw her coming in his
direction, he said to Gehazi, his servant, See, there is the
Shunammite;

26 Go quickly to her, and on meeting her say to her, Are
you well? and your husband and the child, are they well? And
she said in answer, All is well.

27 And when she came to where the man of God was on the
hill, she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near
with the purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God
said, Let her be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has
kept it secret from me, and has not given me word of it.

28 Then she said, Did I make a request to my lord for a son?
did I not say, Do not give me false words?

29 Then he said to Gehazi, Make yourself ready, and take
my stick in your hand, and go: if you come across anyone on

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the way, give him no blessing, and if anyone gives you a
blessing, give him no answer. And put my stick on the child's
face.

30 But the mother of the child said, As the Lord is living
and as your soul is living, I will not go back without you. So
he got up and went with her.

31 And Gehazi went on before them and put the stick on
the child's face; but there was no voice, and no one gave
attention. So he went back, and meeting him gave him the
news, saying, The child is not awake.

32 And when Elisha came into the house he saw the child
dead, stretched on his bed.

33 So he went in, and shutting the door on the two of them,
made prayer to the Lord.

34 Then he got up on the bed, stretching himself out on the
child, and put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his
eyes and his hands on his hands; and the child's body became
warm.

35 Then he came back, and after walking once through the
house and back, he went up, stretching himself out on the
child seven times; and the child's eyes became open.

36 And he gave orders to Gehazi, and said, Send for the
Shunammite. And she came in answer to his voice. And he
said, Take up your son.

37 And she came in, and went down on her face to the earth
at his feet; then she took her son in her arms and went out.

38 And Elisha went back to Gilgal, now there was very
little food in the land; and the sons of the prophets were
seated before him. And he said to his servant, Put the great
pot on the fire, and make soup for the sons of the prophets.

39 And one went out into the field to get green plants and
saw a vine of the field, and pulling off the fruit of it till the
fold of his robe was full, he came back and put the fruit, cut
up small, into the pot of soup, having no idea what it was.

40 Then they gave the men soup from the pot. And while
they were drinking the soup, they gave a cry, and said, O
man of God, there is death in the pot; and they were not able
to take any more food.

41 But he said, Get some meal. And he put it into the pot,
and said, Now give it to the people so that they may have
food. And there was nothing bad in the pot.

42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah with an offering
of first-fruits for the man of God, twenty barley cakes and
garden fruit in his bag. And he said, Give these to the people
for food.

43 But his servant said, How am I to put this before a
hundred men? But he said, Give it to the people for food; for
the Lord says, There will be food for them and some over.

44 So he put it before them, and they had a meal and there
was more than enough, as the Lord had said.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 5

1 Now Naaman, chief of the army of the king of Aram, was
a man of high position with his master, and greatly respected,
because by him the Lord had given salvation to Aram; but he
was a leper.

2 Now the Aramaeans had gone out in bands, and taken
prisoner from Israel a little girl, who became servant to
Naaman's wife.

3 And she said to her master's wife, If only my lord would
go to the prophet in Samaria, he would make him well.

4 And someone went and said to his lord, This is what the
girl from the land of Israel says.

5 So the king of Aram said, Go then; and I will send a letter
to the king of Israel. And he went, taking with him ten
talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten
changes of clothing.

6 And he took the letter to the king of Israel, in which the
king of Aram had said, See, I have sent my servant Naaman
to you to be made well, for he is a leper.

7 But the king of Israel, after reading the letter, was greatly
troubled and said, Am I God, to give death and life? why
does this man send a leper to me to be made well? is it not
clear that he is looking for a cause of war?

8 Now Elisha, the man of God, hearing that the king of
Israel had done this, sent to the king, saying, Why are you
troubled? send the man to me, so that he may see that there is
a prophet in Israel.

9 So Naaman, with all his horses and his carriages, came to
the door of Elisha's house.

10 And Elisha sent a servant to him, saying, Go to Jordan,
and after washing seven times in its waters your flesh will be
well again and you will be clean.

11 But Naaman was angry and went away and said, I had
the idea that he would come out to see such an important
person as I am, and make prayer to the Lord his God, and
with a wave of his hand over the place make the leper well.

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better
than all the waters of Israel? may I not be washed in them and
become clean? So turning, he went away in wrath.

13 Then his servants came to him and said, If the prophet
had given you orders to do some great thing, would you not
have done it? how much more then, when he says to you, Be
washed and become clean?

14 Then he went down seven times into the waters of
Jordan, as the man of God had said; and his flesh became like
the flesh of a little child again, and he was clean.

15 Then he went back to the man of God, with all his train,
and, taking his place before him, said, Now I am certain that
there is no God in all the earth, but only in Israel: now then,
take an offering from me.

16 But he said, By the life of the Lord whose servant I am, I
will take nothing from you. And he did his best to make him
take it but he would not.

17 Then Naaman said, If you will not, then let there be
given to your servant as much earth as two beasts are able to
take on their backs; because from now on, your servant will
make no offering or burned offering to other gods, but only
to the Lord.

18 But may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for
this one thing: when my master goes into the house of
Rimmon for worship there, supported on my arm, and my

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

head is bent in the house of Rimmon; when his head is bent in
the house of Rimmon, may your servant have the Lord's
forgiveness for this thing.

19 And he said to him, Go in peace. And he went from him
some distance.

20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,
Now my master has taken nothing from Naaman, this
Aramaean, of what he would have given him: by the living
Lord, I will go after him and get something from him.

21 So Gehazi went after Naaman. And when Naaman saw
him running after him, he got down from his carriage and
went back to him and said, Is all well?

22 And he said, All is well: but my master has sent me,
saying, Even now, two young men of the sons of the prophets
have come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim; will you
give me a talent of silver and two changes of clothing for
them?

23 And Naaman said, Be good enough to take two talents.
And forcing him to take them, he put two talents of silver in
two bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to his
two servants to take before him.

24 When he came to the hill, he took them from their hands,
and put them away in the house; and he sent the men away,
and they went.

25 Then he came in and took his place before his master.
And Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi?
And he said, Your servant went nowhere.

26 And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you, when
the man got down from his carriage and went back to you? Is
this a time for getting money, and clothing, and olive-
gardens and vine-gardens, and sheep and oxen, and men-
servants and women-servants?

27 Because of what you have done, the disease of Naaman
the leper will take you in its grip, and your seed after you,
for ever. And he went out from before him a leper as white as
snow.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 6

1 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, There is not
room enough for us in the place where we are living under
your care;

2 So let us go to Jordan, and let everyone get to work
cutting boards, and we will make a living-place for ourselves
there. And he said to them, Go, then.

3 And one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants.
And he said, I will go.

4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan,
they got to work cutting down trees.

5 But one of them, while cutting a board, let the head of his
axe go into the water; and he gave a cry, and said, This is a
bad business, my master, for it is another's.

6 And the man of God said, Where did it go in? and when
he saw the place where it had gone into the water, cutting a
stick, he put it into the water, and the iron came up to the
top of the water.

7 Then he said, Take it up. So he put out his hand and took
it.

8 At that time the king of Aram was making war against
Israel; and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and
said, I will be waiting in secret in some named place.

9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying,
Take care to keep away from that place, for the Aramaeans
are waiting there in secret.

10 So the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of
God had said there was danger, and kept clear of it more
than once.

11 And at this, the mind of the king of Aram was greatly
troubled, and he sent for his servants and said to them, Will
you not make clear to me which of us is helping the king of
Israel?

12 And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but
Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of
the words you say even in your bedroom.

13 Then he said, Go and see where he is, so that I may send
and get him. And news came to him that he was in Dothan.

14 So he sent there horses and carriages and a great army;
and they came by night, circling the town.

15 Now the servant of the man of God, having got up early
and gone out, saw an army with horses and carriages of war
all round the town. And the servant said to him, O my master,
what are we to do?

16 And he said in answer, Have no fear; those who are with
us are more than those who are with them.

17 Then Elisha made a prayer to the Lord, saying, Lord, let
his eyes be open so that he may see. And the Lord made the
young man's eyes open; and he saw that all the mountain was
full of horses and carriages of fire round Elisha.

18 Now when the Aramaeans came down to Elisha, he made
a prayer to the Lord saying, Lord, make this people blind.
And he made them blind at Elisha's request.

19 And Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is
not the town: come after me so that I may take you to the
man you are searching for. And he took them to Samaria.

20 And when they had come into Samaria, Elisha said,
Lord, let the eyes of these men be open so that they may see.
And the Lord made their eyes open, and they saw that they
were in the middle of Samaria.

21 And the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha,
My father, am I to put them to the sword?

22 But he said in answer, You are not to put them to death;
have you any right to put to death those whom you have not
taken prisoner with your sword and your bow? put bread
and water before them, so that they may have food and drink
and go to their master.

23 So he made ready a great feast for them, and when they
had had food and drink, he sent them away and they went
back to their master. And no more bands of Aramaeans came
into the land of Israel.

24 Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together
all his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria,
shutting the town in on all sides with his forces.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 And they became very short of food in Samaria; for they
kept it shut in till the price of an ass's head was eighty shekels
of silver, and a small measure of doves’ droppings was five
shekels of silver.

26 And when the king of Israel was going by on the wall, a
woman came crying out to him, and said, Help! my lord king.

27 And he said, If the Lord does not give you help, where
am I to get help for you? from the grain-floor or the grape-
crusher?

28 And the king said to her, What is troubling you? And
she said in answer, This woman said to me, Give your son to
be our food today, and we will have my son tomorrow.

29 So, boiling my son, we had a meal of him; and on the
day after I said to her, Now give your son for our food; but
she has put her son in a secret place.

30 Then the king, hearing what the woman said, took his
robes in his hands, violently parting them; and, while he was
walking on the wall, the people, looking, saw that under his
robe he had haircloth on his flesh.

31 Then he said, May God's punishment come on me if
Elisha, the son of Shaphat, keeps his head on his body after
this day.

32 But Elisha was in his house, and the responsible men
were seated there with him; and before the king got there,
Elisha said to those who were with him, Do you see how this
cruel and violent man has sent to take away my life?

33 While he was still talking to them, the king came down
and said, This evil is from the Lord; why am I to go on
waiting any longer for the Lord?

2 KINGS CHAPTER 7

1 Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the
Lord says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good
meal will be offered for the price of a shekel and two
measures of barley for a shekel, in the market-place of
Samaria.

2 Then the captain whose arm was supporting the king said
to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven,
would such a thing be possible? And he said, Your eyes will
see it, but you will not have a taste of the food.

3 Now there were four lepers seated at the doorway into the
town: and they said to one another, Why are we waiting here
for death?

4 If we say, We will go into the town, there is no food in the
town, and we will come to our end there; and if we go on
waiting here, death will come to us. Come then, let us give
ourselves up to the army of Aram: if they let us go on living,
then life will be ours; and if they put us to death, then death
will be ours.

5 So in the half light they got up to go to the tents of Aram;
but when they came to the outer line of tents, there was no
one there.

6 For the Lord had made the sound of carriages and horses,
and the noise of a great army, come to the ears of the
Aramaeans, so that they said to one another, Truly, the king

of Israel has got the kings of the Hittites and of the
Egyptians for a price to make an attack on us.

7 So they got up and went in flight, in the half light,
without their tents or their horses or their asses or any of
their goods; they went in flight, fearing for their lives.

8 And when those lepers came to the outer line of tents,
they went into one tent, and had food and drink, and took
from it silver and gold and clothing, which they put in a
secret place; then they came back and went into another tent
from which they took more goods, which they put away in a
secret place.

9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right.
Today 1s a day of good news, and we say nothing: if we go on
waiting here till the morning, punishment will come to us.
So let us go and give the news to those of the king's house.

10 So they came in, and, crying out to the door-keepers of
the town, they gave them the news, saying, We came to the
tents of the Aramaeans, and there was no one there and no
voice of man, only the horses and the asses in their places,
and the tents as they were.

11 Then the door-keepers, crying out, gave the news to
those inside the king's house.

12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his
servants, This is my idea of what the Aramaeans have done to
us. They have knowledge that we are without food; and so
they have gone out of their tents, and are waiting secretly in
the open country, saying, When they come out of the town,
we will take them living and get into the town.

13 And one of his servants said in answer, Send men and let
them take five of the horses which we still have in the town; if
they keep their lives they will be the same as those of Israel
who are still living here; if they come to their death they will
be the same as all those of Israel who have gone to
destruction: let us send and see.

14 So they took two horsemen; and the king sent them after
the army of the Aramaeans, saying, Go and see.

15 And they went after them as far as Jordan; and all the
road was covered with clothing and vessels dropped by the
Aramaeans in their flight. So those who were sent went back
and gave the news to the king.

16 Then the people went out and took the goods from the
tents of the Aramaeans. So a measure of good meal was to be
had for the price of a shekel, and two measures of barley for a
shekel, as the Lord had said.

17 And the king gave authority to that captain, on whose
arm he was supported, to have control over the doorway into
the town; but he was crushed to death there under the feet of
the people, as the man of God had said when the king went
down to him.

18 So the words of the man of God came true, which he said
to the king: Two measures of barley will be offered for the
price of a shekel and a measure of good meal for a shekel,
tomorrow about this time in the market-place of Samaria.

19 And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the
Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

possible? And he said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you
will not have a taste of the food.

20 And such was his fate; for he was crushed to death under
the feet of the people, in the doorway into the town.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 8

1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had
given back to life, Go now, with all the people of your house,
and get a living-place for yourselves wherever you are able;
for by the word of the Lord, there will be great need of food
in the land; and this will go on for seven years.

2 So the woman got up and did as the man of God said; and
she and the people of her house were living in the land of the
Philistines for seven years.

3 And when the seven years were ended, the woman came
back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king
with a request for her house and her land.

4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the
man of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great
things Elisha has done.

5 And while he was giving the king the story of how Elisha
had given life to the dead, the woman whose son had come
back to life came to the king with a request for her house and
her land. And Gehazi said, My lord king, this is the woman
and this is her son, whose life Elisha gave back to him.

6 And in answer to the king's questions, the woman gave
him all the story. So the king gave orders to one of his
unsexed servants, saying, Give her back all her property, and
all the produce of her fields from the day when she went away
from the land up till now.

7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of
Aram, was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has
come.

8 Then the king said to Hazael, Take an offering with you,
and go to see the man of God and get directions from the
Lord by him, saying, Am I going to get better from my
disease?

9 So Hazael went to see him, taking with him forty camels
with offerings on their backs of every sort of good thing from
Damascus; and when he came before him, he said, Your son
Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, Will I
get better from this disease?

10 And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will
certainly get better; but the Lord has made it clear to me that
only death is before him.

11 And he kept his eyes fixed on him till he was shamed, and
the man of God was overcome with weeping.

12 And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? Then he said
in answer, Because I see the evil which you will do to the
children of Israel: burning down their strong towns, putting
their young men to death with the sword, smashing their
little ones against the stones, and cutting open the women
who are with child.

13 And Hazael said, How is it possible that your servant,
who is only a dog, will do this great thing? And Elisha said,

The Lord has made it clear to me that you will be king over
Aram.

14 Then he went away from Elisha and came in to his
master, who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And
his answer was, He said that you would certainly get well.

15 Now on the day after, Hazael took the bed-cover, and
making it wet with water, put it over Ben-hadad's face,
causing his death: and Hazael became king in his place.

16 In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel,
Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became king.

17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king; and
he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years.

18 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the family
of Ahab did: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he
did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

19 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on
Judah, because of David his servant, to whom he had given
his word that he would have a light for ever.

20 In his time, Edom made themselves free from the rule of
Judah, and took a king for themselves.

21 Then Joram went over to Zair, and with all his chariots,
he made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces
that were all round him, the captains of the war-carriages;
and the people went in flight to their tents.

22 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah to
this day. And at the same time, Libnah made itself free.

23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

24 And Joram went to rest with his fathers and was put into
the earth with his fathers in the town of David: and Ahaziah
his son became king in his place.

25 In the twelfth year that Joram, the son of Ahab, was
king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah,
became king;

26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king,
and he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's
name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, king of Israel.

27 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, and did evil
in the eyes of the Lord as the family of Ahab did, for he was a
son-in-law of the family of Ahab.

28 He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war on
Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was
wounded by the Aramaeans.

29 So King Joram went back to Jezreel to get well from the
wounds which the bowmen had given him at Ramah, when he
was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the
son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the
son of Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was ill.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 9

1 And Elisha the prophet sent for one of the sons of the
prophets, and said to him, Make yourself ready for a journey,
and take this bottle of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-
gilead.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 And when you get there, go in search of Jehu, the son of
Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him get
up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room.

3 Then take the bottle and put the oil on his head, and say,
The Lord says, I have put the holy oil on you to make you
king over Israel. Then, opening the door, go in flight,
without waiting.

4So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.

5 And when he came, he saw the captains of the army seated
together; and he said, I have something to say to you, O
captain. And Jehu said, To which of us? And he said, To you,
O captain.

6 And he got up and went into the house; then he put the
holy oil on his head and said to him, The Lord, the God of
Israel, says, I have made you king over the people of the Lord,
over Israel.

7 You are to see that the family of Ahab your master is cut
off, so that I may take from Jezebel payment for the blood of
my servants the prophets, and for the blood of all the
servants of the Lord.

8 For the family of Ahab will come to an end; every male of
Ahab's family will be cut off, he who is shut up and he who
goes free in Israel.

9 I will make the family of Ahab like that of Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat, and Baasha, the son of Ahijah.

10 And Jezebel will become food for the dogs in the
heritage of Jezreel, and there will be no one to put her body
into the earth. Then, opening the door, he went in flight.

11 Then Jehu came out again to the servants of his lord,
and one said to him, Is all well? why did this man, who is off
his head, come to you? And he said to them, You have
knowledge of the man and of his talk.

12 And they said, That is not true; now give us his story.
Then he said, This is what he said to me: The Lord says, I
have made you king over Israel.

13 Then straight away everyone took his robe and put it
under him on the top of the steps, and, sounding the horn,
they said, Jehu is king.

14 So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi,
made designs against Joram. (Now Joram and all the army of
Israel were keeping watch on Ramoth-gilead because of
Hazael, king of Aram:

15 But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to get well
from the wounds which the Aramaeans had given him when
he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram.) And Jehu said,
If this is your purpose, then let no one get away and go out of
the town to give news of it in Jezreel.

16 So Jehu got into his carriage and went to Jezreel, for
Joram was ill in bed there; and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had
come down to see Joram.

17 And the watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu and
his band coming, and said, I see a band of people. And Joram
said, Send out a horseman to them, and let him say, Is it
peace?

18 So a horseman went out to them and said, The king says,
Is it peace? And Jehu said, What have you to do with peace?

come after me. And the watchman gave them word, saying,
The horseman went up to them, but has not come back.

19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came up to
them and said, The king says, Is it peace? And Jehu said in
answer, What have you to do with peace? come after me.

20 And the watchman gave them word, saying, He went up
to them and has not come back again; and the driving is like
the driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi, for he is driving violently.

21 Then Joram said, Make ready. So they made his carriage
ready; and Joram, king of Israel, with Ahaziah, king of
Judah, went out in their carriages for the purpose of meeting
Jehu; and they came face to face with him at the field of
Naboth the Jezreelite.

22 Now when Joram saw Jehu he said, Is it peace, Jehu?
And he said in answer, What peace is possible while all the
land is full of the disgusting sins of your mother Jezebel, and
her secret arts?

23 Then Joram, turning his horses in flight, said to
Ahaziah, Broken faith, O Ahaziah!

24 Then Jehu took his bow in his hand, and with all his
strength sent an arrow, wounding Joram between the arms;
and the arrow came out at his heart, and he went down on
his face in his carriage.

25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, Take him up, and
put him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for is not that
day in your memory when you and I together on our horses
were going after Ahab, his father, and the Lord put this fate
on him, saying:

26 I saw the blood of Naboth and of his sons yesterday; and
I will give you full payment in this field, says the Lord? So
now, take him and put him in this field, as the Lord said.

27 Now when Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw this, he went in
flight by the way of the garden house. And Jehu came after
him and said, Put him to death in the same way; and they
gave him a death-wound in his carriage, on the slope up to
Gur, by Ibleam; and he went in flight to Megiddo, where
death came to him.

28 And his servants took him in a carriage to Jerusalem,
and put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of
David.

29 (In the eleventh year of the rule of Joram, the son of
Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.)

30 And when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel had news of it;
and, painting her eyes and dressing her hair with ornaments,
she put her head out of the window.

31 And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all
well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life?

32 Then, looking up to the window, he said, Who is on my
side, who? and two or three unsexed servants put out their
heads.

33 And he said, Take her and put her out of the window. So
they sent her down with force, and her blood went in a
shower on the wall and on the horses; and she was crushed
under their feet.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

34 And he came in, and took food and drink; then he said,
Now see to this cursed woman, and put her body into the
earth, for she is a king's daughter.

35 And they went out to put her body into the earth, but
nothing of her was to be seen, only the bones of her head, and
her feet, and parts of her hands.

36 So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said,
This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite,
saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will
become food for dogs;

37 And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped
on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they
will not be able to say, This is Jezebel.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 10

1 Now there were in Samaria seventy of Ahab's sons. And
Jehu sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of the town, and to
the responsible men, and to those who had the care of the
sons of Ahab, saying,

2 Straight away, when you get this letter, seeing that your
master's sons are with you, and that you have carriages and
horses and a walled town and arms;

3 Take the best and most upright of your master's sons, and
make him king in his father's place, and put up a fight for
your master's family.

4 But they were full of fear, and said, The two kings have
gone down before him: how may we keep our place?

5 So the controller of the king's house, with the ruler of the
town, and the responsible men, and those who had the care of
Ahab's sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants and
will do all your orders; we will not make any man king; do
whatever seems best to you.

6 Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on
my side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel
by this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons.
Now the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the
town, who had the care of them.

7 And when the letter came to them, they took the king's
sons and put them to death, all the seventy, and put their
heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

8 And a man came and said to him, They have come with
the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them down in
two masses at the doorway of the town till the morning.

9 And in the morning he went out and, stopping, said to all
the people there, You are upright men: it is true that I made
designs against my master, and put him to death; but who is
responsible for the death of all these?

10 You may be certain that nothing which the Lord has
said about the family of Ahab will be without effect; for the
Lord has done what he said by his servant Elijah.

11 So Jehu put to death all the rest of the seed of Ahab in
Jezreel, and all his relations and his near friends and his
priests, till there were no more of them.

12 Then he got up and came to Samaria. And he was at the
meeting-place of the keepers of sheep, by the way,

13 When he came across the brothers of Ahaziah, king of
Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are the
brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah; we are going down to see
the children of the king and of the queen.

14 And he said, Take them living. So they took them living,
and put them to death in the water-hole of Beth-eked; of the
forty-two men he put every one to death;

15 And when he had gone away from there, he came across
Jehonadab, the son of Rechab: and he said good-day to him,
and said to him, Is your heart true to mine, as mine is to
yours? And Jehonadab in answer said, It is; and Jehu said, If
it is, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and he
made him come up into his carriage.

16 And he said, Come with me and see how | am on fire for
the Lord's cause. So he made him go with him in his carriage.

17 And when he came to Samaria, he put to death all those
of Ahab's family who were still in Samaria, till there were no
more of them, as the Lord had said to Elijah.

18 Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them,
Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his
servant on a great scale.

19 Now send for all the prophets of Baal and all his
servants and all his priests, to come to me; let no one keep
away: for I have a great offering to make to Baal; anyone
who is not present, will be put to death. This Jehu did with
deceit, his purpose being the destruction of the servants of
Baal.

20 And Jehu said, Let there be a special holy meeting for
the worship of Baal. So a public statement was made.

21 And Jehu sent out through all Israel; and all the servants
of Baal came, not one kept away. And they came into the
house of Baal, so that it was full from end to end.

22 And Jehu said to him who kept the robes, Get out robes
for all the servants of Baal. So he got out robes for them.

23 And Jehu, with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into
the house of Baal; and he said to the servants of Baal, Make a
search with care, to see that no servant of the Lord is with
you, but only servants of Baal.

24 Then they went in to make offerings and burned
offerings. Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to
them, If any man whom I give into your hands gets away, the
life of him who lets him go will be the price of his life.

25 Then when the burned offering was ended, straight away
Jehu said to the armed men and the captains, Go in and put
them to death; let not one come out. So they put them to the
sword; and, pulling the images to the earth, they went into
the holy place of the house of Baal.

26 And they took out the image of Asherah from the house
of Baal, and had it burned.

27 The altar of Baal was pulled down and the house of Baal
was broken up and made an unclean place, as it is to this day.

28 So Jehu put an end to the worship of Baal in Israel.

29 But Jehu did not keep himself from all the sins of
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the evil he made Israel do;
the gold oxen were still in Beth-el and in Dan.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well
in doing what is right in my eyes and effecting all my purpose
for the family of Ahab, your sons will be kings of Israel to the
fourth generation.

31 But Jehu did not take care to keep the law of the Lord
with all his heart: he did not keep himself from the sin which
Jeroboam did and made Israel do.

32 In those days the Lord was angry first with Israel; and
Hazael made attacks on all the land of Israel,

33 East of Jordan, in all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and
the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer by the valley
of the Arnon, all Gilead and Bashan.

34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all he did, and his
great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history
of the kings of Israel?

35 And Jehu went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
the earth in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in
his place.

36 And the time of Jehu's rule over Israel in Samaria was
twenty-eight years.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 11

1 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her
son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom
put to death.

2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of
Ahaziah, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, with the
woman who took care of him, away from among the king's
sons who were put to death, and put him in the bedroom;
and they kept him safe from Athaliah, so that he was not put
to death.

3 And for six years she kept him safe in the house of the
Lord, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

4 Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the captains of
hundreds of the Carians, and the armed men, and taking
them into the house of the Lord, made an agreement with
them, and made them take an oath in the house of the Lord,
and let them see the king's son.

5 And he gave them orders, saying, This is what you are to
do: the third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath and
keep the watch of the king's house,

6 And a third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part
at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the
house, and be a barrier.

7 And the two divisions of you, who go out on the Sabbath
and keep the watch of the house of the Lord,

8 Will make a circle round the king, every man being armed;
and whoever comes inside your lines is to be put to death;
keep with the king, when he goes out and when he comes in.

9 And the captains of hundreds did as Jehoiada the priest
gave them orders; every one took with him his men, those
who came in and those who went out on the Sabbath, and
they came in to Jehoiada the priest.

10 And the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the
spears and body-covers which had been King David's, and
which were kept in the house of the Lord.

11 Then the armed men took up their positions, every man
with his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side
of the house to the left, round about the altar and the house.

12 Then he made the king's son come out, and put the
crown on him and the arm-bands, and made him king, and
put the holy oil on him; and they all, making sounds of joy
with their hands, said, Long life to the king.

13 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise made by the people,
came to the people in the house of the Lord;

14 And looking, she saw the king in his regular place by the
pillar, and the captains and the horns near him; and all the
people of the land giving signs of joy and sounding the horns.
Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, gave a cry,
saying, Broken faith, broken faith!

15 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to those who were
placed in authority over the army, saying, Take her outside
the lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to death
with the sword, for he said, Let her not be put to death in the
house of the Lord.

16 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the
king's house by the doorway of the horses, and there she was
put to death.

17 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and
the king and the people, that they would be the Lord's people;
and in the same way between the king and the people.

18 Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal
and had it pulled down: its altars and images were all broken
to bits, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death
before the altars. And the priest put overseers over the Lord's
house.

19 Then he took the captains of hundreds, and the Carians,
and the armed men, and all the people of the land; and they
came down with the king from the house of the Lord,
through the doorway of the armed men, to the king's house.
And he took his place on the seat of the kings.

20 So all the people of the land were glad, and the town was
quiet; and they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at
the king's house.

21 And Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 12

1 In the seventh year of Jehu's rule, Jehoash became king;
and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's
name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

2 Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his
days, because he was guided by the teaching of Jehoiada the
priest.

3 But the high places were not taken away; the people went
on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the holy
things, which comes into the house of the Lord, (the amount
fixed for every man's payment,) and all the money given by
any man freely from the impulse of his heart,

5 Let the priests take, every man from his friends and
neighbours, to make good what is damaged in the house,
wherever it is to be seen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests
had not made good the damaged parts of the house.

7 Then King Jehoash sent for Jehoiada the priest, and the
other priests, and said to them, Why have you not made good
what is damaged in the house? now take no more money from
your neighbours, but give it for the building up of the house.

8 So the priests made an agreement to take no more money
from the people, and not to make good what was damaged in
the house.

9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and making a hole in
the cover of it, put it by the altar, on the right side when one
comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who kept
the door put in it regularly all the money which was taken
into the house of the Lord.

10 And when they saw that there was much money in the
chest, the king's scribe and the high priest came and put it in
bags, noting the amount of all the money there was in the
house of the Lord.

11 And the money which was measured out they gave
regularly to those who were responsible for overseeing the
work, and these gave it in payment to the woodworkers and
the builders who were working on the house of the Lord,

12 And to the wall-builders and the stone-cutters, and to
get wood and cut stone for building up the broken parts of
the house of the Lord, and for everything needed to put the
house in good order.

13 But the money was not used for making silver cups or
scissors or basins or wind-instruments or any vessels of gold
or silver for the house of the Lord;

14 But it was all given to the workmen who were building
up the house.

15 And they did not get any statement of accounts from the
men to whom the money was given for the workmen, for they
made use of it with good faith.

16 The money of the offerings for error and the sin-
offerings was not taken into the house of the Lord; it was the
priests’.

17 Then Hazael, king of Aram, went up against Gath and
took it; and his purpose was to go up to Jerusalem.

18 Then Jehoash, king of Judah, took all the holy things
which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the
kings of Judah, had given to the Lord, together with the
things he himself had given, and all the gold in the Temple
store and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of
Aram; and he went away from Jerusalem.

19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, are they
not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

20 And his servants made a secret design and put Joash to
death at the house of Millo on the way down to Silla.

21 And Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the
son of Shomer, his servants, came to him and put him to
death; and they put him into the earth with his fathers in the

town of David; and Amaziah his son became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 13

1 In the twenty-third year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah,
king of Judah, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, became king over
Israel in Samaria, ruling for seventeen years.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the sins of
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made Israel do;
he did not keep himselffrom them.

3 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and
he gave them up into the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and
into the power of Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, again and
again.

4 Then Jehoahaz made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord
gave ear to him, for he saw how cruelly Israel was crushed by
the king of Aram.

5 (And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they became
free from the hands of the Aramaeans; and the children of
Israel were living in their tents as in the past.

6 But still they did not give up the sin of Jeroboam, which
he made Israel do, but went on with it; and there was an
image of Asherah in Samaria.)

7 For out of all his army, Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen
and ten carriages and ten thousand footmen; the king of
Aram had given them up to destruction, crushing them like
dust.

8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all he did, and
his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the
history of the kings of Israel?

9 And Jehoahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in Samaria; and Joash his son became king in
his place.

10 In the thirty-seventh year of the rule of Joash, king of
Judah, Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, became king over Israel in
Samaria, ruling for sixteen years.

11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away
from the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and
made Israel do, but he went on with it.

12 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, and the
force with which he went to war against Amaziah, king of
Judah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the
kings of Israel?

13 And Joash went to rest with his fathers and Jeroboam
took his place as king; and Joash was put into the earth in
Samaria with the kings of Israel.

14 Now Elisha became ill with the disease which was the
cause of his death: and Joash, king of Israel, came down to
him, and weeping over him said, My father, my father, the
war-carriages of Israel and its horsemen!

15 Then Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows: and he
took bow and arrows.

16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the
bow: and he put his hand on it; and Elisha put his hands on
the king's hands.

17 Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he
got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it
go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek
and put an end to them.

18 And he said, Take the arrows: and he took them. And he
said to the king of Israel, Send them down into the earth; and
he did so three times and no more.

19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, If
you had done it five or six times, then you would have
overcome Aram completely; but now you will only overcome
them three times.

20 And death came to Elisha and they put his body into the
earth. Now in the spring of the year, armed bands of
Moabites frequently came, overrunning the land.

21 And while they were putting a dead man into the earth,
they saw a band coming; and they put the man quickly into
the place where Elisha's body was; and the dead man, on
touching Elisha's bones, came to life again, and got up on his
feet.

22 And Israel was crushed under the power of Hazael, king
of Aram, all the days of Jehoahaz.

23 But the Lord was kind to them and had pity on them,
caring for them, because of his agreement with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; he would not put them to destruction or
send them away from before his face till now.

24 Then Hazael, king of Aram, came to his end; and Ben-
hadad his son became king in his place.

25 And Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from Ben-
hadad, the son of Hazael, the towns which he had taken from
Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jehoash overcame
him and got back the towns of Israel.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 14

1 In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel,
Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah.

2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he
was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's
name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.

3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not
like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done.

4 But still the high places were not taken away; the people
went on making offerings and burning them in the high
places.

5 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight
away he put to death those servants who had taken the life of
the king his father;

6 But he did not put their children to death; for the orders
of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The
fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the
children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for
the sin which he himself has done.

7 He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the
Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it
is to this day.

8 Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of
Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us
have a meeting face to face.

9 And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of
Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in
Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife:
and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing
the thorn under his feet.

10 It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart
is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your
country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself,
and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?

11 But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of
Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came
face to face at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.

12 And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went
in flight, every man to his tent.

13 And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of
Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-
shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of
Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the
door in the angle, four hundred cubits.

14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels
which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of
the king, together with those whose lives would be the price
of broken faith, and went back to Samaria.

15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and
how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they
not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

16 And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and
Jeroboam his son became king in his place.

17 Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living
for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz,
king of Israel.

18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

19 Now they made a secret design against him in Jerusalem;
and he went in flight to Lachish, but they sent after him to
Lachish and put him to death there.

20 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the
earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.

21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was
sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father
Amaziah.

22 He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for
Judah after the death of the king.

23 In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of Joash,
king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel,
became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years.

24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away
from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made
Israel do.

25 He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into
Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his
servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-
hepher.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel,
and that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he
who went free, and that Israel had no helper.

27 And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to
be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in
Jeroboam, the son of Joash.

28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and
his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing
the wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they
not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

29 And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son
became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 15

1 In the twenty-seventh year of the rule of Jeroboam, king
of Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, became king of Judah.

2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was
ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was
Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
father Amaziah had done.

4 But he did not take away the high places, and the people
still went on making offerings and burning them in the high
places.

5 And the Lord sent disease on the king and he became a
leper, and to the day of his death he was living separately in
his private house. And Jotham his son was over his house,
judging the people of the land.

6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

7 And Azariah went to rest with his fathers and was put
into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and
Jotham his son became king in his place.

8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azaliah, king of Judah,
Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king over Israel for six
months.

9 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had
done, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

10 And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, made a secret design
against him, and, attacking him in Ibleam, put him to death
and became king in his place.

11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the
book of the history of the kings of Israel.

12 This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to
the fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came
about.

13 Shallum, the son of Jabesh, became king in the thirty-
ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he was ruling in
Samaria for the space of one month.

14 Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah
and came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh,
in Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his
place.

15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the secret
design which he made, are recorded in the book of the
history of the kings of Israel.

16 Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the
people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would
not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with
child cut open.

17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah,
Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was
ruling in Samaria for ten years.

18 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not keep
himself from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did
and made Israel do.

19 In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the
land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so
that he might let him keep the kingdom.

20 And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the
men of wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to
the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without
stopping in the land.

21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Israel?

22 And Menahem went to rest with his fathers; and
Pekahiah his son became king in his place.

23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah,
the son of Menahem, became king over Israel in Samaria,
ruling for two years.

24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the
sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel
do.

25 And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his captain, made a
secret design against him, attacking him in the king's great
house in Samaria; and with him were fifty men of Gilead; and
he put him to death and became king in his place.

26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all he did, are
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah,
the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria,
ruling for twenty years.

28 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the
sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel
do.

29 In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser,
king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah
and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee
and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to
Assyria.

30 And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a secret design
against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and, attacking him, put
him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth
year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all he did, are
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

32 In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king
of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king of Judah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and
he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's
name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.

34 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
father Uzziah had done.

35 But he did not take away the high places, and the people
still went on making offerings and burning them in the high
places. He was the builder of the higher doorway of the house
of the Lord.

36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

37 In those days the Lord first sent against Judah, Rezin,
the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

38 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in the town of David his father; and Ahaz his
son became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 16

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah,
Ahaz, the son of Jotham, became king of Judah.

2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was
ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was
right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did.

3 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even
made his son go through the fire, copying the disgusting
ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land
before the children of Israel.

4 And he made offerings, burning them in the high places
and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah,
king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they
made an attack on Ahaz, shutting him in, but were not able
to overcome him.

6 At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom,
and sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back
to Elath where they are living to this day.

7 So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of
Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my
help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up
arms against me.

8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the
house of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent
them as an offering to the king of Assyria.

9 And the king of Assyria, in answer to his request, went up
against Damascus and took it, and took its people away as
prisoners to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with
Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar
which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the
priest a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the
details of its structure.

11 And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus,
Urijah made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz
came back from Damascus.

12 And when the king came from Damascus, he saw the
altar; and he went up on it and made an offering on it.

13 He made his burned offering and his meal offering and
his drink offering there, draining out the blood of his peace-
offerings on the altar.

14 And the brass altar, which was before the Lord, he took
from the front of the house, from between his altar and the
house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.

15 And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying,
Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal
offering and the king's burned offering and meal offering,
with the burned offerings of all the people and their meal
offerings and drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on
it all the blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts
which are offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get
directions from the Lord.

16 So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said

17 And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases,
and took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen
which were under it and put it on a floor of stone.

18 ** the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.

19 Now the rest of the things which Ahaz did, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

20 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Hezekiah
his son became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 17

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, the
son of Elah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for
nine years.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, though not like the
kings of Israel before him.

3 Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and
Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings.

4 But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of
Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of
Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as
he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut
up in prison and put in chains.

5 Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and
came up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three
years.

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took
Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in
Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of
the Medes.

7 And the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they
had done evil against the Lord their God, who took them
out of the land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, and had become worshippers of other gods,

8 Living by the rules of the nations whom the Lord had sent
out from before the children of Israel.

9 And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord
their God things which were not right, building high places

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

for themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the
watchmen to the walled town.

10 They put up pillars of stone and wood on every high hill
and under every green tree:

11 Burning their offerings in all the high places, as those
nations did whom the Lord sent away from before them; they
did evil things, moving the Lord to wrath;

12 And they made themselves servants of disgusting things,
though the Lord had said, You are not to do this.

13 And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every
prophet and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways,
and do my orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the
law which I gave to your fathers and sent to you by my
servants the prophets.

14 And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like
their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.

15 And they went against his rules, and the agreement
which he made with their fathers, and his laws which he gave
them; they gave themselves up to things without sense or
value, and became foolish like the nations round them, of
whom the Lord had said, Do not as they do.

16 And turning their backs on all the orders which the
Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of
metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of
heaven and becoming servants to Baal.

17 And they made their sons and their daughters go
through the fire, and they made use of secret arts and
unnatural powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in
the eyes of the Lord, till he was moved to wrath.

18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and his face was
turned away from them: only the tribe of Judah kept its place.

19 (But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord
their God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had
made.

20 So the Lord would have nothing to do with all the
offspring of Israel, and sent trouble on them, and gave them
up into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them
away from before his face.)

21 For Israel was broken off from the family of David, and
they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king, who, driving
them away from the laws of the Lord, made them do a great
sin.

22 And the children of Israel went on with all the sins
which Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them;

23 Till the Lord put Israel away from before his face, as he
had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken
away from their land to Assyria, to this day.

24 Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and
from Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and
put them in the towns of Samaria in place of the children of
Israel; so they got Samaria for their heritage, living in its
towns.

25 Now when first they were living there they did not give
worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them,
causing the death of some of them.

26 So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom
you have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria,
have no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he
has sent lions among them, causing their death, because they
have no knowledge of his way.

27 Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there
one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living
there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land.

28 So one of the priests whom they had taken away as a
prisoner from Samaria came back, and, living in Beth-el,
became their teacher in the worship of the Lord.

29 And every nation made gods for themselves, and put
them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans
had made, every nation in the towns where they were living.

30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men
of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

31 The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the
Sepharvites gave their children to be burned in the fire to
Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

32 So they went on worshipping the Lord, and made for
themselves, from among all the people, priests for the high
places, to make offerings for them in the houses of the high
places.

33 They gave worship to the Lord, but they gave honour to
their gods like the nations did from whom they had been
taken as prisoners.

34 So to this day they go on in their old ways, not
worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or
the law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of
Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel;

35 And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave
them orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are
not to give worship to them or be their servants or make
them offerings:

36 But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt
with his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your
God, to whom you are to give worship and make offerings:

37 And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in
writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to
have no other gods.

38 And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I
have made with you; and you are to have no other gods.

39 And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for
it is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who
are against you.

40 But they gave no attention, but went on in their old way.

41 So these nations, worshipping the Lord, still were
servants to the images they had made; their children and
their children's children did the same; as their fathers did, so
do they, to this day.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 18
1 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of
Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, became king of Judah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, ruling
in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was
Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.

3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his
father had done.

4 He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars
broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass
snake which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his
order, because in those days the children of Israel had
offerings burned before it, and he gave it the name
Nehushtan.

5 He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there
was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were
before him.

6 For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his
ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.

7 And the Lord was with him; he did well in all his
undertakings: and he took up arms against the king of
Assyria and was his servant no longer.

8 He overcame the Philistines as far as Gaza and its limits,
from the tower of the watchman to the walled town.

9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the
seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel,
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria,
shutting it in with his armies.

10 And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth
year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the ninth year of Hoshea,
king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

11 And the king of Assyria took Israel away as prisoners
into Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the
river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes;

12 Because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord
their God, but went against his agreement, even against
everything ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and
they did not give ear to it or do it.

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah,
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the walled
towns of Judah and took them.

14 And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to Lachish, to the
king of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong; give up attacking
me, and whatever you put on me I will undergo. And the
payment he was to make was fixed by the king of Assyria at
three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the
Lord, and in the king's store-house.

16 And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors
of the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him,
cut off and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-
saris and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King
Hezekiah, with a strong force. And they went up and came to
Jerusalem, and took up their position by the stream of the
higher pool, by the highway of the washerman's field.

18 And they sent for the king, and Eliakim, the son of
Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and
Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.

19 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah,
These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In
what are you placing your hope?

20 You say you have a design, and strength for war, but
these are only words. Now to whom are you looking for
support, that you have gone against my authority?

21 See, now, you are basing your hope on that broken rod
of Egypt, which will go through a man's hand if he makes use
of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all
who put their faith in him.

22 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God:
is it not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken
away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only
be given before this altar in Jerusalem?

23 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of
Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are
able to put horsemen on them.

24 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's
servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-
carriages and horsemen:

25 And have I now come up to send destruction on this
place without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself
who said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste.

26 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah
said to the Rab-shakeh, Will you kindly make use of the
Aramaean language in talking to your servants, for we are
used to it, and do not make use of the Jews' language in the
hearing of the people on the wall.

27 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Is it to your master or
to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he
not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the
people who will be short of food with you when the town is
shut in.

28 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice
in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king,
the king of Assyria;

29 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by
Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him.

30 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the
Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this
town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

31 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of
Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me; and
everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his
fig-tree, and the water of his spring;

32 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a
land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens, a
land of oil-giving olives and of honey, so that life and not
death may be your fate. Give no attention to Hezekiah when
he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe.

33 Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from
falling into the hands of the king of Assyria?

34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are
the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah? have they kept
Samaria out of my hands?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept
their country from falling into my hands, to give cause for
the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling
into my hands?

36 But the people kept quiet and gave him no answer: for
the king's order was, Give him no answer.

37 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to Hezekiah, with their clothing parted as a
sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-
shakeh had said.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 19

1 And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and
put on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna
the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of
trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are
ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth
to them.

4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the
words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his
master, sent to say evil things against the living God, and
will make his words come to nothing: so then make your
prayer for the rest of the people.

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to
your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words
which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me
in your hearing.

7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come
to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will
have him put to death by the sword.

8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the
king of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had
come to his ears that he had gone away from Lachish.

9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of
Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, he sent representatives
to Hezekiah again, saying,

10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:
Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false
hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of
the king of Assyria.

11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the
kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the
curse; and will you be kept safe?

12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my
fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and
the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad,
and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena and of
Ivvah?

14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those
who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up

to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the
Lord.

15 And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O
Lord, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you
only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have
made heaven and earth.

16 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes
be open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of
Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living
God.

17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the
nations and their lands,

18 And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no
gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they
have given them to destruction.

19 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his
hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth
that you and only you, O Lord, are God.

20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,
The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have
made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come
to my ears.

21 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In
the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and
laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

22 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things?
against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted
up? even against the Holy One of Israel.

23 You have sent your servants with evil words against the
Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come
up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of
Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees
of its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his
thick woods.

24 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and
with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

25 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before,
purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to
my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into
masses of broken walls.

26 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were
broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field
and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops.

27 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your
resting, of your going out and your coming in.

28 Because your wrath against me and your words of pride
have come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and
my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way
you came.

29 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food
this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year
from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will
put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens
and take of their fruit.

30 And those of Judah who are still living will again take
root in the earth and give fruit.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will
go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount
Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be
done.

32 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria,
He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it;
he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork
against it;

33 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get
into this town, says the Lord.

34 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for
the honour of my servant David.

35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put
to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-
five thousand men; and when the people got up early in the
morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place
at Nineveh.

37 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the
house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer put him to death with the sword; and they went in
flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son
became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 20

1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah
the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him,
The Lord says, Put your house in order, for your death is
near.

2 Then, turning his face to the wall, he made his prayer to
the Lord, saying,

3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all
my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And
Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.

4 Now before Isaiah had gone out of the middle of the town,
the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5 Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The
Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has
come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will
make you well: on the third day you will go up to the house
of the Lord.

6 I will give you fifteen more years of life; and I will keep
you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria;
I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour
of my servant David.

7 Then Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. So they took it and
put it on his wound, and he got better.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is to be the sign that
the Lord will make me well, and that I will go up to the
house of the Lord on the third day?

9 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you,
that he will do what he has said; will the shade go forward
ten degrees or back?

10 And Hezekiah said in answer, It is a simple thing for the
shade to go forward; but let it go back ten degrees.

11 Then Isaiah the prophet made prayer to the Lord, and
he made the shade go back ten degrees from its position on
the steps of Ahaz.

12 At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan,
king of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah,
because he had news that Hezekiah had been ill.

13 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming and let them see
all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices
and the oil of great price, and the house of his arms, and
everything there was in his stores; there was nothing in all
his house or his kingdom which Hezekiah did not let them see.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said
to him, What did these men say and where did they come
from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country,
even from Babylon.

15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And
Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house:
there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.

16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the
Lord.

17 Truly, days are coming when everything in your house,
and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will
be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone, says the Lord.

18 And your sons, the offspring of your body, they will
take away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of
Babylon.

19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the
Lord which you have said. Then he said, is it not so, if is
peace and righteousness shall be in my days?

20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his power, and
how he made the pool and the stream, to take water into the
town, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the
kings of Judah?

21 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers; and
Manasseh his son became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 21

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king; for
fifty-five years he was ruling in Jerusalem; and his mother's
name was Hephzi-bah.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting
ways of those nations whom the Lord had sent out before the
children of Israel.

3 He put up again the high places which had been pulled
down by Hezekiah his father; he made altars for Baal, and an
Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; he was a
worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven.

4 And he put up altars in the house of the Lord, of which
the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

5 And he put up altars for all the stars of heaven in the two
outer squares of the house of the Lord.

6 And he made his son go through the fire, and made use of
secret arts and signs for reading the future; he gave positions
to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers;
he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to
wrath.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 He put the image of Asherah which he had made in the
house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon
his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I
have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my
name for ever.

8 And never again will I send the feet of Israel wandering
from the land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will
take care to do all my orders, and keep all the law which my
servant Moses gave them.

9 But they did not give ear; and Manasseh made them do
more evil than those nations did, whom the Lord gave up to
destruction before the children of Israel.

10 And the Lord said, by his servants the prophets,

11 Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these
disgusting things, doing more evil than all the Amorites
before him, and making Judah do evil with his false gods,

12 For this cause, says the Lord, the God of Israel, I will
send such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all to
whom the news comes will be burning.

13 And over Jerusalem will be stretched the line of Samaria
and the weight of Ahab; Jerusalem will be washed clean as a
plate is washed, and turned over on its face.

14 And I will put away from me the rest of my heritage, and
give them up into the hands of their haters, who will take
their property and their goods for themselves;

15 Because they have done evil in my eyes, moving me to
wrath, from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt till
this day.

16 More than this, Manasseh took the lives of upright men,
till Jerusalem from one end to the other was full of blood; in
addition to his sin in making Judah do evil in the eyes of the
Lord.

17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all he did, and
his sins, are they not recorded in the book of the history of
the kings of Judah?

18 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in the garden of his house, in the garden of
Uzza; and Amon his son became king in his place.

19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king,
ruling in Jerusalem for two years; his mother's name was
Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

20 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his
father had done.

21 He went in all the ways of his father, being a servant and
worshipper of the false gods to which his father had been a
servant;

22 Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and
not walking in his ways.

23 And the servants of Amon made a secret design against
him, and put the king to death in his house.

24 But the people of the land put to death all those who
had taken part in the design against the king, and made
Josiah his son king in his place.

25 Now the rest of the acts which Amon did, are they not
recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

26 He was put in his last resting-place in the garden of Uzza,
and Josiah his son became king in his place.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 22

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; and he
was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years; his mother's
name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in
the ways of David his father, without turning to the right
hand or to the left.

3 Now in the eighteenth year after he became king, Josiah
sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the
scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying to him,

4 Go up to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and let him give out
the money which is taken into the house of the Lord, which
the keepers of the door have got together from the people;

5 And let it be given to the overseers of the work of the
Lord's house, to give to the workmen who are making good
what was damaged in the house of the Lord;

6 To the woodworkers and the builders and the stone-
cutters; and for getting wood and cut stones for the building
up of the house.

7 They did not have to give any account of the money which
was handed to them, for they made use of it with good faith.

8 Then Hilkiah, the chief priest, said to Shaphan the scribe,
I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of
the Lord. So Hilkiah gave it to Shaphan;

9 Then, after reading it, Shaphan the scribe went in to the
king and gave him an account of what had been done, saying,
Your servants have given out the money which was in the
house, and have given it to the overseers of the work of the
house of the Lord.

10 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the
priest has given me a book; and he was reading it before the
king.

11 And the king, hearing the words of the book of the law,
took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his
grief;

12 And he gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam,
the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Micaiah, and
Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

13 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for the
people and for all Judah, about the words of this book which
has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which is
burning against us, because our fathers have not given ear to
the words of this book, to do all the things which are
recorded in it.

14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and
Shaphan and Asaiah, went to Huldah the woman prophet,
the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas,
keeper of the robes, (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the
second part of the town;) and they had talk with her.

15 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, says,
Say to the man who sent you to me,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on
this place and on its people, even everything which the king
of Judah has been reading in the book;

17 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to
other gods and moving me to wrath by all the work of their
hands; so my wrath will be on fire against this place, and will
not be put out.

18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions
from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel,
has said: As to the words which have come to your ears,

19 Because your heart was soft, and you made yourself low
before me, when you had word of what I said against this
place and its people, that they would become a waste and a
curse, and you gave signs of grief, weeping before me: truly, I
have given ear to you, says the Lord.

20 For this cause I will let you go to your fathers and be
put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not
see all the evil which I will send on this place. So they took
this news back to the king.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 23

1 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible
men of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all
the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem, and the
priests and the prophets and all the people, small and great;
and they were present at his reading of the book of the law
which had come to light in the house of the Lord.

3 And the king took his place by the pillar, and made an
agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and
keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his
heart and all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement
recorded in the book; and all the people gave their word to
keep the agreement.

4 Then the king gave orders to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and
to the priests of the second order, and to the keepers of the
door, to take out of the house of the Lord all the vessels made
for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the stars of heaven;
and he had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of
Kidron, and took the dust of them to Beth-el.

5 And he put an end to the false priests, who had been put
in their positions by the kings of Judah to see to the burning
of offerings in the high places in the towns of Judah and the
outskirts of Jerusalem, and all those who made offerings to
Baal and to the sun and the moon and the twelve signs and
all the stars of heaven.

6 And he took the Asherah from the house of the Lord,
outside Jerusalem to the stream Kidron, burning it by the
stream and crushing it to dust, and he put the dust on the
place where the bodies of the common people were put to rest.

7 And he had the houses pulled down of those who were
used for sex purposes in the house of the Lord, where women
were making robes for the Asherah.

8 And he made all the priests from the towns of Judah come
into Jerusalem, and he made unclean the high places where
the priests had been burning offerings, from Geba to Beer-

sheba; and he had the high places of the evil spirits pulled
down which were by the doorway of Joshua, the ruler of the
town, on the left side of the way into the town.

9 Still the priests of the high places never came up to the
altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; but they took their food of
unleavened bread among their brothers.

10 And Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, he
made unclean, so that no man might make his son or his
daughter go through the fire to Molech.

11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah
had given to the sun, at the way into the house of the Lord,
by the room of Nathan-melech, the unsexed servant, which
was in the outer part of the building, and the carriages of the
sun he put on fire.

12 And the altars on the roof of the high room of Ahaz,
which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which
Manasseh had made in the two outer squares of the house of
the Lord, were pulled down and crushed to bits, and the dust
of them was put into the stream Kidron.

13 And the high places before Jerusalem, on the south side
of the mountain of destruction, which Solomon, king of
Israel, had made for Ashtoreth, the disgusting god of the
Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab,
and for Milcom, the disgusting god of the children of
Ammon, the king made unclean.

14 The stone pillars were broken to bits and the wood
pillars cut down, and the places where they had been were
made full of the bones of the dead.

15 And the altar at Beth-el, and the high place put up by
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil, that
altar and that high place were pulled down; and the high
place was burned and crushed to dust and the Asherah was
burned.

16 Then Josiah, turning round, saw on the mountain the
places of the dead, and he sent and had the bones taken out of
their places and burned on the altar, so making it unclean, as
the Lord had said by the man of God when Jeroboam was in
his place by the altar on that feast-day. And he, turning his
eyes to the resting-place of the man of God who had given
word of these things, said:

17 What is that headstone I see over there? And the men of
the town said to him, It is the resting-place of the man of
God who came from Judah and gave word of all these things
which you have done to the altar of Beth-el.

18 So he said, Let him be; let not his bones be moved. So
they let his bones be with the bones of the prophet who came
from Samaria.

19 Then Josiah took away all the houses of the high places
in the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had put up,
moving the Lord to wrath, and he did with them as he had
done in Beth-el.

20 And all the priests of the high places there he put to
death on the altars, burning the bones of the dead on them;
and then he went back to Jerusalem.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep
the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of
the law.

22 Truly, such a Passover had not been kept in all the days
of the judges of Israel or of the kings of Israel or the kings of
Judah;

23 In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this
Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

24 And all those who had control of spirits, and the
wonder-workers, and the images, and the false gods, and all
the disgusting things which were seen in the land of Judah
and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away, so that he might give
effect to the words of the agreement recorded in the book
which Hilkiah the priest made discovery of in the house of
the Lord.

25 Never before had there been a king like him, turning to
the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all
his power, as the law of Moses says; and after him there was
no king like him.

26 But still the heat of the Lord's wrath was not turned
back from Judah, because of all Manasseh had done in
moving him to wrath.

27 And the Lord said, I will send Judah away from before
my face, as I have sent Israel; I will have nothing more to do
with this town, which I had made mine, even Jerusalem, and
the holy house of which I said, My name will be there.

28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

29 In his days, Pharaoh-necoh, king of Egypt, sent his
armies against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates;
and King Josiah went out against him; and he put him to
death at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

30 And his servants took his body in a carriage from
Megiddo to Jerusalem, and put him into the earth there. And
the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and
put the holy oil on him and made him king in place of his
father.

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became
king, ruling in Jerusalem for three months; his mother's
name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

32 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had
done.

33 And Pharaoh-necoh put him in chains at Riblah in the
land of Hamath, so that he might not be king in Jerusalem;
and took from the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver
and a talent of gold.

34 Then Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah,
king in place of Josiah his father, changing his name to
Jehoiakim; but Jehoahaz he took away to Egypt, where he
was till his death.

35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh,
taxing the land by his orders to get the money; the people of
the land had to give silver and gold, everyone as he was taxed,
to make the payment to Pharaoh-necoh.

36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became
king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years; his
mother's name was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of
Rumah.

37 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord as his fathers had done.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 24

1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up
and Jehoiakim was his servant for three years; then he took
up arms against him.

2 And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans
and of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children
of Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as
he had said by his servants the prophets.

3 Only by the word of the Lord did this fate come on Judah,
to take them away from before his face; because of the sins of
Manasseh and all the evil he did;

4 And because of the death of those who had done no wrong,
for he made Jerusalem full of the blood of the upright; and
the Lord had no forgiveness for it.

5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all he did, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Judah?

6 So Jehoiakim went to rest with his fathers; and
Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again,
for the king of Babylon had taken all his country, from the
stream of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king,
he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months, and his mother's
name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done.

10 At that time the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came up to
Jerusalem and the town was shut in on every side.

11 And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came there,
while his servants were shutting in the town;

12 Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of
Babylon, with his mother and his servants and his chiefs and
his unsexed servants; and in the eighth year of his rule the
king of Babylon took him.

13 And he took away all the stored wealth of the Lord's
house, and the goods from the king's store-house, cutting up
all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made
in the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said.

14 And he took away all the people of Jerusalem and all the
chiefs and all the men of war, ten thousand prisoners; and all
the expert workmen and the metal-workers; only the poorest
sort of the people of the land were not taken away.

15 He took Jehoiachin a prisoner to Babylon, with his
mother and his wives and his unsexed servants and the great
men of the land; he took them all as prisoners from Jerusalem
to Babylon.

16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a
thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them
strong and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took
away as prisoners into Babylon.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's
brother, king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to
Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king,
and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's
name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had
done.

20 And because of the wrath of the Lord, this came about in
Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them all away from
before him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of
Babylon.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 25

1 Now in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the
tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came
against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position
before it, building earthworks all round the town.

2 And the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh
year of King Zedekiah.

3 Now on the ninth day of the fourth month, the store of
food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food
for the people of the land.

4 So an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all
the men of war went in flight by night through the doorway
between the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now
the Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and the king
went by the way of the Arabah.

5 But the Chaldaean army went after the king, and
overtook him in the lowlands of Jericho, and all his army
went in flight from him in every direction.

6 And they made the king a prisoner and took him up to
the king of Babylon at Riblah to be judged.

7 And they put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes,
and then they put out his eyes, and chaining him with iron
bands, took him to Babylon.

8 Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,
in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the
king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem;

9 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house
and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house,
burned with fire;

10 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the
Chaldaean army which was with the captain.

11 And the rest of the people who were still in the town,
and all those who had given themselves up to the king of
Babylon, and all the rest of the workmen, Nebuzaradan, the
captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners;

12 But he let the poorest of the land go on living there, to
take care of the vines and the fields.

13 And the brass pillars in the house of the Lord, and the
wheeled bases, and the great brass water-vessel in the house
of the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took
the brass to Babylon.

14 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the
lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the
Lord's house, they took away.

15 And the fire-trays and the basins; the gold of the gold
vessels and the silver of the silver vessels, were all taken away
by the captain of the armed men.

16 The two pillars, the great water-vessel and the wheeled
bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord:
the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

17 One of the pillars was eighteen cubits high, with a crown
of brass on it; the crown was three cubits high, circled with a
network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the
same.

18 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the
chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three
door-keepers;

19 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was
over the men of war, and five of the king's near friends who
were in the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army,
who was responsible for getting the people of the land
together in military order, and sixty men of the people of the
land who were in the town.

20 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took
with him to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

21 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in
the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken away prisoner from
his land.

22 As for the people who were still living in the land of
Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not
take away, he made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of
Shaphan, ruler over them.

23 Now the captains of the armed forces, hearing that the
king of Babylon had made Gedaliah ruler, came with their
men to Gedaliah at Mizpah; Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,
and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of
Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the
Maacathite, came with all their men.

24 Then Gedaliah gave his oath to them and their men,
saying, Have no fear because of the servants of the
Chaldaeans; go on living in the land under the rule of the
king of Babylon, and all will be well.

25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,
the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, came with ten men
and made an attack on Gedaliah, causing his death and the
death of the Jews and the Chaldaeans who were with him at
Mizpah.

26 Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of
the forces, got up and went away to Egypt, for fear of the
Chaldaeans.

27 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of
Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the
twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of
Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king of
Judah, out of prison;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 And said kind words to him, and put his seat higher
than the seats of the other kings who were with him in
Babylon.

29 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest
at the king's table every day for the rest of his life.

30 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount
every day for the rest of his life.

nes KSB ose

THE FIRST BOOK OF CHRONICLES
or | Chronicles; Greek: Paralipomenon
Hebrew: Dibre Hayyamim (The Matters of the Days)
Author: Azaryahu, known as Ezra (Greek: Esdras)
(Nehemia might have edited some parts.)
Estimated Range of Dating: mid-Sth century B.C.

(The Book of Chronicles (Hebrew: Dibre Hayyamim 'The
Matters of the Days') is a Hebrew prose work constituting
part of Jewish and Christian scripture. Chronicles is the final
book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of
Ketuvim, the last section of the Jewish Tanakh. It was
divided into two books in the Septuagint, the
Paralipoménon (Greek: lit. "things left on one side"). In
Christian contexts it 1s therefore known as the Books of
Chronicles, after the Latin name chronikon given to the text
by the scholar Jerome. In the Christian Bible, the books
(commonly referred to as 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, or
First Chronicles and Second Chronicles) generally follow the
two Books of Kings, and precede Ezra—Nehemuah; thus they
conclude the history-oriented books of the Old Testament.

Originally a single work, Chronicles was divided into two
in the Greek Septuagint: 1 Chronicles is divided into 29
chapters and 2 Chronicles into 36 chapters. It contains a
genealogy from a human being, Adam, and a narrative of the
history of ancient Judah and Israel. The last events in
Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the
Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC; this sets the
earliest possible date for the book.

Chronicles appears to be largely the work of a single
individual. The writer was probably male, probably a Levite
(temple priest), and probably from Jerusalem. He was well-
read, a skilled editor, and a sophisticated theologian. His
intention was to use Israel's past to convey religious messages
to his peers, the literary and political elite of Jerusalem in the
time of the Achaemenid Empire. Jewish and Christian
tradition identified this author as the 5th century BC figure
Ezra, who gives his name to the Book of Ezra; Ezra 1s also
believed to be the author of both Chronicles and Ezra—
Nehemiah. Many scholars maintain support for Ezra's
authorship, not only based on centuries of work by Jewish
historians, but also due to the consistency of language and
speech patterns between Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.

One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of
Chronicles is that its closing sentence 1s repeated as the
opening of Ezra—Nehemiah. These repeated verses are called
“catch-lines.” In antiquity, catch-lines were often placed at
the end of a scroll to facilitate the reader’s passing on to the
correct second book-scroll after completing the first. This
scribal device was employed in works that exceeded the scope
ofa single scroll and had to be continued on another scroll.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Scholars suggest it was probably composed between 450—
250 BC, with the period 350-300 BC the most likely. This
timeframe is achieved by estimates made based on genealogies
appearing in the Greek Septuagint. This theory bases its
premise on latest person mentioned in Chronicles, Anant.
Anant is an eighth-generation descendant of King Jehotachin
according to the Masoretic Text. They roughly estimate
Anani’s birth to have been sometime between 425 and 400
BC using an additional five generations in the genealogy of
Anani appearing in the Septuagint. Based on this, the theory
has persuaded many supporters of the Septuagint’s reading
to place Anani’s likely date of birth a century later than what
has been largely accepted for two millennia.

Much of the content of Chronicles is a repetition of
material from other books of the Bible, from Genesis to
Kings, and so the usual scholarly view 1s that these books, or
an early version of them, provided the author with the bulk
of fis material. The Chronicles narrative begins with Adam,
Seth and Enosh, and the story is then carried forward,
almost entirely through genealogical lists, down to the
founding of the first Kingdom of Israel (in the "introductory
chapters", 1 Chronicles 1-9). The bulk of the remainder of 1
Chronicles, after a brief account of Saul in chapter 10, 1s
concerned with the reign of David (1 Chronicles 11-29). The
next long section concerns David's son Solomon (2
Chronicles 1-9), and the final part 1s concerned with the
Kingdom of Judah, with occasional references to the second
kingdom of Israel (2 Chronicles 10-36). The final chapter
covers briefly the reigns of the last four kings, until Judah 1s
destroyed and the people taken into exile in Babylon. In the
two final verses, identical to the opening verses of the Book
of Ezra, the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquers the Neo-
Babylonian Empire, and authorises the restoration of the
Temple in Jerusalem and the return of the exiles.)

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER |

1 Adam, Seth, Enosh;

2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech;

4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

5 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and
Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.

6 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Diphath and
Togarmah.

7 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and
Rodanim.

8 The sons of Ham: Cush and Egypt, Put and Canaan.

9 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabta and
Raama and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and
Dedan.

10 And Cush was the father of Nimrod: he was the first to
be a great man in the earth.

11 And Egypt was the father of the Ludim and the Anamim
and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim

12 And the Pathrusim and the Casluhim and the Caphtorim
(from whom came the Philistines).

13 And Canaan was the father of Zidon, his oldest son, and
Heth,

14 And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite,

15 And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite,

16 And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite.

17 The sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and
Lud and Aram and Uz and Hul and Gether and Meshech.

18 And Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah
was the father of Eber.

19 And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,
because in his days a division was made of the earth; and his
brother's name was Joktan.

20 And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and
Hazarmaveth and Jerah

21 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah

22 And Ebal and Abimael and Sheba

23 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab. All these were the
sons of Joktan.

24 Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah,

25 Eber, Peleg, Reu,

26 Serug, Nahor, Terah,

27 Abram (that is Abraham).

28 The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.

29 These are their generations: the oldest son of Ishmael,
Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam,

30 Mishma and Dumah, Massa, Hadad and Tema,

31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of
Ishmael.

32 And the sons of Keturah, Abraham's servant-wife: she
was the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and
Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan:
Sheba and Dedan.

33 And the sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher and Hanoch
and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.

34 And Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac:
Esau and Israel.

35 The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel and Jeush and Jalam
and Korah.

36 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman and Omar, Zephi and
Gatam, Kenaz and Timna and Amalek.

37 The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah.

38 And the sons of Seir: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and
Anah and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan.

39 And the sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam; and Timna
was Lotan's sister.

40 The sons of Shobal: Alian and Manahath and Ebal,
Shephi and Onam. And the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah.

41 The sons of Anah: Dishon. And the sons of Dishon:
Hamran and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran.

42 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan, Jaakan. The sons
of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

43 Now these are the kings who were ruling in the land of
Edom, before there was any king over Israel: Bela, the son of
Beor; his town was named Dinhabah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

44 At his death, Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, became
king in his place.

45 At the death of Jobab, Husham, from the land of the
Temanites, became king in his place.

46 And at the death of Husham, Hadad, the son of Bedad,
who overcame Midian in the field of Moab, became king; his
town was named Avith.

47 And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became
king in his place.

48 And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the
river became king in his place,

49 And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, the son of
Achbor, became king in his place.

50 And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadad became king in
his place; his town was named Pai, and his wife's name was
Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-
zahab.

51 And Hadad came to his end. Now the chiefs of Edom
were: the chief of Timna, the chief of Aliah, the chief of
Jetheth,

52 The chief of Oholibamah, the chief of Elah, the chief of
Pinon,

53 The chief of Kenaz, the chief of Teman, the chief of
Mibzar,

54 The chief of Magdiel, the chief of Iram. These are the
chiefs of Edom.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 2

1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and
Judah, Issachar and Zebulun;

2 Dan, Joseph and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

3 The sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah; these three
were his sons by Bathshua, the Canaanite woman. And Er,
Judah's oldest son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and he put
him to death.

4 And Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had Perez and Zerah by
him. All the sons of Judah were five.

5 The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

6 And the sons of Zerah: Zimri and Ethan and Heman and
Calcol and Dara; five of them.

7 And the sons of Carmi: Achan, the troubler of Israel, who
did wrong about the cursed thing.

8 And the son of Ethan: Azariah.

9 And the sons of Hezron, the offspring of his body:
Jerahmeel and Ram and Chelubai.

10 And Ram was the father of Amminadab; and
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, chief of the children
of Judah;

11 And Nahshon was the father of Salma, and Salma was
the father of Boaz,

12 And Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the
father of Jesse,

13 And Jesse was the father of Eliab, his oldest son, and
Abinadab, the second, and Shimea, the third,

14 Nethanel, the fourth, Raddai, the fifth,

15 Ozem, the sixth, David, the seventh;

16 And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And Zeruiah
had three sons: Abishai and Joab and Asahel.

17 And Abigail was the mother of Amasa; and the father of
Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.

18 And Caleb, the son of Hezron, had children by Azubah
his wife, the daughter of Jerioth; and these were her sons:
Jesher and Shobab and Ardon.

19 And after the death of Azubah, Caleb took as his wife
Ephrath, who was the mother of Hur.

20 And Hur was the father of Uri; and Uri was the father of
Bezalel.

21 And after that, Hezron had connection with the
daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead, whom he took as
his wife when he was sixty years old; and she had Segub by
him.

22 And Segub was the father of Jair, who had twenty-three
towns in the land of Gilead.

23 And Geshur and Aram took the tent-towns of Jair from
them, with Kenath and the small places round it, even sixty
towns. All these were the sons of Machir, the father of Gilead.

24 And after the death of Hezron, Caleb had connection
with Ephrath, his father Hezron's wife, and she gave birth to
his son Asshur, the father of Tekoa.

25 And the sons of Jerahmeel, the oldest son of Hezron,
were Ram, the oldest, and Bunah and Oren and Ozem and
Ahijah.

26 And Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was
Atarah: she was the mother of Onam.

27 And the sons of Ram, the oldest son of Jerahmeel, were
Maaz and Jamin and Eker.

28 And the sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada; and the
sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur.

29 And the name of Abishur's wife was Abihail; and she had
Ahban and Molid by him.

30 And the sons of Nadab: Seled and Appaim; but Seled
came to his end without sons.

31 And the sons of Appaim: Ishi. And the sons of Ishi:
Sheshan. And the sons of Sheshan: Ahlai.

32 And the sons of Jada, the brother of Shammai: Jether
and Jonathan; and Jether came to his end without sons.

33 And the sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were
the sons of Jerahmeel.

34 Now Sheshan had no sons, but only daughters. And
Sheshan had an Egyptian servant, whose name was Jarha.

35 And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha, his servant, as
a wife; and she had Attai by him.

36 And Attai was the father of Nathan, and Nathan was the
father of Zabad,

37 And Zabad was the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal was the
father of Obed,

38 And Obed was the father of Jehu, and Jehu was the
father of Azariah,

39 And Azariah was the father of Helez, and Helez was the
father of Eleasah,

40 And Eleasah was the father of Sismai, and Sismai was
the father of Shallum,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

41 And Shallum was the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah
was the father of Elishama.

42 And the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel, were
Mareshah, his oldest son, who was the father of Ziph and
Hebron.

43 And the sons of Hebron: Korah and Tappuah and
Rekem and Shema.

44 And Shema was the father of Raham, the father of
Jorkeam, and Rekem was the father of Shammai.

45 And the son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the
father of Beth-zur.

46 And Ephah, Caleb's servant-wife, had Haran and Moza
and Gazez; and Haran was the father of Gazez.

47 And the sons of Jahdai: Regem and Jotham and Geshan
and Pelet and Ephah and Shaaph.

48 Maacah, Caleb's servant-wife, was the mother of Sheber
and Tirhanah,

49 And Shaaph, the father of Madmannah, Sheva, the
father of Machbena and the father of Gibea; and Caleb's
daughter was Achsah. These were the sons of Caleb.

50 The sons of Hur, the oldest son of Ephrathah; Shobal,
the father of Kiriath-jearim,

51 Salma, the father of Beth-lehem, Hareph, the father of
Beth-gader.

52 And Shobal, the father of Kiriath-jearim, had sons:
Haroeh, half of the Manahathites.

53 And the families of Kiriath-jearim: the Ithrites and the
Puthites and the Shumathites and the Mishraites; from them
came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.

54 The sons of Salma: Beth-lehem and the Netophathites,
Atroth-beth-Joab and half of the Manahathites, the Zorites.

55 And the families of scribes who were living at Jabez: the
Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. These are the
Kenites, the offspring of Hammath, the father of the family
of Rechab.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 3

1 Now these were David's sons, whose birth took place in
Hebron: the oldest Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; the
second Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite woman;

2 The third Absalom, the son of Maacah, the daughter of
Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth Adonijah, the son of
Haggith;

3 The fifth Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth Ithream, by
Eglah his wife.

4 He had six sons in Hebron; he was ruling there for seven
years and six months, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three years.

5 And in Jerusalem he had four sons, Shimea and Shobab
and Nathan and Solomon, by Bath-shua, the daughter of
Ammiel;

6 And Ibhar and Elishama and Eliphelet

7 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia

8 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet, nine.

9 All these were the sons of David, in addition to the sons of
his servant-wives; and Tamar was their sister.

10 And Solomon's son was Rehoboam, Abijah was his son,
Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,

11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son,

13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,

14 Amon his son, Josiah his son.

15 And the sons of Josiah: the oldest Johanan, the second
Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.

16 And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah
his son.

17 And the sons of Jeconiah, who was taken prisoner:
Shealtiel his son,

18 And Malchiram and Pedaiah and Shenazzar, Jekamiah,
Hoshama and Nedabiah.

19 And the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei; and
the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; and
Shelomith was their sister;

20 And Hashubah and Ohel and Berechiah and Hasadiah,
Jushab-hesed, five.

21 And the sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah; the
sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the
sons of Shecaniah.

22 And the sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah; and the sons of
Shemaiah: Hattush and Igal and Bariah and Neariah and
Shaphat, six.

23 And the sons of Neariah: Elioenai and Hizkiah and
Azrikam, three.

24 And the sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah and Eliashib and
Pelaiah and Akkub and Johanan and Delaiah and Anani,
seven.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 4

1 The sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron and Carmi and Hur and
Shobal.

2 And Reaiah, the son of Shobal, was the father of Jahath;
and Jahath was the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These are
the families of the Zorathites.

3 And these were the sons of Hur, the father of Etam:
Jezreel and Ishma and Idbash, and the name of their sister
was Hazzelelponi;

4 And Penuel, the father of Gedor, and Ezer, the father of
Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the oldest son of
Ephrathah, the father of Beth-lehem.

5 And Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah
and Naarah.

6 And Naarah had Ahuzzam by him, and Hepher and
Temeni and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah.

7 And the sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar and Ethnan.

8 And Koz was the father of Anub and Zobebah, and the
families of Aharhel the son of Harum.

9 And Jabez was honoured more than his brothers; but his
mother had given him the name Jabez, saying, Because I gave
birth to him with sorrow.

10 And Jabez made a prayer to the God of Israel, saying, If
only you would truly give me a blessing, and make wider the
limits of my land, and let your hand be with me, and keep me

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

from evil, so that I may not be troubled by it! And God gave
him his desire.

11 And Chelub, the brother of Shuhah, was the father of
Mehir, who was the father of Eshton.

12 And Eshton was the father of Bethrapha and Paseah and
Tehinnah, the father of Ir-nahash. These are the men of
Recah.

13 And the sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah; and the
sons of Othniel: Hathath.

14 And Meonothai was the father of Ophrah; and Seraiah
was the father of Joab, the father of Ge-harashim; they were
expert workmen.

15 And the sons of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah,
and Naam; and the son of Elah: Kenaz.

16 And the sons of Jehallelel: Ziph and Ziphah, Tiria and
Asarel.

17 And the sons of Ezrah: Jether and Mered and Epher and
Jalon; and these are the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of
Pharaoh, the wife of Mered. And she became the mother of
Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa.

18 And his wife, a woman of the tribe of Judah, became the
mother of Jered, the father of Gedor, and Heber, the father
of Soco, and Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah.

19 And the sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham,
were the father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the
Maacathite.

20 And the sons of Shimon: Amnon and Rinnah, Ben-
hanan and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi: Zoheth; and the son of
Zoheth.

21 The sons of Shelah, the son of Judah: Er, the father of
Lecah, and Laadah, the father of Mareshah, and the families
of those who made delicate linen, of the family of Ashbea;

22 And Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash and
Saraph, who were rulers in Moab, and went back to Beth-
lehem. And the records are very old.

23 These were the potters, and the people living among
planted fields with walls round them; they were there to do
the king's work.

24 The sons of Simeon: Nemuel and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah,
Shaul;

25 Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.

26 And the sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his
son, Shimei his son.

27 And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his
brothers had only a small number of children, and their
family was not as fertile as the children of Judah.

28 And they were living at Beer-sheba and Moladah and
Hazar-shual,

29 And at Bilhah, and at Ezem, and at Tolad,

30 And at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag,

31 And at Beth-marcaboth, and at Hazarsusim, and at
Beth-biri, and at Shaaraim. These were their towns till
David became king.

32 And their small towns were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, and
Tochen and Ashan, five towns;

33 And all the small places round these towns, as far as
Baalath-beer, the high place of the South. These were their
living-places, and they have lists of their generations.

34 And Meshobab and Jamlech and Joshah, the son of
Amaziah,

35 And Joel and Jehu, the son of Joshibiah, the son of
Seraiah, the son of Asiel,

36 And Elioenai and Jaakobah and Jeshohaiah and Asaiah
and Adiel and Jesimiel and Benaiah,

37 And Ziza, the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of
Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah;

38 These, whose names are given, were chiefs in their
families, and their families became very great in number.

39 And they went to the opening into Gedor, as far as the
east side of the valley, in search of grass-land for their flocks.

40 And they came to some good fertile grass-land, in a wide
quiet country of peace-loving people; for the people who
were living there before were of the offspring of Ham.

41 And these whose names are given came in the days of
Hezekiah, king of Judah, and made an attack on the Meunim
who were living there, and put an end to them to this day,
and took their place, because there was grass there for their
flocks.

42 And some of them, five hundred of the sons of Simeon,
went to the hill-country of Seir, with Pelatiah and Neariah
and Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, at their head.

43 And they put to death the rest of the Amalekites who
had got away safely, and made it their living-place to this
day.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 5

1 And the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, (for he
was the oldest son, but, because he made his father's bride-
bed unclean, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph,
the son of Israel; but he is not to be given the place of the
oldest.

2 Though Judah became stronger than his brothers, and
from him came the ruler, the birthright was Joseph's:)

3 The sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and
Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.

4 The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei
his son,

5 Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son,

6 Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria,
took away as a prisoner: he was chief of the Reubenites.

7 And his brothers by their families, when the list of their
generations was made up: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,

8 And Bela, the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of
Joel, who was living in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon;

9 And to the east his limits went as far as the starting point
of the waste land, ending at the river Euphrates, because
their cattle were increased in number in the land of Gilead.

10 And in the days of Saul they made war on the Hagarites,
and overcame them; and they put up their tents through all
the land east of Gilead.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 And the sons of Gad were living opposite to them, in the
land of Bashan as far as Salecah:

12 Joel the chief, and Shapham the second, and Janai and
Shaphat in Bashan;

13 And their brothers, the men of their family: Michael and
Meshullam and Sheba and Jorai and Jacan and Zia and Eber,
seven of them.

14 These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son
of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of
Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz;

15 Ahi, the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, head of their
families.

16 And they were living in Gilead in Bashan, in its small
towns and in all the grass-land of Sirion as far as its limits.

17 All these were listed under the names of their families, in
the time of Jotham, king of Judah, and in the time of
Jeroboam, king of Israel.

18 There were forty-four thousand, seven hundred and sixty
of the sons of Reuben and of the Gadites and of the half-tribe
of Manasseh, all strong men, expert in the use of the body-
cover, the sword, and the bow, and in the art of war, all able
to take up arms.

19 And they went to war against the Hagarites, with Jetur
and Naphish and Nodab.

20 And they were helped against them, so that the
Hagarites, and those with them, were given into their power.
For they sent up prayers to God in the fight, and he gave ear
to them, because they put their faith in him.

21 And they took away their cattle: fifty thousand camels,
two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand
asses, and a hundred thousand men.

22 And a very great number went to their death, because
the war was God's purpose. And they went on living in their
place till they were taken away as prisoners.

23 And the men of the half-tribe of Manasseh were living in
the land: and their numbers were increased till all the land
from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and the mountain
Hermon was theirs.

24 And these were the heads of their families: Epher and
Ishi and Eliel and Azriel and Jeremiah and Hodaviah and
Jahdiel, men of war, of great name, heads of families.

25 And they did evil against the God of their fathers,
worshipping the gods of the people of the land, whom God
had put to destruction before them.

26 And the God of Israel put an impulse into the heart of
Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria,
who took them away as prisoners, all the Reubenites and the
Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to Halah and Habor
and Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 6

1 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

2 And the sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and
Uzziel.

3 And the sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses and Miriam.
And the sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and
Ithamar.

4 Eleazar was the father of Phinehas; Phinehas was the
father of Abishua;

5 And Abishua was the father of Bukki, and Bukki was the
father of Uzzi,

6 And Uzzi was the father of Zerahiah, and Zerahiah was
the father of Meraioth;

7 Meraioth was the father of Amariah, and Amariah was
the father of Ahitub,

8 And Ahitub was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the
father of Ahimaaz,

9 And Ahimaaz was the father of Azariah, and Azariah was
the father of Johanan,

10 And Johanan was the father of Azariah, (he was priest in
the house which Solomon put up in Jerusalem:)

11 And Azariah was the father of Amariah, and Amariah
was the father of Ahitub,

12 And Ahitub was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the
father of Shallum,

13 And Shallum was the father of Hilkiah, and Hilkiah was
the father of Azariah,

14 And Azariah was the father of Seraiah, and Seraiah was
the father of Jehozadak;

15 And Jehozadak went as a prisoner when the Lord took
away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

16 The sons of Levi; Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

17 And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni
and Shimei.

18 And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron,
and Uzziel.

19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. And these are the
families of the Levites listed by the names of their fathers.

20 Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his
son,

21 Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his
son.

22 The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son,
Assir his son,

23 Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son,

24 Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul
his son.

25 And the sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth.

26 Elkanah his son: Zophai his son, and Nahath his son,

27 Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son, Samuel
his son.

28 And the sons of Samuel: the oldest Joel, and the second
Abiah.

29 The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son,
Uzzah his son,

30 Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son.

31 And these are those whom David made responsible for
the music in the house of the Lord, after the ark had rest.

32 They gave worship with songs before the House of the
Tent of meeting, till Solomon put up the house of the Lord

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

in Jerusalem; and they took their places for their work in
their regular order.

33 And these are those who did this work, and their sons.
Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman, who made melody, the
son of Joel, the son of Samuel,

34 The son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel,
the son of Toah,

35 The son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath,
the son of Amasai,

36 The son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah,
the son of Zephaniah,

37 The son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph,
the son of Korah,

38 The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the
son of Israel.

39 And his brother Asaph, whose place was at his right
hand, Asaph, the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea,

40 The son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah, the son of
Malchijah,

41 The son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah,

42 The son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei,

43 The son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi.

44 And on the left their brothers, the sons of Merari: Ethan,
the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch,

45 The son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of
Hilkiah,

46 The son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shemer,

47 The son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari,
the son of Levi.

48 And their brothers the Levites were responsible for all
the work of the Tent of the house of God.

49 But Aaron and his sons made offerings on the altar of
burned offering, and on the altar of perfume, for all the work
of the most holy place, and to take away the sin of Israel,
doing everything ordered by Moses, the servant of God.

50 And these are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son,
Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,

51 Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,

52 Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,

53 Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.

54 Now these are their living-places, the limits inside which
they were to put up their tents: to the sons of Aaron, of the
families of the Kohathites, because they had the first selection,

55 To them they gave Hebron and its outskirts in the land
of Judah;

56 But the open country of the town, and the small places
round it, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

57 And to the sons of Aaron they gave Hebron, the town to
which men might go in flight and be safe, and Libnah with
its outskirts, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with its outskirts,

58 And Hilen with its outskirts, Debir with its outskirts,

59 And Ashan with its outskirts, and Beth-shemesh with its
outskirts;

60 And from the tribe of Benjamin: Geba with its outskirts,
and Alemeth with its outskirts, and Anathoth with its

outskirts. All their towns among their families were thirteen
towns.

61 And to the rest of the sons of Kohath there were given
by the Lord's decision ten towns out of the families of the
tribe of Ephraim and out of the tribe of Dan and out of the
half-tribe of Manasseh.

62 And to the sons of Gershom, by their families, out of the
tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the
tribe of Naphtali, and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan,
thirteen towns.

63 And to the sons of Merari, by their families, twelve
towns were given by the Lord's decision, out of the tribe of
Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of
Zebulun.

64 And the children of Israel gave to the Levites the towns
with their outskirts.

65 And they gave by the Lord's decision out of the tribe of
the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of
Simeon, and out of the tribe of the children of Benjamin,
these towns whose names are given.

66 And to the families of the sons of Kohath were given
towns by the Lord's decision out of the tribe of Ephraim.

67 And they gave them the town to which men might go in
flight and be safe, Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim
with its outskirts, and Gezer with its outskirts,

68 And Jokmeam with its outskirts, and Beth-horon with
its outskirts,

69 And Aijalon with its outskirts, and Gath-rimmon with
its outskirts;

70 And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its
outskirts, and Bileam with its outskirts, for the rest of the
family of the sons of Kohath.

71 To the sons of Gershom were given, out of the family of
the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its
outskirts, and Ashtaroth with its outskirts;

72 And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its
outskirts, and Daberath with its outskirts,

73 And Ramoth with its outskirts, and Anem with its
outskirts;

74 And out of the tribe of Asher, Mashal with its outskirts,
and Abdon with its outskirts,

75 And Hukok with its outskirts, and Rehob with its
outskirts;

76 And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with
its outskirts, and Hammon with its outskirts, and
Kiriathaim with its outskirts.

77 To the rest of the Levites, the sons of Merari, were given,
out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmono with its outskirts,
Tabor with its outskirts;

78 And on the other side of Jordan, at Jericho, on the east
side of Jordan, were given them, out of the tribe of Reuben,
Bezer in the waste land with its outskirts, and Jahzah with its
outskirts,

79 And Kedemoth with its outskirts, and Mephaath with
its outskirts;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

80 And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its
outskirts, and Mahanaim with its outskirts,

81 And Heshbon with its outskirts, and Jazer with its
outskirts.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 7

1 And of the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puah, Jashub and
Shimron, four.

2 And the sons of Tola: Uzzi and Rephaiah and Jeriel and
Jahmai and Ibsam and Shemuel, heads of their families; they
were men of war; in the record of their generations their
number in the time of David was twenty-two thousand, six
hundred.

3 And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah; and the sons of Izrahiah:
Michael and Obadiah and Joel and Isshiah, five; all of them
chiefs.

4 And with them, recorded in generations by their families,
were bands of fighting-men, thirty-six thousand of them, for
they had a great number of wives and sons.

5 And there were recorded among all the families of
Issachar, great men of war, eighty-seven thousand.

6 The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Jediael, three.

7 And the sons of Bela: Ezbon and Uzzi and Uzziel and
Jerimoth and Iri, five; heads of their families, great men of
war; there were twenty-two thousand and thirty-four of
them recorded by their families.

8 And the sons of Becher: Zemirah and Joash and Eliezer
and Elioenai and Omri and Jerimoth and Abijah and
Anathoth and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher.

9 And they were recorded by their generations, heads of
their families, great men of war, twenty thousand, two
hundred.

10 And the sons of Jediael: Bilhan; and the sons of Bilhan:
Jeush and Benjamin and Ehud and Chenaanah and Zethan
and Tarshish and Ahishahar.

11 All these were the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their
families, seventeen thousand, two hundred men of war, able
to go out with the army for war.

12 And Shuppim and Huppim. The sons of Dan, Hushim
his son, one.

13 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel and Guni and Jezer and
Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.

14 The sons of Manasseh by his servant-wife, the Aramaean
woman: she gave birth to Machir, the father of Gilead;

15 (And Gilead took a wife, whose name was Maacah, and
his sister's name was Hammoleketh;) and the name of his
brother was Zelophehad, who was the father of daughters.

16 And Maacah, the wife of Gilead, gave birth to a son to
whom she gave the name Peresh; and his brother was named
Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.

17 And the son of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of
Gilead, the son of Machir the son of Manasseh.

18 And his sister Hammoleketh was the mother of Ishhod
and Abiezer and Mahlah.

19 And the sons of Shemida were Ahian and Shechem and
Likhi and Aniam.

20 And the sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah and Bered his son,
and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Tahath his son,

21 And Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and
Elead, whom the men of Gath, who had been living in the
land from their birth, put to death, because they came down
to take away their cattle.

22 And for a long time Ephraim their father went on
weeping for them, and his brothers came to give him comfort.

23 After that, he had connection with his wife, and she
became with child and gave birth to a son, to whom his
father gave the name of Beriah, because trouble had come on
his family.

24 And his daughter was Sheerah, the builder of Beth-
horon the lower and the higher, and Uzzen-sheerah.

25 And Rephah was his son, and Resheph; his son was
Telah, and his son was Tahan;

26 Ladan was his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,

27 Nun his son, Joshua his son.

28 Their heritage and their living-places were Beth-el and
its daughter-towns, and Naaran to the east, and Gezer to the
west, with its daughter-towns, as well as Shechem and its
daughter-towns as far as Azzah and its daughter-towns;

29 And by the limits of the children of Manasseh, Beth-
shean and its daughter-towns, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor,
with their daughter-towns. In these the children of Joseph,
the son of Israel, were living.

30 The sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and
Beriah and Serah, their sister.

31 And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel, who was
the father of Birzaith.

32 And Heber was the father of Japhlet and Shomer and
Hotham and Shua, their sister.

33 And the sons of Japhlet: Pasach and Bimhal and Ashvath.
These are the sons of Japhlet.

34 And the sons of Shomer: Ahi and Rohgah, Jehubbah and
Aram.

35 And the sons of Hotham, his brother: Zophah and Imna
and Shelesh and Amal.

36 The sons of Zophah: Suah and Harnepher and Shual and
Beri and Imrah,

37 Bezer and Hod and Shamma and Shilshah and Ithran
and Beera.

38 And the sons of Jether: Jephunneh and Pispah and Ara.

39 And the sons of Ulla: Arah and Hanniel and Rizia.

40 All these were the children of Asher, heads of their
families, specially strong men of war, chiefs of the rulers.
They were recorded in the army for war, twenty-six thousand
men in number.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 8

1 And Benjamin was the father of Bela his oldest son,
Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third,

2 Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth.

3 And Bela had sons, Addar and Gera, the father of Ehud,

4 And Abishua and Naaman and Ahoah

5 And Gera and Shephuphan and Huram.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And these are the sons of Ehud, heads of families of those
living in Geba: Iglaam and Alemeth

7 And Naaman and Ahijah and Gera; and Iglaam was the
father of Uzza and Ahihud.

8 And Shaharaim became the father of children in the
country of the Moabites after driving out Hushim and
Beerah his wives;

9 And by Hodesh his wife he became the father of Jobab and
Zibia and Mesha and Malcam.

10 And Jeuz and Shachia and Mirmah. These were his sons,
heads of families.

11 And Hushim became the father of Abitub and Elpaal.

12 And the sons of Elpaal: Eber and Misham and Shemed
(he was the builder of Ono and Lod and their daughter-
towns);

13 And Beriah and Shema, who were heads of the families
of those who were living in Aijalon, who put to flight the
people living in Gath;

14 And their brothers Shashak and Jeremoth.

15 And Zebadiah and Arad and Eder

16 And Michael and Ishpah and Joha, the sons of Beriah;

17 And Zebadiah and Meshullam and Hizki and Heber

18 And Ishmerai and Izliah and Jobab, the sons of Elpaal;

19 And Jakim and Zichri and Zabdi

20 And Elienai and Zillethai and Eliel

21 And Adaiah and Beraiah and Shimrath, the sons of
Shimei;

22 And Ishpan and Eber and Eliel

23 And Abdon and Zichri and Hanan

24 And Hananiah and Elam and Anathothijah

25 And Iphdeiah and Penuel, the sons of Shashak;

26 And Shamsherai and Shehariah and Athaliah

27 And Jaareshiah and Elijah and Zichri, the sons of
Jeremoth.

28 These were heads of families in their generations; chief
men: these were living in Jerusalem.

29 And in Gibeon was living the father of Gibeon, Jeiel,
whose wife's name was Maacah;

30 And his oldest son Abdon, and Zur and Kish and Baal
and Ner and Nadab

31 And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth.

32 And Mikloth was the father of Shimeah. And they were
living with their brothers in Jerusalem opposite their
brothers.

33 And Ner was the father of Abner, and Kish was the
father of Saul, and Saul was the father of Jonathan and
Malchi-shua and Abinadab and Eshbaal.

34 And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-
baal was the father of Micah.

35 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tarea
and Ahaz.

36 And Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah; and Jehoaddah
was the father of Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and
Zimri was the father of Moza;

37 And Moza was the father of Binea: Raphah was his son,
Eleasah his son, Azel his son;

38 And Azel had five sons, whose names are: Azrikam, his
oldest, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan.
All these were the sons of Azel.

39 And the sons of Eshek his brother: Ulam his oldest son,
Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third.

40 And the sons of Ulam were men of war, bowmen, and
had a great number of sons and sons' sons, a hundred and
fifty. All these were the sons of Benjamin.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 9

1 So all Israel was listed by their families; and, truly, they
are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah
was taken away as prisoners to Babylon because of their sin.

2 Now the first to take up their heritage in their towns were:
Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim.

3 And in Jerusalem there were living some of the sons of
Judah, and of Benjamin, and of Ephraim and Manasseh;

4 Uthai, the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of
Imri, the son of Bani, of the sons of Perez, the son of Judah.

5 And of the Shilonites: Asaiah the oldest, and his sons.

6 And of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel, and their brothers, six
hundred and ninety.

7 And of the sons of Benjamin: Sallu, the son of Meshullam,
Judah, the son of Hassenuah,

8 And Ibneiah, the son of Jeroham, and Elah, the son of
Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam, the son of
Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;

9 And their brothers, in the list of their generations, nine
hundred and fifty-six. All these men were heads of families,
listed by the names of their fathers.

10 And of the priests: Jedaiah and Jehoiarib and Jachin

11 And Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam,
the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the
ruler of the house of God;

12 And Adaiah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the
son of Malchijah, and Maasai, the son of Adiel, the son of
Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the
son of Immer;

13 And their brothers, heads of their families, a thousand
and seven hundred and sixty: able men, doing the work of the
house of God.

14 And of the Levites: Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the
son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;

15 And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah, the
son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;

16 And Obadiah, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the
son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah, the son of Asa, the son of
Elkanah, who were living in the small towns of the
Netophathites.

17 And the door-keepers: Shallum and Akkub and Talmon
and Ahiman and their brothers: Shallum was the chief.

18 Up till then they had been at the king's door to the east.
They were door-keepers for the tents of the sons of Levi.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 And Shallum, the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the
son of Korah, and his brothers, of his family, the Korahites,
were responsible for everything which had to be done in
connection with the order of worship, keepers of the doors of
the Tent; their fathers had had the care of the tents of the
Lord, being keepers of the doorway.

20 In the past Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, had been ruler
over them; may the Lord be with him!

21 Zechariah, the son of Meshelemiah, was keeper of the
door of the Tent of meeting.

22 There were two hundred and twelve whose business it
was to keep the doorway. These were listed by families in the
country places where they were living, whom David and
Samuel the seer put in their responsible positions.

23 So they and their sons had the care of the doors of the
house of the Lord, the house of the Tent, as watchers.

24 There were keepers of the doors on the four sides, to the
east, west, north, and south.

25 And their brothers, in the country places where they
were living, were to come in every seven days to be with them
from time to time.

26 For the four chief door-keepers, who were Levites, had a
special position, looking after the rooms and the store-
houses of the house of God.

27 Their sleeping-rooms were round the house of God, for
they had the care of it, and were responsible for opening it
morning by morning.

28 Certain of them had the care of the vessels used in
worship, to keep an account of them when they came in and
when they were taken out again.

29 And some of them were responsible for the holy things
and for the vessels of the holy place, and the meal and the
wine and the oil and the perfume and the spices.

30 And some of the sons of the priests were responsible for
crushing the spices.

31 And Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the oldest son of
Shallum the Korahite, was responsible for cooking the flat
cakes.

32 And some of their brothers, sons of the Kohathites, were
responsible for the holy bread which was put in order before
the Lord, to get it ready every Sabbath.

33 And these were those who had the ordering of the music
and songs, heads of families of the Levites, who were living in
the rooms, and were free from other work, for their work
went on day and night.

34 These were heads of families of the Levites in their
generations, chief men; they were living at Jerusalem.

35 And in Gibeon was living the father of Gibeon, Jeiel,
whose wife's name was Maacah;

36 And Abdon his oldest son, and Zur and Kish and Baal
and Ner and Nadab

37 And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth

38 Mikloth was the father of Shimeam. They were living
with their brothers in Jerusalem opposite their brothers.

39 And Ner was the father of Kish; and Kish was the father
of Saul; and Saul was the father of Jonathan and Malchi-shua
and Abinadab and Eshbaal.

40 And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-
baal was the father of Micah.

41 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tahrea
and Ahaz.

42 And Ahaz was the father of Jarah; and Jarah was the
father of Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and Zimri was
the father of Moza.

43 And Moza was the father of Binea; and Rephaiah was his
son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.

44 And Azel had five sons, whose names are: Azrikam, his
oldest son, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and
Hanan: these were the sons of Azel.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 10

1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel; and the
men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling
down wounded in Mount Gilboa.

2 And the Philistines went hard after Saul and his sons, and
put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the
sons of Saul.

3 And the fight was going against Saul, and the archers
came across him, and he was wounded by the archers.

4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms,
Take your sword and put it through me, before these men
without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his
servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his
sword, falling on it himself.

5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the
same, and came to his death.

6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons; all his family
came to an end together.

7 And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw
that the men of Israel had gone in flight and that Saul and his
sons were dead, they went in flight away from their towns;
and the Philistines came and took them for themselves.

8 Now the day after, when the Philistines came to take their
goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his sons dead in
Mount Gilboa.

9 And they took everything off him, and took his head and
his war-dress, and sent word into the land of the Philistines
round about to give the news to their gods and to the people.

10 And they put his war-dress in the house of their gods,
and put up his head in the house of Dagon.

11 And when the news came to Jabesh-gilead of what the
Philistines had done to Saul,

12 All the fighting-men came up and took away Saul's body
and the bodies of his sons, and took them to Jabesh, and put
their bones to rest under the oak-tree in Jabesh, and took no
food for seven days.

13 So death came to Saul because of the sin which he did
against the Lord, that is, because of the word of the Lord
which he kept not; and because he went for directions to one
who had an evil spirit,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And not to the Lord: for this reason, he put him to
death and gave the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 11

1 Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron, and
said, Truly, we are your bone and your flesh.

2 In the past, when Saul was king, it was you who went at
the head of Israel when they went out or came in; and the
Lord your God said to you, You are to be the keeper of my
people Israel, and their ruler.

3 So all the responsible men of Israel came to the king at
Hebron; and David made an agreement with them in Hebron
before the Lord; and they put the holy oil on David and
made him king over Israel, as the Lord had said by Samuel.

4 Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (which is
Jebus); and the Jebusites, the people of the land, were there.

5 And the people of Jebus said to David, You will not come
in here. But still, David took the strong place of Zion, which
is the town of David.

6 And David said, The first to overcome the Jebusites will
be chief and captain. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up
first, and became chief.

7 And David took the strong tower for his living-place, so
it was named the town of David.

8 And he took in hand the building of the town all round,
starting from the Millo; and Joab put the rest of the town in
order.

9 And David became greater and greater in power, because
the Lord of armies was with him.

10 Now these are the chief of David's men of war who were
his strong supporters in the kingdom, and, with all Israel,
made him king, as the Lord had said about Israel.

11 This is the list of David's men of war: Ishbaal, the son of
a Hachmonite, the chief of the three: he put to death three
hundred at one time with his spear.

12 And after him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite,
who was one of the three great fighters.

13 He was with David at Pas-dammim, where the
Philistines had come together for the fight, near a bit of land
full of barley; and the people went in flight before the
Philistines.

14 And he took up his position in the middle of the bit of
land, and kept back their attack, and overcame the
Philistines; and the Lord gave a great salvation.

15 And three of the thirty went down to David, to the rock,
into the strong place of Adullam; and the army of the
Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of
Rephaim.

16 At that time David had taken cover in the strong place,
and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-lehem.

17 And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only
someone would give me a drink of the water from the water-
hole of Beth-lehem by the doorway into the town!

18 So the three, forcing a way through the Philistine army,
got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the
doorway into the town, and took it back to David; but

David would not take it, but made an offering of it, draining
it out to the Lord,

19 Saying, By my God, far be it from me to do this! How
may I take as drink the life-blood of these men who have put
their lives in danger? so he did not take it. These things did
the three great men of war.

20 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the thirty,
for he put to death three hundred with his spear, but he had
not aname among the three.

21 Of the thirty, he was the noblest, and was made their
captain, but he was not equal to the first three.

22 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a fighting-man of Kabzeel,
had done great acts; he put to death two young lions going
into their secret place; and he went down into a hole and put
a lion to death in time of snow.

23 And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a very tall man
about five cubits high, armed with a spear like a cloth-
worker's rod; he went down to him with a stick, and pulling
his spear out of the hand of the Egyptian, put him to death
with that same spear.

24 These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who
had a great name among the thirty men of war.

25 He was honoured over the thirty, but he was not equal
to the first three: and David put him over his servants.

26 And these were the great men of war: Asahel, the
brother of Joab, Elhanan, the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem,

27 Shammoth the Harodite, Helez the Pelonite,

28 Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the
Anathothite,

29 Sibbecai the Hushathite, Iai the Ahohite,

30 Maharai the Netophathite, Heled, the son of Baanah the
Netophathite,

31 Ithai, the son of Ribai of Gibeah, of the children of
Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite,

32 Hurai of Nahale-gaash, Abiel the Arbathite,

33 Azmaveth of Bahurim, Eliahba the Shaalbonite,

34 The sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan, the son of
Shage the Hararite,

35 Ahiam, the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal, the son of
Ur,

36 Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite,

37 Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai, the son of Ezbai,

38 Joel, the brother of Nathan, Mibhar, the son of Hagri,

39 Zelek the Ammonite, and Naharai the Berothite, the
servant who had the care of the arms of Joab, the son of
Zeruiah;

40 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

41 Uriah the Hittite, Zabad, the son of Ahlai,

42 Adina, the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a chief of the
Reubenites, and thirty with him;

43 Hanan, the son of Maacah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite,

44 Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jeiel, the sons of
Hotham the Aroerite,

45 Jediael, the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the
Tizite,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

46 Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai and Joshaviah, the sons
of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite,
47 Eliel and Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobaite.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 12

1 Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag,
while he was still shut up, because of Saul, the son of Kish;
they were among the strong men, his helpers in war.

2 They were armed with bows, and were able to send stones,
and arrows from the bow, with right hand or left: they were
Saul's brothers, of Benjamin.

3 Ahiezer was their chief, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah
the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth;
and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite;

4 And Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a great man among the
thirty, and their chief; and Jeremiah and Jehaziel and
Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite;

5 Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and
Shephatiah the Haruphite;

6 Elkanah and Isshiah and Azarel and Joezer and
Jashobeam, the Korahites;

7 And Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.

8 And some of the Gadites, siding with David, went to his
strong place in the waste land, great and strong men, trained
for war, expert in the use of arms, whose faces were like the
faces of lions, and they were quick-footed like roes on the
mountains;

9 Ezer their chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,

10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,

11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh,

12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,

13 Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh.

14 These Gadites were captains of the army; the least of
them was captain over a hundred men, and the greatest over
a thousand.

15 It was they who went over Jordan in the first month,
when the river was overflowing, and put to flight all the
people of the valleys, to the east and to the west.

16 And some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to
David in his strong place.

17 And David went out to them, and said to them, If you
have come in peace to give me help, my heart will be united
with yours; but if you have come to give me up to those who
would take my life, though my hands are clean from
wrongdoing, then may the God of our fathers see it and give
you punishment.

18 Then the spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the
captains, and he said, We are yours, David, we are on your
side, O son of Jesse: may peace be with you and peace be with
your helpers; for God is your helper. Then David took them
into his army and made them captains of the band.

19 And some of the men of Manasseh came over to David,
when he went with the Philistines to the war against Saul,
but he gave them no help: for the lords of the Philistines,
after discussion, sent him away, saying, He will go back to
his master Saul, at the price of our lives.

20 Then when he went back to Ziklag, there came over to
him, of the men of Manasseh, Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael
and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, captains of
thousands from the armies of Manasseh.

21 And they gave David help against the armed bands, for
they were all great men of war, and captains in the army.

22 And from day to day more supporters came to David,
till he had a great army like the army of God.

23 These are the numbers of the chiefs of the armed men,
ready for war, who came to David at Hebron, to give the
kingdom of Saul into his hands, as the Lord had said.

24 There were six thousand, eight hundred spearmen of the
children of Judah, armed for war;

25 Seven thousand, one hundred of the children of Simeon,
great men of war;

26 Of the children of Levi, four thousand, six hundred.

27 And Jehoiada, chief of the family of Aaron, and with
him three thousand, seven hundred men;

28 And Zadok, a young man, great and strong in war, with
twenty-two captains from his father's people.

29 And of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul,
three thousand; for up to that time the greater part of them
had been true to Saul.

30 And of the children of Ephraim, twenty thousand, eight
hundred great men of war, men of great name in their
families.

31 And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand,
listed by name, came to make David king.

32 And of the children of Issachar, there were two hundred
chiefs, men who had expert knowledge of the times and what
it was best for Israel to do, and all their brothers were under
their orders.

33 Of Zebulun, there were fifty thousand men, who went
out with the army, expert in ordering the fight, to give help
with all sorts of arms; true-hearted men.

34 And of Naphtali, a thousand captains with thirty-seven
thousand spearmen.

35 And of the Danites, twenty-eight thousand, six hundred,
expert in ordering the fight.

36 And of Asher, forty thousand who went out with the
army, expert in ordering the fight.

37 From the other side of Jordan, there were a hundred and
twenty thousand of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the
men of the half-tribe of Manasseh, armed with every sort of
instrument of war.

38 All these men of war, expert in ordering the fight, came
to Hebron with the full purpose of making David king over
all Israel; and all the rest of Israel were united in their desire
to make David king.

39 For three days they were there with David, feasting at
his table, for their brothers had made ready food for them.

40 And those who were near, as far as Issachar and Zebulun
and Naphtali, came with food on asses and camels and mules
and oxen, with meal for food and cakes of figs and masses of
grapes, and wine and oil and oxen and sheep in great
numbers, for there was joy in Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 13

1 Then David had discussions with the captains of
thousands and the captains of hundreds and with every chief.

2 And David said to all the men of Israel who had come
together there, If it seems good to you and if it is the purpose
of the Lord our God, let us send to all the rest of our
brothers, everywhere in the land of Israel, and to the priests
and the Levites in their towns and the country round them,
and get them to come together here to us;

3 And let us get back for ourselves the ark of our God: for
in the days of Saul we did not go to it for directions.

4 And all the people said they would do so, for it seemed
right to them.

5 So David sent for all Israel to come together, from Shihor,
the river of Egypt, as far as the way into Hamath, to get the
ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

6 And David went up, with all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to
Kiriath-jearim in Judah, to get up from there the ark of God,
over which the holy Name is named, the name of the Lord
whose place is between the winged ones.

7 And they put the ark of God on a new cart, and took it
out of the house of Abinadab; and Uzza and Ahio were the
drivers of the cart.

8 Then David and all Israel made melody before God with
all their strength, with songs and corded instruments of
music, and with brass instruments and horns.

9 And when they came to the grain-floor of Chidon, Uzza
put out his hand to keep the ark in its place, for the oxen
were slipping.

10 And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzza, sent
destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark,
and death came to him there before God.

11 And David was angry because of the Lord's outburst of
wrath against Uzza, and he gave that place the name Perez-
uzza, to this day.

12 And so great was David's fear of God that day, that he
said, How may I let the ark of God come to me?

13 So David did not let the ark come back to him to the
town of David, but had it turned away and put into the
house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

14 And the ark of God was in the house of Obed-edom for
three months; and the Lord sent a blessing on the house of
Obed-edom and on all he had.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 14

1 And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent men to David with cedar-
trees, and stoneworkers and woodworkers for the building of
his house.

2 And David saw that the Lord had made his position safe
as king over Israel, lifting up his kingdom on high because of
his people Israel.

3 And while he was living in Jerusalem, David took more
wives and became the father of more sons and daughters.

4 These are the names of the children he had in Jerusalem:
Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon

5 And Ibhar and Elishua and Elpelet

6 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia

7 And Elishama and Beeliada and Eliphelet.

8 And when the Philistines had news that David had been
made king over all Israel, they went up in search of David,
and David, hearing of it, went out against them.

9 Now the Philistines had come, and had gone out in every
direction in the valley of Rephaim.

10 And David, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to
go up against the Philistines? and will you give them into my
hands? And the Lord said, Go up; for I will give them into
your hands.

11 So they went up to Baal-perazim, and David overcame
them there, and David said, God has let the forces fighting
against me be broken by my hand, as a wall is broken down
by rushing water; so they gave that place the name of Baal-
perazim.

12 And the Philistines did not take their images with them
in their flight; and at David's orders they were burned with
fire.

13 Then the Philistines again went out in every direction in
the valley.

14 And David went for directions to God; and God said to
him, You are not to go up after them; but, turning away
from them, come face to face with them opposite the spice-
trees.

15 And at the sound of footsteps in the tops of the trees, go
out to the fight, for God has gone out before you to
overcome the army of the Philistines.

16 And David did as the Lord had said; and they overcame
the army of the Philistines, attacking them from Gibeon as
far as Gezer.

17 And David's name was honoured in all lands; and the
Lord put the fear of him on all nations.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 15

1 And David made houses for himself in the town of David;
and he got ready a place for the ark of God, and put up a tent
for it.

2 Then David said, The ark of God may not be moved by
any but the Levites, for they have been marked out by God to
take the ark of God, and to do his work for ever.

3 And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to
take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready
for it.

4 And David got together the sons of Aaron, and the
Levites;

5 Of the sons of Kohath: Uriel the chief, and his brothers, a
hundred and twenty;

6 Of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief, and his brothers,
two hundred and twenty;

7 Of the sons of Gershom: Joel the chief, and his brothers, a
hundred and thirty;

8 Of the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief, and his
brothers, two hundred;

9 Of the sons of Hebron: Eliel the chief, and his brothers,
eighty;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Of the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the chief, and his
brothers, a hundred and twelve.

11 And David sent for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and
for the Levites, Uriel, Asaiah and Joel, Shemaiah and Eliel
and Amminadab,

12 And said to them, You are the heads of the families of
the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so
that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to
the place which I have made ready for it.

13 For because you did not take it at the first, the Lord our
God sent punishment on us, because we did not get directions
from him in the right way.

14 So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy to
take up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.

15 And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God,
lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses.

16 And David gave orders to the chief of the Levites to put
their brothers the music-makers in position, with
instruments of music, corded instruments and brass, with
glad voices making sounds of joy.

17 So Heman, the son of Joel, and, of his brothers, Asaph,
the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers,
Ethan, the son of Kushaiah, were put in position by the
Levites;

18 And with them their brothers of the second order,
Zechariah, Bani and Jaaziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and
Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and
Eliphelehu and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom and Jeiel, the
door-keepers.

19 So those who made melody, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan,
were put in position, with brass instruments, sounding
loudly;

20 And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel,
Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah, with corded
instruments put to Alamoth.

21 And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and
Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah, with corded instruments
on the octave, to give the first note of the song.

22 And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was master of the
music: he gave directions about the song, because he was
expert.

23 And Berechiah and Elkanah were door-keepers for the
ark.

24 And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethanel and Amasai
and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, made
music on the horns before the ark of God; and Obed-edom
and Jehiah were door-keepers for the ark.

25 So David, and the responsible men of Israel, and the
captains over thousands, went with joy to get the ark of the
agreement of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom.

26 And when God gave help to the Levites who were lifting
up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, they made an
offering of seven oxen and seven sheep.

27 And David was clothed with a robe of fair linen, as were
all the Levites who took up the ark, and those who made

melody, and Chenaniah the master of those who made
melody; and David had on a linen ephod;

28 So all Israel took up the ark of the agreement of the
Lord, with loud cries and with horns and brass and corded
instruments sounding loudly.

29 And when the ark of the agreement of the Lord came
into the town of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul,
looking out of the window, saw King David dancing and
playing; and to her mind he seemed foolish.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 16

1 Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the
tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings,
burned offerings and peace-offerings before God.

2 And when David had come to an end of making the
burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a
blessing in the name of the Lord.

3 And he gave to everyone, every man and woman of Israel,
acake of bread, some meat, and a cake of dry grapes.

4 And he put some of the Levites before the ark of the Lord
as servants, to keep the acts of the Lord in memory, and to
give worship and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel:

5 Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Uzziel and
Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and
Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with corded instruments
of music; and Asaph, with brass instruments sounding loudly;

6 And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests, blowing horns all
the time before the ark of the agreement of God.

7 Then on that day David first made the giving of praise to
the Lord the work of Asaph and his brothers.

8 O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name,
talking of his doings among the peoples.

9 Let your voice be sounded in songs and melody; let all
your thoughts be of the wonder of his works.

10 Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who
are searching after the Lord be glad.

11 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let
your hearts ever be turned to him.

12 Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his
wonders, and the decisions of his mouth;

13 O you seed of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob,
his loved ones.

14 He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth.

15 He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word
which he gave for a thousand generations;

16 The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his
oath to Isaac;

17 And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an
eternal agreement;

18 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the
measured line of your heritage:

19 When you were still small in number, and strange in the
land;

20 When they went about from one nation to another, and
from one kingdom to another people;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept
back kings because of them,

22 Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been
marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong.

23 Make songs to the Lord, all the earth; give the good
news of his salvation day by day.

24 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to
all the peoples.

25 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he
is more to be feared than all other gods.

26 For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the
Lord made the heavens.

27 Honour and glory are before him: strength and joy are
in his holy place.

28 Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to
the Lord glory and strength.

29 Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an
offering and come before him; give worship to the Lord in
holy robes.

30 Be in fear before him, all the earth: the world is ordered
so that it may not be moved.

31 Let the heavens have joy and let the earth be glad; let
them say among the nations, The Lord is King.

32 Let the sea be thundering with all its waters; let the field
be glad, and everything which is in it;

33 Then let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy
before the Lord, for he is come to be the judge of the earth.

34 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

35 And say, Be our saviour, O God of our salvation, and let
us come back, and give us salvation from the nations, so that
we may give honour to your holy name and have glory in
your praise.

36 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for ever and for
ever. And all the people said, So be it; and gave praise to the
Lord.

37 So he made Asaph and his brothers keep their places
there before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, to do
whatever had to be done before the ark at all times day by
day:

38 And Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, with
their brothers, sixty-eight of them, to be door-keepers:

39 And Zadok the priest, with his brothers the priests,
before the House of the Lord in the high place at Gibeon;

40 To give burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of
burned offerings morning and evening, every day, as it is
ordered in the law of the Lord which he gave to Israel;

41 And with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who
were marked out by name to give praise to the Lord, for his
mercy is unchanging for ever;

42 And Heman and Jeduthun had horns and _ brass
instruments sounding loudly, and instruments of music for
the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the
door.

43 And all the people went away, every man to his house;
and David went back to give a blessing to his family.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 17

1 Now when David was living in his house, he said to
Nathan the prophet, See, I am living in a house of cedar-
wood, but the ark of the Lord's agreement is under the
curtains of a tent.

2 And Nathan said to David, Do whatever is in your heart,
for God is with you.

3 But that same night, the word of God came to Nathan,
saying,

4 Go and say to David my servant, The Lord says, You are
not to make me a house for my living-place:

5 For from the day when I took Israel up, till this day, I
have had no house, but have gone from tent to tent, and from
living-place to living-place.

6 In all the places where I have gone with all Israel, did I
ever say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I made the
keepers of my people, Why have you not made for me a house
of cedar?

7 So now, say to my servant David, The Lord of armies says,
I took you from the fields, from keeping sheep, so that you
might be a ruler over my people Israel;

8 And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off
before you all those who were against you; and I will make
your name like the name of the greatest ones of the earth.

9 And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel,
planting them there, so that they may be in the place which is
theirs and never again be moved; and never again will they be
made waste by evil men, as they were at first,

10 From the time when I put judges over my people Israel;
and I will overcome all those who are against you; and I will
make you great and the head of a line of kings.

11 And when the time comes for you to go to your fathers, I
will put in your place your seed after you, one of your sons,
and J will make his kingdom strong.

12 He will be the builder of my house, and I will make the
seat of his authority certain for ever.

13 I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son; and I
will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him
who was before you;

14 But I will make his place in my house and in my
kingdom certain for ever; and the seat of his authority will
never be overturned.

15 So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and
this vision.

16 Then David the king went in and took his seat before the
Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my
family, that you have been my guide till now?

17 And this was only a small thing to you, O God; but your
words have even been about the far-off future of your
servant's family, looking on me as on one of high position, O
Lord God.

18 What more may David say to you? for you have
knowledge of your servant.

19 O Lord, because of your servant, and from your heart,
you have done all these great things and let them be seen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but
you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

21 And what other nation in the earth, like your people
Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people,
making his name great and to be feared, driving out the
nations from before your people whom you made free and
took out of Egypt?

22 For your people Israel you made yours for ever; and you,
Lord, became their God.

23 And now, Lord, let your words about your servant and
about his family be made certain for ever, and do as you have
said.

24 So let your words be made certain and your name be
made great, when men say, The Lord of armies is the God of
Israel; and when the family of David your servant is made
strong before you.

25 For you, O my God, have let your servant see that you
will make him head of a line of kings; and so it has come into
your servant's heart to make his prayer to you.

26 And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have said you
will give this good thing to your servant:

27 And now you have been pleased to give your blessing to
the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever
before you; you, O Lord, have given your blessing, and a
blessing will be on it for ever.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 18

1 And it came about after this that David made an attack
on the Philistines and overcame them, and took Gath with
its daughter-towns out of the hands of the Philistines.

2 And he overcame Moab, and the Moabites became his
servants and gave him offerings.

3 Then David overcame Hadadezer, king of Zobah, near
Hamath, when he was going to make his power seen by the
river Euphrates.

4 And David took from him a thousand war-carriages and
seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and
he had the leg-muscles of all the horses cut, keeping only
enough of them for a hundred war-carriages.

5 And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of
Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-
two thousand Aramaeans.

6 Then David put armed forces in Damascus, and the
Aramaeans became his servants and gave him offerings. And
the Lord made David overcome wherever he went.

7 And the gold body-covers of the servants of Hadadezer,
David took to Jerusalem.

8 And from Tibhath and from Cun, towns of Hadadezer,
David took a great store of brass, of which Solomon made
the great brass water-vessel and the brass pillars and vessels.

9 Now when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David
had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah,

10 He sent his son Hadoram to King David, to give him
words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome
Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had been at war with

Tou; and he gave him all sorts of vessels of gold and silver
and brass.

11 These King David made holy to the Lord, together with
the silver and gold he had taken from all nations; from Edom
and Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the
Philistines and from Amalek.

12 And when he came back from putting to the sword
eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt,

13 David put armed forces in all the towns of Edom; and all
the Edomites became servants to David. The Lord made
David overcome wherever he went.

14 So David was king over all Israel, judging and giving
right decisions for all his people.

15 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and
Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records.

16 And Zadok, the son of Ahitub; and Ahimelech, the son
of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was the scribe;

17 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the
Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were
chief of those whose places were at the king's side.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 19

1 Now it came about after this that death came to Nahash,
the king of the children of Ammon, and his son became king
in his place.

2 And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of
Nahash, because his father was a friend to me. So David sent
men to him, to give him words of comfort on account of his
father. And the servants of David came to Hanun, to the land
of the children of Ammon, offering him comfort.

3 But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun,
Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father, by
sending comforters to you? is it not clear that these men have
only come to go through the land and to make secret
observation of it so that they may overcome it?

4 So Hanun took David's servants, and cutting off their
hair and the skirts of their robes up to the middle, sent them
away.

5 Then certain men went and gave David word of what had
been done to them. And he sent out with the purpose of
meeting them; for the men were greatly shamed. And the
king said, Keep where you are at Jericho till your hair is long
again, and then come back.

6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made
themselves hated by David, Hanun and the children of
Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver as payment for war-
carriages and horsemen from Mesopotamia and Aram-
maacah and Zobah.

7 So with this money they got thirty-two thousand war-
carriages, and the help of the king of Maacah and his people,
who came and took up their position in front of Medeba.
And the children of Ammon came together from their towns
for the fight.

8 And David, hearing of it, sent Joab with all the army of
fighting-men.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 So the children of Ammon came out and put their forces
in position on the way into the town; and the kings who had
come were stationed by themselves in the field.

10 Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position
against him in front and at his back, he took all the best men
of Israel, and put them in line against the Aramaeans;

11 And the rest of the people he put in position against the
children of Ammon with Abishai, his brother, at their head.

12 And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the
better of me, then come to my help; and if the children of
Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help.

13 Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for
the towns of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good
to him.

14 So Joab and the people who were with him went forward
into the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight
before him.

15 And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the
Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, his
brother, and came into the town. Then Joab came back to
Jerusalem.

16 And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome
them, they sent men to get the Aramaeans who were on the
other side of the River, with Shophach, the captain of
Hadadezer's army, at their head.

17 And word of this was given to David; and he got all
Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam and
put his forces in position against them. And when David's
forces were in position against the Aramaeans, the fight was
started.

18 And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and
David put to the sword the men of seven thousand Aramaean
war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and put to death
Shophach, the captain of the army.

19 And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were
overcome by Israel, they made peace with David and became
his servants: and the Aramaeans would give no more help to
the children of Ammon.

| CHRONICLES CHAPTER 20

1 Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war,
Joab went out at the head of the armed forces and made
waste all the land of the Ammonites and put his men in
position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at
Jerusalem. And Joab took Rabbah and made it waste.

2 And David took the crown of Milcom from off his head;
its weight was a talent of gold and it had stones of great price
in it; and it was put on David's head, and he took a great
store of goods from the town.

3 And he took the people out of the town and put them to
work with wood-cutting instruments, and iron grain-
crushers, and axes. And this he did to all the towns of the
children of Ammon. Then David and all the people went
back to Jerusalem.

4 Now after this there was war with the Philistines at Gezer;
then Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Sippai, one of the
offspring of the Rephaim; and they were overcome.

5 And again there was war with the Philistines; and
Elhanan, the son of Jair, put to death Lahmi, the brother of
Goliath the Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-
worker's rod.

6 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a very
tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers
on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the
offspring of the Rephaim.

7 And when he put shame on Israel, Jonathan, the son of
Shimea, David's brother, put him to death.

8 These were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath; they
came to their death by the hands of David and his servants.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 21

1 Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's
mind the impulse to take the number of Israel.

2 And David said to Joab and the captains of the people,
Now let all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, be numbered;
and give me word so that I may be certain of their number.

3 And Joab said, May the Lord make his people a hundred
times more in number than they are; but, my lord king, are
they not all my lord's servants? why would my lord have this
done? why will he become a cause of sin to Israel?

4 But the king's word was stronger than Joab's. So Joab
went out and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave David the number of all the people; all the
men of Israel, able to take up arms, were one million, one
hundred thousand men; and those of Judah were four
hundred and seventy thousand men, able to take up arms.

6 But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them,
for Joab was disgusted with the king's order.

7 And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent
punishment on Israel.

8 Then David said to God, Great has been my sin in doing
this; but now, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant,
for I have done very foolishly.

9 Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer,
saying,

10 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are
offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may
do it to you.

11 So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says,
Take whichever you will:

12 Three years when there will not be enough food; or three
months of war, when you will go in flight before your haters,
being in great danger of the sword; or three days of the
sword of the Lord, disease in the land, and the angel of the
Lord taking destruction through all the land of Israel. Now
give thought to the answer I am to take back to him who sent
me.

13 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to
make: let me come into the hands of the Lord, for great are
his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of
seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction:
and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had
regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is
enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the
grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord
there between earth and heaven, with an uncovered sword in
his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the
responsible men, clothed in haircloth, went down on their
faces.

17 And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order
for the people to be numbered? It is I who have done the sin
and the great wrong; but these are only sheep; what have
they done? let your hand, O Lord God, be lifted up against
me and against my family, but not against your people to
send disease on them.

18 Then the angel of the Lord gave orders to Gad to say to
David that he was to go and put up an altar to the Lord on
the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the
Lord.

20 And Ornan, turning back, saw the angel, and his four
sons who were with him went to a secret place. Now Ornan
was crushing his grain.

21 And when David came, Ornan, looking, saw him, and
came out from the grain-floor and went down on his face to
the earth before him.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place where this
grain-floor is, so that I may put up an altar here to the Lord:
let me have it for its full price; so that this disease may be
stopped among the people.

23 And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the
king do what seems right to him. See, I give you the oxen for
burned offerings and the grain-cleaning instruments for fire-
wood, and the grain for the meal offering; I give it all.

24 And King David said to Ornan, No; I will certainly give
you the full price for it, because I will not take for the Lord
what is yours, or give a burned offering without payment.

25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by
weight for the place.

26 And David put up an altar there to the Lord, offering
burned offerings and peace-offerings with prayers to the
Lord; and he gave him an answer from heaven, sending fire
on the altar of burned offering.

27 Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back
his sword into its cover.

28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given
him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he
made an offering there.

29 For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the
waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that
time in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David was not able to go before it to get directions
from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel
of the Lord.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 22

1 Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and
this is the altar for Israel's burned offerings.

2 And David gave orders to get together all the men from
strange lands who were in the land of Israel; and he put
stone-cutters to work, cutting stones for building the house
of God.

3 And he got together a great store of iron, for the nails for
the doors and for the joins; and brass, more in weight than
might be measured;

4 And cedar-trees without number, for the Zidonians and
the men of Tyre came with a great amount of cedar-trees for
David.

5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested,
and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very
great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I
will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a
great store of material before his death.

6 Then he sent for his son Solomon, and gave him orders
for the building of a house for the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 And David said to Solomon, My son, it was my desire to
put up a house for the name of the Lord my God.

8 But the word of the Lord came to me saying, You have
taken lives without number and made great wars; I will not
let you be the builder of a house for my name, because of the
lives you have taken on the earth before my eyes.

9 But you will have a son who will be a man of rest; and I
will give him rest from wars on every side. His name will be
Solomon, and in his time I will give Israel peace and quiet;

10 He will be the builder of a house for my name; he will be
to me a son, and J will be to him a father; and I will make the
seat of his rule over Israel certain for ever.

11 Now, my son, may the Lord be with you; and may you
do well, and put up the house of the Lord your God, as he
has said of you.

12 Only may the Lord give you wisdom, and knowledge of
his orders for Israel, so that you may keep the law of the
Lord your God.

13 And all will go well for you, if you take care to keep the
laws and the rules which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel:
be strong and take heart; have no fear and do not be troubled.

14 Now see, poor though I am, I have got ready for the
house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a
million talents of silver; and a weight of brass and iron
greater than may be measured; and wood and stone have |
made ready, and you may put more to it.

15 And you have a great number of workmen, cutters and
workers of stone and wood, and experts in every sort of work,

16 In gold and silver and brass and iron more than may be
numbered. Up! then, and to work; and may the Lord be with
you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Then David gave orders to all the chiefs of Israel to give
their help to Solomon his son, saying,

18 Is not the Lord your God with you? and has he not given
you rest on every side? for the Lord has given the people of
the land into my hands, and the land is overcome before the
Lord and before his people.

19 Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord
your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place
of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's
agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is
to be made for the name of the Lord.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 23

1 Now David was old and full of days; and he made his son
Solomon king over Israel.

2 And he got together all the chiefs of Israel, with the
priests and the Levites.

3 And the Levites, all those of thirty years old and over,
were numbered; and the number of them, by heads, man by
man, was thirty-eight thousand.

4 Of these, twenty-four thousand were to be overseers of the
work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were judges
and men of authority;

5 Four thousand were door-keepers; and four thousand
gave praise to the Lord with the instruments which I made,
said David, for giving praise.

6 And David put them into divisions under the names of the
sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

7 Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.

8 The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham and Joel,
three.

9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth and Haziel and Haran,
three; these were the heads of the families of Ladan.

10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zizah and Jeush and
Beriah; these four were the sons of Shimei.

11 Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second; but Jeush and
Beriah had only a small number of sons, so they were
grouped together as one family.

12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel,
four.

13 The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was
made separate and holy, he and his sons for ever, for the care
of the most holy things and the burning of offerings before
the Lord, to do his work and give blessings in his name for
ever.

14 And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were put into
the list of the tribe of Levi.

15 The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

16 The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the first.

17 And the sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the first; and Eliezer
had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a great number.

18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the first.

19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second,
Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.

20 The sons of Uzziel: Micah the first, and Isshiah the
second.

21 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Mahli:
Eleazar and Kish.

22 And at his death Eleazar had no sons, but only
daughters, and their relations, the sons of Kish, took them as
wives.

23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three.

24 These were the sons of Levi, grouped by families, the
heads of the families of those who were numbered by name,
by heads, all those of twenty years old and over who did the
work of the house of the Lord.

25 For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, has given
his people rest, and he has made his resting-place in
Jerusalem for ever;

26 And from now, there will be no need for the House of
the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the
Levites.

27 So among the last acts of David was the numbering of
the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and over.

28 Their place was by the side of the sons of Aaron in all the
work of the house of the Lord, in the open spaces and in the
rooms, in the making clean of all the holy things, in doing all
the work of the house of the Lord,

29 The holy bread was in their care, and the crushed grain
for the meal offering, of unleavened cakes or meal cooked
over the fire or in water; they had control of all sorts of
weights and measures;

30 They had to take their places every morning to give
praise and make melody to the Lord, and in the same way at
evening;

31 At every offering of burned offerings to the Lord, on
Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts, in
the number ordered by the law, at all times before the Lord;

32 And they had the care of the Tent of meeting and the
holy place, under the direction of the sons of Aaron their
brothers, for the work of the house of the Lord.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 24

1 Now the divisions into which the sons of Aaron were
grouped were these: the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,
Eleazar and Ithamar.

2 But Nadab and Abihu came to their end before their
father, and had no children; so Eleazar and Ithamar did the
work of priests.

3 And David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and
Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, made distribution of them
into their positions for their work.

4 And there were more chiefs among the sons of Eleazar
than among the sons of Ithamar; and this is how they were
grouped: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, all heads
of families; and of the sons of Ithamar, heads of families,
there were eight.

5 So they were put into groups, by the Lord's decision, one
with another; for there were rulers of the holy place and
rulers of the house of God among the sons of Eleazar and the
sons of Ithamar.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was a
Levite, put down their names in writing, the king being
present with the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech,
the son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests
and the Levites; one family being taken for Eleazar and then
one for Ithamar, and so on.

7 Now the first name to come out was that of Jehoiarib; the
second Jedaiah,

8 The third Harim, the fourth Seorim,

9 The fifth Malchiyah, the sixth Mijamin,

10 The seventh Hakkoz, the eighth Abijah,

11 The ninth Jeshua, the tenth Shecaniah,

12 The eleventh Eliashib, the twelfth Jakim,

13 The thirteenth Huppah, the fourteenth Jeshebeab,

14 The fifteenth Bilgah, the sixteenth Immer,

15 The seventeenth Hezir, the eighteenth Happizzez,

16 The nineteenth Pethahiah, the twentieth Jehezkel,

17 The twenty-first Jachin, the twenty-second Gamul,

18 The twenty-third Delaiah, the twenty-fourth Maaziah.

19 So they were put into their different groups, to take
their places in the house of the Lord, in agreement with the
rules made by Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of
Israel, had given him orders.

20 And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram,
Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.

21 Of Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief.

22 Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth,
Jahath.

23 And the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the
second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.

24 The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir.

25 The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah,
Zechariah.

26 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of
Jaaziah.

27 The sons of Merari: of Jaaziah, Shoham and Zaccur and
Ibri.

28 Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

29 Of Kish: the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel.

30 And the sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth.
These were the sons of the Levites by their families.

31 Selection was made of these in the same way as of their
brothers the sons of Aaron, David the king being present,
with Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of families of the
priests and of the Levites; the families of the chief in the same
way as those of his younger brother.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 25

1 Further, David and the chiefs of the servants of the holy
place made selection of certain of the sons of Asaph and of
Heman and of Jeduthun for the work of prophets, to make
melody with corded instruments and brass; and the number
of the men for the work they had to do was:

2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah
and Asharelah, sons of Asaph; under the direction of Asaph,
acting as a prophet under the orders of the king;

3 Of Jeduthun: the six sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah and Zeri
and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah; under the direction
of their father Jeduthun who, acting as a prophet, with
corded instruments gave praise and glory to the Lord.

4 Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah,
Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah,
Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir,
Mahazioth;

5 All these were sons of Heman, the king's seer in the words
of God. And to make great his power God gave Heman
fourteen sons and three daughters.

6 All these, under the direction of their father, made music
in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments,
for the worship of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and
Heman being under the orders of the king.

7 And the number of them, with their brothers who were
trained and expert in making melody to the Lord, was two
hundred and eighty-eight.

8 And selection was made of them for their special work, all
having equal chances, small as well as great, the teacher as
the learner.

9 Now of the group of Asaph, the first name to come out
was Joseph; the second Gedaliah; he and his brothers and
sons were twelve?

10 The third Zaccur, with his sons and his brothers, twelve;

11 The fourth Izri, with his sons and his brothers, twelve;

12 The fifth Nethaniah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

13 The sixth Bukkiah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

14 The seventh Jesharelah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

15 The eighth Jeshaiah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

16 The ninth Mattaniah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

17 The tenth Shimei, with his sons and his brothers, twelve;

18 The eleventh Azarel, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

19 The twelfth Hashabiah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

20 The thirteenth Shubael, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

21 The fourteenth Mattithiah, with his sons and his
brothers, twelve;

22 The fifteenth Jeremoth, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

23 The sixteenth Hananiah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

24 The seventeenth Joshbekashah, with his sons and his
brothers, twelve;

25 The eighteenth Hanani, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

26 The nineteenth Mallothi, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 The twentieth Eliathah, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

28 The twenty-first Hothir, with his sons and his brothers,
twelve;

29 The twenty-second Giddalti, with his sons and his
brothers, twelve;

30 The twenty-third Mahazioth, with his sons and his
brothers, twelve;

31 The twenty-fourth Romamti-ezer, with his sons and his
brothers, twelve.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 26

1 For the divisions of the door-keepers: of the Korahites,
Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, of the sons of Ebiasaph.

2 And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the oldest, Jediael
the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,

3 Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the
seventh.

4 And Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the oldest,
Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sacar the fourth,
and Nethanel the fifth,

5 Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the
eighth; for the blessing of God was on him.

6 And Shemaiah his son had sons, rulers over the family of
their father, for they were able men.

7 The sons of Shemaiah: Othni and Rephael and Obed,
Elzabad, whose brothers were great men of war, Elihu and
Semachiah.

8 All these were sons of Obed-edom: they and their sons and
their brothers, able men and strong for the work; sixty-two
sons of Obed-edom.

9 Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, eighteen able men.

10 And Hosah, a son of the children of Merari, had sons:
Shimri the chief (for though he was not the oldest, his father
made him chief);

11 Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the
fourth: Hosah had thirteen sons and brothers.

12 Of these were the divisions of the door-keepers, men of
authority, having responsible positions like their brothers to
be servants in the house of the Lord.

13 And the families were taken by the decision of the Lord
for every door; the small family had the same chance as the
great.

14 And the care of the door on the east came out for
Shelemiah. Then the name of Zechariah his son, a man wise
in discussion, came out, and the door on the north was given
to him.

15 To Obed-edom, that on the south; and to his sons, the
store-house.

16 To Hosah, the door on the west, by the door of
Shallecheth, at the footway which goes up, watch by watch.

17 On the east were six Levites a day, and on the north and
the south four a day, and for the store-house two and two.

18 For the pillared way, on the west, four at the footway
and two at the pillared way itself.

19 These were the divisions of door-keepers, of the sons of
the Korahites and of the sons of Merari.

20 And the Levites their brothers were responsible for the
stores of the house of God and the holy things.

21 The sons of Ladan: sons of the Gershonites of the family
of Ladan, heads of families of Ladan the Gershonite, Jehieli.

22 The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel, his brother, had
the care of the stores of the house of the Lord.

23 Of the Amramites, of the Izharites, of the Hebronites, of
the Uzzielites:

24 And Shebuel, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was
controller of the stores.

25 And his brothers: of Eliezer, Rehabiah his son, and
Jeshaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and
Shelomoth his son.

26 Shelomoth and his brothers were responsible for all the
store of holy things which David the king and the heads of
families, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the
captains of the army, had given to the Lord.

27 From the goods taken in war, they gave, as a holy
offering, materials for the building of the house of the Lord.

28 And everything Samuel the prophet and Saul, the son of
Kish, and Abner, the son of Ner, and Joab, the son of
Zeruiah, had made holy; whatever anyone had given, it was
under the care of Shelomoth and his brothers.

29 Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had to do all
the public business of Israel, in relation to judges and men in
authority.

30 Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers,
seventeen hundred able men, were overseers of Israel on the
other side of the Jordan, to the west, being responsible for all
the work of the Lord's house and for the work done by the
king's servants.

31 Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was the chief of all the
Hebronites, in their generations by families. In the fortieth
year of the rule of David a search was made, and able men
were seen among them at Jazer of Gilead.

32 And his brothers were two thousand, seven hundred able
men, heads of families, whom King David made overseers
over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of
Manasseh, in everything to do with God, and for the king's
business.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 27

1 Now the number of the children of Israel, that is, the
heads of families, and the captains of thousands and of
hundreds, and the men in authority who were servants of the
king in anything to do with the divisions which came in and
went out month by month through all the months of the year,
in every division were twenty-four thousand.

2 Over the first division for the first month was Ishbaal, the
son of Zabdiel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.

3 He was of the sons of Perez, and the chief of all the
captains of the army for the first month.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And over the division for the second month was Eleazar,
the son of Dodai the Ahohite, the ruler; and in his division
were twenty-four thousand.

5 The third captain of the army for the third month was
Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest; and in his division
were twenty-four thousand.

6 This is the same Benaiah who was the great man of the
thirty, chief of the thirty; and in his division was Ammizabad
his son.

7 The fourth captain for the fourth month was Asahel, the
brother of Joab, and Zebadiah his son after him; and in his
division were twenty-four thousand.

8 The fifth captain for the fifth month was Shamhuth the
Izrahite; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.

9 The sixth captain for the sixth month was Ira, the son of
Ikkesh the Tekoite; and in his division were twenty-four
thousand.

10 The seventh captain for the seventh month was Helez the
Pelonite, of the sons of Ephraim; and in his division were
twenty-four thousand.

11 The eighth captain for the eighth month was Sibbecai
the Hushathite, of the Zerahites; and in his division were
twenty-four thousand.

12 The ninth captain for the ninth month was Abiezer the
Anathothite, of the Benjamites; and in his division were
twenty-four thousand.

13 The tenth captain for the tenth month was Maharai the
Netophathite, of the Zerahites; and in his division were
twenty-four thousand.

14 The eleventh captain for the eleventh month was
Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the sons of Ephraim; and in his
division were twenty-four thousand.

15 The twelfth captain for the twelfth month was Heldai
the Netophathite, of Othniel; and in his division were
twenty-four thousand.

16 And over the tribes of Israel: the ruler of the Reubenites
was Eliezer, the son of Zichri; of the Simeonites, Shephatiah,
the son of Maacah;

17 Of Levi, Hashabiah, the son of Kemuel; of Aaron, Zadok;

18 Of Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David; of
Issachar, Omri, the son of Michael;

19 Of Zebulun, Ishmaiah, the son of Obadiah; of Naphtali,
Jerimoth, the son of Azriel;

20 Of the children of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Azaziah;
of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel, the son of Pedaiah;

21 Of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo, the son of
Zechariah; of Benjamin, Jaasiel, the son of Abner;

22 Of Dan, Azarel, the son of Jeroham. These were the
captains of the tribes of Israel.

23 But David did not take the number of those who were
under twenty years old, for the Lord had said that he would
make Israel like the stars of heaven in number.

24 The numbering was started by Joab, the son of Zeruiah,
but he did not go on to the end; and because of it, wrath
came on Israel and the number was not recorded in the
history of King David.

25 And Azmaveth, the son of Adiel, was controller of the
king's property; Jonathan, the son of Uzziah, had control of
all store-houses in country places and in the towns and little
towns and strong places;

26 Ezri, the son of Chelub, had authority over the field-
workers and farmers;

27 Shimei the Ramathite was responsible for the vine-
gardens; Zabdi the Shiphmite was responsible for the
produce of the vine-gardens and for all the stores of wine;

28 Baal-hanan the Gederite was responsible for the olive-
trees and the sycamore-trees in the lowlands; and Joash for
the stores of oil;

29 And Shitrai the Sharonite was responsible for the herds
in the grass-lands of Sharon, and Shaphat, the son of Adlai,
for those in the valleys;

30 Obil the Ishmaelite had control of the camels and
Jehdeiah the Meronothite of the she-asses;

31 The flocks were in the care of Jaziz the Hagarite. All
these were the controllers of King David's property.

32 Now Jonathan, David's father's brother, expert in
discussion, and a man of good sense, was a scribe; and Jehiel
the son of Hachmoni, had the care of the king's sons;

33 And Ahithophel was the king's expert in discussion and
Hushai the Archite was the king's friend.

34 After Ahithophel was Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah, and
Abiathar; and the captain of the king's army was Joab.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 28

1 And David got together at Jerusalem all the rulers of
Israel, the chiefs of the tribes and the captains of the divisions
waiting on the king in turn, and the captains of thousands
and the captains of hundreds and the controllers of all the
goods and property of the king and his sons, with the
unsexed servants and the great men of war.

2 Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my
brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a
resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the
foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the
building of it.

3 But God said to me, You are not to be the builder of a
house for my name, because you are a man of war and have
taken life;

4 Though the Lord, the God of Israel, took me out of all
my father's family, to be king over Israel for ever, marking
out Judah to be chief, and, of the people of Judah, my father's
family; and among the sons of my father he was pleased to
make me king over all Israel;

5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me a great
number of sons) he has made selection of Solomon to take his
place on the seat of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.

6 And he said to me, Solomon your son will be the builder
of my house and the open spaces round it; for I have taken
him to be my son, and I will be his father.

71 will keep his kingdom in its place for ever, if he is strong
at all times to do my orders and keep my rules, as at this day.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 So now, before the eyes of all Israel, the people of the
Lord, and in the hearing of our God, keep and be true to the
orders of the Lord your God; so that you may have this good
land for yourselves and give it for a heritage to your children
after you for ever.

9 And you, Solomon my son, get knowledge of the God of
your father, and be his servant with a true heart and with a
strong desire, for the Lord is the searcher of all hearts, and
has knowledge of all the designs of men's thoughts; if you
make search for him, he will be near you; but if you are
turned away from him, he will give you up for ever.

10 Now then, take note; for the Lord has made selection of
you to be the builder of a house for the holy place. Be strong
and do it.

11 Then David gave to his son Solomon the design of the
doorway of the house of God and of its houses and its store-
houses, and the higher rooms and the inner rooms and the
place for the mercy-seat;

12 And the design of all he had in his heart for the outer
squares of the house of the Lord, and for the rooms all round
it, and for the store-houses of the house of the Lord, and for
the store-houses for the holy things;

13 And for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for
all the work in connection with the worship of the house of
the Lord, and all the vessels used in the house of the Lord;

14 Of gold, by weight, for the vessels of gold, for all the
vessels of different uses; and silver for all the vessels of silver
by weight, for vessels of different uses;

15 And gold by weight for the light-supports and the
vessels for the lights, the weight of gold needed for every
support and every vessel for lights; and for the silver light-
supports, the weight of silver needed for every support and
for the different vessels as every one was to be used;

16 And gold by weight for the tables for the holy bread for
every table, and silver for the silver tables;

17 Clear gold for the meat-hooks and the basins and the
cups; for the gold basins, gold enough by weight for every
basin; and silver by weight for every silver basin;

18 And the best gold for the altar of perfumes; and gold for
the design of the carriage, for the winged ones whose wings
were outstretched covering the ark of the Lord's agreement.

19 All this, said David, the design for all these things, has
been made dear to me in writing by the hand of the Lord.

20 And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of a
good heart and do your work; have no fear and do not be
troubled, for the Lord God, my God, is with you; he will not
give you up, and his face will not be turned away from you,
till all the work necessary for the house of the Lord is
complete.

21 And see, there are the divisions of the priests and Levites
for all the work of the house of God; and every trained and
expert workman will be ready to do for you whatever is
needed; and the captains and the people will be under your
orders in everything.

1 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 29

1 And David the king said to all the people, Solomon my
son, the only one who has been marked out by God, is still
young and untested, and the work is great, for this great
house is not for man, but for the Lord God.

2 Now as far as I am able, I have made ready what is needed
for the house of my God; the gold for the things of gold, and
the silver for the silver things, and the brass for the brass
things, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of
wood; beryls and jewels to be framed, and stones of different
colours for ornament; all sorts of stones of great price, and
polished building-stone, as much as is needed and more.

3 And because this house of God is dear to me, I give my
private store of gold and silver to the house of my God, in
addition to all I have got ready for the holy house;

4 Even three thousand talents of gold of Ophir and seven
thousand talents of the best silver, for plating the walls of the
house:

5 Gold for the gold things, and silver for the silver things,
and for every sort of work to be done by the expert workmen.
Who then will come forward, offering himself this day for the
Lord's work?

6 Then the heads of families and the chiefs of the tribes of
Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with
the controllers of the king's business, freely gave themselves;

7 And they gave for the use of the house of the Lord, five
thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, and ten
thousand talents of silver, and eighteen thousand talents of
brass, and a hundred thousand talents of iron.

8 And those who had stones of great price gave them to the
store of the house of the Lord, under the care of Jehiel the
Gershonite.

9 Then the people were glad because their offerings were
freely given, for with a true heart they freely gave what they
had to the Lord; and David the king was full of joy.

10 So David gave praise to the Lord before all the people;
and David said, Praise be to you, O Lord the God of Israel,
our father for ever and ever.

11 Yours, O Lord, is the strength and the power and the
glory, and the authority and the honour: for everything in
heaven and on earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord,
and you are lifted up as head over all.

12 Wealth and honour come from you, and you are ruler
over all, and in your hand is power and strength; it is in your
power to make great, and to give strength to all.

13 So now, our God, we give you praise, honouring the
glory of your name.

14 But who am I and what is my people, that we have
power to give so freely in this way? for all things come from
you, and what we have given you is yours.

15 For we, as all our fathers were, are like men from a
strange country before you, who have got a place for a time
in the land; our days on the earth are like a shade, and there
is no hope of going on.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 O Lord our God, all this store, which we have made
ready for the building of a house for your holy name, comes
from your hand and is yours.

17 And I am conscious, my God, that you are the searcher
of hearts, taking pleasure in righteousness. As for me, with
an upright heart I have freely given all these things; and I
have seen with joy your people who are here to make their
offerings freely to you.

18 O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our
fathers, keep this for ever in the deepest thoughts of your
people, and let their hearts be fixed and true to you;

19 And give to Solomon my son a true heart, to keep your
orders, your rules, and your laws, and to do all these things,
and to put up this great house for which I have made ready.

20 And David said to all the people, Now give praise to the
Lord your God. And all the people gave praise to the Lord,
the God of their fathers, with bent heads worshipping the
Lord and the king.

21 And they made offerings to the Lord, and gave burned
offerings to the Lord, on the day after, a thousand oxen, a
thousand sheep, and a thousand lambs, with their drink
offerings, and a great wealth of offerings for all Israel.

22 And with great joy they made a feast before the Lord
that day. And they made Solomon, the son of David, king a
second time, putting the holy oil on him to make him holy to
the Lord as ruler, and on Zadok as priest.

23 So Solomon was put on the seat of the Lord as king in
place of his father David, and everything went well for him;
and all Israel was under his authority.

24 And all the chiefs and the men of war and all the sons of
King David put themselves under the authority of Solomon
the king.

25 And the Lord made Solomon great in the eyes of all
Israel, clothing him with glory and honour such as no other
king in Israel had had before him.

26 Now David, the son of Jesse, was king over all Israel.

27 For forty years he was ruling as king over Israel, seven
years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

28 And he came to his end after a long life, full of days and
great wealth and honour; and Solomon his son became king
in his place.

29 Now all the acts of David, first and last, are recorded in
the words of Samuel the seer, and the words of Nathan the
prophet, and the words of Gad the seer;

30 Together with all his rule and his power, and the events
which took place in his time, in Israel and in all the
kingdoms of other lands.

THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES
or 2 Chronicles; Greek: Paralipomenon
Hebrew: Dibre Hayyamim (The Matters of the Days)
Authors: Azaryahu, known as Ezra (Greek: Esdras),
The final chapters were written by Nehemia
Estimated Range of Dating: mid-5th century B.C.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 1

1 And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in
his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made
him very great.

2 And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of
thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every
chief in all Israel, heads of their families.

3 Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went
to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of
God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the
waste land, was there.

4 But the ark of God had been moved by David from
Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it,
for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem.

5 And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the
son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord;
and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there.

6 And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the
Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand
burned offerings.

7 In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said
to him, Say what I am to give you.

8 And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to
David my father, and you have made me king in his place.

9 Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father
come true; for you have made me king over a people like the
dust of the earth in number.

10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go
out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the
judge of this great people of yours?

11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your
heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or
honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life;
but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for
yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over
whom I have made you king:

12 Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give
you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you
or ever will have after you.

13 So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon,
from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was
king over Israel.

14 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen;
he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve
thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-
towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And the king made silver and gold as common as stones
in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the
lowland in number.

16 And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's
traders got them from Kue at a price.

17 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred
shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got
them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the
kings of Aram.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 2

1 Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the
name of the Lord and a house for himself as king.

2 And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for
transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the
mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers.

3 And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As
you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the
building of his house,

4 See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my
God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices
will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed
at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning
and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on
the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever
to Israel.

5 And the house which I am building is to be great, for our
God is greater than all gods.

6 But who may have strength enough to make a house for
him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not
wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a
house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of
perfume before him.

7 So now send me an expert worker in gold and silver and
brass and iron? in purple and red and blue, and in the cutting
of all sorts of ornament, to be with the expert workmen who
are here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David
got together.

8 And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood
from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are
expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be
with yours,

9 To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which
Tam building is to be great and a wonder.

10 And I will give as food to your servants, the wood-
cutters, twenty thousand measures of grain, and twenty
thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand measures
of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.

11 Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in
writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord
has made you king over them.

12 And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of
Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David
the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the
builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as
king.

13 And now I am sending you a wise and expert man,
Huram who is as my father,

14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose
father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver
and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue
and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of
ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him
be given a place among your expert workmen and those of
my lord, your father David.

15 So now let my lord send to his servants the grain and the
oil and the wine as my lord has said;

16 And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as
you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea
to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem.

17 Then Solomon took the number of all the men from
strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David
had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six
hundred.

18 Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport,
eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three
thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 3

1 Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the
Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had
been seen by his father David, in the place which David had
made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 The building was started in the second month in the
fourth year of his rule.

3 And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position;
by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty
cubits wide.

4 And the covered way in front of the house was twenty
cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty
cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold.

5 And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood,
plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of
palm-trees and chains.

6 And the house was made beautiful with stones of great
value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

7 All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps,
the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with
designs of winged ones.

8 And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits
long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was
plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were
used for it.

9 And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He
had all the higher rooms plated with gold.

10 And in the most holy place he made images of two
winged beings, covering them with gold.

11 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one
wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and
the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other
winged one.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits
long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other
meeting the wing of the first winged one.

13 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they
were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the
house.

14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the
best linen, worked with winged ones.

15 And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-
five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits
high.

16 And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them
on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains.

17 He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the
right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right
Jachin and that on the left Boaz.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 4

1 Then he made a brass altar, twenty cubits long, twenty
cubits wide and ten cubits high.

2 And he made the great water-vessel of metal, round in
form, measuring ten cubits across from edge to edge; it was
five cubits high and thirty cubits round.

3 And under it was a design of flowers all round it, ten to a
cubit, circling the water-vessel in two lines; they were made
from liquid metal at the same time as the water-vessel.

4 It was supported on twelve oxen, three facing to the north,
three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east,
the water-vessel resting on top of them; their back parts were
all turned to the middle of it.

5 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and the edge of it
was curved like the edge of a cup, like a lily flower; it would
take three thousand baths.

6 And he made ten washing-vessels, putting five on the
right side and five on the left; such things as were used in
making the burned offering were washed in them; but the
great water-vessel was to be used by the priests for washing
themselves.

7 And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as
directions had been given for them, and he put them in the
Temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

8 He made ten tables, and put them in the Temple, five on
the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred
gold basins.

9 Then he made the open space for the priests, and the great
open space and its doors, plating the doors with brass.

10 He put the great water-vessel on the right side of the
house to the east, facing south.

11 And Huram made all the pots and the spades and the
basins. So he came to the end of all the work he did for King
Solomon in the house of God:

12 The two pillars, and the two crowns on the tops of the
pillars, and the network covering the two cups of the crowns
on the tops of the pillars;

13 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines
of apples for the network covering the two cups of the
crowns on the pillars.

14 And he made the ten bases and the ten washing-vessels
which were on the bases;

15 The great water-vessel with the twelve oxen under it.

16 All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their
vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King
Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.

17 The king made them of liquid metal in the lowland of
Jordan, in the soft earth between Succoth and Zeredah.

18 So Solomon made all these vessels, a very great store of
them, and the weight of the brass used was not measured.

19 And Solomon made all the vessels used in the house of
God, the gold altar and the tables on which the holy bread
was placed,

20 And the supports for the lights with their lights, to be
burning in the regular way in front of the inmost room, of
the best gold;

21 The flowers and the vessels for the lights and the
instruments used for them, were all of gold; it was the best
gold.

22 The scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-
trays, of the best gold; and the inner doors of the house,
opening into the most holy place, and the doors of the
Temple, were all of gold.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 5

1 So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the
Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things
which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and
all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house
of God.

2 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel,
all the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of families of the
children of Israel, to come to Jerusalem and take the ark of
the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is
Zion.

3 And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the
feast in the seventh month.

4 All the responsible men of Israel came, and the Levites
took up the ark.

5 They took up the ark and the Tent of meeting and all the
holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests, the
Levites, took up.

6 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had
come together there with him, were before the ark, making
offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered.

7 And the priests took the ark of the Lord's agreement and
put it in its place, in the inner room of the house, in the most
holy place, under the wings of the winged ones.

8 For their wings were outstretched over the place where
the ark was, covering the ark and its rods.

9 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the
holy place before the inmost room; but they were not seen
from outside; and there they are to this day.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Nothing was in the ark but the two flat stones which
Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an
agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of
Egypt.

11 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place,
(for all the priests who were present had made themselves
holy, not keeping to their divisions;

12 And the Levites who made the music, all of them, Asaph,
Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, robed in fair
linen, were in their places with their brass and corded
instruments at the east side of the altar, and with them a
hundred and twenty priests blowing horns;)

13 And when the players on horns, and those who made
melody in song, with one voice were sounding the praise and
glory of the Lord; with loud voices and with wind
instruments, and brass and corded instruments of music,
praising the Lord and saying, He is good; his mercy is
unchanging for ever: then the house was full of the cloud of
the glory of the Lord,

14 So that the priests were not able to keep their places to
do their work because of the cloud; for the house of God was
full of the glory of the Lord.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 6

1 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given
the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not
seen by men,

2 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which
you may be for ever present.

3 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to
all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together.

4 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who
himself gave his word to my father David, and with his
strong hand has made his word come true, saying,

5 From the day when I took my people out of the land of
Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out
by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my
name; and I took no man to be a ruler over my people Israel;

6 But now I have made selection of Jerusalem, that my name
might be there, and of David, to be over my people Israel.

7 Now it was in the heart of my father David to put up a
house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

8 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to
have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name:

9 But you yourself will not be the builder of the house; but
your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up
a house for my name.

10 And the Lord has kept his word; for I have taken my
father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as
the Lord gave his word; and I have made the house for the
name of the Lord the God of Israel.

11 And there I have put the ark, in which is the agreement
of the Lord, which he made with the people of Israel.

12 Then he took his place in front of the altar of the Lord,
all the men of Israel being present,

13 (For Solomon had made a brass stage, five cubits long,
five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had put it in the
middle of the open space; on this he took his place and went
down on his knees before all the meeting of Israel, stretching
out his hands to heaven.)

14 And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God
like you in heaven or on earth; keeping faith and mercy
unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways
with all their hearts;

15 For you have kept the word which you gave to your
servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and
with your hand you have made it come true this day.

16 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to
your servant David, my father, come true, when you said,
You will never be without a man to take his place before me
on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; if only your children
give attention to their ways, walking in my law, as you have
done before me.

17 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, make your word
come true which you said to your servant David.

18 But is it truly possible that God may be housed with men
on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide
enough to be your resting-place: how much less this house
which I have made:

19 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your
servant and to his prayer for grace, O Lord my God, and give
ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant makes
before you;

20 That your eyes may be open to this house day and night,
to this place of which you have said that you would put your
name there; to give ear to the prayer which your servant may
make, turning to this place.

21 And give ear to the prayers of your servant and of your
people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this
place; give ear from heaven your living-place; and hearing
have mercy.

22 Ifa man does wrong to his neighbour and has to take an
oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this
house:

23 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of
your servants, giving punishment to the wrongdoer, so that
his sin may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping
from evil him who has done no wrong.

24 And if your people Israel are overcome in war, because
of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again,
honouring your name, making prayers and requesting your
grace in this house:

25 Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people
Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land
which you gave to them and to their fathers.

26 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of
their sin against you: if they make prayers with their faces
turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away
from their sin when you send trouble on them:

27 Then give ear from heaven, so that the sin of your
servants and the sin of your people Israel may have

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in
which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you
have given to your people for their heritage.

28 If there is no food in the land, if there is disease, if the
fruits of the earth are damaged by heat or water, locust or
worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers: whatever
trouble or whatever disease there may be:

29 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by
any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble
may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house:

30 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, answering
with forgiveness, and give to every man, whose secret heart is
open to you, the reward of all his ways; (for you, and you
only, have knowledge of the hearts of the children of men;)

31 So that they may give you worship, walking in your
ways, as long as they are living in the land which you gave to
our fathers.

32 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of
your people Israel but comes from a far country because of
the glory of your name and your strong hand and your
outstretched arm; when he comes to make his prayer, turning
to this house:

33 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, and give
him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of
the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping
you as do your people Israel, and may see that this house
which I have made is truly named by your name.

34 If your people go out to war against their attackers, by
whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayers
to you turning their faces to this town of yours and to this
house which I have put up for your name:

35 Then give ear from heaven to their prayer and their cry
for grace, and see right done to them.

36 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,)
and you are angry with them, and give them up into the
power of those who are fighting against them, so that they
take them away prisoners to a land far off or near;

37 And if they take thought, in the land where they are
prisoners, turning again to you, crying out in prayer to you
in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong,
we have done evil;

38 If with all their heart and soul they are turned again to
you, in the land where they are prisoners, the land where
they have been taken, and make their prayers, turning their
eyes to their land which you gave to their fathers, and to the
town which you took for yourself, and the house which I
have made for your name:

39 Then give ear from heaven your living-place to their
prayer and their cry, and see right done to them, answering
with forgiveness your people who have done wrong against
you.

40 Now, O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears
awake to the prayers made in this place.

41 Up! now, O Lord God, come back to your resting-place,
you and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord

God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints be glad in
what is good.

42 O Lord God, let him whom you have taken for yourself
never be given up by you: keep in mind your mercies to
David your servant.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 7

1 Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down
from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was
full of the glory of the Lord.

2 And the priests were not able to go into the house of the
Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord.

3 And all the children of Israel were looking on when the
fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house;
and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the
earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is
good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

4 Then the king and all the people made offerings before the
Lord.

5 King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand
oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king
and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house
of God.

6 And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with
their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David
the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is
unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand;
and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all
Israel were on their feet.

7 Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square
in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned
offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there
was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made
for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.

8 So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and
all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had
come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as
the river of Egypt.

9 And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the
offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days,
and the feast for seven days.

10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he
sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in
their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done
to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

11 So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the
Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his
mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had
been well done.

12 Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night,
and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have
taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to
be made.

13 If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain,
or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send
disease on my people;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 If my people, on whom my name is named, make
themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me
and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from
heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to
their land.

15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the
prayers made in this place.

16 For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy,
so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my
heart will be there at all times.

17 And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as
David your father did, doing whatever I have given you
orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions:

18 Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I
gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never
be without a man to be ruler in Israel.

19 But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my
orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and

make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:

20 Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land
which I have given them; and this house, which I have made
holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and
make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.

21 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and
everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and
will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this
house?

22 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away
from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out
of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and
gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he
has sent all this evil on them.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 8

1 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon
had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself,

2 He took in hand the building up of the towns which
Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make
living-places for themselves there.

3 And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it.

4 And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in the waste land,
and of all the store-towns in Hamath;

5 And of Beth-horon the higher and the lower, walled
towns with walls and doorways and locks;

6 And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon
had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his
horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put
up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his
rule.

7 As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the
Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of
Israel:

8 Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the
children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put
to forced work, as is done to this day;

9 But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as
servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his
captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen.

10 Now these were the chief men in authority whom King
Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority
over the people.

11 Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from
the town of David to the house which he had made for her;
for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of
David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of
the Lord has come are holy.

12 Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the
altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered
way,

13 Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on
the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts
three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread,
the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents.

14 And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for
their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites
he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do
what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers
their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of
God, had given orders.

15 All the orders given by the king to the priests and
Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done
with care.

16 And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the
day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till
Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house.

17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth by the
sea in the land of Edom.

18 And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and
experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon
to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents
of gold, which they took to King Solomon.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 9

1 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon,
came to Jerusalem to put his wisdom to the test with hard
questions; and with her came a very great train, and camels
weighted down with spices, and great stores of gold and
jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him
of everything in her mind.

2 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there
was no secret which he did not make clear to her.

3 And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of
Solomon, and the house which he had made,

4 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there,
and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their
robes, and his wine-servants and their robes, and the burned
offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was
no more spirit in her.

5 And she said to the king, The account which was given to
me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 But [had no faith in what was said about you, till I came
and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half
your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said.

7 Happy are your wives and happy these your servants
whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of
wisdom.

8 Praise be to the Lord your God whose pleasure it was to
put you on the seat of his kingdom to be king for the Lord
your God: because, in his love for Israel, it was the purpose
of your God to make them strong for ever, he made you king
over them, to be their judge in righteousness.

9 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of
gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never had such
spices been seen as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.

10 And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon,
in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with sandal-wood
and jewels.

11 And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the
house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments
of music for the makers of melody; never before had such
been seen in the land of Judah.

12 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her
desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what
she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country
with her servants.

13 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one
year was six hundred and sixty-six talents;

14 And in addition to what he got from traders of different
sorts, all the kings of Arabia and the rulers of the country
gave gold and silver to Solomon.

15 And King Solomon made two hundred body-covers of
hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold
init.

16 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of
hammered gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for
every cover, and the king put them in the house of the Woods
of Lebanon.

17 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the
best gold.

18 There were six steps up to it, and a foot-rest of gold
fixed to it, and arms on the two sides of the seat, with two
lions at the side of the arms.

19 And twelve lions were placed on one side and on the
other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any
kingdom.

20 All King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and
all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of
the best gold: no one gave a thought to silver in the days of
Solomon.

21 For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the
servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships
came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and
peacocks.

22 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the
earth in wealth and in wisdom.

23 And all the kings of the earth came to see Solomon and
to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put into his heart.

24 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver
and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices,
and horses and beasts for transport, regularly year by year.

25 Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and
his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he
kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in
Jerusalem.

26 And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the
land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt.

27 The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem
and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number.

28 They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every
land.

29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are
they not recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, and
in the words of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh, and in the
visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat?

30 Solomon was king over Israel in Jerusalem for forty
years.

31 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put
into the earth in the town of David his father; and
Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 10

1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had
come together to make him king.

2 And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it,
(for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King
Solomon,) he came back from Egypt.

3 And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came
to Rehoboam and said,

4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the
conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel,
and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we
will be your servants.

5 And he said to them, Come to me again after three days.
So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men
who had been with Solomon his father when he was living,
and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this
people?

7 And they said to him, If you are kind to this people,
pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will
be your servants for ever.

8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men,
but went to the young men of his generation who were
waiting before him.

9 And he said to them, What is your opinion? What answer
are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less
the weight of the yoke which your father put on us?

10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This is
the answer to give to the people who came to you saying,
Your father put a hard yoke on us, but will you make it less;
say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it
harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will
give you blows with snakes.

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on
the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come to
me again on the third day.

13 And the king gave them a rough answer. So King
Rehoboam gave no attention to the suggestion of the old
men,

14 But gave them the answer put forward by the young men,
saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it
harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will
give it with snakes.

15 So the king did not give ear to the people; for this came
about by the purpose of God, so that the Lord might give
effect to his word which he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite
to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no
attention to them, the people in answer said to the king,
What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son
of Jesse? every man to your tents, O Israel; now see to your
house, David. So all Israel went to their tents.

17 But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children
of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah.

18 Then Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the
forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And
King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go
in flight to Jerusalem.

19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to
this day.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 11

1 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the
men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand
of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get
the kingdom back for Rehoboam.

2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of
God, saying,

3 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah,
and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,

4 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your
brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is
my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and
were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.

5 Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns
in Judah.

6 He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa

7 And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam

8 And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph

9 And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah

10 And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in
Judah and Benjamin.

11 And he made the walled towns strong, and he put
captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine.

12 And in every town he put stores of body-covers and
spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin
were his.

13 And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came
together to him from every part of their country.

14 For the Levites gave up their living-places and their
property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam
and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests
to the Lord;

15 And he himself made priests for the high places, and for
the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made.

16 And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those
whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of
Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the
God of their fathers.

17 So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of
Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for
three years; and for three years they went in the ways of
David and Solomon.

18 And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter
of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of
Eliab, the son of Jesse;

19 And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

20 And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom;
and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him.

21 Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to
Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he
had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the
father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)

22 Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and
ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him
king.

23 And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every
walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin;
and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for
them.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 12

1 Now when Rehoboam's position as king had been made
certain, and he was strong, he gave up the law of the Lord,
and all Israel with him.

2 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king
of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because of their sin
against the Lord,

3 With twelve hundred war-carriages and sixty thousand
horsemen: and the people who came with him out of Egypt
were more than might be numbered: Lubim and Sukkiim and
Ethiopians.

4 And he took the walled towns of Judah, and came as far as
Jerusalem.

5 Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the
chiefs of Judah, who had come together in Jerusalem because
of Shishak, and said to them, The Lord has said, Because you
have given me up, I have given you up into the hands of
Shishak.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 Then the chiefs of Israel and the king made themselves low
and said, The Lord is upright.

7 And the Lord, seeing that they had made themselves low,
said to Shemaiah, They have made themselves low: I will not
send destruction on them, but in a short time I will give them
salvation, and will not let loose my wrath on Jerusalem by
the hand of Shishak.

8 But still they will become his servants, so that they may
see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms
of the lands.

9 So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem
and took away all the stored wealth of the house of the Lord
and the king's house: he took everything away, and with the
rest the gold body-covers which Solomon had made.

10 And in their place King Rehoboam had other body-
covers made of brass and gave them into the care of the
captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of
the king's house.

11 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord,
the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and
then took them back to their room.

12 And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord
was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not
come on him, for there was still some good in Judah.

13 So King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem
and was ruling there. Rehoboam was forty-one years old
when he became king, and he was ruling for seventeen years
in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of
all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; and his mother's
name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.

14 And he did evil because his heart was not true to the
Lord.

15 Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not
recorded in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the
seer? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam
all their days.

16 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was
put into the earth in the town of David; and Abijah his son
became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 13

1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became
king over Judah.

2 He was king in Jerusalem for three years; his mother's
name was Maacah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And
there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

3 And Abijah went out to the fight with an army of men of
war, four hundred thousand of his best men; and Jeroboam
put his forces in line against him, eight hundred thousand of
his best men of war.

4 And Abijah took up his position on Mount Zemaraim, in
the hill-country of Ephraim, and said, Give ear to me, O
Jeroboam and all Israel:

5 Is it not clear to you that the Lord, the God of Israel,
gave the rule over Israel to David and to his sons for ever, by
an agreement made with salt?

6 But Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon,
the son of David, took up arms against his lord.

7 And certain foolish and good-for-nothing men were
joined with him, and made themselves strong against
Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and
untested and not able to keep them back.

8 And now it is your purpose to put yourselves against the
authority which the Lord has put into the hands of the sons
of David, and you are a very great number, and you have
with you the gold oxen which Jeroboam made to be your
gods.

9 And after driving out the priests of the Lord, the sons of
Aaron and the Levites, have you not made priests for
yourselves as the people of other lands do? so that anyone
who comes to make himself priest by offering an ox or seven
sheep, may be a priest of those who are no gods.

10 But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not been
turned away from him; we have priests who do the work of
the Lord, even the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their
places;

11 By whom burned offerings and perfumes are sent up in
smoke before the Lord every morning and every evening; and
they put out the holy bread on its table and the gold support
for the lights with its lights burning every evening; for we
keep the orders given to us by the Lord our God, but you
have gone away from him.

12 And now God is with us at our head, and his priests with
their loud horns sounding against you. O children of Israel,
do not make war on the Lord, the God of your fathers, for it
will not go well for you.

13 But Jeroboam had put some of his men to make a
surprise attack on them from the back, so some were facing
Judah and others were stationed secretly at their back.

14 And Judah, turning their faces, saw that they were being
attacked in front and at the back; and they gave a cry for
help to the Lord, while the priests were sounding their horns.

15 And the men of Judah gave a loud cry; and at their cry,
God put fear into Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and
Judah.

16 And the children of Israel went in flight before Judah,
and God gave them up into their hands.

17 And Abijah and his people put them to death with great
destruction: five hundred thousand of the best of Israel were
put to the sword.

18 So at that time the children of Israel were overcome, and
the children of Judah got the better of them, because they put
their faith in the Lord, the God of their fathers.

19 And Abijah went after Jeroboam and took some of his
towns, Beth-el with its small towns and Jeshanah with its
small towns and Ephron with its small towns.

20 And Jeroboam did not get back his power again in the
life-time of Abijah; and the Lord sent death on him.

21 But Abijah became great, and had fourteen wives, and
became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

22 And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his
sayings, are recorded in the account of the prophet Iddo.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 14

1 So Abijah went to rest with his fathers, and they put him
into the earth in the town of David, and Asa his son became
king in his place; in his time the land was quiet for ten years.

2 And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the
Lord his God;

3 For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high
places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood
pillars cut down;

4 And he made Judah go after the Lord, the God of their
fathers, and keep his laws and his orders.

5 And he took away the high places and the sun-images
from all the towns of Judah; and the kingdom was quiet
under his rule.

6 He made walled towns in Judah, for the land was quiet
and there were no wars in those years, because the Lord had
given him rest.

7 He said to Judah, Let us make these towns, building walls
round them with towers and doors and locks. The land is still
ours, because we have been true to the Lord our God; we
have been true to him and he has given us rest on every side.
So they went on building and all went well for them.

8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men of
Judah armed with body-covers and spears, and two hundred
and eighty thousand of Benjamin armed with body-covers
and bows; all these were men of war.

9 And Zerah the Ethiopian, with an army of a million, and
three hundred war-carriages, came out against them to
Mareshah.

10 And Asa went out against him, and they put their forces
in position in the valley north of Mareshah.

11 And Asa made prayer to the Lord his God and said,
Lord, you only are able to give help against the strong to
him who has no strength; come to our help, O Lord our God,
for our hope is in you, and in your name we have come out
against this great army. O Lord, you are our God; let not
man's power be greater than yours.

12 So the Lord sent fear on the Ethiopians before Asa and
Judah; and the Ethiopians went in flight.

13 And Asa and the people who were with him went after
them as far as Gerar; and so great was the destruction among
the Ethiopians that they were not able to get their army
together again, for they were broken before the Lord and
before his army; and they took away a great amount of their
goods.

14 And they overcame all the towns round Gerar, because
the Lord sent fear on them; and they took away their goods
from the towns, for there were stores of wealth in them.

15 And they made an attack on the tents of the owners of
the cattle, and took away great numbers of sheep and camels
and went back to Jerusalem.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 15

1 And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded;

2 And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give
ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with

you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him,
he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you
up.

3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God,
and without a teaching priest and without the law;

4 But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord,
the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be
rewarded.

5 In those times there was no peace for him who went out or
for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people
of the lands.

6 And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation
and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble
on them.

7 But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for
your work will be rewarded.

8 And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded
the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting
things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of
the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of
Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in
front of the covered way of the Lord's house.

9 And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of
Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with
them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when
they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

10 So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month,
in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa.

11 And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the
things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven
thousand sheep.

12 And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the
God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul;

13 And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who
was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to
death.

14 And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice,
sounding wind-instruments and horns.

15 And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had
taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all
their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on
every side.

16 And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen,
because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and
Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by
the stream Kidron.

17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel;
but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

18 He took into the house of God all the things which his
father had made holy and those which he himself had made
holy, silver and gold and vessels.

19 And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of
the rule of Asa.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 16

1 In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of
Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no
one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah.

2 Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the
Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-
hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,

3 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there
was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you
silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with
Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me.

4 And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the
captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking
Tjon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of
Naphtali.

5 Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of
Ramah, and let his work come to an end.

6 Then King Asa, with all Judah, took away the stones and
wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and he made
use of them for building Geba and Mizpah.

7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah,
and said to him, Because you have put your faith in the king
of Aram and not in the Lord your God, the army of the king
of Aram has got away out of your hands.

8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army,
with war-carriages and horsemen more than might be
numbered? but because your faith was in the Lord, he gave
them up into your hands.

9 For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all
the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of
those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done
foolishly, for from now you will have wars.

10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison,
burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at
the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people.

11 Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the
book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a very bad
disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in
his disease, but to medical men.

13 So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and death came to
him in the forty-first year of his rule.

14 And they put him into the resting-place which he had
made for himself in the town of David, in a bed full of sweet
perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the perfumer's art,
and they made a great burning for him.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 17

1 And Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place, and
made himself strong against Israel.

2 He put forces in all the walled towns of Judah, and
responsible chiefs in the land of Judah and in the towns of
Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.

3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he went in
the early ways of his father, not turning to the Baals,

4 But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws,
and not doing as Israel did.

5 So the Lord made his kingdom strong; and all Judah gave
offerings to Jehoshaphat, and he had great wealth and
honour.

6 His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he
went so far as to take away the high places and the wood
pillars out of Judah.

7 In the third year of his rule he sent Benhail and Obadiah
and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah, his captains, as
teachers into the towns of Judah;

8 And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah
and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah
and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama
and Jehoram the priests.

9 And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the
law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns
of Judah teaching the people.

10 And the fear of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of the
lands round Judah, so that they made no wars against
Jehoshaphat.

11 And some of the Philistines took offerings to
Jehoshaphat, and made him payments of silver; and the
Arabians gave him flocks, seven thousand, seven hundred
sheep, and seven thousand, seven hundred he-goats.

12 Jehoshaphat became greater and greater, and made
strong towers and store-towns in Judah.

13 He had much property in the towns of Judah; he had
forces of armed men, great and strong, in Jerusalem.

14 This is the number of them, listed by their families, the
captains of thousands of Judah: Adnah, the captain, and with
him three hundred thousand men of war;

15 Second to him Jehohanan, the captain, and with him
two hundred and eighty thousand;

16 After him Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who freely gave
himself to the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand
men of war;

17 And the captains of Benjamin: Eliada, a great man of
war, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bows
and body-covers;

18 And after him Jehozabad, and with him a hundred and
eighty thousand trained for war.

19 These were the men who were waiting on the king, in
addition to those placed by the king in the walled towns
through all Judah.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 18

1 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and his
son was married to Ahab's daughter.

2 And after some years he went down to Samaria to see
Ahab. And Ahab made a feast for him and the people who
were with him, putting to death great numbers of sheep and
oxen; and he got Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-
gilead.

3 For Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of
Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he said,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be
with you in the war.

4 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now
get directions from the Lord.

5 So the king of Israel got together all the prophets, four
hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-
gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for God
will give it into the hands of the king.

6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the
Lord here from whom we may get directions?

7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still
one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I
have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of
good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla.
And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

8 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants
and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of
Imla.

9 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of
Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in
their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the
prophets were acting as prophets before them.

10 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself iron
horns and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans
with these, you will put an end to them completely.

11 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up
to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord
will give it into the hands of the king.

12 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to
him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying
good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs, and
say good things.

13 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the
Lord says to me I will say.

14 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah,
are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And he
said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and they will be
given up into your hands.

15 And the king said to him, Have J not, again and again,
put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in
the name of the Lord?

16 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the
mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said,
These have no master: let them go back, every man to his
house in peace.

17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say
that he would not be a prophet of good to me, but of evil?

18 Then he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I
saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, and all the army of
heaven in their places, at his right hand and at his left.

19 And the Lord said, How may Ahab, king of Israel, be
tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And
one said one thing and one another.

20 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the
Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. And the
Lord said to him, How?

21 And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the
mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Your trick will
have its effect on him: go out and do so.

22 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the
mouth of these prophets of yours; and the Lord has said evil
against you.

23 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and
gave Micaiah a blow on the side of his face, saying, Where is
the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?

24 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when
you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

25 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him
back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's
son;

26 And say, By the king's order this man is to be put in
prison, and given prison food till I come back in peace.

27 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the
Lord has not sent his word by me.

28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,
went up to Ramoth-gilead.

29 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a
change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king,
and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So
the king of Israel made a change in his dress, and they went
to the fight.

30 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains
of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or
great, but only on the king of Israel.

31 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw
Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning
about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and
the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him.

32 Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he
was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after
him.

33 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without
thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound
where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to
the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me
away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.

34 But the fight became more violent while the day went on;
and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage
facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he
was dead.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 19

1 And Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went back to his house
in Jerusalem in peace.

2 And Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer, went to King
Jehoshaphat and said to him, Is it right for you to go to the
help of evil-doers, loving the haters of the Lord? because of
this, the wrath of the Lord has come on you.

3 But still there is some good in you, for you have put away
the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart
to the worship of God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went
out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-
country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the
God of their fathers.

5 And he put judges through all the land, in every walled
town of Judah,

6 And said to the judges, Take care what you do, for you
are judging not for man but for the Lord, and he is with you
in the decisions you give.

7 So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work
with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect
for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong.

8 Then in Jerusalem he gave authority to certain of the
Levites and the priests and the heads of families of Israel to
give decisions for the Lord, and in the causes of those living
in Jerusalem.

9 And he gave them their orders, saying, You are to do
your work in the fear of the Lord, in good faith and with a
true heart.

10 And if any cause comes before you from your brothers
living in their towns, where the death punishment is in
question, or where there are questions of law or order, or
rules or decisions, make them take care that they are not in
the wrong before the Lord, so that wrath may not come on
you and on your brothers; do this and you yourselves will
not be in the wrong.

11 And now, Amariah, the chief priest, is over you in all
questions to do with the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of
Ishmael, the head of the family of Judah, in everything to do
with the king's business; and the Levites will be overseers for
you. Be strong to do the work; and may the Lord be with the
upright.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 20

1 Now after this, the children of Moab and the children of
Ammon, and with them some of the Meunim, made war
against Jehoshaphat.

2 And they came to Jehoshaphat with the news, saying, A
great army is moving against you from Edom across the sea;
and now they are in Hazazon-tamar (which is En-gedi).

3 Then Jehoshaphat, in his fear, went to the Lord for
directions, and gave orders all through Judah for the people
to go without food.

4 And Judah came together to make prayer for help from
the Lord; from every town of Judah they came to give
worship to the Lord.

5 And Jehoshaphat took his place in the meeting of Judah
and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord in front of the new
open space,

6 And said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not
God in heaven? are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of
the nations? and in your hands are power and strength so
that no one is able to keep his place against you.

7 Did you not, O Lord our God, after driving out the
people of this land before your people Israel, give it to the
seed of Abraham, your friend, for ever?

8 And they made it their living-place, building there a holy
house for your name, and saying,

9 If evil comes on us, the sword, or punishment, or disease,
or need of food, we will come to this house and to you, (for
your name is in this house,) crying to you in our trouble, and
you will give us salvation in answer to our cry.

10 And now, see, the children of Ammon and Moab and the
people of Mount Seir, whom you kept Israel from attacking
when they came out of Egypt, so that turning to one side
they did not send destruction on them:

11 See now, how as our reward they have come to send us
out of your land which you have given us as our heritage.

12 O our God, will you not be their judge? for our strength
is not equal to this great army which is coming against us;
and we are at a loss what to do: but our eyes are on you.

13 And all Judah were waiting before the Lord, with their
little ones, their wives, and their children.

14 Then, before all the meeting, the spirit of the Lord came
on Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel,
son of Mattaniah, a Levite and one of the family of Asaph;

15 And he said, Give ear, O Judah, and you people of
Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat: the Lord says to you,
Have no fear and do not be troubled on account of this great
army; for the fight is not yours but God's.

16 Go down against them tomorrow: see, they are coming
up by the slope of Ziz; at the end of the valley, before the
waste land of Jeruel, you will come face to face with them.

17 There will be no need for you to take up arms in this
fight; put yourselves in position, and keep where you are,
and you will see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah
and Jerusalem: have no fear and do not be troubled: go out
against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.

18 Then Jehoshaphat went down with his face to the earth,
and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave worship to
the Lord, falling down before him.

19 And the Levites, the children of the Kohathites and the
Korahites, got to their feet and gave praise to the Lord, the
God of Israel, with a loud voice.

20 And early in the morning they got up and went out to
the waste land of Tekoa: and when they were going out,
Jehoshaphat took his station and said to them, Give ear to
me, O Judah and you people of Jerusalem: have faith in the
Lord your God and you will be safe; have faith in his
prophets and all will go well for you.

21 And after discussion with the people, he put in their
places those who were to make melody to the Lord, praising
him in holy robes, while they went at the head of the army,
and saying, May the Lord be praised, for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

22 And at the first notes of song and praise the Lord sent a
surprise attack against the children of Ammon and Moab and
the people of Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and
they were overcome.

23 And the children of Ammon and Moab made an attack
on the people of Mount Seir with a view to their complete
destruction; and when they had put an end to the people of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Seir, everyman's hand was turned against his neighbour for
his destruction.

24 And Judah came to the watchtower of the waste land,
and looking in the direction of the army, they saw only dead
bodies stretched on the earth; no living man was to be seen.

25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their
goods from them, they saw beasts in great numbers, and
wealth and clothing and things of value, more than they were
able to take away; all this they took for themselves, and they
were three days getting it away, there was so much.

26 On the fourth day they all came together in the Valley of
Blessing, and there they gave blessing to the Lord; for which
cause that place has been named the Valley of Blessing to this
day.

27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem went back,
with Jehoshaphat at their head, coming back to Jerusalem
with joy; for the Lord had made them glad over their haters.

28 So they came to Jerusalem with corded instruments and
wind-instruments into the house of the Lord.

29 And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the
lands, when they had news of how the Lord made war on
those who came against Israel.

30 So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for the Lord
gave him rest on every side.

31 And Jehoshaphat was king over Judah: he was thirty-
five years old when he became king, and he was ruling for
twenty-five years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was
Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

32 He went in the ways of his father Asa, not turning away,
but doing right in the eyes of the Lord.

33 The high places, however, were not taken away, and the
hearts of the people were still not true to the God of their
fathers.

34 Now as for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and
last, they are recorded in the words of Jehu, the son of
Hanani, which were put in the book of the kings of Israel.

35 After this Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became friends
with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did much evil:

36 Together they made ships to go to Tarshish, building
them in Ezion-geber.

37 Then the word of Eliezer the prophet, the son of
Dodavahu of Mareshah, came against Jehoshaphat, saying,
Because you have let yourself be joined with Ahaziah, the
Lord has sent destruction on your works. And the ships were
broken and were not able to go to Tarshish.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 21

1 And Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his
body was put into the earth in the town of David. And
Jehoram his son became king in his place.

2 And he had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, Jehiel,
Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were
sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel.

3 And their father gave them much silver and gold and
things of great value, as well as walled towns in Judah; but
the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, because he was the oldest.

4 Now when Jehoram had taken his place over his father's
kingdom, and had made his position safe, he put all his
brothers to death with the sword, as well as some of the
princes of Israel.

5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king;
and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years.

6 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and did as the
family of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife;
and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

7 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on
the family of David, because of the agreement he had made
with David, when he said he would give to him and to his
sons a light for ever.

8 In his time Edom made themselves free from the rule of
Judah, and took a king for themselves.

9 Then Jehoram went over with his captains and all his
war-carriages, and he got up by night, made an attack by
night on the Edomites and put them down, whose forces were
all round him, and the captains of the war-carriages.

10 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, to
this day: and at the same time Libnah made itself free from
his rule; because he was turned away from the Lord, the God
of his fathers.

11 And more than this, he made high places in the
mountains of Judah, teaching the people of Jerusalem to go
after false gods, and guiding Judah away from the true way.

12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet,
saying, The Lord, the God of your father David, says,
Because you have not kept to the ways of your father
Jehoshaphat or the ways of Asa, king of Judah,

13 But have gone in the way of the kings of Israel, and have
made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go after false gods,
as the family of Ahab did: and because you have put to death
your father's sons, your brothers, who were better than
yourself:

14 Now, truly, the Lord will send a great destruction on
your people and your children and your wives and everything
which is yours:

15 And you yourself will undergo the cruel pains of a
disease in your stomach, so that day by day your inside will
be falling out because of the disease.

16 Then the Philistines and the Arabians, who are by
Ethiopia, were moved by the Lord to make war on Jehoram;

17 And they came up against Judah, forcing a way into it,
and took away all the goods in the king's house, as well as his
sons and his wives; so that he had no son but only Jehoahaz,
the youngest.

18 And after all this the Lord sent on him a disease of the
stomach from which it was impossible for him to be made
well.

19 And time went on, and after two years, his inside falling
out because of the disease, he came to his death in cruel pain.
And his people made no burning for him like the burning
made for his fathers.

20 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and
he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years: and at his death he

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

was not regretted; they put his body into the earth in the
town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 22

1 And the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest
son, king in his place, for the band of men who came with the
Arabians to the army had put all the older sons to death. So
Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, became king.

2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king,
and he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's
name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri.

3 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, for his mother
was his teacher in evil-doing.

4 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the family of
Ahab did; for after the death of his father they were his
guides to his destruction.

5 Acting on their suggestion, he went with Jehoram, son of
Ahab, king of Israel, to make war on Hazael, king of Aram,
at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the bowmen.

6 And he went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds
which they had given him at Ramah when he was fighting
against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of
Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram,
the son of Ahab, because he was ill.

7 Now by the purpose of God, Ahaziah's journey to see
Jehoram was the cause of his downfall: for when he came
there, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu, the son of
Nimshi, who had been marked out by the Lord for the
destruction of the family of Ahab.

8 Now when Jehu was effecting the punishment of the
family of Ahab, he came to the princes of Judah and the sons
of Ahaziah's brothers, the servants of Ahaziah, and put them
to death.

9 And he went in search of Ahaziah; and when they came
where he was, (for he was in a secret place in Samaria,) they
took him to Jehu and put him to death; then they put his
body to rest in the earth, for they said, He is the son of
Jehoshaphat, whose heart was true to the Lord. So the family
of Ahaziah had no power to keep the kingdom.

10 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that
her son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the
kingdom of Judah put to death.

11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, secretly
took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, away from among the king's
sons who were put to death, and put him and the woman who
took care of him in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the
daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest
and sister of Ahaziah, kept him safe from Athaliah, so that
she did not put him to death.

12 And she kept him safe with her in the house of God for
six years, while Athaliah was ruling the land.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 23

1 In the seventh year, Jehoiada made himself strong, and
made an agreement with the captains of hundreds, Azariah,
the son of Jeroham, Ishmael, the son of Jehohanan, Azariah,

the son of Obed, Maaseiah, the son of Adaiah, and
Elishaphat, the son of Zichri.

2 And they went through Judah, getting together the
Levites and the heads of families in Israel from all the towns
of Judah, and they came to Jerusalem.

3 And all the people made an agreement with the king in
the house of God. And he said to them, Truly, the king's son
will be king, as the Lord has said about the sons of David.

4 This is what you are to do: let a third of you, of the
priests and Levites, who come in on the Sabbath, keep the
doors;

5 And a third are to be stationed at the king's house; and a
third at the doorway of the horses: while all the people are
waiting in the open spaces round the house of the Lord.

6 But let no one come into the house of the Lord but only
the priests and those of the Levites who have work to do
there; they may go in for they are holy; but the rest of the
people are to keep the orders of the Lord.

7 And the Levites are to make a circle round the king, every
man being armed; and any man who comes into the house is
to be put to death; you are to keep with the king when he
comes in and when he goes out.

8 So the Levites and all Judah did as Jehoiada the priest had
given them orders: every one took with him his men, those
who were to come in and those who were to go out on the
Sabbath; for Jehoiada had not sent away the divisions.

9 Then Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds
the spears and body-covers which had been King David's and
which were kept in the house of God.

10 And he put all the people in position, every man with his
instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the
house to the left, by the altar and the house and all round the
king.

11 Then they made the king's son come out, and they put
the crown on his head and gave him the arm-bands and made
him king: and Jehoiada and his sons put the holy oil on him
and said, Long life to the king.

12 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise of the people running
and praising the king, came to the people in the house of the
Lord:

13 And looking, she saw the king in his place by the pillar
at the doorway, and the captains and the horns by his side;
and all the people of the land were giving signs of joy and
sounding the horns; and the makers of melody were playing
on instruments of music, taking the chief part in the song of
praise. Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, said,
Broken faith, broken faith!

14 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to the captains of
hundreds who had authority over the army, saying, Take her
outside the lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to
death with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be put
to death in the house of the Lord.

15 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the
king's house by the doorway of the king's horses; and there
she was put to death.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and
all the people and the king, that they would be the Lord's
people.

17 Then all the people went to the house of Baal and had it
pulled down, and its altars and images broken up; and
Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death before the altars.

18 And Jehoiada put the work and the care of the house of
the Lord into the hands of the priests and the Levites, who
had been grouped in divisions by David to make burned
offerings to the Lord, as it is recorded in the law of Moses,
with joy and song as David had said.

19 And he put door-keepers at the doors of the Lord's
house, to see that no one who was unclean in any way might
come in.

20 Then he took the captains of hundreds and the chiefs and
the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and
they came down with the king from the house of the Lord
through the higher doorway into the king's house, and put
the king on the seat of the kingdom.

21 So all the people of the land were glad and the town was
quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death with the sword.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 24

1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he
was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem: his mother's name
was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as
long as Jehoiada the priest was living.

3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the
father of sons and daughters.

4 Now after this Joash had a desire to put the house of the
Lord into good order again;

5 And getting together the priests and Levites, he said to
them, Go out into the towns of Judah year by year, and get
from all Israel money to keep the house of your God in good
condition; and see that this is done without loss of time. The
Levites, however, were slow in doing so.

6 Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said
to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the
tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the
meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from
Judah and Jerusalem and handed over?

7 For the house of the Lord had been broken up by
Athaliah, that evil woman, and her sons; and all its holy
things they had given to the Baals.

8 So at the king's order they made a chest and put it outside
the doorway of the house of the Lord.

9 And an order was sent out through all Judah and
Jerusalem that payment was to be made to the Lord of the
tax which Moses, the servant of God, had put on Israel in the
waste land.

10 And all the chiefs and all the people came gladly and put
their money into the chest, till they had all given.

11 So when the chest was taken to the king's servants by the
Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the
king's scribe and the chief priest's servant took the money out,

and put the chest back in its place. They did this day by day,
and got together a great amount of money.

12 Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were
responsible for getting the work done on the Lord's house,
and with it they got wall-builders and woodworkers and
metal-workers to put the house of the Lord in good order
again.

13 So the workmen did their work, making good what was
damaged and building up the house of God till it was strong
and beautiful again.

14 And when the work was done, they took the rest of the
money to the king and Jehoiada, and it was used for making
the vessels for the house of the Lord, all the vessels needed for
the offerings, the spoons and the vessels of gold and silver.
And as long as Jehoiada was living, the regular burned
offerings were offered in the house of the Lord.

15 But Jehoiada became old and full of days, and he came to
his end; he was a hundred and thirty years old at the time of
his death.

16 And they put him into his last resting-place in the town
of David, among the kings, because he had done good in
Israel for God and for his house.

17 Now after the death of Jehoiada, the chiefs of Judah
came and went down on their faces before the king. Then the
king gave ear to them.

18 And they gave up the house of the Lord God of their
fathers, and became worshippers of pillars of wood and of the
images; and because of this sin of theirs, wrath came on
Judah and Jerusalem.

19 And the Lord sent them prophets to make them come
back to him; and they gave witness against them, but they
would not give ear.

20 Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of
Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said
to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of
the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you
have given up the Lord, he has given you up.

21 But when they had made a secret design against him, he
was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer
square of the Lord's house.

22 So King Joash did not keep in mind how good Jehoiada
his father had been to him, but put his son to death. And in
the hour of his death he said, May the Lord see it and take
payment!

23 Now in the spring, the army of the Aramaeans came up
against him; they came against Judah and Jerusalem, putting
to death all the great men of the people and sending all the
goods they took from them to the king of Damascus.

24 For though the army of Aram was only a small one, the
Lord gave a very great army into their hands, because they
had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they put
into effect the punishment of Joash.

25 And when they had gone away from him, (for he was
broken with disease,) his servants made a secret design
against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the
priest, and they put him to death on his bed; and they put his

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the
resting-place of the kings.

26 Those who made designs against him were Zabad, the
son of Shimeath, an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, the
son of Shimrith, a Moabite woman.

27 Now the story of his sons, and all the words said by the
prophet against him, and the building up again of the Lord's
house, are recorded in the account in the book of the kings.
And Amaziah his son became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 25

1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king,
and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his
mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but his
heart was not completely true to the Lord.

3 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, he put to
death those men who had taken the life of the king his father.

4 But he did not put their children to death, for he kept the
orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses,
saying, The fathers are not to be put to death for their
children or the children for their fathers, but a man is to be
put to death for the sin which he himself has done.

5 Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in
order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under
captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had
those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came
to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained
for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover.

6 And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred
thousand fighting-men from Israel.

7 But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the
army of Israel go with you; for the Lord is not with Israel,
that is, the children of Ephraim.

8 But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let
you go down before those who are fighting against you; for
God has power to give help or to send you down before your
attackers.

9 Then Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be
done about the hundred talents which I have given for the
armed band of Israel? And the man of God in answer said,
God is able to give you much more than this.

10 So Amaziah, separating the armed band which had come
to him from Ephraim, sent them back again; which made
them very angry with Judah, and they went back burning
with wrath.

11 Then Amaziah took heart, and went out at the head of
his people and came to the Valley of Salt, where he put to
death ten thousand of the children of Seir;

12 And ten thousand more the children of Israel took living,
and made them go up to the top of the rock, pushing them
down from the top of the rock so that their bodies were
broken by the fall.

13 But the men of the band which Amaziah sent back and
did not take with him to the fight, made attacks on the towns
of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, putting to death three

thousand of their people and taking away a great store of
their goods.

14 Now when Amaziah came back from the destruction of
the Edomites, he took the gods of the children of Seir and
made them his gods, worshipping them and burning
offerings before them.

15 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against
Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, Why have
you gone after the gods of the people who have not given
their people salvation from your hands?

16 But while he was talking to him the king said to him,
Have we made you one of the king's government? say no
more, or it will be the cause of your death. Then the prophet
gave up protesting, and said, It is clear to me that God's
purpose is your destruction, because you have done this and
have not given ear to my words.

17 Then Amaziah, king of Judah, acting on the suggestion
of his servants, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of
Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face
to face.

18 And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of
Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in
Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife:
and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing
the thorn under his feet.

19 You say, See, I have overcome Edom; and your heart is
lifted up with pride: now keep in your country; why do you
make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you,
in danger of downfall?

20 But Amaziah gave no attention; and this was the
purpose of God, so that he might give them up into the hands
of Joash, because they had gone after the gods of Edom.

21 And so Joash, king of Israel, went up; and he and
Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh in
Judah.

22 And Judah was overcome before Israel, and they went in
flight, every man to his tent.

23 And Joash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah,
the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, prisoner at Beth-
shemesh, and took him to Jerusalem; and he had the wall of
Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the
doorway in the angle, four hundred cubits.

24 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels
which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-
edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as
those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and
went back to Samaria.

25 Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for
fifteen years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz,
king of Israel.

26 Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, are
they not recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and
Israel?

27 Now from the time when Amaziah gave up worshipping
the Lord, they made secret designs against him in Jerusalem;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and he went in flight to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish
after him and put him to death there.

28 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the
earth with his fathers in the town of David.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 26

1 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was
sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father
Amaziah.

2 He was the builder of Eloth, which he got back for Judah
after the death of the king.

3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he
was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name
was Jechiliah of Jerusalem.

4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
father Amaziah had done.

5 He gave himself to searching after God in the days of
Zechariah, who made men wise in the fear of God; and as
long as he was true to the Lord, God made things go well for
him.

6 He went out and made war against the Philistines,
pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and
building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the
Philistines.

7 And God gave him help against the Philistines, and
against the Arabians living in Gur-baal, and against the
Meunim.

8 The Ammonites gave offerings to Uzziah: and news of him
went out as far as the limit of Egypt; for he became very great
in power.

9 Uzziah made towers in Jerusalem, at the doorway in the
angle and at the doorway in the valley and at the turn of the
wall, arming them.

10 And he put up towers in the waste land and made places
for storing water, for he had much cattle, in the low hills and
in the table land; and he had farmers and vine-keepers in the
mountains and in the fertile land, for he was a lover of
farming.

11 In addition, Uzziah had an army of fighting-men who
went out to war in bands, as they had been listed by Jeiel the
scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the authority of
Hananiah, one of the king's captains.

12 The heads of families, the strong men of war, were two
thousand, six hundred.

13 And under their orders was a trained army of three
hundred and seven thousand, five hundred, of great strength
in war, helping the king against any who came against him.

14 And Uzziah had all these forces armed with body-covers
and spears and head-covers and coats of metal and bows and
stones for sending from leather bands.

15 And in Jerusalem he made machines, the invention of
expert men, to be placed on the towers and angles of the
walls for sending arrows and great stones. And his name was
honoured far and wide; for he was greatly helped till he was
strong.

16 But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up
in pride, causing his destruction; and he did evil against the
Lord his God; for he went into the Temple of the Lord for
the purpose of burning perfumes on the altar of perfumes.

17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty of
the Lord's priests, who were strong men;

18 And they made protests to Uzziah the king, and said to
him, The burning of perfumes, Uzziah, is not your business
but that of the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been
made holy for this work: go out of the holy place, for you
have done wrong, and it will not be to your honour before
God.

19 Then Uzziah was angry; and he had in his hand a vessel
for burning perfume; and while his wrath was bitter against
the priests, the mark of the leper's disease came out on his
brow, before the eyes of the priests in the house of the Lord
by the altar of perfumes.

20 And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests,
looking at him, saw the mark of the leper on his brow, and
they sent him out quickly and he himself went out straight
away, for the Lord's punishment had come on him.

21 So King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death,
living separately in his private house; for he was cut off from
the house of God; and Jotham his son was ruling over his
house, judging the people of the land.

22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were
recorded by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

23 So Uzziah went to rest with his fathers; and they put his
body into the earth in the field used for the resting-place of
the kings, for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son
became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 27

1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king;
and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; and his
mother's name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.

2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
father Uzziah had done; but he did not go into the Temple of
the Lord. And the people still went on in their evil ways.

3 He put up the higher doorway of the house of the Lord,
and did much building on the wall of the Ophel.

4 In addition, he made towns in the hill-country of Judah,
and strong buildings and towers in the woodlands.

5 He went to war with the king of the children of Ammon
and overcame them. That year, the children of Ammon gave
him a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of
grain and ten thousand measures of barley. And the children
of Ammon gave him the same amount the second year and the
third.

6 So Jotham became strong, because in all his ways he made
the Lord his guide.

7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and
his ways, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and
Judah.

8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he
was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and they put his
body into the earth in the town of David; and Ahaz his son
became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 28

| Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he
was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; he did not do what
was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father:

2 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel and made
images of metal for the Baals.

3 More than this, he had offerings burned in the valley of
the son of Hinnom, and made his children go through fire,
copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord
had sent out of the land before the children of Israel.

4 And he made offerings and had perfumes burned in the
high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 So the Lord his God gave him up into the hands of the
king of Aram; and they overcame him, and took away a great
number of his people as prisoners to Damascus. Then he was
given into the hands of the king of Israel, who sent great
destruction on him.

6 For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, in one day put to death a
hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, all of them
good fighting-men; because they had given up the Lord, the
God of their fathers.

7 And Zichri, a great fighting-man of Ephraim, put to
death Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the controller
of his house, and Elkanah, who was second in authority to
the king.

8 And the children of Israel took away as prisoners from
their brothers, two hundred thousand, women and sons and
daughters, and a great store of their goods, and took them to
Samaria.

9 But a prophet of the Lord was there, named Oded; and he
went out in front of the army which was coming into
Samaria and said to them, Truly, because the Lord, the God
of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them up into
your hands, and you have put them to death in an outburst of
wrath stretching up to heaven.

10 And now your purpose is to keep the children of Judah
and Jerusalem as men-servants and women-servants under
your yoke: but are there no sins against the Lord your God
to be seen among yourselves?

11 And now give ear to me, and send back the prisoners
whom you have taken from your brothers: for the wrath of
the Lord is burning against you.

12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim,
Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of
Meshillemoth Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa the
son of Hadlai, put themselves against those who had come
from the war,

13 And said to them, You are not to let these prisoners
come here; for what you are designing to do will be a cause of
sin against the Lord to us, making even greater our sin and
our wrongdoing, which now are great enough, and his wrath
is burning against Israel.

14 So the armed men gave up the prisoners and the goods
they had taken to the heads and the meeting of the people.

15 And those men who have been named went up and took
the prisoners, clothing those among them who were
uncovered, with things from the goods which had been taken
in the war, and putting robes on them and shoes on their feet;
and they gave them food and drink and oil for their bodies,
and seating all the feeble among them on asses, they took
them to Jericho, the town of palm-trees, to their people, and
then went back to Samaria.

16 At that time King Ahaz sent for help to the king of
Assyria.

17 For the Edomites had come again, attacking Judah and
taking away prisoners.

18 And the Philistines, forcing their way into the towns of
the lowlands and the south of Judah, had taken Beth-shemesh
and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco, with their daughter-
towns, as well as Timnah and Gimzo and their daughter-
towns, and were living there.

19 For the Lord made Judah low, because of Ahaz, king of
Israel; for he had given up all self-control in Judah, sinning
greatly against the Lord.

20 Then Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came to him, but
was a cause of trouble and not of strength to him.

21 For Ahaz took a part of the wealth from the house of the
Lord, and from the house of the king and of the great men,
and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was no help to him.

22 And in the time of his trouble, this same King Ahaz did
even more evil against the Lord.

23 For he made offerings to the gods of Damascus, who
were attacking him, and said, Because the gods of the kings
of Aram are giving them help, I will make offerings to them
so that they may give me help. But they were the cause of his
downfall, and of that of all Israel.

24 And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God,
cutting up all the vessels of the house of God, and shutting
the doors of the Lord's house; and he made altars in every
part of Jerusalem.

25 And in every town of Judah he made high places where
perfumes were burned to other gods, awaking the wrath of
the Lord, the God of his fathers.

26 Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, first and last,
are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

27 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and they put his
body into the earth in Jerusalem; but they did not put him in
the resting-place of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son
became king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 29

1 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old;
and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his
mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
father David had done.

3 In the first year of his rule, in the first month, opening the
doors of the Lord's house, he made them strong.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And he sent for the priests and the Levites, and got them
together in the wide place on the east side,

5 And said to them, Give ear to me, O Levites: now make
yourselves holy, and make holy the house of the Lord, the
God of your fathers, and take away everything unclean from
the holy place.

6 For our fathers have done evil, sinning in the eyes of the
Lord our God, and have given him up, turning away their
faces from the house of the Lord, and turning their backs on
him.

7 The doors of his house have been shut and the lights put
out; no perfumes have been burned or offerings made to the
God of Israel in his holy place.

8 And so the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and
Jerusalem, and he has given them up to be a cause of fear and
wonder and shame, as your eyes have seen.

9 For see, our fathers have been put to death with the
sword, and our sons and daughters and wives have been
taken away prisoners because of this.

10 Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the
Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be
turned away from us.

11 My sons, take care now: for you have been marked out
by the Lord to come before him and to be his servants,
burning offerings to him.

12 Then the Levites took their places; Mahath, the son of
Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, among the Kohathites;
and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah,
the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of
Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah;

13 And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of
the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

14 And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the
sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

15 And they got their brothers together and made
themselves holy, and went in, as the king had said by the
word of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean.

16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of
the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was
to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the
outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it
together and took it away to the stream Kidron.

17 On the first day of the first month the work of making
the house holy was started, and on the eighth day they came
to the covered way of the Lord; in eight days they made the
Lord's house holy, and on the sixteenth day of the first
month the work was done.

18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, We have
made all the house of the Lord clean, as well as the altar of
burned offerings with all its vessels, and the table for the holy
bread, with all its vessels.

19 And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz
in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made
holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the
Lord.

20 Then Hezekiah the king got up early, and got together
the great men of the town, and went up to the house of the
Lord.

21 And they took with them seven oxen and seven male
sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for
the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he
gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were
to be offered on the altar of the Lord.

22 So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given
to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they
put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against
the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their
blood against the altar.

23 Then they took the he-goats for the sin-offering, placing
them before the king and the meeting of the people, and they
put their hands on them:

24 And the priests put them to death, and made a sin-
offering with their blood on the altar, to take away the sin of
all Israel: for the king gave orders that the burned offering
and the sin-offering were for all Israel.

25 Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the
Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered
by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet:
for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets.

26 So the Levites took their places with David's
instruments, and the priests with their horns.

27 And Hezekiah gave the word for the burned offering to
be offered on the altar. And when the burned offering was
started, then the song of the Lord was started, with the
blowing of horns and with all the instruments of David, king
of Israel.

28 And all the people gave worship, to the sound of songs
and the blowing of horns; and this went on till the burned
offering was ended.

29 And at the end of the offering, the king and all who were
present with him gave worship with bent heads.

30 Then King Hezekiah and the captains gave orders to the
Levites to give praise to God in the words of David and
Asaph the seer. And they made songs of praise with joy, and
with bent heads gave worship.

31 Then Hezekiah made answer and said, Now that you
have given yourselves to the Lord, come near and take
offerings and praise-offerings into the house of the Lord. So
all the people took in offerings and praise-offerings: and
those whose hearts were moved, took in burned offerings.

32 The number of burned offerings which the people took
in was seventy oxen, a hundred male sheep, and two hundred
lambs: all these were for burned offerings to the Lord.

33 And the holy things were six hundred oxen and three
thousand sheep.

34 There were not enough priests for the work of cutting
up all the burned offerings; so their brothers the Levites gave
them help till the work was done and the priests had made
themselves holy: for the Levites were more upright in heart
to make themselves holy than the priests.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 And there was a great amount of burned offerings, with
the fat of the peace-offerings and the drink offerings for every
burned offering. So the work of the Lord's house was put in
order.

36 And Hezekiah and all the people were full of joy, because
God had made the people ready: for the thing was done
suddenly.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 30

1 Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and sent
letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, requesting them to come
to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to
the Lord, the God of Israel.

2 For the king, after discussion with his chiefs and all the
body of the people in Jerusalem, had made a decision to keep
the Passover in the second month.

3 It was not possible to keep it at that time, because not
enough priests had made themselves holy, and the people had
not come together in Jerusalem.

4 And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and all the
people.

5 So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through
all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to
keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at
Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in
agreement with the law.

6 So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs
through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying,
O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to
that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the
hands of the kings of Assyria.

7 Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were
sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he
made them a cause of fear, as you see.

8 Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but
give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place,
which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the
Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned
away from you.

9 For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away
your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and
let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full
of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from
you if you come back to him.

10 So the runners went from town to town through all the
country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they
were laughed at and made sport of.

11 However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put
away their pride and came to Jerusalem.

12 And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to
do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken
as the word of the Lord.

13 So a very great number of people came together at
Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second
month.

14 And they got to work and took away all the altars in
Jerusalem, and they put all the vessels for burning perfumes
into the stream Kidron.

15 Then on the fourteenth day of the second month they
put the Passover lambs to death: and the priests and the
Levites were shamed, and made themselves holy and took
burned offerings into the house of the Lord.

16 And they took their places in their right order, as it was
ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests
draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites.

17 For there were still a number of the people there who
had not made themselves holy: so the Levites had to put
Passover lambs to death for those who were not clean, to
make them holy to the Lord.

18 For a great number of the people from Ephraim and
Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves
clean, but they took the Passover meal, though not in the
right way. For Hezekiah had made prayer for them, saying,
May the good Lord have mercy on everyone

19 Who, with all his heart, is turned to God the Lord, the
God of his fathers, even if he has not been made clean after
the rules of the holy place.

20 And the Lord gave ear to Hezekiah, and made the people
well.

21 So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem
kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great
joy: and the Levites and the priests gave praise to the Lord
day by day, making melody to the Lord with loud
instruments.

22 And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were
expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they
kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and
praising the Lord, the God of their fathers.

23 And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for
another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy.

24 For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave to the people for
offerings, a thousand oxen and seven thousand sheep; and the
rulers gave a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep; and a
great number of priests made themselves holy.

25 And all the people of Judah, with the priests and the
Levites, and those who had come from Israel, and men from
other lands who had come from Israel or who were living in
Judah, were glad with great joy.

26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for nothing like this
had been seen in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon, the son
of David, king of Israel.

27 Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a
blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy
place of God in heaven.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 31

1 Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who
were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the
stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut
down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all
Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to
their towns, every man to his property.

2 Then Hezekiah put in order the divisions of the priests
and Levites, every man in his division, in relation to his work,
for the burned offerings and peace-offerings, and for the
ordering of worship and for giving praise at the doors of the
Lord's house.

3 And he gave the king's part of his private property for the
burned offerings, that is, for the morning and evening
offerings, and the offerings for the Sabbath and the new
moons and the regular feasts, as it is recorded in the law of
the Lord.

4 In addition, he gave orders to the people of Jerusalem to
give to the priests and Levites that part which was theirs by
right, so that they might be strong in keeping the law of the
Lord.

5 And when the order was made public, straight away the
children of Israel gave, in great amounts, the first-fruits of
their grain and wine and oil and honey, and of the produce of
their fields; and they took in a tenth part of everything, a
great store.

6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who were living in
the towns of Judah came with the tenth part of their oxen
and sheep, and a tenth of all the holy things which were to be
given to the Lord their God, and put them in great masses.

7 The first store of things was put down in the third month,
and in the seventh month the masses were complete.

8 And when Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw all the
store of goods, they gave praise to the Lord and to his people
Israel.

9 Then Hezekiah put questions to the priests and Levites
about the store of goods.

10 And Azariah, the chief priest, of the family of Zadok,
said in answer, From the time when the people first came
with their offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had
food enough, and more than enough: for the blessing of the
Lord is on his people; and there is this great store which has
not been used.

11 Then Hezekiah said that store-rooms were to be made
ready in the house of the Lord; and this was done.

12 And in them they put all the offerings and the tenths and
the holy things, keeping nothing back, and over them was
Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother second to him.

13 And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and
Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath
and Benaiah were overseers, under the directions of
Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the order of Hezekiah
the king and Azariah, the ruler of the house of God.

14 And Kore, the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the
east door, had control of the offerings freely given to God,
and the distribution of the offerings of the Lord and the most
holy things.

15 And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and
Shemaiah and Amariah and Shecaniah, in the towns of the
priests, who were made responsible for giving it to all their
brothers, by divisions, to small and great:

16 As well as to all the males, of three years old and over,
listed by their families, who went into the house of the Lord
to do what was needed day by day, for their special work
with their divisions.

17 And the families of the priests were listed by their
fathers' names, but the Levites, of twenty years old and over,
were listed in relation to their work in their divisions;

18 And in the lists were all their little ones and their wives
and their sons and daughters, through all the people: they
made themselves holy in the positions which they were given.

19 And as for the sons of Aaron, the priests, living in the
country on the outskirts of their towns, every different town
there were men, marked out by name, to give their part of
the goods to all the males among the priests, and to all who
were listed among the Levites.

20 This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was
good and right and true before the Lord his God.

21 And for everything he undertook, in connection with
the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got
directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and
things went well for him.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 32

1 Now after these things and this true-hearted work,
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came into Judah, and put his
army in position before the walled towns of Judah, designing
to make his way into them by force.

2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come for
the purpose of fighting against Jerusalem,

3 He took up with his rulers and men of war the question of
stopping up the water-springs outside the town; and they
gave him their support.

4 So they got together a great number of people, and had
all the water-springs and the stream flowing through the
land stopped up, saying, Why let the kings of Assyria come
and have much water?

5 Then he took heart, building up the wall where it was
broken down, and making its towers higher, and building
another wall outside; and he made strong the Millo in the
town of David, and got together a great store of all sorts of
instruments of war.

6 And he put war chiefs over the people, and sent for them
all to come together to him in the wide place at the doorway
into the town, and to give them heart he said to them,

7 Be strong and take heart; have no fear, and do not be
troubled on account of the king of Assyria and all the great
army with him: for there is a greater with us.

8 With him is an arm of flesh; but we have the Lord our
God, helping us and fighting for us. And the people put their
faith in what Hezekiah, king of Judah, said.

9 After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants
to Jerusalem (at that time he was stationed with all his army
in front of Lachish), to say to Hezekiah and all the men of
Judah in Jerusalem,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, In what are you
placing your hope, waiting here in the walled town of
Jerusalem?

11 Is it not Hezekiah who has got you to do it, causing your
death from need of food and water, by saying, The Lord our
God will give us salvation out of the hands of the king of
Assyria?

12 Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places
and his altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Give worship
before one altar only, burning offerings on it?

13 Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have
done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the
nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling
into my hands?

14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations,
which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep
his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your
God will keep you safe from my hands?

15 So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to
do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god
of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people
safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much
less will your God keep you safe from my hands!

16 And his servants said even more against the Lord God
and against his servant Hezekiah.

17 And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the
Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying,
As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able
to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the
God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands.

18 These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in
the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on
the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting
fear into them, so that they might take the town;

19 Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the
gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands.

20 And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amoz, made prayer because of this, crying out to heaven.

21 And the Lord sent an angel who put to death all the men
of war and the chiefs and the captains in the army of the king
of Assyria. So he went back to his country in shame. And
when he came into the house of his god, his sons, the
offspring of his body, put him to death there with the sword.

22 So the Lord gave Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem
salvation from the power of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria,
and from all others, giving them rest on every side.

23 And great numbers came to Jerusalem with offerings for
the Lord, and things of great price for Hezekiah, king of
Judah: so that he was honoured among all nations from that
time.

24 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death; and he
made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord in answer gave him a
sign.

25 But Hezekiah did not do as had been done to him; for his
heart was lifted up in pride; and so wrath came on him and
on Judah and Jerusalem.

26 But then, Hezekiah, in sorrow for what he had done, put
away his pride; and he and all Jerusalem made themselves low,
so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in
Hezekiah's life-time.

27 And Hezekiah had very great wealth and honour; and he
made himself store-houses for his gold and silver and jewels
and spices, and for body-covers and all sorts of beautiful
vessels.

28 And store-houses for the produce of grain and wine and
oil; and buildings for all sorts of beasts and flocks.

29 And he made towns for himself, and got together much
property in flocks and herds: for God had given him great
wealth.

30 It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water
of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side
of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah
did well.

31 However, in the business of the representatives sent by
the rulers of Babylon to get news of the wonder which had
taken place in the land, God gave up guiding him, testing
him to see what was in his heart.

32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and the good he
did, are recorded in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

33 So Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they put
his body into the higher part of the resting-places of the sons
of David: and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him
honour at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in
his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 33

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and
he was ruling for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting
ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land
before the children of Israel.

3 For he put up again the high places which had been
pulled down by his father Hezekiah; and he made altars for
the Baals, and pillars of wood, and was a worshipper and
servant of all the stars of heaven;

4 And he made altars in the house of the Lord, of which the
Lord had said, In Jerusalem will my name be for ever.

5 And he made altars for all the stars of heaven in the two
outer squares of the house of the Lord.

6 More than this, he made his children go through the fire
in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he made use of secret
arts, and signs for reading the future, and unnatural powers,
and gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to
wonder-workers: he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord,
moving him to wrath.

7 And he put the image he had made in the house of God,
the house of which God had said to David and to Solomon
his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I
have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my
name for ever:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 And never again will I let the feet of Israel be moved out
of the land which I have given to their fathers; if only they
will take care to do all my orders, even all the law and the
orders and the rules given to them by Moses.

9 And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem
go out of the true way, so that they did more evil than those
nations whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the
children of Israel.

10 And the word of the Lord came to Manasseh and his
people, but they gave no attention.

11 So the Lord sent against them the captains of the army
of Assyria, who made Manasseh a prisoner and took him
away in chains to Babylon.

12 And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he
made himself low before the God of his fathers,

13 And made prayer to him; and in answer to his prayer
God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.
Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God.

14 After this he made an outer wall for the town of David,
on the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the way into
the town by the fish doorway; and he put a very high wall
round the Ophel; and he put captains of the army in all the
walled towns of Judah.

15 He took away the strange gods and the image out of the
house of the Lord, and all the altars he had put up on the hill
of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem, and put them out of the
town.

16 And he put the altar of the Lord in order, offering
peace-offerings and praise-offerings on it, and said that all
Judah were to be servants of the Lord, the God of Israel.

17 However, the people still made offerings in the high
places, but only to the Lord their God.

18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to
his God, and the words which the seers said to him in the
name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are recorded among the
acts of the kings of Israel.

19 And the prayer which he made to God, and how God
gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and
the places where he made high places and put up pillars of
wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded
in the history of the seers.

20 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they put
his body to rest in his house, and Amon his son became king
in his place.

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king;
and he was ruling for two years in Jerusalem.

22 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his
father had done; and Amon made offerings to all the images
which his father Manasseh had made, and was their servant.

23 He did not make himself low before the Lord, as his
father Manasseh had done, but went on sinning more and
more.

24 And his servants made a secret design against him, and
put him to death in his house.

25 But the people of the land put to death all those who
had taken part in the design against King Amon, and made
his son Josiah king in his place.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 34

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; he was
ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.

2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
walking in the ways of his father David, without turning to
the right hand or to the left.

3 In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his
heart was first turned to the God of his father David; and in
the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the
high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal
from Judah and Jerusalem.

4 He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he
himself was present; and the sun-images which were placed
on high over them he had cut down; and the pillars of wood
and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust,
dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who
had made offerings to them.

5 And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars,
and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean.

6 And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and
Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round
about.

7 He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down
and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut
down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back
to Jerusalem.

8 Now in the eighteenth year of his rule, when the land and
the house had been made clean, he sent Shaphan, the son of
Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the town, and Joah, the
son of Joahaz, the recorder, to make good what was damaged
in the house of the Lord his God.

9 And they came to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and gave him
all the money which had been taken into the house of God,
which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had got from
Manasseh and Ephraim and those of Israel who had not been
taken away as prisoners, and from all Judah and Benjamin
and the people of Jerusalem.

10 And they gave it to the overseers of the work of the
Lord's house, and the overseers gave it to the workmen
working in the house, for building it up and making good
what was damaged;

11 Even to the woodworkers and builders to get cut stone
and wood for joining the structure together and for making
boards for the houses which the kings of Judah had given up
to destruction.

12 And the men did the work well; and those who had
authority over them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the
sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of
the Kohathites, who were to be responsible for seeing that
the work was done; and others of the Levites, who were
expert with instruments of music,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 Had authority over the transport workers, giving
directions to all who were doing any sort of work; and
among the Levites there were scribes and overseers and door-
keepers.

14 Now when they were taking out the money which had
come into the Lord's house, Hilkiah the priest came across
the book of the law of the Lord, which he had given by the
mouth of Moses.

15 Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made
discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord.
And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.

16 And Shaphan took the book to the king; and he gave
him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants
are doing all they have been given to do;

17 They have taken out all the money which was in the
Lord's house and have given it to the overseers and to the
workmen.

18 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the
priest has given me a book; and he made a start at reading
some of it to the king.

19 And the king, hearing the words of the law, took his
robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief.

20 And he gave orders to Hilkiah and to Ahikam, the son
of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the
scribe and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying,

21 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for
those who are still in Israel and for Judah, about the words
of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of
the Lord which has been let loose on us, because our fathers
have not kept the word of the Lord or done what is recorded
in this book.

22 So Hilkiah, and those whom the king sent, went to
Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of
Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the robes (now she
was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town); and
they had talk with her about this thing.

23 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has
said, Say to the man who sent you to me,

24 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on
this place and on its people, even all the curses in the book
which they have been reading before the king of Judah;

25 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to
other gods and moving me to wrath by all the works of their
hands; so my wrath is let loose on this place and will not be
put out.

26 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions
from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel,
has said: Because you have given ear to my words,

27 And your heart was soft, and you made yourself low
before God, on hearing his words about this place and its
people, and with weeping and signs of grief have made
yourself low before me, I have given ear to you, says the Lord
God.

28 See, I will let you go to your fathers, and be put in your
last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the

evil which I will send on this place and on its people. So they
took this news back to the king.

29 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible
men of Judah and of Jerusalem.

30 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all
the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and the priests
and the Levites and all the people, small and great; and they
were present at his reading of the book of the law which had
come to light in the house of the Lord.

31 Then the king, taking his place by the pillar, made an
agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and
to keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his
heart and with all his soul, and to keep the words of the
agreement recorded in this book.

32 And he made all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin
give their word to keep it. And the people of Jerusalem kept
the agreement of God, the God of their fathers.

33 Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the
lands of the children of Israel, and made all who were in
Israel servants of the Lord their God. And as long as he was
living they were true to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 35

1 And Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; on
the fourteenth day of the first month they put the Passover
lamb to death.

2 And he gave the priests their places, making them strong
for the work of the house of God.

3 And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, who
were holy to the Lord, See, the holy ark is in the house which
Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, made; it will no
longer have to be transported on your backs: now be the
servants of the Lord your God and his people Israel,

4 And make yourselves ready in your divisions, by your
families, as it is ordered in the writings of David, king of
Israel, and of Solomon his son;

5 And take your positions in the holy place, grouped in the
families of your brothers, the children of the people, and for
every division let there be a part of a family of the Levites.

6 And put the Passover lamb to death, and make yourselves
holy, and make it ready for your brothers, so that the orders
given by the Lord through Moses may be done.

7 And Josiah gave lambs and goats from the flock as
Passover offerings for all the people who were present, to the
number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these
were from the king's private property.

8 And his captains freely gave an offering to the people, the
priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel,
the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the
Passover offerings two thousand, six hundred small cattle
and three hundred oxen.

9 And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers,
and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the
Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five
thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 So everything was made ready and the priests took their
places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said.

11 And they put the Passover lambs to death, the blood
being drained out by the priests when it was given to them,
and the Levites did the skinning.

12 And they took away the burned offerings, so that they
might give them to be offered to the Lord for the divisions of
the families of the people, as it is recorded in the book of
Moses. And they did the same with the oxen.

13 And the Passover lamb was cooked over the fire, as it
says in the law; and the holy offerings were cooked in pots
and basins and vessels, and taken quickly to all the people.

14 And after that, they made ready for themselves and for
the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering
the burned offerings and the fat till night; so the Levites
made ready what was needed for themselves and for the
priests, the sons of Aaron.

15 And the sons of Asaph, the makers of melody, were in
their places, as ordered by David and Asaph and Heman and
Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the door-keepers were
stationed at every door: there was no need for them to go
away from their places, for their brothers the Levites made
ready for them.

16 So everything needed for the worship of the Lord was
made ready that same day, for the keeping of the Passover
and the offering of burned offerings on the altar of the Lord,
as King Josiah had given orders.

17 And all the children of Israel who were present kept the
Passover and the feast of unleavened bread at that time for
seven days.

18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel from the days
of Samuel the prophet; and not one of the kings of Israel had
ever kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the
priests and the Levites and all those of Judah and Israel who
were present, and the people of Jerusalem.

19 In the eighteenth year of the rule of Josiah this Passover
was kept.

20 After all this, and after Josiah had put the house in order,
Neco, king of Egypt, went up to make war at Carchemish by
the river Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.

21 But he sent representatives to him, saying, What have I
to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you
this day, but against those with whom I am at war; and God
has given me orders to go forward quickly: keep out of God's
way, for he is with me, or he will send destruction on you.

22 However, Josiah would not go back; but keeping to his
purpose of fighting against him, and giving no attention to
the words of Neco, which came from God, he went forward
to the fight in the valley of Megiddo.

23 And the bowmen sent their arrows at King Josiah, and
the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly
wounded.

24 So his servants took him out of the line of war-carriages,
and put him in his second carriage and took him to Jerusalem,
where he came to his end, and they put his body in the

resting-place of his fathers. And in all Judah and Jerusalem
there was great weeping for Josiah.

25 And Jeremiah made a song of grief for Josiah; and to
this day Josiah is named by all the makers of melody, men
and women, in their songs of grief; they made it a rule in
Israel; and the songs are recorded among the songs of grief.

26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and the good he did,
in keeping with what is recorded in the law of the Lord,

27 And all his acts, first and last, are recorded in the book
of the kings of Israel and Judah.

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 36

1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of
Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king;
he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months.

3 Then the king of Egypt took the kingdom from him in
Jerusalem, and put on the land a tax of a hundred talents of
silver and a talent of gold.

4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king
over Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim.
And Neco took his brother Jehoahaz away to Egypt.

5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king;
he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years, and he did evil in
the eyes of the Lord his God.

6 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him,
and took him away in chains to Babylon.

7 And Nebuchadnezzar took away some of the vessels of the
Lord's house, and put them in the house of his god in
Babylon.

8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the disgusting
things he did, and all there is to be said against him, are
recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and
Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king;
he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months and ten days,
and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and
took him away to Babylon, with the beautiful vessels of the
house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah, his father's brother,
king over Judah and Jerusalem.

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king;
he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years.

12 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did not make
himself low before Jeremiah the prophet who gave him the
word of the Lord.

13 And he took up arms against King Nebuchadnezzar,
though he had made him take an oath by God; but he made
his neck stiff and his heart hard, turning away from the Lord,
the God of Israel.

14 And more than this, all the great men of Judah and the
priests and the people made their sin great, turning to all the
disgusting ways of the nations; and they made unclean the
house of the Lord which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to
them by his servants, sending early and frequently, because
he had pity on his people and on his living-place;

16 But they put shame on the servants of God, making
sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the
wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no
help.

17 So he sent against them the king of the Chaldaeans, who
put their young men to death with the sword in the house of
their holy place, and had no pity for any, young man or
virgin, old man or white-haired: God gave them all into his
hands.

18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small,
and the stored wealth of the Lord's house and the wealth of
the king and his chiefs, he took away to Babylon.

19 And the house of God was burned and the wall of
Jerusalem broken down; all its great houses were burned
with fire and all its beautiful vessels given up to destruction.

20 And all who had not come to death by the sword he took
away prisoners to Babylon; and they became servants to him
and to his sons till the kingdom of Persia came to power:

21 So that the words of the Lord, which he said by the
mouth of Jeremiah, might come true, till the land had had
pleasure in her Sabbaths; for as long as she was waste the
land kept the Sabbath, till seventy years were complete.

22 Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order
that the words which the Lord had said by the mouth of
Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia,
was moved by the Lord, and he made a public statement and
had it given out through all his kingdom and put in writing,
saying,

23 Cyrus, king of Persia, has said, All the kingdoms of the
earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven;
and he has made me responsible for building a house for him
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you
of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let
him go up.

KES
ET REO

THE BOOK OF EZRA

(Ezra made the Torah the common law of the land.)
Author: Nehemia (as biographer)
Estimated Range of Dating: mid-Sth century B.C.

aoe

(Ezra (f1. 480-440 BC) was an important Jewish author
(sofer) and priest (kohen) in the early Second Temple period.
In the Greek Septuagint, the name is rendered as Esdras,
from which the Latin name Esdras comes. His name is just a
shortened Aramaic form of the Hebrew name Azaryahu,
meaning "Yahweh helps".

In the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Old Testament, Ezra
is an important figure in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah,
which he is said to have written and edited, respectively.
According to tradition, Ezra was also the author of the
Books of Chronicles and the Book of Malachi. #

Ezra was instrumental in restoring the Jewish scriptures
and religion to the people after the return from the
Babylonian Captivity. The canonical Book of Ezra and Book
of Nehemiah are the oldest sources for the activity of Ezra,
Whereas many of the other books ascribed to Ezra (First
Esdras, 3-6 Ezra) are later literary works dependent on the
canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The historical
narrative in the combined book Ezra—Nehemiah has been
largely confirmed by the Sth century Elephantine Papyri
discovered in southern Egypt in 1904. (See: page 1369 The
Elephantine Papyrus Find by Eduard Meyer, 1912.) Ezra
wrote the Chronicles while his successor Nehemia finished
the Chronicles and wrote the book known as Ezra-Nehemia.

According to the Hebrew Bible he was a descendant of
Seratah, the last High Priest to serve in Solomon's Temple,
and a close relative of Joshua, the first High Priest of the
Second Temple. He returned from Babylonian captivity and
reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem. According to I Esdras,
a Greek translation of the Book of Ezra still in use in Eastern
Orthodox Church, he was also a High Priest. Rabbinic
tradition supports the positions that Ezra was an ordinary
member of the priesthood, and that he actually served as a
Kohen Gadol. Ezra was living in Babylon when in the
seventh year of Artaxerxes I, the Achaemenid emperor
(c. 457 BC), the emperor sent him to Jerusalem to teach the
laws of God to any who did not know them. The Book of
Ezra describes how he led a group of Judean exiles living in
Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem where he ts said to
have enforced observance of the Torah.

The first-century Roman-Jewish historian Titus Flavius
Josephus deals with Ezra in his Antiquities of the Jews. He
uses the name Xerxes for Artaxerxes I reserving the name
Artaxerxes for the later Artaxerxes IT whom he identifies as
the Ahasuerus of Esther, thus placing Ezra before the events
of the book of Esther. Josephus’ account of the deeds of Ezra

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

derives entirely from I Esdras, which he cites as the 'Book of
Ezra' in lis numeration of the Hebrew bible. Contrariwise,

Josephus does not appear to recognise Ezra-Nehemiah as a

biblical book, does not quote from it, and relies entirely on

other traditions in his account of the deeds of Nehemiah.

Traditionally Judaism credits Ezra with establishing the
Great Assembly of scholars and prophets, the forerunner of
the Sanhedrin, as the authority on matters of religious law.

A disciple of Baruch ben Nertah, Ezra favoured study of the
Law over the reconstruction of the Temple and thus because
of his studies, he did not join the first party returning to
Jerusalem in the reign of Cyrus. According to another
opinion, he did not join the first party so as not to compete,
even involuntarily, with Joshua ben Jozadak for the office of
High Priest of Israel.

Ezra was a priest and “a scribe skilled in the law.” He
represented the position of stricter Babylonian Jews who had
been upset by reports of laxity in Judah and desired to see
matters corrected. When Ezra arrived the situation in Judah
was discouraging. Religious laxity was prevalent, the Law
was widely disregarded, and public and private morality was
at a low level. Moreover, intermarriage with foreigners
posed the threat that the community would mingle with the
pagan environment and lose its identity.

According to the Babylonian Talmud, Ezra the Scribe 1s
said to have enacted ten standing laws and orders, which are
as follows:

1. That the public come together to read from the sefer
Torah on Shabbatot during the time of the afternoon
oblation (Minchah), because of those travelling merchants
who loiter in the closed shops in the street corners, and who
may have missed the biblical lections that were read during
the weekdays.

2. That the courts be opened throughout the Jewish
townships on Mondays and Thursdays.

3. That women would not wait beyond Thursday to
Jaunder their clothes, because of the honour due to the
Sabbath day.

4. That men would accustom themselves to eat [cooked]
garlic on the eve of the Sabbath (believed to enhance love
between a man and his wife).

5. That women would rise up early on Friday mornings to
bake bread, so that a piece of bread would be available for
the poor.

6. That Jewish women in every place be girded with a wide
belt (waist band), whether from the front or from behind,
out of modesty.

7. That Jewish women, during their menses, wash and comb
their hair three days prior to their purification in a ritual
bath.

8. That the traveling merchants make regular rounds into
the Jewish villages and townships because of the honor due to
the daughters of Israel (viz., so that jewelry can be purchased
by the daughters of Israel).

9. That Jewish women and/or girls, as a precautionary
measure, be accustomed to conversing with one another

while one of their party goes out to relieve herself in the
outhouse.

10. That men who may have suffered a seminal emission
(especially after accompanying with their wives) be required
to immerse (baptise) themselves in a mikveh (baptisterium)
before being permitted to read from the scroll of the Law
(Torah).

The order in which Ezra took the various measures
attributed to him 1s uncertain. His actions come close to that
what we call a coup d'etat. He took action against mixed
marriages and succeeded in persuading the people to divorce
their foreign wives voluntarily. His efforts reached their
climax when the people engaged in solemn covenant before
God to enter into no more mixed marriages, to refrain from
work on the sabbath, to levy on themselves an annual tax for
the support of the Temple, regularly to present their tithes
and offerings, and otherwise to comply with the demands of
the Law. It was the xenophobic attitude of Ezra and Nehemia
that brought the Jews to total distruction by the Romans.

Nothing further 1s known of Ezra after his reforms. The
Ist-century Roman-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus
states in fis Antiquities that he died and was buried in
Jerusalem. According to another tradition, he returned to
Babylonia, where his supposed grave 1s a holy site.

The contents of Ezra—Nehemiah are structured in a
theological rather than chronological order: "The Temple
must come first, then the purifying of the community, then
the building of the outer walls of the city, and so finally all
could reach a grand climax in the reading of the law."

The Book of Ezra consists of ten chapters: chapters 1-6,
covering the period from the Cyrus the Great to the
dedication of the Second Temple, are told in the third person;
chapters 7-10, dealing with the mission of Ezra, are told
largely in the first person. The book contains several
documents presented as historical inclusions, written in
Aramaic while the surrounding text 1s in Hebrew (1:2-4,
4:8—16, 4:17-22, 5:7-17, 6:3—5, 6:6—12, 12-26)

Chapters 1-6:

1. Decree of Cyrus, first version: Cyrus, inspired by God,

returns the Temple vessels to Sheshbazzar, "prince of Judah",

and directs the Israelites to return to Jerusalem with him and
rebuild the Temple.

2. 42,360 exiles, with men servants, women servants and
"singing men and women", return from Babylon to

Jerusalem and Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel and
Jeshua the High Priest.

3. Jeshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel build the altar and
celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. In the second year the
foundations of the Temple are laid and the dedication takes
place with great rejoicing.

4. Letter of the Samaritans to Artaxerxes, and reply of
Artaxerxes: The "enemies of Judah and Benjamin" offer to

help with the rebuilding, but are rebuffed; they then work to

frustrate the builders "down to the reign of Darius." The
officials of Samaria write to king Artaxerxes warning him

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

that Jerusalem is being rebuilt, and the king orders the work
to stop. "Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem
came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of
Darius king of Persia."

5. Tattenai’s letter to Darius: Through the exhortations of
the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel and Joshua
recommence the building of the Temple. Tattenai, satrap
over both Judah and Samaria, writes to Darius warning him
that Jerusalem is being rebuilt and advising that the archives
be searched to discover the decree of Cyrus.

6. Decree of Cyrus, second version, and decree of Darius:
Dartus finds the decree, directs Tattenai not to disturb the
Jews in their work, and exempts them from tribute and
supplies everything necessary for the offerings. The Temple is
finished in the month of Adar in the sixth year of Darius, and
the Israelites assemble to celebrate its completion.

Chapters 7-10:

7. Letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra (Artaxerxes' rescript): King
Artaxerxes is moved by God to commission Ezra "to inquire
about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your
God" and to "appoint magistrates and judges to administer
Justice to all the people of Trans-Euphrates—all who know
the laws of your God." Artaxerxes gives Ezra much gold and
directs all Persian officials to aid him.

8. Ezra gathers a large body of returnees and much gold and
silver and precious vessels for the Temple and camps by a
canal outside Babylon. There he discovers he has no Levites,
and so sends messengers to gather some. The exiles then
return to Jerusalem, where they distribute the gold and silver
and offer sacrifices to God.

9. Ezra is informed that some of the Jews already in
Jerusalem have married non-Jewish women. Ezra 1s appalled
at this proof of sin, and prays to God: "O God of Israel, you
are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are
before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us
can stand in your presence."

10. Despite the opposition of some of their number, the
Israelites assemble and send away their foreign wives and
children.)

EZRA CHAPTER |

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order
that the word of the Lord given by the mouth of Jeremiah
might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was
moved by the Lord, so that he made a public statement
through all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying,

2 These are the words of Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord
God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth;
and he has made me responsible for building a house [temple]
for Him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3 Whoever there is among you of his people, may his God
be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in
Judah, and take in hand the building of the house of the Lord,
the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

4 And whoever there may be of the rest of Israel, living in
any place, let the men of that place give him help with
offerings of silver and gold and goods and beasts, in addition
to the offering freely given for the house of God in Jerusalem.

5 Then the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, with
the priests and the Levites, got ready, even all those whose
spirits were moved by God to go up and take in hand the
building of the Lord's house in Jerusalem.

6 And all their neighbours gave them help with offerings of
vessels of silver and gold and goods and beasts and things of
great value, in addition to what was freely offered.

7 And Cyrus the king got out the vessels of the house of the
Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and
put in the house of his gods;

8 Even these Cyrus made Mithredath, the keeper of his
wealth, get out, and he gave them, after numbering them, to
Sheshbazzar, the ruler of Judah.

9 And this is the number of them: there were thirty gold
plates, a thousand silver plates, twenty-nine knives,

10 Thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins,
and a thousand other vessels.

11 There were five thousand, four hundred gold and silver
vessels. All these were taken back by Sheshbazzar, when those
who had been taken prisoner went up from Babylon to
Jerusalem.

EZRA CHAPTER 2

1 Now these are the people of the divisions of the kingdom,
among those who had been made prisoners by
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and taken away to
Babylon, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone
to his town;

2 Who went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah,
Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum,
Baanah, The number of the men of the people of Israel:

3 The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and
seventy-two.

4 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-
two.

5 The children of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five.

6 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua
and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and twelve.

7 The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-
four.

8 The children of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five.

9 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty.

10 The children of Bani, six hundred and forty-two.

11 The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three.

12 The children of Azgad, a thousand, two hundred and
twenty-two.

13 The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six.

14 The children of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six.

15 The children of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four.

16 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

17 The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three.

18 The children of Jorah, a hundred and twelve.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 The children of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three.

20 The children of Gibbar, ninety-five.

21 The children of Beth-lehem, a hundred and twenty-three.

22 The men of Netophah, fifty-six.

23 The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight.

24 The children of Azmaveth, forty-two.

25 The children of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth,
seven hundred and forty-three.

26 The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and
twenty-one.

27 The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two.

28 The men of Beth-el and Ai, two hundred and twenty-
three.

29 The children of Nebo, fifty-two.

30 The children of Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six.

31 The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two
hundred and fifty-four.

32 The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty.

33 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred
and twenty-five.

34 The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.

35 The children of Senaah, three thousand, six hundred and
thirty.

36 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of
Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three.

37 The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two.

38 The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and
forty-seven.

39 The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

40 The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the
children of Hodaviah, seventy-four.

41 The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and
twenty-eight

42 The children of the door-keepers: the children of
Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the
children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of
Shobai, a hundred and thirty-nine.

43 The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of
Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

44 The children of Keros, the children of Siaha,
children of Padon,

45 The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah,
children of Akkub,

46 The children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai,
children of Hanan,

47 The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the
children of Reaiah,

48 The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the
children of Gazzam,

49 The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah,
children of Besai,

50 The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the
children of Nephisim,

51 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the
children of Harhur,

52 The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the
children of Harsha,

53 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the
children of Temah,

54 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

55 The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai,
the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda,

56 The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the
children of Giddel,

57 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the
children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Ami.

58 All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's
servants, were three hundred and ninety-two.

59 And these were the people who went up from Tel-melah,
Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer. But having no
knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not
certain that they were Israelites;

60 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the
children of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two.

61 And of the children of the priests: the children of
Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai,
who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the
Gileadite, and took their name.

62 They made search for their record among the lists of
families, but their names were nowhere to be seen; so they
were looked on as unclean and no longer priests.

63 And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the
most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give
decision by Urim and Thummim.

64 The number of all the people together was forty-two
thousand, three hundred and sixty,

65 As well as their men-servants and their women-servants,
of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and
thirty-seven: and they had two hundred men and women to
make music.

66 They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two
hundred and forty-five transport beasts,

67 Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand,
seven hundred and twenty asses.

68 And some of the heads of families, when they came to the
house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, gave freely of their
wealth for the building up of the house of God in its place:

69 Every one, as he was able, gave for the work sixty-one
thousand darics of gold, five thousand pounds of silver and a
hundred priests' robes.

70 So the priests and the Levites and the people and the
music-makers and the door-keepers and the Nethinim, took
up their places in their towns; even all Israel in their towns.

EZRA CHAPTER 3

1 And when the seventh month came, and the children of
Israel were in the towns, the people came together like one
man to Jerusalem.

2 Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the
priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his
brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man
of God.

3 They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them
because of the people of the countries: and they made burned
offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning
and evening.

4 And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making
the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is
ordered; for every day what was needed.

5 And after that, the regular burned offering and the
offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the
Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone
who freely gave his offering to the Lord.

6 From the first day of the seventh month they made a start
with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the
Lord had still not been put in its place.

7 And they gave money to the stoneworkers and
woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of
Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from
Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had
given them authority to do.

8 Now in the second year of their coming into the house of
God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken
in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the
son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and
the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where
they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites,
of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the
work of the house of the Lord.

9 Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with
his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of
overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of
Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites.

10 And when the builders put in position the base of the
Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took
their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph,
with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way
ordered by David, king of Israel.

11 And they gave praise to the Lord, answering one
another in their songs and saying, For he is good, for his
mercy to Israel is eternal. And all the people gave a great cry
of joy, when they gave praise to the Lord, because the base of
the Lord's house was put in place.

12 But a number of the priests and Levites and the heads of
families, old men who had seen the first house, when the base
of this house was put down before their eyes, were overcome
with weeping; and a number were crying out with joy:

13 So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed
with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were
loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off.

EZRA CHAPTER 4

1 Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that
the people who had come back were building a Temple to the
Lord, the God of Israel;

2 Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of families,
and said to them, Let us take part in the building with you;
for we are servants of your God, even as you are; and we have
been making offerings to him from the days of Esar-haddon,
king of Assyria, who put us here.

3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of
families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in
the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the
work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king
of Persia, has given us orders.

4 Then the people of the land made the hands of the people
of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building;

5 And they gave payment to men who made designs against
them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through
the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king.

6 And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king,
they put on record a statement against the people of Judah
and Jerusalem.

7 And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath,
Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes,
king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and
language.

8 Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a
letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king;

9 The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and
Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the
Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the
Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites,
the Elamites,

10 And the rest of the nations which the great and noble
Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the
country over the river:

11 This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes
the king: Your servants living across the river send these
words:

12 We give news to the king that the Jews who came from
you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again
that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and
they are joining up the bases.

13 The king may be certain that when the building of this
town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or
payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will
be a cause of loss to the kings.

14 Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not
right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent
to give the king word of these things,

15 So that search may be made in the book of the records of
your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that
this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to
kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against
authority there in the past: for which reason the town was
made waste.

16 We give you word, that if the building of this town and
its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power
in the country across the river.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Then the king sent an answer to Rehum, the chief ruler,
and Shimshai the scribe, and their friends living in Samaria,
and to the rest of those across the river, saying, Peace to you:

18 And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has
been made clear to me,

19 And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is
certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings,
and that outbursts against authority have taken place there.

20 Further, there have been great kings in Jerusalem,
ruling over all the country across the river, to whom they
gave taxes and payments in goods and forced payments.

21 Give an order now, that these men are to do nothing
more, and that the building of the town is to be stopped, till
I give an order.

22 Be certain to do this with all care: do not let trouble be
increased to the king's damage.

23 Then, after reading the king's letter, Rehum and
Shimshai the scribe and their friends went quickly to
Jerusalem, to the Jews, and had them stopped by force.

24 So the work of the house of God at Jerusalem came to an
end; so it was stopped, till the second year of the rule of
Darius, king of Persia.

EZRA CHAPTER 5

1 Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo,
were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the
name of the God of Israel.

2 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son
of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of
God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them,
helping them.

3 At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the
river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and
said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and
this wall?

4 Then they said these words to them: What are the names
of the men who are at work on this building?

5 But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and
they did not make them give up working till the question had
been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter
about it.

6 This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the
land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the

Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king:

7 They sent him a letter saying, To Darius the king, all
peace:

8 This is to give the king word that we went into the land of
Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great
stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work
is going on with industry, and they are doing it well.

9 Then we said to the men responsible, who gave you
authority for the building of this house and these walls?

10 And we made request for their names, so that we might
send you word, and give you the names of the men at the
head of them.

11 And they made answer to us, saying, We are the servants
of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the
house which was put up in times long past and was designed
and made complete by a great king of Israel.

12 But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our
fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this
house and took the people away into Babylon.

13 But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, Cyrus the
king gave an order for the building of this house of God;

14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God,
which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple which was in
Jerusalem, and put into the house of his god in Babylon,
these Cyrus the king took from the house of his god in
Babylon, and gave to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had
made ruler;

15 And he said to him, Go, take these vessels, and put them
in the Temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be put
up again in its place.

16 Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of
God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now
the building has been going on, but it is still not complete.

17 So now, if it seems good to the king, let search be made
in the king's store-house at Babylon, to see if it is true that an
order was given by Cyrus the king for the building of this
house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us word of
his pleasure in connection with this business.

EZRA CHAPTER 6

1 Then Darius the king gave an order and a search was
made in the house of the records, where the things of value
were stored up in Babylon.

2 And at Achmetha, in the great house of the king in the
land of Media, they came across a roll, in which this
statement was put on record:

3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made an
order: In connection with the house of God at Jerusalem, let
the house be put up, the place where they make offerings, and
let the earth for the bases be put in place; let it be sixty cubits
high and sixty cubits wide;

4 With three lines of great stones and one line of new wood
supports; and let the necessary money be given out of the
king's store-house;

5 And let the gold and silver vessels from the house of God,
which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple at Jerusalem to
Babylon, be given back and taken again to the Temple at
Jerusalem, every one in its place, and put them in the house
of God.

6 So now, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and
Shethar-bozenai and your people the Apharsachites across
the river, keep far from that place:

7 Let the work of this house of God go on; let the ruler of
the Jews and their responsible men put up this house of God
in its place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 Further, I give orders as to what you are to do for the
responsible men of the Jews in connection with the building
of this house of God: that from the king's wealth, that is,
from the taxes got together in the land over the river, the
money needed is to be given to these men readily, so that
their work may not be stopped.

9 And whatever they have need of, young oxen and sheep
and lambs, for burned offerings to the God of heaven, grain,
salt, wine, and oil, whatever the priests in Jerusalem say is
necessary, is to be given to them day by day regularly:

10 So that they may make offerings of a sweet smell to the
God of heaven, with prayers for the life of the king and of his
sons.

11 And I have given orders that if anyone makes any change
in this word, one of the supports is to be pulled out of his
house, and he is to be lifted up and fixed to it; and his house
is to be made waste for this;

12 And may the God who has made it a resting-place for his
name send destruction on all kings and peoples whose hands
are outstretched to make any change in this or to do damage
to this house of God at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given this
order, let it be done with all care.

13 Then Tattenai, the ruler across the river, and Shethar-
bozenai and their people, because of the order given by King
Darius, did as he had said with all care.

14 And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their
building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the
prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on
building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the
God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius,
and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

15 And the building of this house was complete on the third
day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius
the king.

16 And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites,
and the rest of those who had come back, kept the feast of the
opening of this house of God with joy.

17 And they gave as offerings at the opening of this house
of God a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, four hundred
lambs; and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats,
being the number of the tribes of Israel.

18 And they put the priests in their divisions and the
Levites in their order, for the worship of God at Jerusalem;
as it is recorded in the book of Moses.

19 And the children of Israel who had come back kept the
Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

20 For the priests and the Levites had made themselves
clean together; they were all clean: and they put the Passover
lamb to death for all those who had come back, and for their
brothers the priests and for themselves.

21 And the children of Israel, who had come back, and all
those who were joined to them, after separating themselves
from the evil ways of the people of the land to become the
servants of the Lord, the God of Israel, took food together,

22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days
with joy: for the Lord had made them full of joy, by turning

the heart of the king of Assyria to them to give them help in
the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

EZRA CHAPTER 7

1 Now after these things, when Artaxerxes was king of
Persia, Ezra, the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son
of Hilkiah,

2 The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

3 The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of
Meraioth,

4 The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,

5 The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest:

6 This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a scribe,
expert in the law of Moses which the Lord, the God of Israel,
had given: and the king, moved by the Lord his God, gave
him whatever he made request for.

7 And some of the children of Israel went up, with some of
the priests and the Levites and the music-makers and the
door-keepers and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh
year of Artaxerxes the king.

8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the
seventh year of the king's rule.

9 For, starting his journey from Babylon on the first day of
the first month, he came to Jerusalem on the first day of the
fifth month, by the good help of his God.

10 For Ezra had given his mind to learning the law of the
Lord and doing it, and to teaching his rules and decisions in
Israel.

11 Now this is a copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes
gave to Ezra, the priest and the scribe, who put into writing
the words of the orders of the Lord, and of his rules for Israel:

12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of
the law of the God of heaven, all peace;

13 And now it is my order that all those of the people of
Israel, and their priests and Levites in my kingdom, who are
ready and have a desire to go to Jerusalem, are to go with
you.

14 Because you are sent by the king and his seven wise men,
to get knowledge about Judah and Jerusalem, as you are
ordered by the law of your God which is in your hand;

15 And to take with you the silver and gold freely offered
by the king and his wise men to the God of Israel, whose
Temple is in Jerusalem,

16 As well as all the silver and gold which you get from the
land of Babylon, together with the offering of the people and
of the priests, freely given for the house of their God, which
is in Jerusalem:

17 So with this money get with care oxen, sheep, and lambs,
with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, to be
offered on the altar of the house of your God, which is in
Jerusalem.

18 And whatever seems right to you and to your brothers
to do with the rest of the silver and gold, that do, as may be
pleasing to your God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 And the vessels which have been given to you for the uses
of the house of your God, you are to give to the God of
Jerusalem.

20 And whatever more is needed for the house of your God,
and which you may have to give, take it from the king's
store-house.

21 And I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, now give orders to
all keepers of the king's money across the river, that whatever
Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven,
may have need of from you, is to be done with all care,

22 Up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures of
grain, a hundred measures of wine, and a hundred measures
of oil, and salt without measure.

23 Whatever is ordered by the God of heaven, let it be done
completely for the house of the God of heaven; so that there
may not be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his
sons.

24 In addition, we make it clear to you, that it will be
against the law to put any tax or payment in goods or forced
payment on any of the priests or Levites, the music-makers,
door-keepers, Nethinim, or any servants of this house of God.

25 And you, Ezra, by the wisdom of your God which is in
you, are to put rulers and judges to have authority over all
the people across the river who have knowledge of the laws of
your God; and you are to give teaching to him who has no
knowledge of them.

26 And if anyone does not keep the law of your God and the
law of the king, take care that punishment is given to him, by
death or by driving him from his country or by taking away
his goods or by putting him in prison.

27 Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has
put such a thing into the heart of the king, to make fair the
house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem;

28 And has given mercy to me before the king and his
government and before all the king's great captains. And I
was made strong by the hand of the Lord my God which was
on me, and | got together out of Israel chief men to go up
with me.

EZRA CHAPTER 8

1 Now these are the heads of families who were listed of
those who went up with me from Babylon, when Artaxerxes
was king.

2 Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar,
Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush;

3 Of the sons of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah;
and with him were listed a hundred and fifty males.

4 Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, the son of
Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males.

5 Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with
him three hundred males.

6 And of the sons of Adin, Ebed, the son of Jonathan; and
with him fifty males.

7 And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah; the son of Athaliah;
and with him seventy males.

8 And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of
Michael; and with him eighty males.

9 Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel; and with
him two hundred and eighteen males.

10 And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and
with him a hundred and sixty males.

11 And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai;
and with him twenty-eight males.

12 And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakkatan;
and with him a hundred and ten males.

13 And of the sons of Adonikam, the last, whose names
were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty
males.

14 And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with
them seventy males.

15 And I made them come together by the river flowing to
Ahava; and we were there in tents for three days: and after
viewing the people and the priests I saw that no sons of Levi
were there.

16 Then I sent for Eliezer and Ariel and Shemaiah and
Elnathan Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and
Meshullam, all responsible men; and for Joiarib and
Elnathan, who were wise men.

17 And I sent them to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia,
and gave them orders what to say to Iddo and his brothers
the Nethinim at the place Casiphia, so that they might come
back to us with men to do the work of the house of our God.

18 And by the help of our God they got for us Ish-sechel,
one of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel;
and Sherebiah with his sons and brothers, eighteen;

19 And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of
Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;

20 And of the Nethinim, to whom David and the captains
had given the work of helping the Levites, two hundred and
twenty Nethinim, all of them specially named.

21 Then I gave orders for a time of going without food,
there by the river Ahava, so that we might make ourselves
low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a straight
way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.

22 For I would not, for shame, make request to the king for
a band of armed men and horsemen to give us help against
those who might make attacks on us on the way: for we had
said to the king, The hand of our God is on his servants for
good, but his power and his wrath are against all those who
are turned away from him.

23 So we went without food, requesting our God for this:
and his ear was open to our prayer.

24 So I put on one side twelve of the chiefs of the priests,
Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,

25 And gave to them by weight the silver and the gold and
the vessels, all the offering for the house of our God which
the king and his wise men and his captains and all Israel there
present had given:

26 Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents
of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a
hundred talents of gold,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two
vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold.

28 And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the
vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering
freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

29 Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on
the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and
the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms
of the house of the Lord.

30 So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver
and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the
house of our God.

31 Then we went away from the river of Ahava on the
twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; and the
hand of our God was on us, and he gave us salvation from
our haters and those who were waiting to make an attack on
us by the way.

32 And we came to Jerusalem and were there for three days.

33 And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the
vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God
into the hands of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and
with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them
were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of
Binnui, the Levites;

34 All was handed over by number and by weight: and the
weight was put on record at that time.

35 And those who had been prisoners, who had come back
from a strange land, made burned offerings to the God of
Israel, twelve oxen for all Israel, ninety-six male sheep,
seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all
this was a burned offering to the Lord.

36 And they gave the king's orders to the king's captains
and the rulers across the river, and they gave the people and
the house of God the help which was needed.

EZRA CHAPTER 9

1 Now after these things were done, the captains came to
me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and Levites
have not kept themselves separate from the people of the
lands, but have taken part in the disgusting ways of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the
Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

2 For they have taken their daughters for themselves and
for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the
peoples of the lands; and in fact the captains and rulers have
been the first to do this evil.

3 And hearing this, with signs of grief and pulling out the
hair of my head and my chin, I took my seat on the earth
deeply troubled.

4 Then everyone who went in fear of the words of the God
of Israel, because of the sin of those who had come back, came
together to me; and I kept where I was, overcome with grief,
till the evening offering.

5 And at the evening offering, having made myself low
before God, I got up, and with signs of grief, falling down on
my knees, with my hands stretched out to the Lord my God,

6 I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face
to you, my God: for our sins are increased higher than our
heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven.

7 From the days of our fathers till this day we have been
great sinners; and for our sins, we and our kings and our
priests have been given up into the hands of the kings of the
lands, to the sword and to prison and to loss of goods and to
shame of face, as it is this day.

8 And now for a little time grace has come to us from the
Lord our God, to let a small band of us get free and to give
us a nail in his holy place, so that our God may give light to
our eyes and a measure of new life in our prison chains.

9 For we are servants; but our God has not been turned
away from us in our prison, but has had mercy on us before
the eyes of the kings of Persia, to give us new strength to put
up again the house of our God and to make fair its waste
places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

10 And now, O our God, what are we to say after this? for
we have not kept your laws,

11 Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying,
The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage,
is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of
the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land
unclean from end to end.

12 So now do not give your daughters to their sons or take
their daughters for your sons or do anything for their peace
or well-being for ever; so that you may be strong, living on
the good of the land, and handing it on to your children for a
heritage for ever.

13 And after everything which has come on us because of
our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the
punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the
measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those
of us who are here;

14 Are we again to go against your orders, taking wives
from among the people who do these disgusting things?
would you not be angry with us till our destruction was
complete, till there was not one who got away safe?

15 O Lord God of Israel, righteousness is yours; we are
only a small band which has been kept from death, as at this
day: see, we are before you in our sin; for no one may keep his
place before you because of this.

EZRA CHAPTER 10

1 Now while Ezra was making his prayer and his statement
of wrongdoing, weeping and falling down before the house
of God, a very great number of men and women and children
out of Israel came together round him: for the people were
weeping bitterly.

2 And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam,
answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God,
and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of
the land: but still there is hope for Israel in this question.

3 Let us now make an agreement with our God to put away
all the wives and all their children, if it seems right to my

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

lord and to those who go in fear of the words of our God;
and let it be done in keeping with the law.

4 Up, now! for this is your business, and we are with you;
take heart and do it.

5 Then Ezra got up, and made the chiefs of the priests and
the Levites and all Israel take an oath that they would do this.
So they took an oath.

6 Then Ezra got up from before the house of God and went
into the room of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib; but when he
came there, he took no food or drink, for he was sorrowing
for the sin of those who had come back.

7 And they made a public statement through all Judah and
Jerusalem, to all those who had come back, that they were to
come together to Jerusalem;

8 And that if anyone did not come before three days were
past, as ordered by the rulers and the responsible men, all his
goods would be put under the curse, and he himself would be
cut off from the meeting of the people who had come back.

9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin came together to
Jerusalem before three days were past; it was the ninth month,
on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people were
seated in the wide square in front of the house of God,
shaking with fear because of this business and because of the
great rain.

10 And Ezra the priest got to his feet and said to them, You
have done wrong and taken strange women for your wives,
so increasing the sin of Israel.

11 So now, give praise to the Lord, the God of your fathers,
and do his pleasure; and make yourselves separate from the
peoples of the land and from the strange women.

12 Then all the people, answering, said with a loud voice,
As you have said, so it is right for us to do.

13 But the number of people is great, and it is a time of
much rain; it is not possible for us to go on waiting outside,
and this is not a thing which may be done in one day or even
two: for our sin in this business is great.

14 So now let our rulers be representatives for all the
people, and let all those in our towns who are married to
strange women come at fixed times, and with them the
responsible men and the judges of every town, till the
burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this
has been done.

15 Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son
of Tikvah, were against this, Meshullam and Shabbethai the
Levite supporting them.

16 So those who had come back did so. And Ezra the priest,
with certain heads of families, by their fathers' families, all of
them by their names, were marked out; and on the first day
of the tenth month they took their places to go into the
question with care.

17 And they got to the end of all the men who were married
to strange women by the first day of the first month.

18 And among the sons of the priests who were married to
strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of
Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib
and Gedaliah.

19 And they gave their word that they would put away
their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male
sheep of the flock.

20 And of the sons of Immer, Hanani and Zebadiah.

21 And of the sons of Harim, Maaseiah and Elijah and
Shemaiah and Jehiel and Uzziah.

22 And of the sons of Pashhur, Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael,
Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.

23 And of the Levites, Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah
(that is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.

24 And of the music-makers, Eliashib; and of the door-
keepers, Shallum and Telem and Uri.

25 And of Israel, the sons of Parosh, Ramiah and Izziah and
Malchijah and Mijamin and Eleazar and Malchijah and
Benaiah.

26 And of the sons of Elam, Mattaniah, Zechariah, and
Jehiel and Abdi and Jeremoth and Elijah.

27 And of the sons of Zattu, Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah,
and Jeremoth and Zabad and Aziza.

28 And of the sons of Bebai, Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai,
Athlai.

29 And of the sons of Bani, Meshullam, Malluch, and
Adaiah, Jashub and Sheal, Jeremoth.

30 And of the sons of Pahath-moab, Adna and Chelal,
Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel and Binnui and
Manasseh.

31 And of the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah,
Shemaiah, Shimeon,

32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.

33 Of the sons of Hashum, Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad,
Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.

34 Of the sons of Bani, Maadai, Amram, and Uel,

35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi,

36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,

37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu,

38 And Bani and Binnui, Shimei;

39 And Shelemiah and Nathan and Adaiah,

40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,

41 Azarel and Shelemiah, Shemariah,

42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph.

43 Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina,
Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah.

44 All these had taken strange wives; and some of them had
wives by whom they had offspring.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH

or Second Book of Ezra or 2 Ezra
Author: Nehemia (as autobiographer)
Estimated Range of Dating: Sth - 4th centuries B.C.

(This book ts also known as The Nehemiah Memoir or The
Autobiography of Nehemia, names given by scholars to the
book because it 1s written in the first person, and it 1s
considered historically reliable (See Appendix C: The
Elephantine Papyrus Find by Eduard Meyer, 1912. Yje
Book of Nehemia is the second part of "Ezra-Nehemia"
which was separated from the first part only by an empty line
in the scroll. Nehemiah (Hebrew for "Yah comforts") was
governor of Yehud Medinat (Persian Judaea) under
Artaxerxes I of Persia (465-424 BC). Nehemiah wrote both
parts of the Ezra-Nehemia work and he describes in his
double-book the rebuilding of Jerusalem during the Second
Temple period.

Nehemiah's narrative on the Rebuilding of Jerusalem: In
the 20th year of Artaxerxes I (445 or 444 BC), Nehemiah was
cup-bearer to the king. Learning that the remnant of Jews in
Judah were in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were
broken down, he asked the king for permission to return and
rebuild the city, around 20 years after Ezra’s arrival in
Jerusalem in 468 BC. Artaxerxes sent him to Judah as
governor of the province with a mussion to rebuild, letters
explaining his support for the venture, and provision for
timber from the king's forest. Once there, Nehemiah defied
the opposition of Judah's enemies on all sides—Samaritans,
Ammonites, Arabs and Philistines—and rebuilt the walls
within 52 days, from the Sheep Gate in the North, the
Hananeel Tower at the North West corner, the Fish Gate in
the West, the Furnaces Tower at the Temple Mount's South
West corner, the Dung Gate in the South, the East Gate and
the gate beneath the Golden Gate in the East. He then took
measures to repopulate the city and purify the Jewish
community, enforcing the cancellation of debt, assisting Ezra
in publicising the law of Moses, and enforcing the divorce of
Jewish men from their non-Jewish wives.

After 12 years as governor, during which he ruled with
Justice and righteousness, he returned to the king in Susa.
Appearing in the Queen's presence may indicate that he was a
eunuch, and in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
Hebrew Bible, he 1s described as such: eunochos (eunuch),
rather than oinochoos (wine-cup-bearer). If so, the attempt
by his enemy Shematah to trick him into entering the Temple
is aimed at making him break Jewish law, rather than simply
hide from assassins.

After some time in Susa he returned to Jerusalem, only to
find that the people had fallen back into their evil ways.
Non-Jews were permitted to conduct business inside
Jerusalem on the Sabbath and to keep rooms in the Temple.
Greatly angered, he purified the Temple and the priests and
Levites and enforced the observance of the law of Moses.

The Second Book of Maccabees says Nehemiah 1s the one
who brought the holy fire for the altar back from the

diaspora to Jerusalem and founded a library of the Holy
Scriptures just as Judas Maccabeus did. Here, Nehemiah's
political role sets an example for the Hasmonean dynasty and
becomes a role model for pious, national leadership in
general. The scene of reading and explaining the Torah in
Neh 8 became the model of synagogue worship. See 2
Maccabees 2:13.

Book of Sirach: Ben Sira's hymn in praise of the fathers
mentions only Nehemiah (not Ezra) after Zerubbabel and
Joshua and pratses him for his building activities (Sir 49:15).

The Babylonian Talmud: One rabbinic text, or aggadah,
identifies Nehemiah as Zerubbabel, with the latter being
considered an epithet and indicating that he was born in
Babylon. Another oral tradition, or mishnah, records that
Nehemiah was blamed for seeming to boast (Neh. v. 19 & xii.
31), and disparage his predecessors (Neh. v. 15). This
tradition asserts that his book was appended to the Book of
Ezra, as a consequence, rather than being a separate book in
its own right, as it is in the Christian Old Testament.
Another Talmudic text, or Baba Bathra, records that
Nehemiah completed the Book of Chronicles, which was said
to have been written by Ezra, however, Nehemiah was the
real author but was forbidden to claim authorship because of
his bad habit of disparaging others.

The historical narrative in the combined book Ezra—
Nehemiah has been largely confirmed by the 5th century
Elephantine Papyri discovered in southern Egypt in 1904.
(See: page 1369 The Elephantine Papyrus find of
Elephantine by Eduard Meyer, 1912.) The book 1s set in the
Sth century BC. Judah 1s one of several provinces within a
larger satrapy (a large administrative unit) within the
Persian Empire of the Achaemenid Dynasty. The capital of
the empire is at Susa (Elam, western Iran). The Book of
Nehemiah, in the Hebrew Bible, largely takes the form of a
first-person memorr concerning the rebuilding of the walls of
Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile by Nehemiah, a Jew who
Is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of
the city and its people to God's laws (the Torah, Pebtateuch).

Nehemiah 1s a cup-bearer to king (emperor) Artaxerxes I
(Artakhshasa I, 465-424 BC) of Persia — an important
official position. At his own request Nehemiah is sent to
Jerusalem as governor of Yehud, the official Persian name
for Judah (Judaea). He was provided with an escort and with
documents that guaranteed the assistance of Judah's Persian
officials. So about 444 BC Nehemiah journeyed to Jerusalem
and aroused the people there to the necessity of repopulating
the city and rebuilding its walls. Jerusalem had been
conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and
Nehemiah finds it still in ruins.

The Temple at Jerusalem had been rebuilt, but the Jewish
community there was dispirited and defenseless against its
non-Jewish neighbours. His task 1s to rebuild the walls and
to re-populate the city. He faces opposition from three
powerful neighbours, the Samaritans, the Ammonites, and
the Arabs, as well as the city of Ashdod, but in the space of
52 days the Jews under his direction succeed in rebuilding

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Jerusalem's walls. He then purifies the Jewish community by
enforcing its segregation from its neighbours and enforces
the laws of Moses.

Since the 16th century it has generally been treated as a
separate book within the Christian Bible. Before that date, it
had been included in the Book of Ezra; but in Latin
Christian bibles from the 13th century onwards, the Vulgate
Book of Ezra was divided into two texts, called respectively
the First and Second books of Ezra; a separation which
became canonised with the first printed bibles in Hebrew and
Latin. Mid 16th century Reformed Protestant bible
translations produced in Geneva were the first to introduce
the name 'Book of Nehemiah' for the text formerly called the
‘Second Book of Ezra'.)

NEHEMIA CHAPTER |

1 The history of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now it
came about, in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year,
when I was in Shushan, the king's town,

2 That Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men
from Judah; and in answer to my request for news of the Jews
who had been prisoners and had got away, and of Jerusalem,

3 They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there
in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of
Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned
with fire.

4 Then, after hearing these words, for some days I gave
myself up to weeping and sorrow, seated on the earth; and
taking no food I made prayer to the God of heaven,

5 And said, O Lord, the God of heaven, the great God,
greatly to be feared, keeping faith and mercy with those who
have love for him and are true to his laws:

6 Let your ear now take note and let your eyes be open, so
that you may give ear to the prayer of your servant, which I
make before you at this time, day and night, for the children
of Israel, your servants, while I put before you the sins of the
children of Israel, which we have done against you: truly, I
and my father's people are sinners.

7 We have done great wrong against you, and have not kept
the orders, the rules, and the decisions, which you gave to
your servant Moses.

8 Keep in mind, O Lord, the order you gave your servant
Moses, saying, If you do wrong I will send you wandering
among the peoples:

9 But if you come back to me and keep my orders and do
them, even if those of you who have been forced out are
living in the farthest parts of heaven, I will get them from
there, and take them back to the place marked out by me for
the resting-place of my name.

10 Now these are your servants and your people, whom you
have made yours by your great power and by your strong
hand.

11 O Lord, let your ear take note of the prayer of your
servant, and of the prayers of your servants, who take delight
in worshipping your name: give help, O Lord, to your

servant this day, and let him have mercy in the eyes of this
man. (Now I was the king's wine-servant.)

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 2

1 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth
year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I
took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never
before been sad when the king was present.

2 And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing that
you are not ill? this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I
was full of fear;

3 And said to the king, May the king be living for ever: is it
not natural for my face to be sad, when the town, the place
where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, has been made
waste and its doorways burned with fire?

4 Then the king said to me, What is your desire? So I made
prayer to the God of heaven.

5 And I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, and if
your servant has your approval, send me to Judah, to the
town where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, so that I may
take in hand the building of it.

6 And the king said to me (the queen being seated by his
side), How long will your journey take, and when will you
come back? So the king was pleased to send me, and I gave
him a fixed time.

7 Further, I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, let
letters be given to me for the rulers across the river, so that
they may let me go through till I come to Judah;

8 And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's park, so
that he may give me wood to make boards for the doors of
the tower of the house, and for the wall of the town, and for
the house which is to be mine. And the king gave me this, for
the hand of my God was on me.

9 Then I came to the rulers of the lands across the river and
gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me
captains of the army and horsemen.

10 And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, hearing of it, were greatly troubled because a
man had come to the help of the children of Israel.

11 So Icame to Jerusalem and was there three days.

12 And in the night I got up, taking with me a small band
of men; I said nothing to any man of what God had put into
my heart to do for Jerusalem: and I had no beast with me but
the one on which I was seated.

13 And I went out by night, through the doorway of the
valley, and past the dragon's water-spring as far as the place
where waste material was put, viewing the walls of Jerusalem
which were broken down, and the doorways which had been
burned with fire.

14 Then I went on to the door of the fountain and to the
king's pool: but there was no room for my beast to get
through.

15 Then in the night, I went up by the stream, viewing the
wall; then turning back, I went in by the door in the valley,
and so came back.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And the chiefs had no knowledge of where I had been or
what I was doing; and I had not then said anything to the
Jews or to the priests or the great ones or the chiefs or the
rest of those who were doing the work.

17 Then I said to them, You see what a bad condition we
are in; how Jerusalem is a waste, and its doorways burned
with fire: come, let us get to work, building up the wall of
Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be put to shame.

18 Then I gave them an account of how the hand of my God
was on me, helping me; and of the king's words which he had
said to me. And they said, Let us get to work on the building.
So they made their hands strong for the good work.

19 But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the
Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made
sport of us, laughing at us and saying, What are you doing?
will you go against the king?

20 Then answering them | said, The God of heaven, he will
be our help; so we his servants will go on with our building:
but you have no part or right or any name in Jerusalem.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 3

1 Then Eliashib, the chief priest, got up with his brothers
the priests, and took in hand the building of the sheep
doorway; they made it holy and put its doors in position; as
far as the tower of Hammeah they made it holy, even to the
tower of Hananel.

2 And by his side the men of Jericho were building. And
after them, Zaccur, the son of Imri.

3 The sons of Hassenaah were the builders of the fish
doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors,
with their locks and rods.

4 By their side Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of
Hakkoz, was making good the walls. Then Meshullam, the
son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel; and by him, Zadok,
the son of Baana.

5 Near them, the Tekoites were at work; but their chiefs did
not put their necks to the work of their Lord.

6 Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of
Besodeiah, made good the old doorway; they put its boards
in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods.

7 By their side were working Melatiah the Gibeonite and
Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah
from the seat of the ruler across the river.

8 Near them was working Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, the
gold-worker. And by him was Hananiah, one of the perfume-
makers, building up Jerusalem as far as the wide wall.

9 Near them was working Rephaiah, the son of Hur, the
ruler of half Jerusalem.

10 By his side was Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, opposite
his house. And by him was Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah.

11 Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of
Pahath-moab, were working on another part, and the tower
of the ovens.

12 Near them was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the ruler
of half Jerusalem, with his daughters.

13 Hanun and the people of Zanoah were working on the
doorway of the valley; they put it up and put up its doors,
with their locks and rods, and a thousand cubits of wall as
far as the doorway where the waste material was placed.

14 And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the ruler of the
division of Beth-haccherem, made good the doorway of the
waste, building it up and putting up its doors, with their
locks and rods.

15 And Shallun, the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the
division of Mizpah, made good the doorway of the fountain,
building it up and covering it and putting up its doors, with
their locks and rods, with the wall of the pool of Shelah by
the king's garden, as far as the steps which go down from the
town of David.

16 By his side was working Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk,
ruler of half the division of Beth-zur, as far as the place
opposite the last resting-places of David's family, and the
pool which was made and the house of the men of war.

17 Then came the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani. By his
side was working Hashabiah, ruler of half the division of
Keilah, for his division.

18 After him were working their brothers, Bavvai, the son
of Henadad, ruler of half the division of Keilah.

19 And by his side was working Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the
ruler of Mizpah, making good another part opposite the way
up to the store of arms at the turning of the wall.

20 After him Baruch, the son of Zabbai, was hard at work
on another part, from the turning of the wall to the door of
the house of Eliashib, the chief priest.

21 After him Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of
Hakkoz, was working on another part, from the door of the
house of Eliashib as far as the end of his house.

22 After him were working the priests, the men of the
lowland.

23 After them came Benjamin and Hasshub, opposite their
house. After them Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of
Ananiah, made good the wall by the house where he himself
was living.

24 After him Binnui, the son of Henadad, was working on
another part, from the house of Azariah as far as the turning
of the wall and the angle.

25 Palal, the son of Uzai, made good the wall opposite the
angle and the tower which comes out from the higher part of
the king's house, by the open space of the watch. After him
was Pedaiah, the son of Parosh.

26 (Now the Nethinim were living in the Ophel, as far as
the place facing the water doorway to the east, and the tower
which comes out.)

27 After him the Tekoites were making good another part,
opposite the great tower which comes out, and up to the wall
of the Ophel.

28 Further on, past the horse doorway, the priests were at
work, every one opposite his house.

29 After them Zadok, the son of Immer, was working
opposite his house. And after him Shemaiah, the son of
Shecaniah, the keeper of the east door.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 After him Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun,
the sixth son of Zalaph, were making good another part.
After him Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, made good the
wall opposite his room.

31 After him Malchijah, one of the gold-workers to the
Nethinim and the traders, made good the wall opposite the
doorway of Hammiphkad and as far as the way up to the
angle.

32 And between the way up to the angle and the sheep door,
the gold-workers and the traders made good the wall.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 4

1 Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall,
was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews.

2 And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of
Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they
make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they
get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which
have been burned come again out of the dust?

3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such
is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will
be broken down.

4 Give ear, O our God, for we are looked down on: let their
words of shame be turned back on themselves, and let them
be given up to wasting in a land where they are prisoners:

5 Let not their wrongdoing be covered or their sin washed
away from before you: for they have made you angry before
the builders.

6 So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was
joined together half-way up: for the people were working
hard.

7 But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and
the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that
the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and
the broken places were being made good, they were full of
wrath;

8 And they made designs, all of them together, to come and
make an attack on Jerusalem, causing trouble there.

9 But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch
against them day and night because of them.

10 And Judah said, The strength of the workmen is giving
way, and there is much waste material; it is impossible for us
to put up the wall.

11 And those who were against us said, Without their
knowledge and without their seeing us, we will come among
them and put them to death, causing the work to come toa
stop.

12 And it came about that when the Jews who were living
near them came, they said to us ten times, From all directions
they are coming against us.

13 So in the lowest part of the space at the back of the walls,
in the open places, I put the people by families, with their
swords, their spears, and their bows.

14 And after looking, I got up and said to the great ones
and to the chiefs and to the rest of the people, Have no fear of
them: keep in mind the Lord who is great and greatly to be

feared, and take up arms for your brothers, your sons, and
your daughters, your wives and your houses.

15 And when it came to the ears of those who were against
us, that we had knowledge of their designs and that God had
made their purpose come to nothing, we all went back to the
wall, everyone to his work

16 And from that time, half of my servants were doing their
part of the work, and half kept the spears and body-covers
and the bows and the metal war-dresses; and the chiefs were
at the back of the men of Judah.

17 Those who were building the wall and those who were
moving material did their part, everyone working with one
hand, with his spear in the other;

18 Every builder was working with his sword at his side.
And by my side was a man for sounding the horn.

19 And I said to the great ones and the chiefs and the rest of
the people, The work is great and widely spaced and we are
far away from one another on the wall:

20 Wherever you may be when the horn is sounded, come
here to us; our God will be fighting for us.

21 So we went on with the work: and half of them had
spears in their hands from the dawn of the morning till the
stars were seen.

22 And at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone
with his servant come inside Jerusalem for the night, so that
at night they may keep watch for us, and go on working by
day.

23 So not one of us, I or my brothers or my servants or the
watchmen who were with me, took off his clothing, everyone
went armed to the water.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 5

1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their
wives against their countrymen the Jews.

2 For there were some who said, We, our sons and our
daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we
may have food for our needs.

3 And there were some who said, We are giving our fields
and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get
grain because we are in need.

4 And there were others who said, We have given up our
fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes.

5 But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen,
and our children as their children: and now we are giving
our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their
servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now:
and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have
our fields and our vine-gardens.

6 And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very
angry.

7 And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to
the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you
is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a
great meeting of protest.

8 And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able
to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now
give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our
property? Then they said nothing, answering not a word.

9 And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the
more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because
of the shame which the nations may put on us?

10 Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the
money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us
give up this thing.

11 Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-
gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a
hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and
the oil which you have taken from them.

12 Then they said, We will give them back, and take
nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the
priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this
agreement.

13 And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may
God send out from his house and his work every man who
does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and
made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So
be it, and gave praise to the Lord. And the people did as they
had said.

14 Now from the time when I was made ruler of the people
in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year till the thirty-
second year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my
servants have never taken the food which was the right of the
ruler.

15 But earlier rulers who were before me made the people
responsible for their upkeep, and took from them bread and
wine at the rate of forty shekels of silver; and even their
servants were lords over the people: but I did not do so,
because of the fear of God.

16 And I kept on with the work of this wall, and we got no
land for ourselves: and all my servants were helping with the
work.

17 And more than this, a hundred and fifty of the Jews and
the rulers were guests at my table, in addition to those who
came to us from the nations round about us.

18 Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six
fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all
sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to
which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed
under a hard yoke.

19 Keep in mind, O my God, for my good, all I have done
for this people.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 6

1 Now when word was given to Sanballat and Tobiah and
to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our haters, that I
had done the building of the wall and that there were no
more broken places in it (though even then I had not put up
the doors in the doorways);

2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come, let us
have a meeting in one of the little towns in the lowland of
Ono. But their purpose was to do me evil.

3 And IJ sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work,
so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to
be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you?

4 And four times they sent to me in this way, and I sent
them the same answer.

5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me a fifth time with an
open letter in his hand;

6 And in it these words were recorded: It is said among the
nations, and Geshem says so, that you and the Jews are
hoping to make yourselves free from the king's authority;
and that this is why you are building the wall: and they say
that it is your purpose to be their king;

7 And that you have prophets preaching about you in
Jerusalem, and saying, There is a king in Judah: now an
account of these things will be sent to the king. So come now,
and let us have a discussion.

8 Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say are
being done, they are only a fiction you have made up yourself.

9 For they were hoping to put fear in us, saying, Their
hands will become feeble and give up the work so that it may
not get done. But now, O God, make my hands strong.

10 And I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah,
the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us
have a meeting in the house of God, inside the Temple, and
let the doors be shut: for they will come to put you to death;
truly, in the night they will come to put you to death.

11 And I said, Am I the sort of man to go in flight? what
man, in my position, would go into the Temple to keep
himself safe? I will not go in.

12 Then it became clear to me that God had not sent him:
he had given this word of a prophet against me himself: and
Tobiah and Sanballat had given him money to do so.

13 For this reason they had given him money, in order that
I might be overcome by fear and do what he said and do
wrong, and so they would have reason to say evil about me
and put shame on me.

14 Keep in mind, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat and
what they did, and Noadiah, the woman prophet, and the
rest of the prophets whose purpose was to put fear into me.

15 So the wall was complete on the twenty-fifth day of the
month Elul, in fifty-two days.

16 And when our haters had news of this, all the nations
round about us were full of fear and were greatly shamed, for
they saw that this work had been done by our God.

17 And further, in those days the chiefs of Judah sent a
number of letters to Tobiah, and his letters came to them.

18 For in Judah there were a number of people who had
made an agreement by oath with him, because he was the
son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah; and his son
Jehohanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshullam,
the son of Berechiah.

19 And they said much before me of the good he had done,
and gave him accounts of my words. And Tobiah sent letters
with the purpose of causing me fear.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 7

1 Now when the building of the wall was complete and I
had put up the doors, and the door-keepers and the music-
makers and the Levites had been given their places,

2 I made my brother Hanani, and Hananiah, the ruler of
the tower, responsible for the government of Jerusalem: for
he was a man of good faith, fearing God more than most.

3 And I said to them, Do not let the doors of Jerusalem be
open till the sun is high; and while the watchmen are in their
places, let the doors be shut and locked: and let the people of
Jerusalem be put on watch, every one in his watch, opposite
his house.

4 Now the town was wide and great: but the people in it
were only a small number, and the houses had not been put
up.

5 And my God put it into my heart to get together the
rulers and the chiefs and the people so that they might be
listed by families. And I came across a record of the names of
those who came up at the first, and in it I saw these words:

6 These are the people of the divisions of the kingdom,
among those who had been made prisoners by
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and taken away by
him, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his
town;

7 Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah,
Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai,
Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of
Israel:

8 The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and
seventy-two.

9 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-
two.

10 The children of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two.

11 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua
and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and eighteen.

12 The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and
fifty-four.

13 The children of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five.

14 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty.

15 The children of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight.

16 The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight.

17 The children of Azgad, two thousand, three hundred
and twenty-two.

18 The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven.

19 The children of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven.

20 The children of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five.

21 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

22 The children of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-
eight.

23 The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four.

24 The children of Hariph, a hundred and twelve.

25 The children of Gibeon, ninety-five.

26 The men of Beth-lehem and Netophah, a hundred and
elghty-eight.

27 The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight.

28 The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.

29 The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth,
seven hundred and forty-three.

30 The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-
one.

31 The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two.

32 The men of Beth-el and Ai, a hundred and twenty-three.

33 The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.

34 The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two
hundred and fifty-four.

35 The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty.

36 The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.

37 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred
and twenty-one.

38 The children of Senaah, three thousand, nine hundred
and thirty.

39 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the family of
Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three.

40 The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two.

41 The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and
forty-seven.

42 The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

43 The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the
children of Hodevah, seventy-four.

44 The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and
forty-eight.

45 The door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children
of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the
children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and
thirty-eight.

46 The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of
Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

47 The children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children
of Padon,

48 The children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the
children of Salmai,

49 The children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the
children of Gahar,

50 The children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the
children of Nekoda,

51 The children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the
children of Paseah,

52 The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the
children of Nephushesim,

53 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the
children of Harhur,

54 The children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the
children of Harsha,

55 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the
children of Temah,

56 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

57 The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai,
the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,

58 The children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the
children of Giddel,

59 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the
children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Amon.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

60 All the Nethinim and the children of Solomon's servants
were three hundred and ninety-two.

61 All these were the people who went up from Tel-melah,
Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but because they
had no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it
was not certain if they were Israelites:

62 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the
children of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two.

63 And of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children
of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one
of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their
name.

64 They made search for their record among the lists of
families, but their names were nowhere to be seen, so they
were looked on as unclean and no longer priests.

65 And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the
most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give
decision by the Urim and Thummim.

66 The number of all the people together was forty-two
thousand, three hundred and sixty;

67 As well as their men-servants and their women-servants,
of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and
thirty-seven; and they had two hundred and forty-five men
and women to make music.

68 They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two
hundred and forty-five transport beasts;

69 Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand,
seven hundred and twenty asses.

70 And some of the heads of families gave money for the
work. The Tirshatha gave into the store a thousand darics of
gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty priests' robes.

71 And some of the heads of families gave into the store for
the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand,
two hundred pounds of silver.

72 And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty
thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver,
and sixty-seven priests’ robes.

73 So the priests and the Levites and the door-keepers and
the music-makers and some of the people and the Nethinim,
and all Israel, were living in their towns.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 8

1 And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel
were in their towns. And all the people came together like
one man into the wide place in front of the water-doorway;
and they made a request to Ezra the scribe that he would put
before them the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had
given to Israel.

2 And Ezra the priest put the law before the meeting of the
people, before the men and women and all those who were
able to take it in, on the first day of the seventh month.

3 He was reading it in the wide place in front of the water-
doorway, from early morning till the middle of the day, in
the hearing of all those men and women whose minds were
able to take it in; and the ears of all the people were open to
the book of the law.

4 And Ezra the scribe took his place on a tower of wood
which they had made for the purpose; and by his side were
placed Mattithiah and Shema and Anaiah and Uriah and
Hilkiah and Maaseiah on the right; and on the left, Pedaiah
and Mishael and Malchijah and Hashum and Hashbaddanah,
Zechariah and Meshullam.

5 And Ezra took the book, opening it before the eyes of all
the people (for he was higher than the people); and when it
was open, all the people got to their feet:

6 And Ezra gave praise to the Lord, the great God. And all
the people in answer said, So be it, so be it; lifting up their
hands; and with bent heads they gave worship to the Lord,
going down on their faces to the earth.

7 And Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah and Jamin, Akkub,
Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad,
Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites made the law clear to the
people: and the people kept in their places.

8 And they gave out the words of the book the law of God,
clearly, and gave the sense of it, so that their minds were able
to take it in.

9 And Nehemiah, who was the Tirshatha, and Ezra, the
priest and scribe, and the Levites who were the teachers of
the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord
your God; let there be no sorrow or weeping; for all the
people were weeping on hearing the words of the law.

10 Then he said to them, Go away now, and take the fat for
your food and the sweet for your drink, and send some to
him for whom nothing is made ready: for this day is holy to
our Lord: and let there be no grief in your hearts; for the joy
of the Lord is your strong place.

11 So the Levites made all the people quiet, saying, Be quiet,
for the day is holy; and do not give way to grief.

12 And all the people went away to take food and drink,
and to send food to others, and to be glad, because the words
which were said to them had been made clear.

13 And on the second day the heads of families of all the
people and the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra
the scribe, to give attention to the words of the law.

14 And they saw that it was recorded in the law that the
Lord had given orders by Moses, that the children of Israel
were to have tents for their living-places in the feast of the
seventh month:

15 And that they were to give out an order, and make it
public in all their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to
the mountain and get olive branches and branches of field
olives and of myrtle, and palm branches and branches of
thick trees, to make tents, as it says in the book.

16 And the people went out and got them and made
themselves tents, every one on the roof of his house, and in
the open spaces and in the open squares of the house of God,
and in the wide place of the water-doorway, and the wide
place of the doorway of Ephraim.

17 All the people who had been prisoners and had come
back, made tents and were living in them: for from the time
of Jeshua, the son of Nun, till that day, the children of Israel
had not done so. And there was very great joy.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 And day by day, from the first day till the last, he was
reading from the book of the law of God. And they kept the
feast for seven days: and on the eighth day there was a holy
meeting, as it is ordered in the law.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 9

1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children
of Israel came together, taking no food and putting haircloth
and dust on their bodies.

2 And the seed of Israel made themselves separate from all
the men of other nations, publicly requesting forgiveness for
their sins and the wrongdoing of their fathers.

3 And for a fourth part of the day, upright in their places,
they were reading from the book of the law of their God; and
for a fourth part of the day they were requesting forgiveness
and worshipping the Lord their God.

4 Then Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni,
Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani took their places on the steps
of the Levites, crying in a loud voice to the Lord their God.

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani,
Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah
said, Get up and give praise to the Lord your God for ever
and ever. Praise be to your great name which is lifted up high
over all blessing and praise.

6 You are the Lord, even you only; you have made heaven,
the heaven of heavens with all their armies, the earth and all
things in it, the seas and everything in them; and you keep
them from destruction: and the armies of heaven are your
worshippers.

7 You are the Lord, the God, who took Abram and made
him yours, guiding him from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave
him the name of Abraham;

8 You saw that his heart was true to you, and made an
agreement with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the
Hittite, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and
the Girgashite, even to give it to his seed, and you have done
what you said; for righteousness is yours:

9 And you saw the trouble of our fathers in Egypt, and
their cry came to your ears by the Red Sea;

10 And you did signs and wonders on Pharaoh and all his
servants and all the people of his land; for you saw how cruel
they were to them. So you got yourself'a name as it is today.

11 By you the sea was parted before them, so that they went
through the sea on dry land; and those who went after them
went down into the deep, like a stone into great waters.

12 And you went before them by day in a pillar of cloud,
and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light on the way
they were to go.

13 And you came down on Mount Sinai, and your voice
came to them from heaven, giving them right decisions and
true laws, good rules and orders:

14 And you gave them word of your holy Sabbath, and
gave them orders and rules and a law, by the hand of Moses
your servant:

15 And you gave them bread from heaven when they were
in need, and made water come out of the rock for their drink,
and gave them orders to go in and take for their heritage the
land which your hand had been lifted up to give them.

16 But they and our fathers, in their pride, made their
necks stiff, and gave no attention to your orders,

17 And would not do them, and gave no thought to the
wonders you had done among them; but made their necks
stiff, and turning away from you, made a captain over
themselves to take them back to their prison in Egypt: but
you are a God of forgiveness, full of grace and pity, slow to
wrath and great in mercy, and you did not give them up.

18 Even when they had made for themselves an ox of metal,
and said, This is your God who took you up out of Egypt,
and had done so much to make you angry;

19 Even then, in your great mercy, you did not give them
up in the waste land: the pillar of cloud still went before
them by day, guiding them on their way, and the pillar of fire
by night, to give them light, and make clear the way they
were to go.

20 And you gave your good spirit to be their teacher, and
did not keep back your manna from their mouths, and gave
them water when they had need of it.

21 Truly, for forty years you were their support in the
waste land, and they were in need of nothing; their clothing
did not get old or their feet become tired.

22 And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, making
distribution to them in every part of the land: so they took
for their heritage the land of Sihon, even the land of the king
of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan.

23 And you made their children as great in number as the
stars of heaven, and took them into the land, of which you
had said to their fathers that they were to go in and take it
for themselves.

24 So the children went in and took the land, and you
overcame before them the people of the land, the Canaanites,
and gave them up into their hands, with their kings and the
people of the land, so that they might do with them whatever
it was their pleasure to do.

25 And they took walled towns and a fat land, and became
the owners of houses full of all good things, water-holes cut
in the rock, vine-gardens and olive-gardens and a wealth of
fruit-trees: so they had food enough and became fat, and had
joy in the good you gave them.

26 But they were hard-hearted, and went against your
authority, turning their backs on your law, and putting to
death your prophets, who gave witness against them with the
purpose of turning them back again to you, and they did
much to make you angry.

27 And so you gave them up into the hands of their haters
who were cruel to them: and in the time of their trouble,
when they made their prayer to you, you gave ear to them
from heaven; and in your great mercy gave them saviours,
who made them free from the hands of their haters.

28 But when they had rest, they did evil again before you:
so you gave them into the hands of their haters, who had rule

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

over them: but when they came back and made their prayer
to you, you gave ear to them from heaven; again and again,
in your mercy, you gave them salvation;

29 And gave witness against them so that you might make
them come back again to your law: but their hearts were
lifted up, and they gave no attention to your orders and went
against your decisions (which, if a man keeps them, will be
life to him), and turning their backs on you, made their necks
stiffand did not give ear.

30 Year after year you put up with them, and gave witness
against them by your spirit through your prophets: still they
did not give ear: and so you gave them up into the hands of
the peoples of the lands.

31 Even then, in your great mercy, you did not put an end
to them completely, or give them up; for you are a God of
grace and mercy.

32 And now, our God, the great, the strong, the God who
is to be feared, who keeps faith and mercy, let not all this
trouble seem small to you, which has come on us, and on our
kings and our rulers and on our priests and our prophets and
our fathers and on all your people from the time of the kings
of Assyria till this day.

33 But still, you have been in the right in everything which
has come on us; you have been true to us, but we have done
evil:

34 And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers
have not kept your law or given attention to your orders and
your witness, with which you gave witness against them.

35 For they have not been your servants in their kingdom,
and in all the good things you gave them, and in the great
and fat land you gave them, and they have not been turned
away from their evil-doing.

36 Now, today, we are servants, and as for the land which
you gave to our fathers, so that the produce of it and the
good might be theirs, see, we are servants in it:

37 And it gives much increase to the kings whom you have
put over us because of our sins: and they have power over our
bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in
great trouble.

38 And because of all this we are making an agreement in
good faith, and putting it in writing; and our rulers, our
Levites, and our priests are putting their names to it.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 10

1 Now those who put down their names were Nehemiah the
Tirshatha, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,

2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

9 And the Levites: by name, Jeshua, the son of Azaniah,
Binnui, of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,

10 And their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah,
Hanan,

11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam,
Zattu, Bani,

15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai,

20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

26 And Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,

27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the
door-keepers, the music-makers, the Nethinim, and all those
who had made themselves separate from the peoples of the
lands, to keep the law of God, their wives, their sons, and
their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and wisdom;

29 They were united with their brothers, their rulers, and
put themselves under a curse and an oath, to keep their steps
in the way of God's law, which was given by Moses, the
servant of God, and to keep and do all the orders of the Lord,
our Lord, and his decisions and his rules;

30 And that we would not give our daughters to the
peoples of the lands, or take their daughters for our sons;

31 And if the peoples of the lands come to do trade in goods
or food on the Sabbath day, that we would do no trade with
them on the Sabbath or on a holy day: and that in the
seventh year we would take no payment from any debtor.

32 And we made rules for ourselves, taxing ourselves a
third of a shekel every year for the upkeep of the house of our
God;

33 For the holy bread, and for the regular meal offering
and the regular burned offering on the Sabbaths and at the
new moon and the fixed feasts, and for the sin-offerings to
take away the sin of Israel, and for all the work of the house
of our God.

34 And we, the priests and the Levites and the people, made
selection, by the decision of the Lord, of those who were to
take the wood offering into the house of God, by families at
the regular times, year by year, to be burned on the altar of
the Lord our God, as it is recorded in the law;

35 And to take the first-fruits of our land, and the first-
fruits of every sort of tree, year by year, into the house of the
Lord;

36 As well as the first of our sons and of our cattle, as it is
recorded in the law, and the first lambs of our herds and of
our flocks, which are to be taken to the house of our God, to
the priests who are servants in the house of our God:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

37 And that we would take the first of our rough meal, and
our lifted offerings, and the fruit of every sort of tree, and
wine and oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our
God; and the tenth of the produce of our land to the Levites;
for they, the Levites, take a tenth in all the towns of our
ploughed land.

38 And the priest, the son of Aaron, is to be with the
Levites, when the Levites take the tenths: and the Levites are
to take a tenth of the tenths into the house of our God, to the
rooms, into the store-house;

39 For the children of Israel and the children of Levi are to
take the lifted offering of the grain and wine and oil into the
rooms where the vessels of the holy place are, together with
the priests and the door-keepers and the makers of music:
and we will not give up caring for the house of our God.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 11

1 And the rulers of the people were living in Jerusalem: the
rest of the people made selection, by the decision of chance,
of one out of every ten to be living in Jerusalem, the holy
town; the other nine to go to the other towns.

2 And the people gave a blessing to all the men who were
freely offering to take up their places in Jerusalem.

3 Now these are the chiefs of the divisions of the country
who were living in Jerusalem: but in the towns of Judah
everyone was living on his heritage in the towns, that is,
Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinim, and the children
of Solomon's servants.

4 And in Jerusalem there were living certain of the children
of Judah and of Benjamin. Of the children of Judah: Athaiah,
the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah,
the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children
of Perez;

5 And Maaseiah, the son of Baruch, the son of Col-hozeh,
the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the
son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite.

6 All the sons of Perez living in Jerusalem were four
hundred and sixty-eight men of good position.

7 And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu, the son of
Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of
Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of
Jeshaiah.

8 And after him Gabbai, Sallai, nine hundred and twenty-
eight.

9 And Joel, the son of Zichri, was their overseer; and Judah,
the son of Hassenuah, was second over the town.

10 Of the priests: Jedaiah, the son of Joiarib, Jachin,

11 Seraiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the
son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the
ruler of the house of God,

12 And their brothers who did the work of the house, eight
hundred and twenty-two; and Adaiah, the son of Jeroham,
the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the
son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah,

13 And his brothers, heads of families, two hundred and
forty-two; and Amashsai, the son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai,
the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer,

14 And their brothers, men of war, a hundred and twenty-
eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Haggedolim.

15 And of the Levites: Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the
son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni,

16 And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chiefs of the Levites,
who were responsible for the outside business of the house of
God;

17 And Mattaniah, the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the
son of Asaph, who had to give the first note of the song of
praise in prayer, and Bakbukiah, the second among his
brothers, and Abda, the son of Shammua, the son of Galal,
the son of Jeduthun.

18 All the Levites in the holy town were two hundred and
eighty-four.

19 In addition the door-keepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their
brothers who kept watch at the doors, were a hundred and
seventy-two.

20 And the rest of Israel, of the priests, the Levites, were in
all the towns of Judah, every one in his heritage.

21 But the Nethinim were living in the Ophel; and Ziha and
Gishpa were over the Nethinim.

22 And the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi,
the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah,
the son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the music-makers, who
was over the business of the house of God.

23 For there was an order from the king about them and a
regular amount for the music-makers, for their needs day by
day.

24 And Pethahiah, the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of
Zerah, the son of Judah, was the king's servant in everything
to do with the people.

25 And for the daughter-towns with their fields, some of
the men of Judah were living in Kiriath-arba and its
daughter-towns, and in Dibon and its daughter-towns, and
in Jekabzeel and its daughter-towns,

26 And in Jeshua, and in Moladah, and Beth-pelet,

27 And in Hazar-shual, and in Beer-sheba and its daughter-
towns,

28 And in Ziklag, and in Meconah and its daughter-towns,

29 And in En-rimmon, and in Zorah, and in Jarmuth,

30 Zanoah, Adullam and their daughter-towns, Lachish
and its fields, Azekah and its daughter-towns. So they were
living from Beer-sheba to the valley of Hinnom.

31 And the children of Benjamin were living from Geba, at
Michmash and Aija, and at Beth-el and its daughter-towns,

32 At Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,

33 Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,

34 Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,

35 Lod and Ono, the valley of expert workers.

36 And of the Levites, certain divisions in Judah were
joined to Benjamin.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 12

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

1 Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up
with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah,
Jeremiah, Ezra,

2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

3 Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

4 Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,

5 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

6 Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of
the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

8 And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah,
Judah, and Mattaniah, who was over the music-makers, he
and his brothers.

9 And Bakbukiah and Unno, their brothers, were opposite
them in their watches.

10 And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim was
the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib was the father of Joiada,

11 And Joiada was the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan
was the father of Jaddua.

12 And in the days of Joiakim there were priests, heads of
families: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

13 Of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;

14 Of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;

15 Of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;

16 Of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

17 Of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

18 Of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

19 And of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

20 Of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;

21 Of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.

22 The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan,
and Jaddua, were listed as heads of families; and the priests,
when Darius the Persian was king.

23 The sons of Levi, heads of families, were recorded in the
book of the histories, even till the days of Johanan, the son of
Eliashib.

24 And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and
Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers opposite
them, to give blessing and praise as ordered by David, the
man of God, watch against watch.

25 Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam,
Talmon, Akkub, were door-keepers keeping the watch at the
store-houses of the doors.

26 These were in the days of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, the
son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the ruler and of
Ezra the priest, the scribe.

27 And when the time came for the wall of Jerusalem to be
made holy, they sent for the Levites out of all their places to
come to Jerusalem, to keep the feast with joy, and with praise
and melody, with brass and corded instruments of music.

28 And the sons of the music-makers came together from
the lowland round about Jerusalem and from the daughter-
towns of the Netophathites,

29 And from Beth-gilgal and from the fields of Geba and
Azmaveth: for the music-makers had made daughter-towns
for themselves round about Jerusalem.

30 And the priests and the Levites made themselves clean;
and they made the people clean, and the doorways and the
wall.

31 Then I made the rulers of Judah come up on the wall,
and I put in position two great bands of them who gave
praise, walking in ordered lines; one went to the right on the
wall, in the direction of the doorway where the waste was put;

32 And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the rulers of
Judah,

33 And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,

34 Judah and Benjamin and Shemaiah and Jeremiah,

35 And certain of the priests' sons with wind instruments;
Zechariah, the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son
of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son
of Asaph,

36 And his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai,
Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel and Judah, Hanani, with the music-
instruments of David, the man of God; and Ezra the scribe
was at their head;

37 And by the doorway of the fountain and straight in
front of them, they went up by the steps of the town of David,
at the slope up of the wall, over the house of David, as far as
the water-doorway to the east.

38 And the other band of those who gave praise went to the
left, and I went after them with half the people, on the wall,
over the tower of the ovens, as far as the wide wall;

39 And over the doorway of Ephraim and by the old door
and the fish door and the tower of Hananel and the tower of
Hammeah, as far as the sheep door: and at the doorway of
the watchmen they came to a stop.

40 So the two bands of those who gave praise took up their
positions in the house of God, and I and half of the chiefs
with me:

41 And the priests; Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah,
Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with wind instruments;

42 And Maaseiah and Shemaiah and Eleazar and Uzzi and
Jehohanan and Malchijah and Elam and Ezer. And the
makers of melody made their voices loud, with Jezrahiah
their overseer.

43 And on that day they made great offerings and were glad;
for God had made them glad with great joy; and the women
and the children were glad with them: so that the joy of
Jerusalem came to the ears of those who were far off.

44 And on that day certain men were put over the rooms
where the things which had been given were stored, for the
lifted offerings and the first-fruits and the tenths, and to take
into them the amounts, from the fields of every town, fixed
by the law for the priests and the Levites: for Judah was glad
on account of the priests and the Levites who were in their
places.

45 And they kept the watch of their God, and were
responsible for making things clean, and so did the music-
makers and the door-keepers, as it was ordered by David and
Solomon his son.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

46 For in the days of David and Asaph in the past, there
was a master of the music, and songs of blessing and praise to
God.

47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days
of Nehemiah gave what was needed by the music-makers and
the door-keepers day by day: and they made the offerings
holy for the Levites; and the Levites did the same for the sons
of Aaron.

NEHEMIA CHAPTER 13

1 On that day there was a reading from the book of Moses
in the hearing of the people; and they saw that it said in the
book that no Ammonite or Moabite might ever come into
the meeting of God;

2 Because they did not give the children of Israel bread and
water when they came to them, but got Balaam to put a curse
on them: though the curse was turned into a blessing by our
God.

3 So after hearing the law, they took out of Israel all the
mixed people.

4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who had been placed
over the rooms of the house of our God, being a friend of
Tobiah,

5 Had made ready for him a great room, where at one time
they kept the meal offerings, the perfume, and the vessels and
the tenths of the grain and wine and oil which were given by
order to the Levites and the music-makers and the door-
keepers, and the lifted offerings for the priests.

6 But all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the thirty-
second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the
king; and after some days, I got the king to let me go,

7 And I came to Jerusalem; and it was clear to me what evil
Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready for him a
room in the buildings of the house of God.

8 And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put
out of the room.

9 Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean: and I
put back in them the vessels of the house of God, with the
meal offerings and the perfume.

10 And J saw that the Levites had not been given what was
needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-
makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his
field.

11 Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the
house of God been given up? And I got them together and
put them in their places.

12 Then all Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and
wine and oil and put it into the store-houses.

13 And I made controllers over the store-houses, Shelemiah
the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah:
and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of
Mattaniah: they were taken to be true men and their business
was the distribution of these things to their brothers.

14 Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this,
and do not let the good which I have done for the house of
my God and its worship go from your memory completely.

15 In those days, I saw in Judah some who were crushing
grapes on the Sabbath, and getting in grain and putting it
on asses; as well as wine and grapes and figs and all sorts of
goods which they took into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day:
and I gave witness against them on the day when they were
marketing food.

16 And there were men of Tyre there, who came with fish
and all sorts of goods, trading with the children of Judah and
in Jerusalem on the Sabbath.

17 Then I made protests to the chiefs of Judah, and said to
them, What is this evil which you are doing, not keeping the
Sabbath day holy?

18 Did not your fathers do the same, and did not our God
send all this evil on us and on this town? but you are causing
more wrath to come on Israel by not keeping the Sabbath
holy.

19 And so, when the streets of Jerusalem were getting dark
before the Sabbath, I gave orders for the doors to be shut and
not to be open again till after the Sabbath: and I put some of
my servants by the door so that nothing might be taken in on
the Sabbath day.

20 So the traders in all sorts of goods took their night's rest
outside Jerusalem once or twice.

21 Then I gave witness against them and said, Why are you
waiting all night by the wall? if you do so again I will have
you taken prisoners. From that time they did not come again
on the Sabbath.

22 And I gave the Levites orders to make themselves clean
and come and keep the doors and make the Sabbath holy.
Keep this in mind to my credit, O my God, and have mercy
on me, for great is your mercy.

23 And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to
women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab:

24 And their children were talking half in the language of
Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews’ language, but
made use of the language of the two peoples.

25 And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and
giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and
I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to
give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for
your sons or for yourselves.

26 Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel,
did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king
like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him
king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by
strange women.

27 Are we then without protest to let you do all this great
evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for
your wives?

28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the
chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I
sent him away from me.

29 Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put
shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the
priests and the Levites.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OER ERY oN EOE
SFE CY

30 So I made them clean from all strange people, and had
regular watches fixed for the priests and for the Levites,
everyone in his work;

31 And for the wood offering, at fixed times, and for the
first fruits. Keep me in mind, O my God, for good.

LEDS

THE SCROLL OF ESTHER
Hebrew title: Megilath Esther
Estimated Range of Dating: 4th century B.C.

(The Scroll of Esther is a book in the third section
(Ketuvim, "Writings") of the Jewish Tanakh (the Hebrew
Bible) and in the Christian Old Testament. It is one of the
five Scrolls (Megillot) in the Hebrew Bible. The Megillat
Esther (Scroll of Esther) became the last of the 24 books of
the Tanakh to be canonised by the Sages of the "Great
Assembly" **. According to the Talmud, it was a redaction
by the Great Assembly of an original text by Mordecai. It 1s
usually dated to the 4th century BC.

The book tells us the story of a Hebrew woman in Persia,
born as Hadassah but known as Esther, who becomes Queen
of Persia and prevents a genocide of her people. The story
forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim, during which
it 1s read aloud twice: once in the evening and again the
following morning. The books of Esther and Song of Songs
are the only books in the Hebrew Bible that do not mention
God.

The biblical Book of Esther ts set in the Persian capital of
Susa (Shushan) in the third year of the reign of the Persian
king Ahasuerus. The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to
Artaxerxes. Titus Flavius Josephus identifies Ahasuerus as
either Xerxes I (reigned 465 to 424 BC) or Artaxerxes IT
(reigned 404 to 358 BC). The Hebrew-Aramaic Ahasuerus ts
most likely derived from Persian Xsayarsa, the origin of the
Greek Xerxes. On his accession, however, Artaxerxes II lost
Egypt to pharaoh Amyrtaeus, after which it was no longer
part of the Persian empire. Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1) as
Artaxerxes IIIT (358-338 BC) reconquered Egypt, and
therefore may well be the king in whose time the story plays.

Classical sources such as Josephus, the Jewish commentary
Esther Rabbah and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus,
as well as the Greek Septuagint translation of Esther, instead
identify Ahasuerus as either Artaxerxes I (reigned 465 to 424
BO) or Artaxerxes IT (reigned 404 to 358 BC).

On his accession, however, Artaxerxes II lost Egypt to
pharaoh Amyrtaeus, after which it was no longer part of the
Persian empire. In his Historia Scholastica Petrus Comestor
identified Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1) as Artaxerxes IIT (358-38
BC) who reconquered Egypt.

King Ahasuerus, ruler of the Persian Empire, holds a lavish
180-day banquet, initially for his court and dignitaries and
afterwards a seven-day banquet for all inhabitants of the
capital city, Shushan (Esther 1:1—9). On the seventh day of
the latter banquet, Ahasuerus orders the queen, Vashti, to
display her beauty before the guests by coming before them
wearing her crown (1:10-11). She refuses, infuriating
Ahasuerus, who on the advice of his counselors removes her

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

from her position as an example to other women who might
be emboldened to disobey their husbands (1:12-19). A
decree follows that "every man should bear rule in his own
house" (1:20-22).

Ahasuerus then makes arrangements to choose a new queen
from a selection of beautiful young women from throughout
the empire (2:1-4). Among these women is a Jewish orphan
named Esther, who was raised by her cousin or uncle,
Mordecai (2:5—7). She finds favour in the King’s eyes, and ts
crowned his new queen, but does not reveal her Jewish
heritage (2:8—20). Shortly atterwards, Mordecai discovers a
plot by two courtiers, Bigthan and Teresh, to assassinate
Ahasuerus. The conspirators are apprehended and hanged,
and Mordecat'’s service to the King is recorded (2:21—23).

Ahasuerus appoints Haman as his viceroy (3:1). Mordecai,
who sits at the palace gates, falls into Haman's disfavour, as
he refuses to bow down to him (3:2—5). Haman discovers
that Mordecai refused to bow on account of his Jewishness,
and in revenge plots to kill not just Mordecai, but all the
Jews in the empire (3:6). He obtains Ahasuerus' permission
to execute this plan, against payment of ten thousand talents
of silver, and casts lots ("purim") to choose the date on
which to do this — the thirteenth of the month of Adar (3:7-
12). A royal decree 1s issued throughout the kingdom to slay
all Jews on that date. (3:13—19).

When Mordecai discovers the plan, he goes into mourning
and implores Esther to intercede with the King (4:1—5). But
she 1s afraid to present herself to the King unsummoned, an
offense pumshable by death (4:6—12). Instead, she directs
Mordecai to have all Jews fast for three days for her, and
vows to fast as well (4:15—16.). On the third day she goes to
Ahasuerus, who stretches out his sceptre to her to indicate
that she 1s not to be punished (5:1—2). She invites him to a
feast in the company of Haman (5:3—5). During the feast, she
asks them to attend a further feast the next evening (5:6—8).
Meanwhile, Haman ts again offended by Mordecai and, at his
wile's suggestion, has a gallows built to hang him (5:9-14).

That night, Ahasuerus cannot sleep, and orders the court
records be read to him (6:1). He is reminded that Mordecai
interceded in the previous plot against hus life, and discovers
that Mordecai never received any recognition (6:2—3). Just
then, Haman appears to request the King’s permission to
hang Mordecai, but before he can make this request,
Ahasuerus asks Haman what should be done for the man that
the King wishes to honor (6:4—6). Assuming that the King is
referring to Haman himself, Haman suggests that the man be
dressed in the King's royal robes, and crown and led around
on the King's royal horse, while a herald calls: "See how the
King honours a man he wishes to reward!" (6:7-9). To his
surprise and horror, the King instructs Haman to do so to
Mordecai (6:10-11).

Immediately after, Ahasuerus and Haman attend Esther's
second banquet. The King promises to grant her any request,
and she reveals that she is Jewish and that Haman 1s planning
to exterminate her people, including her (1-6). Overcome by
rage, Ahasuerus leaves the room; meanwhile Haman stays

behind and begs Esther for his life, falling upon her in
desperation (7). The King returns in at this very moment and
thinks Haman 1s assaulting the queen; this makes him angrier
and he orders Haman hanged on the very gallows that
Haman had prepared for Mordecai (8—10).

Unable to annul a formal royal decree, the King instead
adds to it, permitting the Jews to join together and destroy
any and all of those seeking to kill them (8:1—14). On 13
Adar, Haman'’s ten sons and 500 other men are killed in
Shushan (9:1—12). Upon hearing of this Esther requests 1t be
repeated the next day, whereupon 300 more men are killed
(9:13-15). Over 75,000 people are slaughtered by the Jews,
who are careful to take no plunder (9: 16—17). Mordecai and
Esther send letters throughout the provinces instituting an
annual commemoration of the Jewish people's redemption, in
a holiday called Purim (lots) (9:20—28). Ahasuerus remains
very powerful and continues his reign, with Mordecai
assuming a prominent position in his court (10:1—3).

[** The Great Assembly: According to Jewish tradition the
Men of the Great Assembly or Anshet Knesset HaGedolah,
also known as the Great Synagogue, or Synod, was an
assembly of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets, in the period
from the end of the Biblical prophets since the early Second
Temple period (which started around 516 BC) to the early
Hellenistic period (which began with Alexander's conquests
of 333-332 BC). It comprised such prophets as Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi (who 1s Ezra), Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, Azariah, Nehemiah b. Hachaliah, Mordechai and
Zerubabel b. Shaaltiel, among others. Sometimes, the Great
Assembly 1s simply designated as "Ezra and his court of law"
(Beit Din).

Among the developments in Judaism that are attributed to
them are the fixing of the Jewish Biblical canon, including
the Book of Ezekiel, Daniel, Esther, and the Twelve Minor
Prophets; the introduction of the Feast of Purim; and the
institution of the prayer known as the "Shemoneh 'Esreh" as
well as the synagogal prayers, rituals, and benedictions. ])

ESTER CHAPTER |

1 Now it came about in the days of Ahasuerus, (that
Ahasuerus who was ruler of a hundred and twenty-seven
divisions of the kingdom, from India as far as Ethiopia:)

2 That in those days, when King Ahasuerus was ruling in
Shushan, his strong town,

3 In the third year of his rule he gave a feast to all his
captains and his servants; and the captains of the army of
Persia and Media, the great men and the rulers of the
divisions of his kingdom, were present before him;

4 And for a long time, even a hundred and eighty days, he
let them see all the wealth and the glory of his kingdom and
the great power and honour which were his.

5 And at the end of that time, the king gave a feast for all
the people who were present in Shushan, the king's town,
small as well as great, for seven days, in the outer square of
the garden of the king's house.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 There were fair hangings of white and green and blue,
fixed with cords of purple and the best linen to silver rings
and pillars of polished stone: the seats were of gold and silver
on a floor of red and white and yellow and black stone.

7 And they gave them drink in gold vessels, every vessel
being different, and wine of the kingdom, freely given by the
king.

8 And the drinking was in keeping with the law; no one was
forced: for the king had given orders to all the chief servants
of his house to do as was pleasing to every man.

9 And Vashti the queen gave a feast for the women in the
house of King Ahasuerus.

10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was glad
with wine, he gave orders to Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona,
Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven unsexed
servants who were waiting before Ahasuerus the king,

11 That Vashti the queen was to come before him, crowned
with her crown, and let the people and the captains see her:
for she was very beautiful.

12 But when the servants gave her the king's order, Vashti
the queen said she would not come: then the king was very
angry, and his heart was burning with wrath.

13 And the king said to the wise men, who had knowledge
of the times, (for this was the king's way with all who were
expert in law and in the giving of decisions:

14 And second only to him were Carshena, Shethar,
Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the
seven rulers of Persia and Media, who were friends of the
king, and had the first places in the kingdom:)

15 What is to be done by law to Vashti the queen, because
she has not done what King Ahasuerus, by his servants, gave
her orders to do?

16 And before the king and the captains, Memucan gave his
answer: Vashti the queen has done wrong, not only to the
king, but to all the captains and to all the peoples in all the
divisions of the kingdom of King Ahasuerus;

17 For news of what the queen has done will come to the
ears of all women, and they will no longer give respect to
their husbands when it is said to them, King Ahasuerus gave
orders for Vashti the queen to come before him and she came
not.

18 And the wives of the captains of Persia and Media,
hearing what the queen has done, will say the same to all the
king's captains. So there will be much shame and wrath.

19 If it is pleasing to the king, let an order go out from him,
and let it be recorded among the laws of the Persians and the
Medes, so that it may never be changed, that Vashti is never
again to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give
her place to another who is better than she.

20 And when this order, given by the king, is made public
through all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will
give honour to their husbands, great as well as small.

21 And this suggestion seemed good to the king and the
captains; and the king did as Memucan said;

22 And sent letters to all the divisions of the kingdom, to
every division in the writing commonly used there, and to

every people in the language which was theirs, saying that
every man was to be the ruler in his house, and that this
order was to be given out in the language of his people.

ESTER CHAPTER 2

1 After these things, when the king's feelings were calmer,
the thought of Vashti and what she had done and the order
he had made against her, came back to his mind.

2 Then the servants who were waiting on the king said to
him, Let search be made for some fair young virgins for the
king:

3 Let the king give authority to certain men in all the
divisions of his kingdom, to get together all the fair young
virgins and send them to Shushan, the king's town, to the
women's house, under the care of Hegai, the king's servant,
the keeper of the women: and let the things needed for
making them clean be given to them;

4 And let the girl who is pleasing to the king be queen in
place of Vashti. And the king was pleased with this
suggestion; and he did so.

5 Now there was a certain Jew in Shushan named Mordecai,
the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a
Benjamite;

6 Who had been taken away from Jerusalem among those
who had been made prisoner with Jeconiah, king of Judah,
when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken him away.

7 And he had been a father to Hadassah, that is Esther, the
daughter of his father's brother: for she had no father or
mother, and she was very beautiful; and when her father and
mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his daughter.

8 So when the order made by the king was publicly given
out, and a number of girls had been placed in the care of
Hegai in the king's house in Shushan, Esther was taken into
the king's house and put in the care of Hegai, the keeper of
the women.

9 And he was pleased with the girl and was kind to her; and
he quickly gave her what was needed for making her clean,
and the things which were hers by right, and seven servant-
girls who were to be hers from the king's house: and he had
her and her servant-girls moved to the best place in the
women's part of the house.

10 Esther had not said what family or people she came from,
for Mordecai had given her orders not to do so.

11 And every day Mordecai took his walk before the square
of the women's house, to see how Esther was and what would
be done to her.

12 Now every girl, when her turn came, had to go in to
King Ahasuerus, after undergoing, for a space of twelve
months, what was ordered by the law for the women (for this
was the time necessary for making them clean, that is, six
months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet
perfumes and such things as are needed for making women
clean):

13 And in this way the girl went in to the king; whatever
she had a desire for was given to her to take with her from
the women's house into the house of the king.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 In the evening she went, and on the day after she came
back to the second house of the women, into the keeping of
Shaashgaz, one of the king's unsexed servants who had the
care of the king's wives: only if the king had delight in her
and sent for her by name did she go in to him again.

15 Now when the time came for Esther, the daughter of
Abihail, his father's brother, whom Mordecai had taken as
his daughter, to go in to the king, she made request for
nothing but what Hegai, the king's servant and keeper of the
women, had given her. And Esther was looked on kindly by
all who saw her.

16 So Esther was taken in to King Ahasuerus in his house
in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the
seventh year of his rule.

17 And Esther was more pleasing to the king than all the
women, and to his eyes she was fairer and more full of grace
than all the other virgins: so he put his crown on her head
and made her queen in place of Vashti.

18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his captains and
his servants, even Esther's feast; and he gave orders through
all the divisions of his kingdom for a day of rest from work,
and gave wealth from his store.

19 And when the virgins came together in the second house
of the women, Mordecai took his seat in the doorway of the
king's house.

20 Esther had still said nothing of her family or her people,
as Mordecai had given her orders; for Esther did what
Mordecai said, as when she was living with him.

21 In those days, while Mordecai was seated at the king's
doorway, two of the king's servants, Bigthan and Teresh,
keepers of the door, being angry, were looking for a chance
to make an attack on King Ahasuerus.

22 And Mordecai, having knowledge of their purpose, sent
word of it to Esther the queen; and Esther gave the news to
the king in Mordecai's name.

23 And when the thing had been looked into, it was seen to
be true, and the two of them were put to death by hanging on
a tree: and it was put down in the records before the king.

ESTER CHAPTER 3

1 After these things, by the order of the king, Haman, the
son of Hammedatha the Agagite, was lifted up and given a
position of honour and a higher place than all the other
captains who were with him.

2 And all the king's servants who were in the king's house
went down to the earth before Haman and gave him honour:
for so the king had given orders. But Mordecai did not go
down before him or give him honour.

3 Then the king's servants who were in the king's house said
to Mordecai, Why do you go against the king's order?

4 Now when they had said this to him day after day and he
gave no attention, they let Haman have news of it, to see if
Mordecai's behaviour would be overlooked: for he had said
to them that he was a Jew.

5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not go down
before him and give him honour, Haman was full of wrath.

6 But it was not enough for him to make an attack on
Mordecai only; for they had made clear to him who
Mordecai's people were; so Haman made it his purpose to put
an end to all the Jews, even Mordecai's people, through all
the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

7 In the first month, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of
King Ahasuerus, from day to day and from month to month
they went on looking for a sign given by Pur (that is chance)
before Haman, till the sign came out for the thirteenth day of
the twelfth month, the month Adar.

8 And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain
nation living here and there in small groups among the
people in all the divisions of your kingdom; their laws are
different from those of any other nation, and they do not
keep the king's laws: for this reason it is not right for the
king to let them be.

9 If it is the king's pleasure, let a statement ordering their
destruction be put in writing: and I will give to those
responsible for the king's business, ten thousand talents of
silver for the king's store-house.

10 And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it to
Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the hater of the
Jews.

11 And the king said to Haman, The money is yours, and
the people, to do with them whatever seems right to you.

12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month, the king's
scribes were sent for, and they put in writing Haman's orders
to all the king's captains and the rulers of every division of
his kingdom and the chiefs of every people: for every division
of the kingdom in the writing commonly used there, and to
every people in the language which was theirs; it was signed
in the name of King Ahasuerus and stamped with the king's
ring.

13 And letters were sent by the runners into every division
of the kingdom ordering the death and destruction of all
Jews, young and old, little children and women, on the same
day, even the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month
Adar, and the taking of all their goods by force.

14 A copy of the writing, to be made public in every part of
the kingdom, was sent out to all the peoples, so that they
might be ready when that day came.

15 The runners went out quickly by the king's order, and a
public statement was made in Shushan: and the king and
Haman took wine together: but the town of Shushan was
troubled.

ESTER CHAPTER 4

1 Now when Mordecai saw what was done, pulling off his
robe, he put on haircloth, with dust on his head, and went
out into the middle of the town, crying out with a loud and
bitter cry.

2 And he came even before the king's doorway; for no one
might come inside the king's door clothed in haircloth.

3 And in every part of the kingdom, wherever the king's
word and his order came, there was great sorrow among the
Jews, and weeping and crying and going without food; and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

numbers of them were stretched on the earth covered with
dust and haircloth.

4 And Esther's women and her servants came and gave her
word of it. Then great was the grief of the queen: and she
sent robes for Mordecai, so that his clothing of haircloth
might be taken off; but he would not have them.

5 Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king's unsexed
servants whom he had given her for waiting on her, and she
gave him orders to go to Mordecai and see what this was and
why it was.

6 So Hathach went out and saw Mordecai in the open
square of the town before the king's doorway.

7 And Mordecai gave him an account of what had taken
place, and of the amount of money which Haman had said he
would put into the king's store for the destruction of the
Jews.

8 And he gave him the copy of the order which had been
given out in Shushan for their destruction, ordering him to
let Esther see it, and to make it clear to her; and to say to her
that she was to go in to the king, requesting his mercy, and
making prayer for her people.

9 And Hathach came back and gave Esther an account of
what Mordecai had said.

10 Then Esther sent Hathach to say to Mordecai:

11 It is common knowledge among all the king's servants
and the people of every part of the kingdom, that if anyone,
man or woman, comes to the king in his inner room without
being sent for, there is only one law for him, that he is to be
put to death; only those to whom the king's rod of gold is
stretched out may keep their lives: but I have not been sent
for to come before the king these thirty days.

12 And they said these words to Mordecai.

13 Then Mordecai sent this answer back to Esther: Do not
have the idea that you in the king's house will be safe from
the fate of all the Jews.

14 If at this time you say nothing, then help and salvation
will come to the Jews from some other place, but you and
your father's family will come to destruction: and who 1s to
say that you have not come to the kingdom even for such a
time as this?

15 Then Esther sent them back to Mordecai with this
answer:

16 Go, get together all the Jews who are present in Shushan,
and go without food for me, taking no food or drink night
or day for three days: and I and my women will do the same;
and so I will go in to the king, which is against the law: and
if death is to be my fate, then let it come.

17 So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther
had said.

ESTER CHAPTER 5

1 Now on the third day, Esther put on her queen's robes,
and took her place in the inner room of the king's house,
facing the king's house: and the king was seated on his high
seat in the king's house, facing the doorway of the house.

2 And when the king saw Esther the queen waiting in the
inner room, looking kindly on her he put out the rod of gold
in his hand to her. So Esther came near and put her fingers
on the top of the rod.

3 Then the king said, What is your desire, Queen Esther,
and what is your request? I will give it to you, even to the
half of my kingdom.

4 And Esther in answer said, If it seems good to the king,
let the king and Haman come today to the feast which I have
made ready for him.

5 Then the king said, Let Haman come quickly, so that
what Esther has said may be done. So the king and Haman
came to the feast which Esther had made ready.

6 And while they were drinking wine the king said to
Esther, What is your prayer? for it will be given to you and
what is your request? for it will be done, even to the half of
my kingdom.

7 Then Esther said in answer, My prayer and my request is
this:

8 If I have the king's approval, and if it is the king's
pleasure to give me my prayer and do my request, let the king
and Haman come to the feast which I will make ready for
them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.

9 Then on that day Haman went out full of joy and glad in
heart; but when he saw Mordecai in the king's doorway, and
he did not get to his feet or give any sign of fear before him,
Haman was full of wrath against Mordecai.

10 But controlling himself, he went to his house; and he
sent for his friends and Zeresh, his wife.

11 And he gave them an account of the glories of his wealth,
and the number of children he had, and the ways in which he
had been honoured by the king, and how he had put him over
the captains and servants of the king.

12 And Haman said further, Truly, Esther the queen let no
man but myself come in to the feast which she had made
ready for the king; and tomorrow again I am to be her guest
with the king.

13 But all this is nothing to me while I see Mordecai the
Jew seated by the king's doorway.

14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, Let a
pillar, fifty cubits high, be made ready for hanging him, and
in the morning get the king to give orders for the hanging of
Mordecai: then you will be able to go to the feast with the
king with a glad heart. And Haman was pleased with the
suggestion, and he had the pillar made.

ESTER CHAPTER 6

| That night the king was unable to get any sleep; and he
sent for the books of the records; and while some one was
reading them to the king,

2 It came out that it was recorded in the book how
Mordecai had given word of the designs of Bigthana and
Teresh, two of the king's servants, keepers of the door, by
whom an attack on the king had been designed.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And the king said, What honour and reward have been
given to Mordecai for this? Then the servants who were
waiting on the king said, Nothing has been done for him.

4 Then the king said, Who is in the outer room? Now
Haman had come into the outer room to get the king's
authority for the hanging of Mordecai on the pillar which he
had made ready for him.

5 And the king's servants said to him, See, Haman is
waiting in the outer room. And the king said, Let him come
in.

6 So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What is to
be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring?
Then the thought came into Haman's mind, Whom, more
than myself, would the king have pleasure in honouring?

7 And Haman, answering the king, said, For the man
whom the king has delight in honouring,

8 Let them take the robes which the king generally puts on,
and the horse on which the king goes, and the crown which is
on his head:

9 And let the robes and the horse be given to one of the
king's most noble captains, so that they may put them on the
man whom the king has delight in honouring, and let him go
on horseback through the streets of the town, with men
crying out before him, So let it be done to the man whom the
king has delight in honouring.

10 Then the king said to Haman, Go quickly, and take the
robes and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to
Mordecai the Jew, who is seated at the king's doorway: see
that you do everything as you have said.

11 Then Haman took the robes and the horse, and dressing
Mordecai in the robes, he made him go on horseback
through the streets of the town, crying out before him, So let
it be done to the man whom the king has delight in
honouring.

12 And Mordecai came back to the king's doorway. But
Haman went quickly back to his house, sad and with his head
covered.

13 And Haman gave his wife Zeresh and all his friends an
account of what had taken place. Then his wise men and his
wife Zeresh said to him, If Mordecai, who is starting to get
the better of you, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not be
able to do anything against him, but you will certainly go
down before him.

14 While they were still talking, the king's servants came to
take Haman to the feast which Esther had made ready.

ESTER CHAPTER 7

1 So the king and Haman came to take wine with Esther the
queen.

2 And the king said to Esther again on the second day,
while they were drinking, What is your prayer, Queen Esther?
for it will be given to you; and what is your request? for it
will be done, even to the half of my kingdom.

3 Then Esther the queen, answering, said, If I have your
approval, O king, and if it is the king's pleasure, let my life

be given to me in answer to my prayer, and my people at my
request:

4 For we are given up, I and my people, to destruction and
death and to be cut off. If we had been taken as men-servants
and women-servants for a price, I would have said nothing,
for our trouble is little in comparison with the king's loss.

5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, Who is he
and where is he who has had this evil thought in his heart?

6 And Esther said, Our hater and attacker is this evil
Haman. Then Haman was full of fear before the king and the
queen.

7 And the king in his wrath got up from the feast and went
into the garden: and Haman got to his feet to make a prayer
for his life to Esther the queen: for he saw that the king's
purpose was evil against him.

8 Then the king came back from the garden into the room
where they had been drinking; and Haman was stretched out
on the seat where Esther was. Then the king said, Is he taking
the queen by force before my eyes in my house? And while the
words were on the king's lips, they put a cloth over Haman's
face.

9 Then Harbonah, one of the unsexed servants waiting
before the king, said, See, the pillar fifty cubits high, which
Haman made for Mordecai, who said a good word for the
king, is still in its place in Haman's house. Then the king said,
Put him to death by hanging him on it.

10 So Haman was put to death by hanging him on the
pillar he had made for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath
became less.

ESTER CHAPTER 8

| That day the king gave all the family of Haman, the hater
of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before
the king, for Esther had made clear what he was to her.

2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from
Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai
over the family of Haman.

3 Then Esther again came before the king, falling down at
his feet, and made request to him with weeping, that he
would put a stop to the evil purposes of Haman the Agagite
and the designs which he had made against the Jews.

4 Then the king put out the rod of gold to Esther, and she
got up before the king.

5 And she said, If it is the king's pleasure and if I have his
approval and this thing seems right to the king and I am
pleasing to him, then let letters be sent giving orders against
those which Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,
sent out for the destruction of the Jews in all divisions of the
kingdom:

6 For how is it possible for me to see the evil which is to
overtake my nation? how may I see the destruction of my
people?

7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to
Mordecai the Jew, See now, I have given Esther the family of
Haman, and he has come to his death by hanging, because he
made an attack on the Jews.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 So now send a letter about the Jews, writing whatever
seems good to you, in the king's name, and stamping it with
the king's ring: for a writing signed in the king's name and
stamped with the king's ring may not be changed.

9 Then at that time, on the twenty-third day of the third
month, which is the month Sivan, the king's scribes were sent
for; and everything ordered by Mordecai was put in writing
and sent to the Jews and the captains and the rulers and the
chiefs of all the divisions of the kingdom from India to
Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven divisions, to every
division in the writing commonly used there, and to every
people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing and
their language.

10 The letters were sent in the name of King Ahasuerus and
stamped with his ring, and they were taken by men on
horseback, going on the quick-running horses used for the
king's business, the offspring of his best horses:

11 In these letters the king gave authority to the Jews in
every town to come together and make a fight for their lives,
and to send death and destruction on the power of any people
in any part of the kingdom attacking them or their children
or their women, and to take their goods from them by force,

12 On one day in every division of the kingdom of
Ahasuerus, that is, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, the month Adar.

13 A copy of the writing, to be made public as an order in
every division of the kingdom, was given out to all the
peoples, so that the Jews might be ready when that day came
to give punishment to their haters.

14 So the men went out on the quick-running horses used
on the king's business, wasting no time and forced on by the
king's order; and the order was given out in Shushan, the
king's town.

15 And Mordecai went out from before the king, dressed in
king-like robes of blue and white, and with a great crown of
gold and clothing of purple and the best linen: and all the
town of Shushan gave loud cries of joy.

16 And the Jews had light and joy and honour.

17 And in every part of the kingdom and in every town,
wherever the king's letter and his order came, the Jews were
glad with great joy, and had a feast and a good day. And a
great number of the people of the land became Jews: for the
fear of the Jews had come on them.

ESTER CHAPTER 9

1 Now on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is
the month Adar, when the time came for the king's order to
be put into effect, on the very day when the haters of the Jews
had been hoping to have rule over them; though the opposite
had come about, and the Jews had rule over their haters;

2 On that day, the Jews came together in their towns
through all the divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, for
the purpose of attacking all those who were attempting evil
against them: and everyone had to give way before them, for
the fear of them had come on all the peoples.

3 And all the chiefs and the captains and the rulers and
those who did the king's business gave support to the Jews;
because the fear of Mordecai had come on them.

4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and word of
him went out through every part of the kingdom: for the
man Mordecai became greater and greater.

5 So the Jews overcame all their attackers with the sword
and with death and destruction, and did to their haters
whatever they had a desire to do.

6 And in Shushan the Jews put to death five hundred men.

7 They put to death Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,

10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the
hater of the Jews; but they put not a hand on any of their
goods.

11 On that day the number of those who had been put to
death in the town of Shushan was given to the king.

12 And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have
put five hundred men to death in Shushan, as well as the ten
sons of Haman: what then have they done in the rest of the
kingdom! Now what is your prayer? for it will be given to
you; what other request have you? and it will be done.

13 Then Esther said, If it is the king's pleasure, let
authority be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as
has been done today, and let orders be given for the hanging
of Haman's ten sons.

14 And the king said that this was to be done, and the order
was given out in Shushan, and the hanging of Haman's ten
sons was effected.

15 For the Jews who were in Shushan came together again
on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and put to death
three hundred men in Shushan; but they put not a hand on
their goods.

16 And the other Jews in every division of the kingdom
came together, fighting for their lives, and got salvation
from their haters and put seventy-five thousand of them to
death; but they did not put a hand on their goods.

17 This they did on the thirteenth day of the month Adar;
and on the fourteenth day of the same month they took their
rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy.

18 But the Jews in Shushan came together on the thirteenth
and on the fourteenth day of the month; and on the fifteenth
day they took their rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy.

19 So the Jews of the country places living in unwalled
towns make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of
feasting and joy and a good day, a day for sending offerings
one to another.

20 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in every
division of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, near and far,

21 Ordering them to keep the fourteenth day of the month
Adar and the fifteenth day of the same month, every year,

22 As days on which the Jews had rest from their haters,
and the month which for them was turned from sorrow to joy,
and from weeping to a good day: and that they were to keep

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

them as days of feasting and joy, of sending offerings to one
another and good things to the poor.

23 And the Jews gave their word to go on as they had been
doing and as Mordecai had given them orders in writing;

24 Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,
the hater of all the Jews, had made designs for their
destruction, attempting to get a decision by Pur (that is,
chance) with a view to putting an end to them and cutting
them off;

25 But when the business was put before the king, he gave
orders by letters that the evil design which he had made
against the Jews was to be turned against himself; and that he
and his sons were to be put to death by hanging.

26 So these days were named Purim, after the name of Pur.
And so, because of the words of this letter, and of what they
had seen in connection with this business, and what had come
to them,

27 The Jews made a rule and gave an undertaking, causing
their seed and all those who were joined to them to do the
same, so that it might be in force for ever, that they would
keep those two days, as ordered in the letter, at the fixed time
every year;

28 And that those days were to be kept in memory through
every generation and every family, in every division of the
kingdom and every town, that there might never be a time
when these days of Purim would not be kept among the Jews,
or when the memory of them would go from the minds of
their seed.

29 Then Esther the queen, daughter of Abihail, and
Mordecai the Jew, sent a second letter giving the force of
their authority to the order about the Purim.

30 And he sent letters to all the Jews in the hundred and
twenty-seven divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with
true words of peace,

31 Giving the force of law to these days of Purim at their
fixed times, as they had been ordered by Mordecai the Jew
and Esther the queen, and in keeping with the rules they had
made for themselves and their seed, in connection with their
time of going without food and their cry for help.

32 The order given by Esther gave the force of law to the
rules about the Purim; and it was recorded in the book.

ESTER CHAPTER 10

1 And King Ahasuerus put a tax on the land and on the
islands of the sea.

2 And all his acts of power and his great strength and the
full story of the high place which the king gave Mordecai, are
they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
Media and Persia?

3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus,
and great among the Jews and respected by the body of his
countrymen; working for the good of his people, and saying
words of peace to all his seed.

[See Additions to Esther, Deuterocanon.|

BOOKS OF WISDOM
(OR BOOKS OF POETRY)

THE BOOK OF JOB
Hebrew title: Sefer lyob
Estimated Range of Dating: 550-450 B.C.

(The Book of Job (Hebrew: Iyob) 1s a book in the Ketuvim
("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and the
first poetic book in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
Addressing the problem of theodicy — the vindication of the
Justice of God in the light of humanity's suffering — It 1s a
rich theological work setting out a variety of perspectives.
The language of Job stands out for its conservative spelling
and for its exceptionally large number of words and forms
not found elsewhere in the Bible. It is a masterpiece of
wisdom, philosophy and literature.

Job appears in the 6th-century BC Book of Ezekiel as a man
of antiquity renowned for his righteousness, and the author
of the Book of Job has apparently chosen this legendary hero
for lus parable. Rabbinic tradition ascribes it to Moses, but
scholars generally agree that it was written between the 6th
and 5th centuries BC. The anonymous author was almost
certainly an Israelite, although he has set his story outside
Israel, in southern Edom or northern Arabia, and makes
allusion to places as far apart as Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Job, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Proverbs belong to the
genre of wisdom literature, sharing a perspective that they
themselves call the "way of wisdom". Wisdom means both a
way of thinking and a body of knowledge gained through
such thinking, as well as the ability to apply it to life. It is
attainable in part through human effort and in part as a gift
from God, but never in its entirety — except by God. The
three books share attitudes and assumptions but differ in
their conclusions: Proverbs makes confident statements
about the world and its workings that are flatly contradicted
by Job and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom literature from Sumeria and
Babylonia can be dated to the second millennium BC. Several
texts from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt offer parallels to
Job, and while it is impossible to tell whether the author of
Job was influenced by any of them, their existence suggests
that he was the recipient of a long tradition of reflection on
the existence of inexplicable suffering.)

JOB CHAPTER 1

1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
He was without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping
himself far from evil.

2 And he had seven sons and three daughters.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And of cattle he had seven thousand sheep and goats, and
three thousand camels, and a thousand oxen, and five
hundred she-asses, and a very great number of servants. And
the man was greater than any of the sons of the east.

4 His sons regularly went to one another's houses, and
every one on his day gave a feast: and at these times they sent
for their three sisters to take part in their feasts with them.

5 And at the end of their days of feasting, Job sent and
made them clean, getting up early in the morning and
offering burned offerings for them all. For, Job said, It may
be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of God in
their hearts. And Job did this whenever the feasts came round.

6 And there was a day when the sons of the gods came
together before the Lord, and the Satan came with them.

7 And the Lord said to the Satan, Where do you come from?
And the Satan said in answer, From wandering this way and
that on the earth, and walking about on it.

8 And the Lord said to the Satan, Have you taken note of
my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a
man without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping
himself far from evil?

9 And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Is it for
nothing that Job is a god-fearing man?

10 Have you yourself not put a wall round him and his
house and all he has on every side, blessing the work of his
hands, and increasing his cattle in the land?

11 But now, put out your hand against all he has, and he
will be cursing you to your face.

12 And the Lord said to the Satan, See, I give all he has
into your hands, only do not put a finger on the man himself.
And the Satan went out from before the Lord.

13 And there was a day when his sons and daughters were
feasting in the house of their oldest brother,

14 And a man came to Job, and said, The oxen were
ploughing, and the asses were taking their food by their side:

15 And the men of Sheba came against them and took them
away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the
only one who got away safe to give you the news.

16 And this one was still talking when another came, and
said, The fire of God came down from heaven, burning up
the sheep and the goats and the young men completely, and I
was the only one who got away safe to give you the news.

17 And this one was still talking when another came, and
said, The Chaldaeans made themselves into three bands, and
came down on the camels and took them away, putting the
young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got
away safe to give you the news.

18 And this one was still talking when another came, and
said, Your sons and your daughters were feasting together in
their oldest brother's house,

19 When a great wind came rushing from the waste land
against the four sides of the house, and it came down on the
young men, and they are dead; and I was the only one who
got away safe to give you the news.

20 Then Job got up, and after parting his clothing and
cutting off his hair, he went down on his face to the earth,
and gave worship, and said,

21 With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with
nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.

22 In all this Job did no sin, and did not say that God's acts
were foolish.

JOB CHAPTER 2

1 And there was a day when the sons of the gods came
together before the Lord, and the Satan came with them.

2 And the Lord said to the Satan, Where do you come from?
And the Satan said in answer, From wandering this way and
that on the earth, and walking about on it.

3 And the Lord said to the Satan, Have you taken note of
my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a
man without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping
himself far from evil? and he still keeps his righteousness,
though you have been moving me to send destruction on him
without cause.

4 And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Skin for skin,
all a man has he will give for his life.

5 But now, if you only put your hand on his bone and his
flesh, he will certainly be cursing you to your face.

6 And the Lord said to the Satan, See, he is in your hands,
only do not take his life.

7 And the Satan went out from before the Lord, and sent
on Job an evil disease covering his skin from his feet to the
top of his head.

8 And he took a broken bit of a pot, and, seated in the dust,
was rubbing himself with the sharp edge of it.

9 And his wife said to him, Are you still keeping your
righteousness? Say a curse against God, and put an end to
yourself.

10 And he said to her, You are talking like one of the
foolish women. If we take the good God sends us, are we not
to take the evil when it comes? In all this Job kept his lips
from sin.

11 And Job's three friends had word of all this evil which
had come on him. And they came every one from his place,
Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar
the Naamathite. So they came together to a meeting-place, in
order that they might go and make clear to Job their grief
for him, and give him comfort.

12 And lifting up their eyes when they were still far off, it
did not seem that the man they saw was Job because of the
change in him. And they gave way to bitter weeping, with
signs of grief, and put dust on their heads.

13 And they took their seats on the earth by his side for
seven days and seven nights: but no one said a word to him,
for they saw that his pain was very great.

JOB CHAPTER 3
1 Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth,
2 Job made answer and said,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on
which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

4 That day--let it be dark; let not God take note of it from
on high, and let not the light be shining on it;

5 Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let
it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send
fear on it.

6 That night--let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy
among the days of the year; let it not come into the number
of the months.

7 As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be
sounded in it;

8 Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who
are ready to make Leviathan awake.

9 Let its morning stars be dark; let it be looking for light,
but may it not have any; let it not see the eyes of the dawn.

10 Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body
shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes.

11 Why did death not take me when I came out of my
mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my
last breath?

12 Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they
might give me milk?

13 For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in
sleep have been in peace,

14 With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up
great houses for themselves;

15 Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full
of silver;

16 Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into
existence; like young children who have not seen the light.

17 There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose
strength has come to an end have rest.

18 There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of
the overseer comes not again to their ears.

19 The small and the great are there, and the servant is free
from his master.

20 Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life
to the bitter in soul;

21 To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who
are searching for it more than for secret wealth;

22 Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when
they come to their last resting-place;

23 To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God?

24 In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow
come from me like water.

25 For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is
greatly troubled.

26 I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain
comes on me.

JOB CHAPTER 4

1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

2 If one says a word, will it be a weariness to you? but who
is able to keep from saying what is in his mind?

3 Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have
made feeble hands strong;

4 He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your
words, and you have given strength to bent knees.

5 But now it has come on you and it is a weariness to you;
you are touched by it and your mind is troubled.

6 Is not your fear of God your support, and your upright
way of life your hope?

7 Have you ever seen destruction come to an upright man?
or when were the god-fearing ever cut off?

8 What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been
ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves.

9 By the breath of God destruction takes them, and by the
wind of his wrath they are cut off.

10 Though the noise of the lion and the sounding of his
voice, may be loud, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11 The old lion comes to his end for need of food, and the
young of the she-lion go wandering in all directions.

12 A word was given to me secretly, and the low sound of it
came to my ears.

13 In troubled thoughts from visions of the night, when
deep sleep comes on men,

14 Fear came on me and shaking, and my bones were full of
trouble;

15 And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my
flesh became stiff:

16 Something was present before me, but I was not able to
see it clearly; there was a form before my eyes: a quiet voice
came to my ears, saying:

17 May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean
before his Maker?

18 Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error
in his angels;

19 How much more those living in houses of earth, whose
bases are in the dust! They are crushed more quickly than an
insect;

20 Between morning and evening they are completely
broken; they come to an end for ever, and no one takes note.

21 If their tent-cord is pulled up, do they not come to an
end, and without wisdom?

JOB CHAPTER 5

| Give now a cry for help; is there anyone who will give you
an answer? and to which of the holy ones will you make your
prayer?

2 For wrath is the cause of death to the foolish, and he who
has no wisdom comes to his end through passion.

3 I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly the curse
came on his house.

4 Now his children have no safe place, and they are crushed
before the judges, for no one takes up their cause.

5 Their produce is taken by him who has no food, and their
grain goes to the poor, and he who is in need of water gets it
from their spring.

6 For evil does not come out of the dust, or trouble out of
the earth;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up
from the fire.

8 But as for me, I would make my prayer to God, and I
would put my cause before him:

9 Who does great things outside our knowledge, wonders
without number:

10 Who gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the
fields:

11 Lifting up those who are low, and putting the sad in a
safe place;

12 Who makes the designs of the wise go wrong, so that
they are unable to give effect to their purposes.

13 He takes the wise in their secret designs, and the
purposes of the twisted are cut off suddenly.

14 In the daytime it becomes dark for them, and in the
sunlight they go feeling about as if it was night.

15 But he keeps safe from their sword those who have no
father, and the poor from the power of the strong.

16 So the poor man has hope, and the mouth of the evil-
doer is stopped.

17 Truly, that man is happy who has training from the
hand of God: so do not let your heart be shut to the teaching
of the Ruler of all.

18 For after his punishment he gives comfort, and after
wounding, his hands make you well.

19 He will keep you safe from six troubles, and in seven no
evil will come near you.

20 When there is need of food he will keep you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.

21 He will keep you safe from the evil tongue; and you will
have no fear of wasting when it comes.

22 You will make sport of destruction and need, and will
have no fear of the beasts of the earth.

23 For you will be in agreement with the stones of the earth,
and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.

24 And you will be certain that your tent is at peace, and
after looking over your property you will see that nothing is
gone.

25 You will be certain that your seed will be great, and
your offspring like the plants of the earth.

26 You will come to your last resting-place in full strength,
as the grain is taken up to the crushing-floor in its time.

27 See, we have made search with care, and it is so; it has
come to our ears; see that you take note of it for yourself.

JOB CHAPTER 6

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 If only my passion might be measured, and put into the
scales against my trouble!

3 For then its weight would be more than the sand of the
seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled.

4 For the arrows of the Ruler of all are present with me,
and their poison goes deep into my spirit: his army of fears is
put in order against me.

5 Does the ass of the fields give out his voice when he has
grass? or does the ox make sounds over his food?

6 Will a man take food which has no taste without salt? or
is there any taste in the soft substance of purslain?

7 My soul has no desire for such things, they are as disease
in my food.

8 If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God
would give me my desire!

9 Tf only he would be pleased to put an end to me; and
would let loose his hand, so that I might be cut off

10 So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in
the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of
the Holy One.

11 Have I strength to go on waiting, or have I any end to be
looking forward to?

12 Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh brass?

13 [have no help in myself, and wisdom is completely gone
from me.

14 He whose heart is shut against his friend has given up
the fear of the Ruler of all.

15 My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in
the valleys which come to an end:

16 Which are dark because of the ice, and the snow falling
into them;

17 Under the burning sun they are cut off, and come to
nothing because of the heat.

18 The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the
waste and come to destruction.

19 The camel-trains of Tema were searching with care, the
bands of Sheba were waiting for them:

20 They were put to shame because of their hope; they came
and their hope was gone.

21 So have you now become to me; you see my sad
condition and are in fear.

22 Did I say, Give me something? or, Make a payment for
me out of your wealth?

23 Or, Get me out of the power of my hater? or, Give
money so that I may be free from the power of the cruel ones?

24 Give me teaching and I will be quiet; and make me see
my error.

25 How pleasing are upright words! but what force is there
in your arguments?

26 My words may seem wrong to you, but the words of him
who has no hope are for the wind.

27 Truly, you are such as would give up the child of a dead
man to his creditors, and would make a profit out of your
friend.

28 Now then, let your eyes be turned to me, for truly I will
not say what is false to your face.

29 Let your minds be changed, and do not have an evil
opinion of me; yes, be changed, for my righteousness is still
in me.

30 Is there evil in my tongue? is not the cause of my trouble
clear to me?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JOB CHAPTER 7

1 Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and
are not his days like the days of a servant working for
payment?

2 As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a
workman looking for his payment:

3 So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose,
and nights of weariness are given to me.

4 When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up?
but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till
morning light.

5 My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets
hard and then is cracked again.

6 My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and
come to an end without hope.

70, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never
again see good.

8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your
eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.

9 A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes
down into the underworld comes not up again.

10 He will not come back to his house, and his place will
have no more knowledge of him.

11 So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words
come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a
bitter outcry.

12 Am Ta sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

13 When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will
get rest from my disease;

14 Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;

15 So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my
pains.

16 I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever!
Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.

17 What is man, that you have made him great, and that
your attention is fixed on him,

18 And that your hand is on him every morning, and that
you are testing him every minute?

19 How long will it be before your eyes are turned away
from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?

20 If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper
of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so
that I am a weariness to myself?

21 And why do you not take away my sin, and let my
wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and
you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.

JOB CHAPTER 8

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

2 How long will you say these things, and how long will the
words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

3 Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not
upright in his judging?

4 If your children have done evil against him, then their
punishment is from his hand.

5 If you will make search for God with care, and put your
request before the Ruler of all;

6 If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be
moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your
righteousness by building up your house again.

7 And though your start was small, your end will be very
great.

8 Put the question now to the past generations, and give
attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:

9 (For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge,
because our days on earth are gone like a shade:)

10 Will they not give you teaching, and say words of
wisdom to you?

11 Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet
earth? will the grass get tall without water?

12 When it is still green, without being cut down, it
becomes dry and dead before any other plant.

13 So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and
the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:

14 Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger
than a spider's thread.

15 He is looking to his family for support, but it is not
there; he puts his hope in it, but it comes to nothing.

16 He is full of strength before the sun, and his branches go
out over his garden.

17 His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way
in between them.

18 If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have
not seen you.

19 Such is the joy of his way, and out of the dust another
comes up to take his place.

20 Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and
will not take evil-doers by the hand.

21 The time will come when your mouth will be full of
laughing, and cries of joy will come from your lips.

22 Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of
the sinner will not be seen again.

JOB CHAPTER 9

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 Truly, I see that it is so: and how is it possible for a man
to get his right before God?

3 Ifa man was desiring to go to law with him, he would not
be able to give him an answer to one out of a thousand
questions.

4 He is wise in heart and great in strength: who ever made
his face hard against him, and any good came of it?

5 It is he who takes away the mountains without their
knowledge, overturning them in his wrath:

6 Who is moving the earth out of its place, so that its pillars
are shaking:

7 Who gives orders to the sun, and it does not give its light;
and who keeps the stars from shining.

8 By whose hand the heavens were stretched out, and who is
walking on the waves of the sea:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 Who made the Bear and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the
store-houses of the south:

10 Who does great things not to be searched out; yes,
wonders without number.

11 See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before,
but I have no knowledge of him.

12 If he puts out his hand to take, by whom may it be
turned back? who may say to him, What are you doing?

13 God's wrath may not be turned back; the helpers of
Rahab were bent down under him.

14 How much less may I give an answer to him, using the
right words in argument with him?

15 Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give
an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was
against me.

16 If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I
would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice.

17 For I would be crushed by his storm, my wounds would
be increased without cause.

18 He would not let me take my breath, but I would be full
of bitter grief.

19 If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it
is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a
fixed day?

20 Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the
wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.

21 I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what
becomes of me; I have no desire for life.

22 It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the
sinner and to him who has done no wrong together.

23 If death comes suddenly through disease, he makes sport
of the fate of those who have done no wrong.

24 The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the
faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has
done it?

25 My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight,
they see no good.

26 They go rushing on like reed-boats, like an eagle
dropping suddenly on its food.

27 If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face
be sad no longer and I will be bright;

28 I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be
free from sin in your eyes.

29 You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take
trouble for nothing?

30 If I am washed with snow water, and make my hands
clean with soap;

31 Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I
will seem disgusting to my very clothing.

32 For he is not a man as I am, that I might give him an
answer, that we might come together before a judge.

33 There is no one to give a decision between us, who might
have control over us.

34 Let him take away his rod from me and not send his fear
on me:

35 Then I would say what is in my mind without fear of him;
for there is no cause of fear in myself.

JOB CHAPTER 10

1 My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free
in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.

21 will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make
clear to me what you have against me.

3 What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of
your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?

4 Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?

5 Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his,

6 That you take note of my sin, searching after my
wrongdoing,

7 Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no
one who is able to take a man out of your hands?

8 Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then,
changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.

9 O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will
you send me back again to dust?

10 Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like
cheese?

11 By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined
together with bones and muscles.

12 You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with
me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.

13 But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I
am certain this was in your thoughts:

14 That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and
would not make me clear from sin:

15 That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me;
and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being
full of shame and overcome with trouble.

16 And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after
me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

17 That you would send new witnesses against me,
increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new
armies on me.

18 Why then did you make me come out of my mother's
body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last
breath, and for no eye to have seen me,

19 And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have
been taken from my mother's body straight to my last
resting-place.

20 Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your
eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little
pleasure,

21 Before I go to the place from which I will not come back,
to the land where all is dark and black,

22 A land of thick dark, without order, where the very
light is dark.

JOB CHAPTER 11

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

2 Are all these words to go unanswered? and is a man seen
to be right because he is full of talk?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Are your words of pride to make men keep quiet? and are
you to make sport, with no one to put you to shame?

4 You may say, My way is clean, and I am free from sin in
your eyes.

5 But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips
in argument with you;

6 And would make clear to you the secrets of wisdom, and
the wonders of his purpose!

7 Are you able to take God's measure, to make discovery of
the limits of the Ruler of all?

8 They are higher than heaven; what is there for you to do?
deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge;

9 Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea.

10 If he goes on his way, shutting a man up and putting
him to death, who may make him go back from his purpose?

11 For in his eyes men are as nothing; he sees evil and takes
note of it.

12 And so a hollow-minded man will get wisdom, when a
young ass of the field gets teaching.

13 But if you put your heart right, stretching out your
hands to him;

14 If you put far away the evil of your hands, and let no
wrongdoing have a place in your tent;

15 Then truly your face will be lifted up, with no mark of
sin, and you will be fixed in your place without fear:

16 For your sorrow will go from your memory, like waters
flowing away:

17 And your life will be brighter than day; though it is
dark, it will become like the morning.

18 And you will be safe because there is hope; after looking
round, you will take your rest in quiet;

19 Sleeping with no fear of danger; and men will be
desiring to have grace in your eyes;

20 But the eyes of the evil-doers will be wasting away; their
way of flight is gone, and their only hope is the taking of
their last breath.

JOB CHAPTER 12

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 No doubt you have knowledge, and wisdom will come to
an end with you.

3 But I have a mind as well as you; I am equal to you: yes,
who has not knowledge of such things as these?

4 It seems that I am to be as one who is a cause of laughing
to his neighbour, one who makes his prayer to God and is
answered! the upright man who has done no wrong is to be
made sport of

5 In the thought of him who is in comfort there is no
respect for one who is in trouble; such is the fate of those
whose feet are slipping.

6 There is wealth in the tents of those who make destruction,
and those by whom God is moved to wrath are safe; even
those whose god is their strength.

7 But put now a question to the beasts, and get teaching
from them; or to the birds of the heaven, and they will make
it clear to you;

8 Or to the things which go flat on the earth, and they will
give you wisdom; and the fishes of the sea will give you news
of it.

9 Who does not see by all these that the hand of the Lord
has done this?

10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the
breath of all flesh of man.

11 Are not words tested by the ear, even as food is tasted by
the mouth?

12 Old men have wisdom, and a long life gives knowledge.

13 With him there is wisdom and strength; power and
knowledge are his.

14 Truly, there is no building up of what is pulled down by
him; when a man is shut up by him, no one may let him loose.

15 Truly, he keeps back the waters and they are dry; he
sends them out and the earth is overturned.

16 With him are strength and wise designs; he who is
guided into error, together with his guide, are in his hands;

17 He takes away the wisdom of the wise guides, and makes
judges foolish;

18 He undoes the chains of kings, and puts his band on
them;

19 He makes priests prisoners, overturning those in safe
positions;

20 He makes the words of responsible persons without
effect, and takes away the good sense of the old;

21 He puts shame on chiefs, and takes away the power of
the strong;

22 Uncovering deep things out of the dark, and making the
deep shade bright;

23 Increasing nations, and sending destruction on them;
making wide the lands of peoples, and then giving them up.

24 He takes away the wisdom of the rulers of the earth, and
sends them wandering in a waste where there is no way.

25 They go feeling about in the dark without light,
wandering without help like those overcome with wine.

JOB CHAPTER 13

1 Truly, my eye has seen all this, word of it has come to my
ear, and I have knowledge of it.

2 The same things are in my mind as in yours; I am equal to
you.

3 But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire
is to have an argument with God.

4 But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to
put things right are of no value.

5 If only you would keep quiet, it would be a sign of
wisdom!

6 Give ear to the argument of my mouth, and take note of
the words of my lips.

7 Will you say in God's name what is not right, and put
false words into his mouth?

8 Will you have respect for God's person in this cause, and
put yourselves forward as his supporters?

9 Will it be good for you to be searched out by him, or have
you the thought that he may be guided into error like a man?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for
persons in secret.

11 Will not his glory put you in fear, so that your hearts
will be overcome before him?

12 Your wise sayings are only dust, and your strong places
are only earth.

13 Keep quiet, and let me say what is in my mind, whatever
may come to me.

14 I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my
hand.

15 Truly, he will put an end to me; I have no hope; but I
will not give way in argument before him;

16 And that will be my salvation, for an evil-doer would
not come before him,

17 Give ear with care to my words, and keep what I say in
your minds.

18 See now, I have put my cause in order, and I am certain
that I will be seen to be right.

19 Is any one able to take up the argument against me? If so,
I would keep quiet and give up my breath.

20 Only two things do not do to me, then I will come before
your face:

21 Take your hand far away from me; and let me not be
overcome by fear of you.

22 Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer; or let
me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer.

23 What is the number of my evil-doings and my sins? give
me knowledge of them.

24 Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered
among your haters?

25 Will you be hard on a leaf in flight before the wind? will
you make a dry stem go more quickly on its way?

26 For you put bitter things on record against me, and send
punishment on me for the sins of my early years;

27 And you put chains on my feet, watching all my ways,
and making a limit for my steps;

28 Though a man comes to nothing like a bit of dead wood,
or like a robe which has become food for the worm.

JOB CHAPTER 14

1 As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full
of trouble.

2 He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in
flight like a shade, and is never seen again.

3 Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the
purpose of judging him?

4 If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it
is not possible.

5 If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the
number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past
which he may not go;

6 Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your
hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his
day, like a servant working for payment.

7 For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come
to life again, and its branches will not come to an end.

8 Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off
end may be dead in the dust;

9 Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds, and put out
branches like a young plant.

10 But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his
spirit, and where is he?

11 The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste
and dry;

12 So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes
not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be
awake or come out of their sleep.

13 If only you would keep me safe in the underworld,
putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me
a fixed time when I might come to your memory again!

14 If death takes a man, will he come to life again? All the
days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for
me to be free.

15 At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and
you would have a desire for the work of your hands.

16 For now my steps are numbered by you, and my sin is
not overlooked.

17 My wrongdoing is corded up in a bag, and my sin is shut
up safe.

18 But truly a mountain falling comes to dust, and a rock is
moved from its place;

19 The stones are crushed small by the force of the waters;
the dust of the earth is washed away by their overflowing:
and so you put an end to the hope of man.

20 You overcome him for ever, and he is gone; his face is
changed in death, and you send him away.

21 His sons come to honour, and he has no knowledge of it;
they are made low, but he is not conscious of it.

22 Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad.

JOB CHAPTER 15

1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

2 Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value,
or will he give birth to the east wind?

3 Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit,
and with sayings which have no value?

4 Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that
the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your
outcry.

5 For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken
the tongue of the false for yourself.

6 It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be
in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness
against you.

7 Were you the first man to come into the world? or did
you come into being before the hills?

8 Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have
you taken all wisdom for yourself?

9 What knowledge have you which we have not? is there
anything in your mind which is not in ours?

10 With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years,
much older than your father.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the
gentle word which was said to you?

12 Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes
lifted up;

13 So that you are turning your spirit against God, and
letting such words go out of your mouth?

14 What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son
of woman be upright?

15 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens
are not clean in his eyes;

16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man
who takes in evil like water!

17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what
Thave seen:

18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers,
and have not kept secret from us;

19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange
people were among them:)

20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of
the years stored up for the cruel is small.

21 A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction
will come on him:

22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his
fate will be the sword;

23 He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where

is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:

24 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain
overcome him:

25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his
heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,

26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his
thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,

27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has
become thick;

28 And he has made his resting-place in the towns which
have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right
to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

29 He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep
what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to
the earth.

30 He does not come out of the dark; his branches are
burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud.

31 Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into
error: for he will get deceit as his reward.

32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no
longer green.

33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full
growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.

34 For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the
tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are
burned with fire.

35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to
trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

JOB CHAPTER 16

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are
comforters who only give trouble.

3 May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is
troubling you to make answer to them?

4 It would not be hard for me to say such things if your
souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against
you, and shaking my head at you:

5 I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep
back the comfort of my lips.

6 If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and
if | keep quiet, how much of it goes from me?

7 But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and
Tam in the grip of all my trouble.

8 It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of
my flesh makes answer to my face.

9 Tam broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me;
he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are
looking on me with cruel eyes;

10 Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his
bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together
in a mass against me.

11 God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me
violently into the hands of evil-doers.

12 I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands;
he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put
me up as a mark for his arrows.

13 His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go
through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on
the earth.

141 am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing
on me like a man of war.

15 I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my
horn is rolled in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming
dark;

17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my
prayer is clean.

18 O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry
have no resting-place!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of
my cause is on high.

20 My friends make sport of me; to God my eyes are
weeping,

21 So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with
God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.

22 For in a short time I will take the journey from which I
will not come back.

JOB CHAPTER 17

1 My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-
place is ready for me.

2 Truly, those who make sport of me are round about me,
and my eyes become dark because of their bitter laughing.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for
there is no other who will put his hand in mine.

4 You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause
you will not give them honour.

5 As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light
will be cut off from the eyes of his children.

6 He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have
become a mark for their sport.

7 My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my
body is wasted to a shade.

8 The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no
wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.

9 Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean
hands gets new strength.

10 But come back, now, all of you, come; and I will not see
a wise man among you.

11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the
desires of my heart.

12 They are changing night into day; they say, The light is
near the dark.

13 If am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have
made my bed in the dark;

14 If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm,
My mother and my sister;

15 Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire?

16 Will they go down with me into the underworld? Will
we go down together into the dust?

JOB CHAPTER 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

2 How long will it be before you have done talking? Get
wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.

3 Why do we seem as beasts in your eyes, and as completely
without knowledge?

4 But come back, now, come: you who are wounding
yourself in your passion, will the earth be given up because of
you, or a rock be moved out of its place?

5 For the light of the sinner is put out, and the flame of his
fire is not shining.

6 The light is dark in his tent, and the light shining over
him is put out.

7 The steps of his strength become short, and by his design
destruction overtakes him.

8 His feet take him into the net, and he goes walking into
the cords.

9 His foot is taken in the net; he comes into its grip.

10 The twisted cord is put secretly in the earth to take him,
and the cord is placed in his way.

11 He is overcome by fears on every side, they go after him
at every step.

12 His strength is made feeble for need of food, and
destruction is waiting for his falling footstep.

13 His skin is wasted by disease, and his body is food for the
worst of diseases.

14 He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is
taken away to the king of fears.

15 In his tent will be seen that which is not his, burning
stone is dropped on his house.

16 Under the earth his roots are dry, and over it his branch
is cut off.

17 His memory is gone from the earth, and in the open
country there is no knowledge of his name.

18 He is sent away from the light into the dark; he is forced
out of the world.

19 He has no offspring or family among his people, and in
his living-place there is no one of his name.

20 At his fate those of the west are shocked, and those of the
east are overcome with fear.

21 Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the
place of him who has no knowledge of God.

JOB CHAPTER 19

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with
words?

3 Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no
sense of shame to do me wrong.

4 And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is
only on myself.

5 If you make yourselves great against me, using my
punishment as an argument against me,

6 Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has
taken me in his net.

7 Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but
there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up
my cause.

8 My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he
has made my roads dark.

9 He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown
from my head.

10 I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone;
my hope is uprooted like a tree.

11 His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one
of his haters.

12 His armies come on together, they make their road high
against me, and put up their tents round mine.

13 He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have
seen my fate and have become strange to me.

14 My relations and my near friends have given me up, and
those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

15 I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as
one from another country.

16 At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to
make a prayer to him.

17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to
the offspring of my mother's body.

18 Even young children have no respect for me; when I get
up their backs are turned on me.

19 All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those
dear to me are turned against me.

20 My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away
with my flesh in my teeth.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the
hand of God is on me.

22 Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil
against me?

23 If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put
in writing in a book!

24 And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for
ever!

25 But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is
living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the
dust;

26 And after my skin, [even] this [body], is destroyed, Then
without my flesh I will see God;

27 Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to
me. My heart is broken with desire.

28 If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root
of sin is clearly in him:

29 Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment
for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a
judge.

JOB CHAPTER 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

2 For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving
me on.

3 I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame,
and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

4 Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man
was placed on the earth,

5 That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the
evil-doer but for a minute?

6 Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes
up to the clouds;

7 Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever:
those who have seen him say, Where is he?

8 He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in
flight like a vision of the night.

9 The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place
has no more knowledge of him.

10 His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to
them, and his hands give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down
with him into the dust.

12 Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it
secretly under his tongue;

13 Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but
keeps it still in his mouth;

14 His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of
snakes is inside him.

15 He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it
is forced out of his stomach by God.

16 He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue
of the snake is the cause of his death.

17 Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey
and milk.

18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may
not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.

19 Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away
from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by
force which he did not put up;

20 There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation
for him in those things in which he took delight.

21 He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his
well-being will quickly come to an end.

22 Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the
hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him.

23 God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath
on him, making it come down on him like rain.

24 He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow
from the bow of brass will go through him;

25 He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its
shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.

26 All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made
by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his
tent.

27 The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives
witness against him.

28 The produce of his house is taken away into another
country, like things given into the hands of others in the day
of wrath.

29 This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given
to him by God.

JOB CHAPTER 21

1 Then Job made answer and said,

2 Give attention with care to my words; and let this be your
comfort.

3 Let me say what is in my mind, and after that, go on
making sport of me.

4 As for me, is my outcry against man? is it then to be
wondered at if my spirit is troubled?

5 Take note of me and be full of wonder, put your hand on
your mouth.

6 At the very thought of it my flesh is shaking with fear.

7 Why is life given to the evil-doers? why do they become
old and strong in power?

8 Their children are ever with them, and their offspring
before their eyes.

9 Their houses are free from fear, and the rod of God does
not come on them.

10 Their ox is ready at all times to give seed; their cow gives
birth, without dropping her young.

11 They send out their young ones like a flock, and their
children have pleasure in the dance,

12 They make songs to the instruments of music, and are
glad at the sound of the pipe.

13 Their days come to an end without trouble, and
suddenly they go down to the underworld.

14 Though they said to God, Go away from us, for we have
no desire for the knowledge of your ways.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 What is the Ruler of all, that we may give him worship?
and what profit is it to us to make prayer to him?

16 Truly, is not their well-being in their power? (The
purpose of the evil-doers is far from me.)

17 How frequently is the light of the evil-doers put out, or
does trouble come on them? how frequently does his wrath
take them with cords?

18 How frequently are they as dry stems before the wind, or
as grass taken away by the storm-wind?

19 You say, God keeps punishment stored up for his
children. Let him send it on the man himself, so that he may
have the punishment of it!

20 Let his eyes see his trouble, and let him be full of the
wrath of the Ruler of all!

21 For what interest has he in his house after him, when the
number of his months is ended?

22 Is anyone able to give teaching to God? for he is the
judge of those who are on high.

23 One comes to his end in complete well-being, full of
peace and quiet:

24 His buckets are full of milk, and there is no loss of
strength in his bones.

25 And another comes to his end with a bitter soul, without
ever tasting good.

26 Together they go down to the dust, and are covered by
the worm.

27 See, I am conscious of your thoughts, and of your
violent purposes against me;

28 For you say, Where is the house of the ruler, and where
is the tent of the evil-doer?

29 Have you not put the question to the travellers, and do
you not take note of their experience?

30 How the evil man goes free in the day of trouble, and has
salvation in the day of wrath?

31 Who will make his way clear to his face? and if he has
done a thing, who gives him punishment for it?

32 He is taken to his last resting-place, and keeps watch
over it.

33 The earth of the valley covering his bones is sweet to him,
and all men come after him, as there were unnumbered before
him.

34 Why then do you give me comfort with words in which
there is no profit, when you see that there is nothing in your
answers but deceit?

JOB CHAPTER 22

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

2 Is it possible for a man to be of profit to God? No, for a
man's wisdom is only of profit to himself.

3 Is it of any interest to the Ruler of all that you are upright?
or is it of use to him that your ways are without sin?

4 Is it because you give him honour that he is sending
punishment on you and is judging you?

5 Is not your evil-doing great? and there is no end to your
sins.

6 For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not
in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who
have need of it.

7 You do not give water to the tired traveller, and from
him who has no food you keep back bread.

8 For it was the man with power who had the land, and the
man with an honoured name who was living in it.

9 You have sent widows away without hearing their cause,
and you have taken away the support of the child who has no
father.

10 For this cause nets are round your feet, and you are
overcome with sudden fear.

11 Your light is made dark so that you are unable to see,
and you are covered by a mass of waters.

12 Is not God as high as heaven? and see the stars, how high
they are!

13 And you say, What knowledge has God? is he able to
give decisions through the deep dark?

14 Thick clouds are covering him, so that he is unable to see;
and he is walking on the arch of heaven.

15 Will you keep the old way by which evil men went?

16 Who were violently taken away before their time, who
were overcome by the rush of waters:

17 Who said to God, Go away from us; and, What is the
Ruler of all able to do to us?

18 Though he made their houses full of good things: but
the purpose of the evil-doers is far from me!

19 The upright saw it and were glad: and those who had
done no wrong made sport of them,

20 Saying, Truly, their substance is cut off, and their
wealth is food for the fire.

21 Put yourself now in a right relation with him and be at
peace: so will you do well in your undertakings.

22 Be pleased to take teaching from his mouth, and let his
words be stored up in your heart.

23 If you come back to the Ruler of all, making yourself
low before him; if you put evil far away from your tents;

24 And put your gold in the dust, even your gold of Ophir
among the rocks of the valleys;

25 Then the Ruler of all will be your gold, and his teaching
will be your silver;

26 For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and
your face will be lifted up to God.

27 You will make your prayer to him, and be answered; and
you will give effect to your oaths.

28 Your purposes will come about, and light will be
shining on your ways.

29 For God makes low those whose hearts are lifted up, but
he is a saviour to the poor in spirit.

30 He makes safe the man who is free from sin, and if your
hands are clean, salvation will be yours.

JOB CHAPTER 23

1 And Job made answer and said,

2 Even today my outcry is bitter; his hand is hard on my
sorrow.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 If only I had knowledge of where he might be seen, so that
I might come even to his seat!

41 would put my cause in order before him, and my mouth
would be full of arguments.

5 I would see what his answers would be, and have
knowledge of what he would say to me.

6 Would he make use of his great power to overcome me?
No, but he would give attention to me.

7 There an upright man might put his cause before him; and
I would be free for ever from my judge.

8 See, I go forward, but he is not there; and back, but I do
not see him;

9 T am looking for him on the left hand, but there is no sign
of him; and turning to the right, I am not able to see him.

10 For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been
tested I will come out like gold.

11 My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way,
without turning to one side or to the other.

12 I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the
words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart.

13 But his purpose is fixed and there is no changing it; and
he gives effect to the desire of his soul.

14 For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone
through to the end: and his mind 1s full of such designs.

15 For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of
him overcome me.

16 For God has made my heart feeble, and my mind is
troubled before the Ruler ofall.

17 For I am overcome by the dark, and by the black night
which is covering my face.

JOB CHAPTER 24

1 Why are times not stored up by the Ruler of all, and why
do those who have knowledge of him not see his days?

2 The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently
take away flocks, together with their keepers.

3 They send away the ass of him who has no father, they
take the widow's ox for debt.

4 The crushed are turned out of the way; all the poor of the
earth go into a secret place together.

5 Like asses in the waste land they go out to their work,
looking for food with care; from the waste land they get
bread for their children.

6 They get mixed grain from the field, and they take away
the late fruit from the vines of those who have wealth.

7 They take their rest at night without clothing, and have
no cover in the cold.

8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and get into
the cracks of the rock for cover.

9 The child without a father is forced from its mother's
breast, and they take the young children of the poor for debt.

10 Others go about without clothing, and though they
have no food, they get in the grain from the fields.

11 Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though
they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes.

12 From the town come sounds of pain from those who are
near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for
help; but God does not take note of their prayer.

13 Then there are those who are haters of the light, who
have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them.

14 He who is purposing death gets up before day, so that he
may put to death the poor and those in need.

15 And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is
waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he
puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about;

16 In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the
daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no
knowledge of the light.

17 For the middle of the night is as morning to them, they
are not troubled by the fear of the dark.

18 They go quickly on the face of the waters; their heritage
is cursed in the earth; the steps of the crusher of grapes are
not turned to their vine-garden.

19 Snow waters become dry with the heat: so do sinners go
down into the underworld.

20 The public place of his town has no more knowledge of
him, and his name has gone from the memory of men: he is
rooted up like a dead tree.

21 He is not kind to the widow, and he has no pity for her
child.

22 But God by his power gives long life to the strong; he
gets up again, though he has no hope of life.

23 He takes away his fear of danger and gives him support;
and his eyes are on his ways.

24 For a short time they are lifted up; then they are gone;
they are made low, they are pulled off like fruit, and like the
heads of grain they are cut off.

25 And if it is not so, now, who will make it clear that my
words are false, and that what I say is of no value?

JOB CHAPTER 25

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

2 Rule and power are his; he makes peace in his high places.

3 Is it possible for his armies to be numbered? and on whom
is not his light shining?

4 How then is it possible for man to be upright before God?
or how may he be clean who is a son of woman?

5 See, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not
clean in his eyes:

6 How much less man who is an insect, and the son of man
who is a worm!

JOB CHAPTER 26

1 Then Job made answer and said,

2 How have you given help to him who has no power! how
have you been the salvation of the arm which has no strength!

3 How have you given teaching to him who has no wisdom,
and fully made clear true knowledge!

4 To whom have your words been said? and whose spirit
came out from you?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 The shades in the underworld are shaking; the waters and
those living in them.

6 The underworld is uncovered before him, and
Destruction has no veil.

7 By his hand the north is stretched out in space, and the
earth is hanging on nothing.

8 By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the
cloud does not give way under them.

9 By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud
stretched out over it.

10 By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters,
to the limits of the light and the dark.

11 The pillars of heaven are shaking, and are overcome by
his sharp words.

12 By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom
Rahab was wounded.

13 By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the
quickly moving snake was cut through.

14 See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how
small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the
thunder of his acts of power 1s outside all knowledge.

JOB CHAPTER 27

1 And Job again took up the word and said,

2 By the life of God, who has taken away my right; and of
the Ruler of all, who has made my soul bitter;

3 (For all my breath is still in me, and the spirit of God is
my life;)

4 Truly, there is no deceit in my lips, and my tongue does
not say what is false.

5 Let it be far from me! I will certainly not say that you are
right! I will come to death before I give up my righteousness.

6 I will keep it safe, and will not let it go: my heart has
nothing to say against any part of my life.

7 Let my hater be like the evil man, and let him who comes
against me be as the sinner.

8 For what is the hope of the sinner when he is cut off, when
God takes back his soul?

9 Will his cry come to the ears of God when he is in trouble?

10 Will he take delight in the Ruler of all, and make his
prayer to God at all times?

11 I will give you teaching about the hand of God; I will
not keep secret from you what is in the mind of the Ruler of
all.

12 Truly, you have all seen it yourselves; why then have you
become completely foolish?

13 This is the punishment of the evil-doer from God, and
the heritage given to the cruel by the Ruler of all.

14 If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his
offspring have not enough bread.

15 When those of his house who are still living come to
their end by disease, they are not put into the earth, and their
widows are not weeping for them.

16 Though he may get silver together like dust, and make
ready great stores of clothing;

17 He may get them ready, but the upright will put them
on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a
heritage.

18 His house has no more strength than a spider's thread,
or a watchman's tent.

19 He goes to rest full of wealth, but does so for the last
time: on opening his eyes, he sees it there no longer.

20 Fears overtake him like rushing waters; in the night the
storm-wind takes him away.

21 The east wind takes him up and he is gone; he is forced
violently out of his place.

22 God sends his arrows against him without mercy; he
goes in flight before his hand.

23 Men make signs of joy because of him, driving him from
his place with sounds of hissing.

JOB CHAPTER 28

1 Truly there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is
washed out.

2 Tron is taken out of the earth, and stone is changed into
brass by the fire.

3 Man puts an end to the dark, searching out to the farthest
limit the stones of the deep places of the dark.

4 He makes a deep mine far away from those living in the
light of day; when they go about on the earth, they have no
knowledge of those who are under them, who are hanging far
from men, twisting from side to side on a cord.

5 As for the earth, bread comes out of it; but under its face
it is turned up as if by fire.

6 Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of
gold.

7 No bird has knowledge of it, and the hawk's eye has never
seen it.

8 The great beasts have not gone over it, and the cruel lion
has not taken that way.

9 Man puts out his hand on the hard rock, overturning
mountains by the roots.

10 He makes deep ways, cut through the rock, and his eye
sees everything of value.

11 He keeps back the streams from flowing, and makes the
secret things come out into the light.

12 But where may wisdom be seen? and where is the
resting-place of knowledge?

13 Man has not seen the way to it, and it is not in the land
of the living.

14 The deep waters say, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is
not with me.

15 Gold may not be given for it, or a weight of silver in
payment for it.

16 It may not be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the
onyx of great price, or the sapphire.

17 Gold and glass are not equal to it in price, and it may
not be exchanged for jewels of the best gold.

18 There is no need to say anything about coral or crystal;
and the value of wisdom is greater than that of pearls.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 The topaz of Ethiopia is not equal to it, and it may not
be valued with the best gold.

20 From where then does wisdom come, and where is the
resting-place of knowledge?

21 For it is kept secret from the eyes of all living, unseen by
the birds of the air.

22 Destruction and Death say, We have only had word of it
with our ears.

23 God has knowledge of the way to it, and of its resting-
place;

24 For his eyes go to the ends of the earth, and he sees
everything under heaven.

25 When he made a weight for the wind, measuring out the
waters;

26 When he made a law for the rain, and a way for the
thunder-flames;

27 Then he saw it, and put it on record; he gave it its fixed
form, searching it out completely.

28 And he said to man, Truly the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
and to keep from evil is the way to knowledge.

JOB CHAPTER 29

1 And Job again took up the word and said,

2 If only I might again be as I was in the months which are
past, in the days when God was watching over me!

3 When his light was shining over my head, and when I
went through the dark by his light.

4 As I was in my flowering years, when my tent was covered
by the hand of God;

5 While the Ruler of all was still with me, and my children
were round me;

6 When my steps were washed with milk, and rivers of oil
were flowing out of the rock for me.

7 When I went out of my door to go up to the town, and
took my seat in the public place,

8 The young men saw me, and went away, and the old men
got up from their seats;

9 The rulers kept quiet, and put their hands on their
mouths;

10 The chiefs kept back their words, and their tongues were
joined to the roofs of their mouths.

11 For when it came to their ears, men said that I was truly
happy; and when their eyes saw, they gave witness to me;

12 For I was a saviour to the poor when he was crying for
help, to the child with no father, and to him who had no
supporter.

13 The blessing of him who was near to destruction came
on me, and I put a song of joy into the widow's heart.

14 I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it;
right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress.

15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no
power of walking.

16 I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him
who was strange to me.

17 By me the great teeth of the evil-doer were broken, and I
made him give up what he had violently taken away.

18 Then I said, I will come to my end with my children
round me, my days will be as the sand in number;

19 My root will be open to the waters, and the night mist
will be on my branches,

20 My glory will be ever new, and my bow will be readily
bent in my hand.

21 Men gave ear to me, waiting and keeping quiet for my
suggestions.

22 After I had said what was in my mind, they were quiet
and let my words go deep into their hearts;

23 They were waiting for me as for the rain, opening their
mouths wide as for the spring rains.

24 I was laughing at them when they had no hope, and the
light of my face was never clouded by their fear.

25 I took my place as a chief, guiding them on their way,
and I was as a king among his army, as one that comforted
the mourners.

JOB CHAPTER 30

1 But now those who are younger than I make sport of me;
those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my
flocks.

2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force
is gone from them.

3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth;
their only hope of life is in the waste land.

4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood,
and making a meal of roots.

5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are
crying after them as thieves

6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the
valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.

7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they
get together under the thorns.

8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who
have been forced out of the land.

9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of
shame to them.

10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and
put marks of shame on me.

11 For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me
to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me.

12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and
make high their ways of destruction against me:

13 They have made waste my roads, with a view to my
destruction; his bowmen come round about me;

14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on,
Iam overturned by the shock of their attack.

15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind,
and my well-being like a cloud.

16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of
trouble overtake me:

17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no
rest; there is no end to my pains.

18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling
me by the neck of my coat.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and |
have become like dust.

20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my
prayer.

21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand
is hard on me.

22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind;
Tam broken up by the storm.

23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death,
and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.

24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor?
have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?

25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not
my soul sad for him who was in need?

26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting
for light, and it became dark.

27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest;
days of trouble have overtaken me.

28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the
public place, crying out for help.

29 Ihave become a brother to the jackals, and go about in
the company of ostriches.

30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are
burning with the heat of my disease.

31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound
of my pipe into the noise of weeping.

JOB CHAPTER 31

1 I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my
eyes be looking on a virgin?

2 For what is God's reward from on high, or the heritage
given by the Ruler of all from heaven?

3 Is it not trouble for the sinner, and destruction for the
evil-doers?

4 Does he not see my ways, and are not my steps all
numbered?

5 If I have gone in false ways, or my foot has been quick in
working deceit;

6 (Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my
righteousness:)

7 If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart
went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my
hands;

8 Let me put seed in the earth for another to have the fruit
of it, and let my produce be uprooted.

9 If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was
waiting secretly at my neighbour's door;

10 Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let
others make use of her body.

11 For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which
punishment would be measured out by the judges:

12 It would be a fire burning even to destruction, and
taking away all my produce.

13 If I did wrong in the cause of my man-servant, or my
woman-servant, when they went to law with me;

14 What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and
what answer may I give to his questions?

15 Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us
life in our mothers’ bodies?

16 If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye
was looking for help to no purpose;

17 If [kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it
to the child with no father;

18 (For I was cared for by God as by a father from my
earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;)

19 If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that
the poor had nothing covering him;

20 If his back did not give me a blessing, and the wool of
my sheep did not make him warm;

21 If my hand had been lifted up against him who had done
no wrong, when I saw that I was supported by the judges;

22 May my arm be pulled from my body, and be broken
from its base.

23 For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his
power I might not do such things.

24 If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold,
Thave put my faith in you;

25 If I was glad because my wealth was great, and because
my hand had got together a great store;

26 If, when I saw the sun shining, and the moon moving on
its bright way,

27 A secret feeling of worship came into my heart, and my
hand gave kisses from my mouth;

28 That would have been another sin to be rewarded with
punishment by the judges; for I would have been false to God
on high.

29 If I was glad at the trouble of my hater, and gave cries of
joy when evil overtook him;

30 (For I did not let my mouth give way to sin, in putting a
curse on his life;)

31 If the men of my tent did not say, Who has not had full
measure of his meat?

32 The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street,
and my doors were open to anyone on a journey;

33 If I kept my evil doings covered, and my sin in the secret
of my breast,

34 For fear of the great body of people, or for fear that
families might make sport of me, so that I kept quiet, and did
not go out of my door;

35 If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all
would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had
been put in writing!

36 Truly I would take up the book in my hands; it would be
to me as a crown;

37 I would make clear the number of my steps, I would put
it before him like a prince! The words of Job are ended.

38 If my land has made an outcry against me, or the
ploughed earth has been in sorrow;

39 If I have taken its produce without payment, causing the
death of its owners;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

40 Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place
of barley evil-smelling plants.

JOB CHAPTER 32

1 So these three men gave no more answers to Job, because
he seemed to himself to be right.

2 And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of
Ram, was angry, burning with wrath against Job, because he
seemed to himself more right than God;

3 And he was angry with his three friends, because they had
been unable to give him an answer, and had not made Job's
sin clear.

4 Now Elihu had kept quiet while Job was talking, because
they were older than he;

5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the
mouth of the three men, he was very angry.

6 And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, made answer
and said, I am young, and you are very old, so I was in fear,
and kept myselffrom putting my knowledge before you.

7 I said to myself, It is right for the old to say what is in
their minds, and for those who are far on in years to give out
wisdom.

8 But truly it is the spirit in man, even the breath of the
Ruler of all, which gives them knowledge.

9 It is not the old who are wise, and those who are full of
years have not the knowledge of what is right.

10 So I say, Give ear to me, and I will put forward my
knowledge.

11 I was waiting for your words, I was giving ear to your
wise sayings; while you were searching out what to say,

12 I was taking note; and truly not one of you was able to
make clear Job's error, or to give an answer to his words.

13 Take care that you do not say, Wisdom is here; God may
overcome him, but not man.

14 I will not put forward words like these, or make use of
your sayings in answer to him.

15 Fear has overcome them, they have no more answers to
give; they have come to an end of words.

16 And am I to go on waiting while they have nothing to
say? while they keep quiet and give no more answers?

17 I will give my answer; I will put forward my knowledge:

18 For I am full of words, I am unable to keep in my breath
any longer:

19 My stomach is like wine which is unable to get out; like
skins full of new wine, it is almost burst.

20 Let me say what is in my mind, so that I may get comfort;
let me give answer with open mouth.

21 Let me not give respect to any man, or give names of
honour to any living.

22 For I am not able to give names of honour to any man;
and if I did, my Maker would quickly take me away.

JOB CHAPTER 33

1 And now, O Job, give ear to my words, and take note of
all I say.

2 See, now my mouth is open, my tongue gives out words.

3 My heart is overflowing with knowledge, my lips say
what is true.

4 The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the
Ruler of all gives me life.

5 If you are able, give me an answer; put your cause in order,
and come forward.

6 See, I am the same as you are in the eyes of God; I was cut
off from the same bit of wet earth.

7 Fear of me will not overcome you, and my hand will not
be hard on you.

8 But you said in my hearing, and your voice came to my
ears:

9 Tam clean, without sin; I am washed, and there is no evil
in me:

10 See, he is looking for something against me; in his eyes I
am as one of his haters;

11 He puts chains on my feet; he is watching all my ways.

12 Truly, in saying this you are wrong; for God is greater
than man.

13 Why do you put forward your cause against him, saying,
He gives no answer to any of my words?

14 For God gives his word in one way, even in two, and
man is not conscious of it:

15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep
comes on men, while they take their rest on their beds;

16 Then he makes his secrets clear to men, so that they are
full of fear at what they see;

17 In order that man may be turned from his evil works,
and that pride may be taken away from him;

18 To keep back his soul from the underworld, and his life
from destruction.

19 Pain is sent on him as a punishment, while he is on his
bed; there is no end to the trouble in his bones;

20 He has no desire for food, and his soul is turned away
from delicate meat;

21 His flesh is so wasted away, that it may not be seen, and
his bones that were not seen stick out.

22 And his soul comes near to the underworld, and his life
to the angels of death.

23 If now there may be an angel sent to him, one of the
thousands which there are to be between him and God, and
to make clear to man what is right for him;

24 And if he has mercy on him, and says, Let him not go
down to the underworld, I have given the price for his life:

25 Then his flesh becomes young again, and he comes back
to the days of his early strength;

26 He makes his prayer to God, and he has mercy on him;
he sees God's face with cries of joy; he gives news of his
righteousness to men;

27 He makes a song, saying, I did wrong, turning from the
straight way, but he did not give me the reward of my sin.

28 He kept my soul from the underworld, and my life sees
the light in full measure.

29 Truly, God does all these things to man, twice and three
times,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 Keeping back his soul from the underworld, so that he
may see the light of life.

31 Take note O Job, give ear to me; keep quiet, while I say
what is in my mind.

32 If you have anything to say, give me an answer; for it is
my desire that you may be judged free from sin.

33 If not, give attention to me, and keep quiet, and I will
give you wisdom.

JOB CHAPTER 34

1 And Elihu made answer and said,

2 Give ear, you wise, to my words; and you who have
knowledge, give attention to me;

3 For words are tested by the ear, as food is tasted by the
mouth.

4 Let us make the decision for ourselves as to what is right;
let us have the knowledge among ourselves of what is good.

5 For Job has said, I am upright, and it is God who has
taken away my right;

6 Though I am right, still I am in pain; my wound may not
be made well, though I have done no wrong.

7 What man is like Job, a man who freely makes sport of
God,

8 And goes in the company of evil-doers, walking in the
way of sinners?

9 For he has said, It is no profit to a man to take delight in
God.

10 Now then, you wise, take note; you men of knowledge,
give ear to me. Let it be far from God to do evil, and from
the Ruler of all to do wrong.

11 For he gives to every man the reward of his work, and
sees that he gets the fruit of his ways.

12 Truly, God does not do evil, and the Ruler of all is not a
false judge.

13 Who put the earth into his care, or made him
responsible for the world?

14 If he made his spirit come back to him, taking his breath
into himself again,

15 All flesh would come to an end together, and man would
go back to the dust.

16 If you are wise, take note of this; give ear to the voice of
my words.

17 How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say
that the upright Ruler of all is evil?

18 He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to
rulers, You are sinners;

19 Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more
attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they
are all the work of his hands.

20 Suddenly they come to an end, even in the middle of the
night: the blow comes on the men of wealth, and they are
gone, and the strong are taken away without the hand of
man.

21 For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his
steps.

22 There is no dark place, and no thick cloud, in which the
workers of evil may take cover.

23 For he does not give man a fixed time to come before
him to be judged.

24 He sends the strong to destruction without searching
out their cause, and puts others in their place.

25 For he has knowledge of their works, overturning them
in the night, so that they are crushed.

26 The evil-doers are broken by his wrath, he puts his hand
on them with force before the eyes of all onlookers.

27 Because they did not go after him, and took no note of
his ways,

28 So that the cry of the poor might come up to him, and
the prayer of those in need come to his ears.

29 When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? And
when he hides his face, who then can behold him? Alike
whether [it be done] unto a nation, or unto a man:

30 That the godless man reign not, That there be none to
ensnare the people.

31 For has any said unto God, I have borne [chastisement],
T will not offend [any more]:

32 That which I see not teach you me: If I have done
iniquity, I will do it no more?

33 Shall his recompense be as you will, that you refusest it?
For you must choose, and not I: Therefore speak what you
know.

34 Men of knowledge, and all wise men, hearing me, will
Say,

35 Job's words do not come from knowledge; they are not
the fruit of wisdom.

36 May Job be tested to the end, because his answers have
been like those of evil men.

37 For in addition to his sin, he is uncontrolled in heart;
before our eyes he makes sport of God, increasing his words
against him.

JOB CHAPTER 35

1 And Elihu made answer and said,

2 Does it seem to you to be right, and righteousness before
God, to say,

3 What profit is it to me, and how am I better off than if I
had done wrong?

4] will make answer to you and to your friends:

5 Let your eyes be turned to the heavens, and lifted up to
see the skies; they are higher than you.

6 If you have done wrong, is he any the worse for it? and if
your sins are great in number, what is it to him?

7 If you are upright, what do you give to him? or what does
he take from your hand?

8 Your evil-doing may have an effect on a man like yourself,
or your righteousness on a son of man.

9 Because the hand of the cruel is hard on them, men are
making sounds of grief; they are crying out for help because
of the arm of the strong.

10 But no one has said, Where is God my Maker, who gives
songs in the night;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the
earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heaven?

12 There they are crying out because of the pride of the
evil-doers, but he gives them no answer.

13 But God will not give ear to what is false, or the Ruler
of all take note of it;

14 How much less when you say that you do not see him;
that the cause is before him, and you are waiting for him.

15 And now, because he hath not visited in his anger,
Neither doth he greatly regard arrogance;

16 And Job's mouth is open wide to give out what is of no
profit, increasing words without knowledge.

JOB CHAPTER 36

1 And Elihu went on to say,

2 Give me a little more time, and I will make it clear to you;
for I have still something to say for God.

3 I will get my knowledge from far, and I will give
righteousness to my Maker.

4 For truly my words are not false; one who has all
knowledge is talking with you.

5 Truly, God gives up the hard-hearted, and will not give
life to the sinner.

6 His eyes are ever on the upright, and he gives to the
crushed their right;

7 Lifting them up to the seat of kings, and making them
safe for ever.

8 And if they have been prisoned in chains, and taken in
cords of trouble,

9 Then he makes clear to them what they have done, even
their evil works in which they have taken pride.

10 Their ear is open to his teaching, and he gives them
orders so that their hearts may be turned from evil.

11 If they give ear to his voice, and do his word, then he
gives them long life, and years full of pleasure.

12 But if not, they come to their end, and give up their
breath without knowledge.

13 Those who have no fear of God keep wrath stored up in
their hearts; they give no cry for help when they are made
prisoners.

14 They come to their end while they are still young, their
life is short like that of those who are used for sex purposes in
the worship of their gods.

15 He makes the wrong done to the poor the way of their
salvation, opening their ears by their trouble.

16 Yea, he would have allured thee out of distress Into a
broad place, where there is no straitness; And that which is
set on thy table would be full of fatness.

17 But thou art full of the judgment of the wicked:
Judgment and justice take hold [on thee].

18 For let not wrath stir thee up against chastisements;
Neither let the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside.

19 Will thy cry avail, [that thou be] not in distress, Or all
the forces of [thy] strength?

20 Desire not the night, When peoples are cut off in their
place.

21 Take care not to be turned to sin, for you have taken evil
for your part in place of sorrow.

22 Truly God is lifted up in strength; who is a ruler like
him?

23 Who ever gave orders to him, or said to him, You have
done wrong?

24 See that you give praise to his work, about which men
make songs.

25 All people are looking on it; man sees it from far.

26 Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the
number of his years may not be searched out.

27 For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them
through his mist as rain,

28 Flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the
peoples.

29 And who has knowledge of how the clouds are stretched
out, or of the thunders of his tent?

30 See, he is stretching out his mist, covering the tops of the
mountains with it.

31 For by these he gives food to the peoples, and bread in
full measure.

32 He takes the light in his hands, sending it against the
mark.

33 The thunder makes clear his passion, and the storm gives
news of his wrath.

JOB CHAPTER 37

| At this my heart is shaking; it is moved out of its place.

2 Give ear to the rolling noise of his voice; to the hollow
sound which goes out of his mouth.

3 He sends it out through all the heaven, and his thunder-
flame to the ends of the earth.

4 After it a voice is sounding, thundering out the word of
his power; he does not keep back his thunder-flames; from his
mouth his voice is sounding.

5 He does wonders, more than may be searched out; great
things of which we have no knowledge;

6 For he says to the snow, Make the earth wet; and to the
rain-storm, Come down.

7 He puts an end to the work of every man, so that all may
see his work.

8 Then the beasts go into their holes, and take their rest.

9 Out of its place comes the storm-wind, and the cold out of
its store-houses.

10 By the breath of God ice is made, and the wide waters
are shut in.

11 The thick cloud is weighted with thunder-flame, and the
cloud sends out its light;

12 And it goes this way and that, round about, turning
itself by his guiding, to do whatever he gives orders to be
done, on the face of his world of men,

13 For a rod, or for a curse, or for mercy, causing it to
come on the mark.

14 Give ear to this, O Job, and keep quiet in your place;
and take note of the wonders worked by God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Have you knowledge of God's ordering of his works,
how he makes the light of his cloud to be seen?

16 Have you knowledge of the balancings of the clouds, the
wonders of him who has all wisdom?

17 You, whose clothing is warm, when the earth is quiet
because of the south wind,

18 Will you, with him, make the skies smooth, and strong
as a polished looking-glass?

19 Make clear to me what we are to say to him; we are
unable to put our cause before him, because of the dark.

20 How may he have knowledge of my desire for talk with
him? or did any man ever say, May destruction come on me?

21 And now the light is not seen, for it is dark because of
the clouds; but a wind comes, clearing them away.

22 A bright light comes out of the north; God's glory is
greatly to be feared.

23 There is no searching out of the Ruler of all: his strength
and his judging are great; he is full of righteousness, doing
no wrong.

24 For this cause men go in fear of him; he has no respect
for any who are wise in heart.

JOB CHAPTER 38

1 And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind,
and said,

2 Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words
without knowledge?

3 Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put
questions to you, and you will give me the answers.

4 Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if
you have knowledge.

5 By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have
wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it?

6 On what were its pillars based, or who put down its
angle-stone,

7 When the morning stars made songs together, and all the
sons of the gods gave cries of joy?

8 Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing
out from its secret place;

9 When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as
bands round it,

10 Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors;

11 And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here
the pride of your waves will be stopped?

12 Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the
morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place;

13 So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth,
shaking all the evil-doers out of it?

14 It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is
coloured like a robe;

15 And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the
arm of pride is broken.

16 Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in
the secret places of the deep?

17 Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the
door-keepers of the dark ever seen you?

18 Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say,
if you have knowledge of it all.

19 Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and
where is the store-house of the dark;

20 So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its
house?

21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had
come to birth, and the number of your days is great.

22 Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you
seen the store-houses of the ice-drops,

23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of
war and fighting?

24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is
measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?

25 By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the
rain, and the flaming of the thunder;

26 Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living,
on the waste land which has no people;

27 To give water to the land where there is waste and
destruction, and to make the dry land green with young
grass?

28 Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of
night mist?

29 Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to
the cold mist of heaven?

30 The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the
face of the deep is covered.

31 Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the
cords of Orion made loose?

32 Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or
are the Bear and its children guided by you?

33 Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you
give them rule over the earth?

34 Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be
covered by the weight of waters?

35 Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go,
and say to you, Here we are?

36 Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given
knowledge to the lights of the north?

37 By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the
water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth,

38 When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined
together in masses?

39 Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so
that the young lions may have enough,

40 When they are stretched out in their holes, and are
waiting in the brushwood?

41 Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for,
when his young ones are crying to God; when the young
lions with loud noise go wandering after their food?

JOB CHAPTER 39

1 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the
roes giving birth to their young?

2 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time
when they give birth ordered by you?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they
let loose the fruit of their body.

4 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country;
they go out and do not come back again.

5 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the
bands of the loud-voiced beast?

6 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and
the salt land as a living-place.

7 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the
driver does not come to his ears;

8 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains,
searching out every green thing.

9 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his
night's resting-place by your food-store?

10 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up
the valleys after you?

11 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is
great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?

12 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in
your seed to the crushing-floor?

13 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has
no feathers,

14 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in
the dust,

15 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot,
and broken by the beasts of the field?

16 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers;
her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.

17 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given
her no measure of knowledge.

18 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport
of the horse and of him who is seated on him.

19 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand
that his neck is clothed with power?

20 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the
pride of his loud-sounding breath?

21 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of
fear.

22 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war,
turning not away from the sword.

23 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining
point of spear and arrow.

24 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not
able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;

25 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling
the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the
captains, and the war-cries.

26 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his
flight, stretching out his wings to the south?

27 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes
his resting-place on high?

28 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his
strong place.

29 From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.

30 His young have blood for their drink, and where the
dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.

JOB CHAPTER 40

1 Moreover the Lord gave Job an answer,

2 Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all?
Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give
an answer.

3 And Job said in answer to the Lord,

4 Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I
will put my hand on my mouth.

5 I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind,
but I will not do so again.

6 Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind,
and said,

7 Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put
questions to you, and you will give me the answers.

8 Will you even make my right of no value? will you say
that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right?

9 Have you an arm like God? have you a voice of thunder
like his?

10 Put on the ornaments of your pride; be clothed with
glory and power:

11 Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the
sons of pride, and make them low.

12 Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down
the sinners from their places.

13 Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces
be dark in the secret place of the underworld.

14 Then IJ will give praise to you, saying that your right
hand is able to give you salvation.

15 See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made
you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.

16 His strength is in his body, and his force in the muscles
of his stomach.

17 His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are
joined together.

18 His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron.

19 He is the chief of the ways of God, made by him for his
pleasure.

20 He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the
beasts of the field are at play.

21 He takes his rest under the trees of the river, and in the
pool, under the shade of the water-plants.

22 He is covered by the branches of the trees; the grasses of
the stream are round him.

23 Truly, if the river is overflowing, it gives him no cause
for fear; he has no sense of danger, even if Jordan is rushing
against his mouth.

24 Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put
metal teeth through his nose?

JOB CHAPTER 41

| Is it possible for Leviathan to be pulled out with a fish-
hook, or for a hook to be put through the bone of his mouth?

2 Will you put a cord into his nose, or take him away with a
cord round his tongue?

3 Will he make prayers to you, or say soft words to you?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 Will he make an agreement with you, so that you may
take him as a servant for ever?

5 Will you make sport with him, as with a bird? or put him
in chains for your young women?

6 Will the fishermen make profit out of him? will they have
him cut up for the traders?

7 Will you put sharp-pointed irons into his skin, or fish-
spears into his head?

8 Only put your hand on him, and see what a fight you will
have; you will not do it again!

9 Truly, the hope of his attacker is false; he is overcome
even on seeing him!

10 He is so cruel that no one is ready to go against him.
Who then is able to keep his place before me?

11 Who ever went against me, and got the better of me?
There is no one under heaven!

12 I will not keep quiet about the parts of his body, or
about his power, and the strength of his frame.

13 Who has ever taken off his outer skin? who may come
inside his inner coat of iron?

14 Who has made open the doors of his face? Fear is round
about his teeth.

15 His back is made of lines of plates, joined tight together,
one against the other, like a stamp.

16 One is so near to the other that no air may come between
them.

17 They take a grip of one another; they are joined together,
so that they may not be parted.

18 His sneezings give out flames, and his eyes are like the
eyes of the dawn.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lights, and flames of fire
are jumping up.

20 Smoke comes out of his nose, like a pot boiling on the
fire.

21 His breath puts fire to coals, and a flame goes out of his
mouth.

22 Strength is in his neck, and fear goes dancing before him.

23 The plates of his flesh are joined together, fixed, and not
to be moved.

24 His heart is as strong as a stone, hard as the lower
crushing-stone.

25 When he gets ready for the fight, the strong are
overcome with fear.

26 The sword may come near him but is not able to go
through him; the spear, or the arrow, or the sharp-pointed
iron.

27 Iron is to him as dry grass, and brass as soft wood.

28 The arrow is not able to put him to flight: stones are no
more to him than dry stems.

29 A thick stick is no better than a leaf of grass, and he
makes sport of the onrush of the spear.

30 Under him are sharp edges of broken pots: as if he was
pulling a grain-crushing instrument over the wet earth.

31 The deep is boiling like a pot of spices, and the sea like a
perfume-vessel.

32 After him his way is shining, so that the deep seems
white.

33 On earth there is not another like him, who is made
without fear.

34 Everything which is high goes in fear of him; he is king
over all the sons of pride.

JOB CHAPTER 42

1 And Job said in answer to the Lord,

2 Isee that you are able to do every thing, and to give effect
to all your designs.

3 Who is this who makes dark the purpose of God by words
without knowledge? For I have been talking without
knowledge about wonders not to be searched out.

4 Give ear to me, and I will say what is in my mind; I will
put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.

5 Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has
seen you.

6 For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and
in sorrow I take my seat in the dust.

7 And it came about, after he had said these words to Job,
that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am very angry
with you and your two friends, because you have not said
what is right about me, as my servant Job has.

8 And now, take seven oxen and seven sheep, and go to my
servant Job, and give a burned offering for yourselves, and
my servant Job will make prayer for you, that I may not send
punishment on you; because you have not said what is right
about me, as my servant Job has.

9 And Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and
Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord had said.
And the Lord gave ear to Job.

10 And the Lord made up to Job for all his losses, after he
had made prayer for his friends: and all Job had before was
increased by the Lord twice as much.

11 And all his brothers and sisters, and his friends of earlier
days, came and took food with him in his house; and made
clear their grief for him, and gave him comfort for all the evil
which the Lord had sent on him; and they all gave him a bit
of money and a gold ring.

12 And the Lord's blessing was greater on the end of Job's
life than on its start: and so he came to have fourteen
thousand sheep and goats, and six thousand camels, and two
thousand oxen, and a thousand she-asses.

13 And he had seven sons and three daughters.

14 And he gave the first the name of Jemimah, the second
Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch;

15 And there were no women so beautiful as the daughters
of Job in all the earth: and their father gave them a heritage
among their brothers.

16 And after this Job had a hundred and forty years of life,
and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.

17 And Job came to his end, old and full of days.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Notoue

THE BOOK OF PSALMS
Hebrew title: Tehillim (& 151-155)
("Praises"; or: Hymns, Odes, Lyrics and Poems to God)
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 5th to Ist centuries B.C.

(The Book of Psalms (Tehillim, "praises"), commonly
referred to simply as Psalms, the Psalter or "the Psalms", is
the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section
of the Hebrew Bible, and thus a book of the Christian Old
Testament. The title is derived from the Greek translation,
psalmot, meaning "instrumental music" and, by extension,
"the words accompanying the music". The book 1s an
anthology of individual psalms, with 150 in the Jewish and
Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern
Christian churches. Many are linked to the name of David,
but his authorship is not accepted by modern scholars.

The Psalter 1s poetry, though 1t has many prayers and not
all Old Testament prayers were poetic. In fact, not all praise
was poetic either. The Psalms are full of images, comparisons
and metaphor. The Hebrew text often plays with words and
repeats the same words, adding synonyms (words with the
same meaning) to fill out the description. Important words
show the main themes in the prayer or song.

The Psalms were written not merely as poems, but as songs
for singing. More than a third of the psalms are addressed to
the Director of Music. Some psalms exhort the worshipper to
sing (e.g. Pss. 33:1-3; 92:1-3; 96:1-3; 98:1; 101:1; 150).
Some headings denote the musical instruments on which the
psalm should be played (Pss. 4, 5, 6, 8, 67). Some refer to
singing at the sheminit or octave (Pss. 6, 12). And others
preserve the name for ancient eastern modes, like mut Ia-ben
(Death of the son; Ps. 9), ayelet ha-shachar (hind of the dawn;
Ps, 22); shoshanim (Liltes; Ps. 45); or alamoth (Maidens?; Ps.
46).

USE IN JEWISH RITUAL

The reading of psalms is viewed in Jewish tradition as a
vehicle for gaining God's favour. They are thus often
specially recited in times of trouble, such as poverty, disease,
or physical danger; in many synagogues, Psalms are recited
after services for the security of the State of Israel. Sefer ha-
Chinuch states that this practice 1s designed not to achieve
favor, as such, but rather to inculcate belief in Divine
Providence into one’s consciousness, consistently with
Maimonides’ general view on Providence. (Relatedly, the
Hebrew verb for prayer, hitpalal, is in fact the reflexive form
of palal, to judge. Thus, "to pray" conveys the notion of
"judging oneself": ultimately, the purpose of prayer—
tefilah—ais to transform ourselves.)

Many Jews complete the Book of Psalms on a weekly or
monthly basis. Each week, some also say a Psalm connected

to that week's events or the Torah portion read during that
week. In addition, many Jews (notably Lubavitch, and other
Chasidim) read the entire Book of Psalms prior to the
morning service, on the Sabbath preceding the calculated
appearance of the new moon.

Some of the titles given to the Psalms have descriptions
which suggest their use in worship:

¢ Some bear the Hebrew description shir (Greek: ode’,
song’). Thirteen have this description. It means the flow of
speech, as it were, in a straight line or in a regular strain.
This description includes secular as well as sacred song.

¢ Fifty-eight Psalms bear the description mizmor, a lyric
ode, or a song set to music; a sacred song accompanied with a
musical instrument.

¢ Psalm 145 alone has the designation tehillah, meaning a
song of praise; a song the prominent thought of which is the
praise of God.

¢ Thirteen psalms are described as maskil (‘wise’): 32, 42,
44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142. Psalm 41:2,
although not in the above list, has the description ashret
maskil.

¢ Six Psalms (16, 56-60) have the title michtam (‘gold’).
Rashi suggests that michtam refers to an item that a person
carries with him at all times, hence, these Psalms contain
concepts or ideas that are pertinent at every stage and setting
throughout life, deemed vital as part of day-to-day spiritual
awareness.

¢ Psalm 7 (along with Habakkuk chapter 3) bears the title
shigayon. There are three interpretations: (Ist) According to
Rashi and others, this term stems from the root shegaga,
meaning "nustake"—David committed some sin and 1s
singing in the form of a prayer to redeem himself from it;
(2nd) shigayon was a type of musical instrument; (3rd) Ibn
Ezra considers the word to mean "longing", as for example
in the verse in Proverbs 5:19 tishge tamid.

USE IN CHRISTIAN RITUAL:

New Testament references show that the earliest Christians
used the Psalms in worship, and the Psalms have remained an
important part of worship in most Christian Churches. The
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox,
Eastern Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Anglican
Churches have always made systematic use of the Psalms,
with a cycle for the recitation of all or most of them over the
course of one or more weeks. In the early centuries of the
Church, it was expected that any candidate for bishop would
be able to recite the entire Psalter from memory, something
they often learned automatically during their time as monks.

Several conservative Protestant denominations sing only
the Psalms (some churches also sing the small number of
hymns found elsewhere in the Bible) in worship, and do not
accept the use of any non-Biblical hymns; examples are the
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, the
Presbyterian Reformed Church (North America) and the
Free Church of Scotland.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

¢ Psalm 22 1s of particular importance during the season of
Lent as a Psalm of continued faith during severe testing.

¢ Psalm 23, The LORD 1s My Shepherd, offers an
immediately appealing message of comfort and is widely
chosen for church funeral services, either as a reading or in
one of several popular hymn settings;

¢ Psalm 51, Have mercy on me O God, called the Miserere
from the first word in its Latin version, in both Divine
Liturgy and Hours, in the sacrament of repentance or
confession, and in other settings;

¢ Psalm 82 1s found in the Book of Common Prayer as a
funeral recitation.

¢ Psalm 137, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
and wept, the Eastern Orthodox Church uses this hymn
during the weeks preceding Great Lent.

New translations and settings of the Psalms continue to be
produced. An individually printed volume of Psalms for use
in Christian religious rituals is called a Psalter.

Psalms have often been set as part of a larger work. The
psalms feature large in settings of Vespers, including those by
Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, and Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, who wrote such settings as part of their
responsibilities as church musicians. Psalms are inserted in
Requiem compositions, such as Psalm 126 in A German
Requiem of Johannes Brahms and Psalms 130 and 23 in John
Rutter’s Requiem.

The Septuagint, present in Eastern Orthodox churches,
includes a Psalm 151; a Hebrew version of this was found in
the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some versions of
the Peshitta (the Bible used in Syriac churches in the Middle
East) include Psalms 152—155. There are also the Psalms of
Solomon, which are a further 18 psalms of Jewish origin,
likely originally written in Hebrew, but surviving only in
Greek and Syriac translation. These and other indications
suggest that the current Western Christian and Jewish
collection of 150 psalms were selected from a wider set.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 1

1 Happy is the man who does not go in the company of
sinners, or take his place in the way of evil-doers, or in the
seat of those who do not give honour to the Lord.

2 But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and whose
mind is on his law day and night.

3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which
gives its fruit at the right time, whose leaves will ever be
green; and he will do well in all his undertakings.

4 The evil-doers are not so; but are like the dust from the
grain, which the wind takes away.

5 For this cause there will be no mercy for sinners when
they are judged, and the evil-doers will have no place among
the upright,

6 Because the Lord sees the way of the upright, but the end
of the sinner is destruction.

PSALMS CHAPTER 2

1 Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the
thoughts of the people so foolish?

2 The kings of the earth have taken their place, and the
rulers are fixed in their purpose, against the Lord, and
against the king of his selection, saying,

3 Let their chains be broken, and their cords taken from off
us.

4 Then he whose seat is in the heavens will be laughing: the
Lord will make sport of them.

5 Then will his angry words come to their ears, and by his
wrath they will be troubled:

6 But I have put my king on my holy hill of Zion.

7 I will make clear the Lord's decision: he has said to me,
You are my son, this day have I given you being.

8 Make your request to me, and I will give you the nations
for your heritage, and the farthest limits of the earth will be
under your hand.

9 They will be ruled by you with a rod of iron; they will be
broken like a potter's vessel.

10 So now be wise, you kings: take his teaching, you judges
of the earth.

11 Give worship to the Lord with fear, kissing his feet and
giving him honour,

12 For fear that he may be angry, causing destruction to
come on you, because he is quickly moved to wrath. Happy
are all those who put their faith in him.

PSALMS CHAPTER 3

A Psalm. Of David. When he went in flight from Absalom
his son.

1 Lord, how greatly are they increased who make attacks
on me! in great numbers they come against me.

2 Unnumbered are those who say of my soul, There is no
help for him in God. (Selah.)

3 But your strength, O Lord, is round me, you are my glory
and the lifter up of my head.

4Tsend up acry to the Lord with my voice, and he gives me
an answer from his holy hill. (Selah.)

5 I took my rest in sleep, and then again I was awake; for
the Lord was my support.

6 I will have no fear, though ten thousand have come round
me, putting themselves against me.

7 Come to me, Lord; keep me safe, O my God; for you have
given all my haters blows on their face-bones; the teeth of the
evil-doers have been broken by you.

8 Salvation comes from the Lord; your blessing is on your
people. (Selah.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 4

To the chief music-maker on corded instruments. A Psalm.
Of David.

1 Give answer to my cry, O God of my righteousness; make
me free from my troubles; have mercy on me, and give ear to
my prayer.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 0 you sons of men, how long will you go on turning my
glory into shame? how long will you give your love to foolish
things, going after what is false? (Selah.)

3 See how the Lord has made great his mercy for me; the
Lord will give ear to my cry.

4 Let there be fear in your hearts, and do no sin; have bitter
feelings on your bed, but make no sound. (Selah.)

5 Give the offerings of righteousness, and put your faith in
the Lord.

6 There are numbers who say, Who will do us any good?
the light of his face has gone from us.

7 Lord, you have put joy in my heart, more than they have
when their grain and their wine are increased.

8 I will take my rest on my bed in peace, because you only,
Lord, keep me safe.

PSALMS CHAPTER 5

To the chief music-maker on wind instruments. A Psalm. Of
David.

| Give ear to my words, O Lord; give thought to my heart-
searchings.

2 Let the voice of my cry come to you, my King and my
God; for to you will I make my prayer.

3 My voice will come to you in the morning, O Lord; in the
morning will I send my prayer to you, and keep watch.

4 For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wrongdoing;
there is no evil with you.

5 The sons of pride have no place before you; you are a
hater of all workers of evil.

6 You will send destruction on those whose words are false;
the cruel man and the man of deceit are hated by the Lord.

7 But as for me, I will come into your house, in the full
measure of your mercy; and in your fear I will give worship,
turning my eyes to your holy Temple.

8 Be my guide, O Lord, in the ways of your righteousness,
because of those who are against me; make your way straight
before my face.

9 For no faith may be put in their words; their inner part is
nothing but evil; their throat is like an open place for the
dead; smooth are the words of their tongues.

10 Send them to destruction, O Lord; let their evil designs
be the cause of their fall; let them be forced out by all their
sins; because they have gone against your authority.

11 But let all those who put their faith in you be glad with
cries of joy at all times, and let all the lovers of your name be
glad in you.

12 For you, Lord, will send a blessing on the upright man;
your grace will be round him, and you will be his strength.

PSALMS CHAPTER 6

To the chief music-maker on corded instruments, on the
Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O Lord, do not be bitter with me in your wrath; do not
send punishment on me in the heat of your passion.

2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am wasted away: make
me well, for even my bones are troubled.

3 My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long?

4 Come back, O Lord, make my soul free; O give me
salvation because of your mercy.

5 For in death there is no memory of you; in the
underworld who will give you praise?

6 The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night
I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops
flowing from my eyes.

7 My eyes are wasting away with trouble; they are
becoming old because of all those who are against me.

8 Go from me, all you workers of evil; for the Lord has
given ear to the voice of my weeping.

9 The Lord has given ear to my request; the Lord has let my
prayer come before him.

10 Let all those who are against me be shamed and deeply
troubled; let them be turned back and suddenly put to shame.

PSALMS CHAPTER 7

Shiggaion of David; a song which he made to the Lord,
about the words of Cush the Benjamite.

1 O Lord my God, I put my faith in you; take me out of the
hands of him who is cruel to me, and make me free;

2 So that he may not come rushing on my soul like a lion,
wounding it, while there is no one to be my saviour.

3 O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have
done any wrong;

4 If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or
have taken anything from him who was against me without
cause;

5 Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be
crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.)

6 Come up, Lord, in your wrath; be lifted up against my
haters; be awake, my God, give orders for the judging.

7 The meeting of the nations will be round you; take your
seat, then, over them, on high.

8 The Lord will be judge of the peoples; give a decision for
me, O Lord, because of my righteousness, and let my virtue
have its reward.

9 O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give
strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested
by the God of righteousness.

10 God, who is the saviour of the upright in heart, is my
breastplate.

11 God is the judge of the upright, and is angry with the
evil-doers every day.

12 If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his
sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready.

13 He has made ready for him the instruments of death; he
makes his arrows flames of fire.

14 That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has
given birth to deceit.

15 He has made a hole deep in the earth, and is falling into
the hole which he has made

16 His wrongdoing will come back to him, and his violent
behaviour will come down on his head.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 I will give praise to the Lord for his righteousness; I will
make a song to the name of the Lord Most High.

PSALMS CHAPTER 8

To the chief music-maker on the Gittith. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O Lord, our Lord, whose glory is higher than the heavens,
how noble is your name in all the earth!

2 You have made clear your strength even out of the
mouths of babies at the breast, because of those who are
against you; so that you may put to shame the cruel and
violent man.

3 When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars, which you have put in their places;

4 What is man, that you keep him in mind? the son of man,
that you take him into account?

5 For you have made him only a little lower than the gods,
crowning him with glory and honour.

6 You have made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet;

7 All sheep and oxen, and all the beasts of the field;

8 The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatever
goes through the deep waters of the seas.

9 O Lord, our Lord, how noble is your name in all the
earth!

PSALMS CHAPTER 9

To the chief music-maker on Muthlabben. A Psalm. Of
David.

1 I will give you praise, O Lord, with all my heart; I will
make clear all the wonder of your works.

2 I will be glad and have delight in you: I will make a song
of praise to your name, O Most High.

3 When my haters are turned back, they will be broken and
overcome before you.

4 For you gave approval to my right and my cause; you
were seated in your high place judging in righteousness.

5 You have said sharp words to the nations, you have sent
destruction on the sinners, you have put an end to their name
for ever and ever.

6 You have given their towns to destruction; the memory of
them has gone; they have become waste for ever.

7 But the Lord is King for ever: he has made ready his high
seat for judging.

8 And he will be the judge of the world in righteousness,
giving true decisions for the peoples.

9 The Lord will be a high tower for those who are crushed
down, a high tower in times of trouble;

10 And those who have knowledge of your name will put
their faith in you; because you, Lord, have ever given your
help to those who were waiting for you.

11 Make songs of praise to the Lord, whose house is in Zion:
make his doings clear to the people.

12 When he makes search for blood, he has them in his
memory: he is not without thought for the cry of the poor.

13 Have mercy on me, O Lord, and see how I am troubled
by my haters; let me be lifted up from the doors of death;

14 So that I may make clear all your praise in the house of
the daughter of Zion: I will be glad because of your salvation.

15 The nations have gone down into the hole which they
made: in their secret net is their foot taken.

16 The Lord has given knowledge of himself through his
judging: the evil-doer is taken in the net which his hands had
made. (Higgaion. Selah.)

17 The sinners and all the nations who have no memory of
God will be turned into the underworld.

18 For the poor will not be without help; the hopes of
those in need will not be crushed for ever.

19 Up! O Lord; let not man overcome you: let the nations
be judged before you.

20 Put them in fear, O Lord, so that the nations may see
that they are only men. (Selah.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 10

1 Why do you keep far away, O Lord? why are you not to
be seen in times of trouble?

2 The evil-doer in his pride is cruel to the poor; let him be
taken by the tricks of his invention.

3 For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his
heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away
from the Lord, saying evil against him.

4 The evil-doer in his pride says, God will not make a
search. All his thoughts are, There is no God.

5 His ways are ever fixed; your decisions are higher than he
may see: as for his haters, they are as nothing to him.

6 He has said in his heart, I will not be moved: through all
generations I will never be in trouble.

7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and false words:
under his tongue are evil purposes and dark thoughts.

8 He is waiting in the dark places of the towns: in the secret
places he puts to death those who have done no wrong: his
eyes are secretly turned against the poor.

9 He keeps himself in a secret place like a lion in his hole,
waiting to put his hands on the poor man, and pulling him
into his net.

10 The upright are crushed and made low, and the feeble
are overcome by his strong ones.

11 He says in his heart, God has no memory of me: his face
is turned away; he will never see it.

12 Up! O Lord; let your hand be lifted: give thought to the
poor.

13 Why has the evil-doer a low opinion of God, saying in
his heart, You will not make search for it?

14 You have seen it; for your eyes are on sorrow and grief,
to take it into your hand: the poor man puts his faith in you;
you have been the helper of the child who has no father.

15 Let the arm of the sinner and the evil-doer be broken; go
on searching for his sin till there is no more.

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations are gone
from his land.

17 Lord, you have given ear to the prayer of the poor: you
will make strong their hearts, you will give them a hearing:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 To give decision for the child without a father and for
the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no
longer be feared.

PSALMS CHAPTER 11

For the chief music-maker. Of David.

1 In the Lord put I my faith; how will you say to my soul,
Go in flight like a bird to the mountain?

2 See, the bows of the evil-doers are bent, they make ready
their arrows on the cord, so that they may send them secretly
against the upright in heart.

3 If the bases are broken down, what is the upright man to
do?

4 The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lord's seat is in
heaven; his eyes are watching and testing the children of men.

5 The Lord puts the upright and the sinner to the test, but
he has hate in his soul for the lover of violent acts.

6 On the evil-doer he will send down fire and flames, and a
burning wind; with these will their cup be full.

7 For the Lord is upright; he is a lover of righteousness: the
upright will see his face.

PSALMS CHAPTER 12

For the chief music-maker on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of
David.

1 Send help, Lord, for mercy has come to an end; there is no
more faith among the children of men.

2 Everyone says false words to his neighbour: their tongues
are smooth in their talk, and their hearts are full of deceit.

3 The smooth lips and the tongue of pride will be cut off by
the Lord.

4 They have said, With our tongues will we overcome; our
lips are ours: who is lord over us?

5 Because of the crushing of the poor and the weeping of
those in need, now will I come to his help, says the Lord; I
will give him the salvation which he is desiring.

6 The words of the Lord are true words: like silver tested by
fire and burned clean seven times.

7 You will keep them, O Lord, you will keep them safe from
this generation for ever.

8 The sinners are walking on every side, and evil is
honoured among the children of men.

PSALMS CHAPTER 13

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 Will you for ever put me out of your memory, O Lord?
will your face for ever be turned away from me?

2 How long is my soul to be in doubt, with sorrow in my
heart all the day? how long will he who is against me be
given power over me?

3 Let my voice come before you, and give me an answer, O
Lord my God; let your light be shining on me, so that the
sleep of death may not overtake me;

4 And he who is against me may not say, I have overcome
him; and those who are troubling me may not be glad when I
am moved.

5 But Ihave had faith in your mercy; my heart will be glad
in your salvation.

6 I will make a song to the Lord, because he has given me
my reward.

PSALMS CHAPTER 14

To the chief music-maker. Of David.

1 The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do
anything. They are unclean, they have done evil works; there
is not one who does good.

2 The Lord was looking down from heaven on the children
of men, to see if there were any who had wisdom, searching
after God.

3 They have all gone out of the way together; they are
unclean, there is not one who does good, no, not one.

4 Have all the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my
people for food as they would take bread; they make no
prayer to the Lord.

5 Then were they in great fear: for God is in the generation
of the upright.

6 You have put to shame the thoughts of the poor, but the
Lord is his support.

7 May the salvation of Israel come out of Zion! when the
fate of his people is changed by the Lord, Jacob will have joy
and Israel will be glad.

PSALMS CHAPTER 15

A Psalm. Of David.

1 Lord, who may have a resting-place in your tent, a living-
place on your holy hill?

2 He who goes on his way uprightly, doing righteousness,
and saying what is true in his heart;

3 Whose tongue is not false, who does no evil to his friend,
and does not take away the good name of his neighbour;

4 Who gives honour to those who have the fear of the Lord,
turning away from him who has not the Lord's approval. He
who takes an oath against himself, and makes no change.

5 He who does not put out his money at interest, or for
payment give false decisions against men who have done no
wrong. He who does these things will never be moved.

PSALMS CHAPTER 16

Michtam. Of David.

1 Keep me safe, O God: for in you I have put my faith.

2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, You are my Lord: I
have no good but you.

3 As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the noble
in whom is all my delight.

4 Their sorrows will be increased who go after another god:
I will not take drink offerings from their hands, or take their
names on my lips.

5 The Lord is my heritage and the wine of my cup; you are
the supporter of my right.

6 Fair are the places marked out for me; I have a noble
heritage.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 I will give praise to the Lord who has been my guide;
knowledge comes to me from my thoughts in the night.

8 [have put the Lord before me at all times; because he is at
my right hand, I will not be moved.

9 Because of this my heart is glad, and my glory is full of
joy: while my flesh takes its rest in hope.

10 For you will not let my soul be prisoned in the
underworld; you will not let your loved one see the place of
death.

11 You will make clear to me the way of life; where you are
joy is complete; in your right hand there are pleasures for
ever and ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 17

A Prayer. Of David.

1 Let my cause come to your ears, O Lord, give attention to
my cry; give ear to my prayer which goes not out from false
lips.

2 Be my judge; for your eyes see what is right.

3 You have put my heart to the test, searching me in the
night; you have put me to the test and seen no evil purpose in
me; I will keep my mouth from sin.

4 As for the works of men, by the word of your lips I have
kept myself from the ways of the violent.

5 I have kept my feet in your ways, my steps have not been
turned away.

6 My cry has gone up to you, for you will give me an answer,
O God: let your ear be turned to me, and give attention to
my words.

7 Make clear the wonder of your mercy, O saviour of those
who put their faith in your right hand, from those who come
out against them.

8 Keep me as the light of your eyes, covering me with the
shade of your wings,

9 From the evil-doers who are violent to me, and from
those who are round me, desiring my death.

10 They are shut up in their fat: with their mouths they say
words of pride.

11 They have made a circle round our steps: their eyes are
fixed on us, forcing us down to the earth;

12 Like a lion desiring its food, and like a young lion
waiting in secret places.

13 Up! Lord, come out against him, make him low, with
your sword be my saviour from the evil-doer.

14 With your hand, O Lord, from men, even men of the
world, whose heritage is in this life, and whom you make full
with your secret wealth: they are full of children; after their
death their offspring take the rest of their goods.

15 As for me, I will see your face in righteousness: when I
am awake it will be joy enough for me to see your form.

PSALMS CHAPTER 18

To the chief music-maker. Of the servant of the Lord, of
David, who said the words of this song to the Lord on the
day when the Lord made him free from the hand of all his
haters, and from the hand of Saul; and he said,

1 I will give you my love, O Lord, my strength.

2 The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and my saviour;
my God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breastplate,
and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

3 I will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so
will I be made safe from those who are against me.

4 The cords of death were round me, and the seas of evil put
me in fear.

5 The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came
on me.

6 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry
to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple,
and my prayer came before him, even into his ears.

7 Then trouble and shock came on the earth; and the bases
of the mountains were moved and shaking, because he was
angry.

8 There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of
destruction from his mouth: flames were lighted by it.

9 The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and
it was dark under his feet.

10 And he went in flight through the air, seated on a storm-
cloud: going quickly on the wings of the wind.

11 He made the dark his secret place; his tent round him
was the dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

12 Before his shining light his dark clouds went past,
raining ice and fire.

13 The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of
the Highest was sounding out: a rain of ice and fire.

14 He sent out his arrows, driving them in all directions; by
his flames of fire they were troubled.

15 Then the deep beds of the waters were seen, and the bases
of the world were uncovered, because of your words of wrath,
O Lord, because of the breath from your mouth.

16 He sent from on high, he took me, pulling me out of
great waters.

17 He made me free from my strong hater, and from those
who were against me, because they were stronger than I.

18 They came on me in the day of my trouble; but the Lord
was my support.

19 He took me out into a wide place; he was my saviour
because he had delight in me.

20 The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness,
because my hands are clean before him.

21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been
turned away in sin from my God.

22 For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put
away his laws from me.

23 And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin.

24 Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my
righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes.

25 On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the
upright you will be upright;

26 He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man
whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 For you are the saviour of those who are in trouble; but
eyes full of pride will be made low.

28 You, O Lord, will be my light; by you, my God, the
dark will be made bright for me.

29 By your help I have made a way through the wall which
was shutting me in; by the help of my God I have gone over a
wall.

30 As for God, his way is completely good; the word of the
Lord is tested; he is a breastplate for all those who put their
faith in him.

31 For who is God but the Lord? or who is a Rock but our
God?

32 God puts a strong band about me, guiding me in a
straight way.

33 He makes my feet like roes' feet, and puts me on high
places.

34 He makes my hands expert in war, so that a bow of brass
is bent by my arms.

35 You have given me the breastplate of your salvation:
your right hand has been my support, and your mercy has
made me great.

36 You have made my steps wide under me, so that my feet
are kept from slipping.

37 I go after my haters and overtake them; not turning
back till they are all overcome.

38 I will give them wounds, so that they are not able to get
up: they are stretched under my feet.

39 For I have been armed by you with strength for the fight:

you have made low under me those who come out against me.

40 By you their backs are turned in flight, so that my haters
are cut off.

41 They were crying out, but there was no one to come to
their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer.

42 Then they were crushed as small as dust before the wind;
they were drained out like the waste of the streets.

43 You have made me free from the fightings of the people;
you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom
Thad no knowledge will be my servants.

44 From the time when my name comes to their ears they
will be ruled by me: men of other countries will, with false
hearts, put themselves under my authority.

45 They will be wasting away, they will come out of their
secret places shaking with fear.

46 The Lord is living; praise be to my Rock, and let the
God of my salvation be honoured.

47 It is God who sends punishment on my haters, and puts
peoples under my rule.

48 He makes me free from my haters; I am lifted up over
those who come up against me: you have made me free from
the violent man.

49 Because of this I will give you praise, O Lord, among the
nations, and will make a song of praise to your name.

50 Great salvation does he give to his king; he has mercy on
the king of his selection, David, and on his seed for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 19

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 The heavens are sounding the glory of God; the arch of
the sky makes clear the work of his hands.

2 Day after day it sends out its word, and night after night
it gives knowledge.

3 There are no words or language; their voice makes no
sound.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their
words to the end of the world. In them has he put a tent for
the sun,

5 Who is like a newly married man coming from his bride-
tent, and is glad like a strong runner starting on his way.

6 His going out is from the end of the heaven, and his circle
to the ends of it; there is nothing which is not open to his
heat.

7 The law of the Lord is good, giving new life to the soul:
the witness of the Lord is certain, giving wisdom to the
foolish.

8 The orders of the Lord are right, making glad the heart:
the rule of the Lord is holy, giving light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, and has no end; the
decisions of the Lord are true and full of righteousness.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, even than much
shining gold; sweeter than the dropping honey.

11 By them is your servant made conscious of danger, and
in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who has full knowledge of his errors? make me clean
from secret evil.

13 Keep your servant back from sins of pride; let them not
have rule over me: then will I be upright and free from great
sin.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
be pleasing in your eyes, O Lord, my strength and my
salvation.

PSALMS CHAPTER 20

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

May the Lord give ear to you in the day of trouble; may
you be placed on high by the name of the God of Jacob;

2 May he send you help from the holy place, and give you
strength from Zion;

3 May he keep all your offerings in mind, and be pleased
with the fat of your burned offerings; (Selah.)

4 May he give you your heart's desire, and put all your
purposes into effect.

5 We will be glad in your salvation, and in the name of our
God we will put up our flags: may the Lord give you all your
requests.

6 Now am I certain that the Lord gives salvation to his king;
he will give him an answer from his holy heaven with the
strength of salvation in his right hand.

7 Some put their faith in carriages and some in horses; but
we will be strong in the name of the Lord our God.

—

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 They are bent down and made low; but we have been
lifted up.
9 Come to our help, Lord: let the king give ear to our cry.

PSALMS CHAPTER 21

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 The king will be glad in your strength, O Lord; how
great will be his delight in your salvation!

2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not kept
back the request of his lips. (Selah.)

3 For you go before him with the blessings of good things:
you put a crown of fair gold on his head.

4 He made request to you for life, and you gave it to him,
long life for ever and ever.

5 His glory is great in your salvation: honour and
authority have you put on him.

6 For you have made him a blessing for ever: you have
given him joy in the light of your face.

7 For the king has faith in the Lord, and through the mercy
of the Most High he will not be moved.

8 Your hand will make a search for all your haters; your
right hand will be hard on all those who are against you.

9 You will make them like a flaming oven before you; the
Lord in his wrath will put an end to them, and they will be
burned up in the fire.

10 Their fruit will be cut off from the earth, and their seed
from among the children of men.

11 For their thoughts were bitter against you: they had an
evil design in their minds, which they were not able to put
into effect.

12 Their backs will be turned when you make ready the
cords of your bow against their faces.

13 Be lifted up, O Lord, in your strength; so will we make
songs in praise of your power.

PSALMS CHAPTER 22

To the chief music-maker on Ayjeleth-hash-shahar. A Psalm.

Of David.

1 My God, my God, why are you turned away from me?
why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of
my crying?

2 O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no
answer; and in the night, and have no rest.

3 But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises
of Israel.

4 Our fathers had faith in you: they had faith and you were
their saviour.

5 They sent up their cry to you and were made free: they put
their faith in you and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man; cursed by men, and
looked down on by the people.

71am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their
lips and shaking their heads they say,

8 He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour
now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in
him.

9 But it was you who took care of me from the day of my
birth: you gave me faith even from my mother's breasts.

10 I was in your hands even before my birth; you are my
God from the time when I was in my mother's body.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near; there is no one to
give help.

12 A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the
strong oxen of Bashan.

13 I saw their mouths wide open, like lions crying after
food.

14 I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out
of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body.

15 My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed
to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips.

16 Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of
evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.

17 Lam able to see all my bones; their looks are fixed on me:

18 They make a division of my robes among them, by the
decision of chance they take my clothing.

19 Do not be far from me, O Lord: O my strength, come
quickly to my help.

20 Make my soul safe from the sword, my life from the
power of the dog.

21 Be my saviour from the lion's mouth; let me go free from
the horns of the cruel oxen.

22 I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers: I
will give you praise among the people.

23 You who have fear of the Lord, give him praise; all you
seed of Jacob, give him glory; go in fear of him, all you seed
of Israel.

24 For he has not been unmoved by the pain of him who is
troubled; or kept his face covered from him; but he has given
an answer to his cry.

25 My praise will be of you in the great meeting: I will
make my offerings before his worshippers.

26 The poor will have a feast of good things: those who
make search for the Lord will give him praise: your heart
will have life for ever.

27 All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be
turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give
him worship.

28 For the kingdom is the Lord's; he is the ruler among the
nations.

29 All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all
those who go down to the dust will make themselves low
before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his
soul.

30 A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be
made clear to the generation which comes after.

31 They will come and make his righteousness clear to a
people of the future because he has done this.

PSALMS CHAPTER 23

A Psalm. Of David.

1 The Lord takes care of me as his sheep; I will not be
without any good thing.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 He makes a resting-place for me in the green fields: he is
my guide by the quiet waters.

3 He gives new life to my soul: he is my guide in the ways of
righteousness because of his name.

4 Yes, though I go through the valley of deep shade, I will
have no fear of evil; for you are with me, your rod and your
support are my comfort.

5 You make ready a table for me in front of my haters: you
put oil on my head; my cup is overflowing.

6 Truly, blessing and mercy will be with me all the days of
my life; and I will have a place in the house of the Lord all my
days.

PSALMS CHAPTER 24

A Psalm. Of David.

1 The earth is the Lord's, with all its wealth; the world and
all the people living in it.

2 For by him it was based on the seas, and made strong on
the deep rivers.

3 Who may go up into the hill of the Lord? and who may
come into his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a true heart; whose desire has
not gone out to foolish things, who has not taken a false oath.

5 He will have blessing from the Lord, and righteousness
from the God of his salvation.

6 This is the generation of those whose hearts are turned to
you, even to your face, O God of Jacob. (Selah.)

7 Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; be lifted up, O you
eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in.

8 Who is the King of glory? The Lord of strength and
power, the Lord strong in war.

9 Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; let them be lifted up,
O you eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in.

10 Who is the King of glory? The Lord of armies, he is the
King of glory. (Selah.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 25

Of David.

1 To you, O Lord, my soul is lifted up.

2 O my God, I have put my faith in you, let me not be
shamed; let not my haters be glorying over me.

3 Let no servant of yours be put to shame; may those be
shamed who are false without cause.

4 Make your steps clear to me, O Lord; give me knowledge
of your ways.

5 Be my guide and teacher in the true way; for you are the
God of my salvation; I am waiting for your word all the day.

6 O Lord, keep in mind your pity and your mercies; for they
have been from the earliest times.

7 Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my
wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord,
because of your righteousness.

8 Good and upright is the Lord: so he will be the teacher of
sinners in the way.

9 He will be an upright guide to the poor in spirit: he will
make his way clear to them.

10 All the ways of the Lord are mercy and good faith for
those who keep his agreement and his witness.

11 Because of your name, O Lord, let me have forgiveness
for my sin, which is very great.

12 If a man has the fear of the Lord, the Lord will be his
teacher in the way of his pleasure.

13 His soul will be full of good things, and his seed will
have the earth for its heritage.

14 The secret of the Lord is with those in whose hearts is
the fear of him; he will make his agreement clear to them.

15 My eyes are turned to the Lord at all times; for he will
take my feet out of the net.

16 Be turned to me, and have mercy on me; for I am
troubled and have no helper.

17 The troubles of my heart are increased: O take me out of
my sorrows.

18 Give thought to my grief and my pain; and take away all
my sins.

19 See how those who are against me are increased, for
bitter is their hate of me.

20 O keep my soul, and take me out of danger: let me not be
shamed, for I have put my faith in you.

21 For my clean and upright ways keep me safe, because my
hope is in you.

22 Give Israel salvation, O God, out of all his troubles.

PSALMS CHAPTER 26

Of David.

1 O Lord, be my judge, for my behaviour has been upright:
I have put my faith in the Lord, I am not in danger of
slipping.

2 Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let
the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart.

3 For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the
way of your good faith.

4] have not taken my seat with foolish persons, and I do
not go with false men.

5 [have been a hater of the band of wrongdoers, and I will
not be seated among sinners.

6 I will make my hands clean from sin; so will I go round
your altar, O Lord;

7 That I may give out the voice of praise, and make public
all the wonders which you have done.

8 Lord, your house has been dear to me, and the resting-
place of your glory.

9 Let not my soul be numbered among sinners, or my life
among men of blood;

10 In whose hands are evil designs, and whose right hands
take money for judging falsely.

11 But as for me, I will go on in my upright ways: be my
saviour, and have mercy on me.

12 I have a safe resting-place for my feet; I will give praise
to the Lord in the meetings of the people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 27

Of David.

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; who is then a
cause of fear to me? the Lord is the strength of my life; who is
a danger to me?

2 When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an
end to me, they were broken and put to shame.

3 Even if an army came against me with its tents, my heart
would have no fear: if war was made on me, my faith would
not be moved.

4 One prayer have I made to the Lord, and this is my heart's
desire; that I may have a place in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life, looking on his glory, and getting wisdom in
his Temple.

5 For in the time of trouble he will keep me safe in his tent:
in the secret place of his tent he will keep me from men's eyes;
high on a rock he will put me.

6 And now my head will be lifted up higher than my haters
who are round me: because of this I will make offerings of joy
in his tent; I will make a song, truly I will make a song of
praise to the Lord.

7 O Lord, let the voice of my cry come to your ears: have
mercy on me, and give me an answer.

8 When you said, Make search for my face, my heart said to
you, For your face will I make my search.

9 Let not your face be covered from me; do not put away
your servant in wrath; you have been my help: do not give me
up or take your support from me, O God of my salvation.

10 When my father and my mother are turned away from
me, then the Lord will be my support.

11 Make your way clear to me, O Lord, guiding me by the
right way, because of my haters.

12 Do not give me into their hands, because false witnesses
have come out against me, and men breathing destruction.

13 I had almost given up my hope of seeing the blessing of
the Lord in the land of the living.

14 Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong;
yes, let your hope be in the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 28

Of David.

1 My cry goes up to you, O Lord, my Rock; do not keep
back your answer from me, so that I may not become like
those who go down into the underworld.

2 Give ear to the voice of my prayer, when I am crying to
you, when my hands are lifted up to your holy place.

3 Do not take me away with the sinners and the workers of
evil, who say words of peace to their neighbours, but evil is
in their hearts.

4 Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil
doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands,
let them have their full reward.

5 Because they have no respect for the works of the Lord, or
for the things which his hands have made, they will be
broken down and not lifted up by him.

6 May the Lord be praised, because he has given ear to the
voice of my prayer.

7 The Lord is my strength and my breastplate, my heart
had faith in him and I am helped; for this cause my heart is
full of rapture, and I will give him praise in my song.

8 The Lord is their strength, and a strong place of salvation
for his king.

9 Be a saviour to your people, and send a blessing on your
heritage: be their guide, and let them be lifted up for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 29

A Psalm. Of David.

1 Give to the Lord, you sons of the gods, give to the Lord
glory and strength.

2 Give to the Lord the full glory of his name; give him
worship in holy robes.

3 The voice of the Lord is on the waters: the God of glory is
thundering, the Lord is on the great waters.

4 The voice of the Lord is full of power; the voice of the
Lord has a noble sound.

5 By the voice of the Lord are the cedar-trees broken, even
the cedars of Lebanon are broken by the Lord.

6 He makes them go jumping about like a young ox;
Lebanon and Sirion like a young mountain ox.

7 At the voice of the Lord flames of fire are seen.

8 At the voice of the Lord there is a shaking in the waste
land, even a shaking in the waste land of Kadesh.

9 At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are
taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory.

10 The Lord had his seat as king when the waters came on
the earth; the Lord is seated as king for ever.

11 The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will
give his people the blessing of peace.

PSALMS CHAPTER 30

A Psalm. A Song at the blessing of the House. Of David.

1 I will give you praise and honour, O Lord, because
through you I have been lifted up; you have not given my
haters cause to be glad over me.

2 O Lord my God, I sent up my cry to you, and you have
made me well.

3 O Lord, you have made my soul come again from the
underworld: you have given me life and kept me from going
down among the dead.

4 Make songs to the Lord, O you saints of his, and give
praise to his holy name.

5 For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life;
weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

6 When things went well for me I said, I will never be
moved.

7 Lord, by your grace you have kept my mountain strong:
when your face was turned from me I was troubled.

8 My voice went up to you, O Lord; I made my prayer to
the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the
underworld? will the dust give you praise, or be a witness to
your help?

10 Give ear to me, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be
my helper.

11 By you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have
taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy;

12 So that my glory may make songs of praise to you and
not be quiet. O Lord my God, I will give you praise for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 31

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 In you, O Lord, have I put my hope; let me never be
shamed; keep me safe in your righteousness.

2 Let your ear be turned to me; take me quickly out of
danger; be my strong Rock, my place of strength where I may
be safe.

3 For you are my Rock and my strong tower; go in front of
me and be my guide, because of your name.

4 Take me out of the net which they have put ready for me
secretly; for you are my strength.

5 Into your hands I give my spirit; you are my saviour, O
Lord God for ever true.

6 Tam full of hate for those who go after false gods; but my
hope is in the Lord.

7 I will be glad and have delight in your mercy; because you
have seen my trouble; you have had pity on my soul in its
sorrows;

8 And you have not given me into the hand of my hater;
you have put my feet in a wide place.

9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eyes
are wasted with grief, I am wasted in soul and body.

10 My life goes on in sorrow, and my years in weeping; my
strength is almost gone because of my sin, and my bones are
wasted away.

11 Because of all those who are against me, I have become a
word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head
and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went
in flight from me.

12 I have gone from men's minds and memory like a dead
man; J am like a broken vessel.

13 False statements against me have come to my ears; fear
was on every side: they were talking together against me,
designing to take away my life.

14 But [had faith in you, O Lord; I said, You are my God.

15 The chances of my life are in your hand; take me out of
the hands of my haters, and of those who go after me.

16 Let your servant see the light of your face; in your mercy
be my saviour.

17 Let me not be shamed, O Lord, for I have made my
prayer to you; let the sinners be shamed, and let their mouths
be shut in the underworld.

18 Let the false lips be shut, which say evil against the
upright, looking down on him in their pride.

19 O how great is your grace, which you have put in store
for your worshippers, and which you have made clear to
those who had faith in you, before the sons of men!

20 You will keep them safe in your house from the designs
of man; in the secret of your tent will you keep them from
angry tongues.

21 May the Lord be praised, because he has made clear to
me the wonder of his grace in a strong town.

22 And as for me, I said in my fear, I am cut off from before
your eyes; but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when
my cry went up to you.

23 O have love for the Lord, all you his saints; for the Lord
keeps safe from danger all those who are true to him, and
gives the workers of pride their right reward.

24 Put away fear and let your heart be strong, all you
whose hope is in the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 32

Of David. Maschil.

1 Happy is he who has forgiveness for his wrongdoing, and
whose sin is covered.

2 Happy is the man in whom the Lord sees no evil, and in
whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted,
because of my crying all through the day.

4 For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my
body became dry like the earth in summer. (Selah.)

5 I made my wrongdoing clear to you, and did not keep
back my sin. I said, I will put it all before the Lord; and you
took away my wrongdoing and my sin. (Selah.)

6 For this cause let every saint make his prayer to you at a
time when you are near: then the overflowing of the great
waters will not overtake him.

7 You are my safe and secret place; you will keep me from
trouble; you will put songs of salvation on the lips of those
who are round me. (Selah.)

8 I will give you knowledge, teaching you the way to go;
my eye will be your guide.

9 Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no common
sense; whose trappings must be bit and bridle to hold them in,
or they will not come near to you.

10 The sinner will be full of trouble; but mercy will be
round the man who has faith in the Lord.

11 Be glad in the Lord with joy, you upright men; give
cries of joy, all you whose hearts are true.

PSALMS CHAPTER 33

1 Be glad in the Lord, O doers of righteousness; for praise
is beautiful for the upright.

2 Give praise to the Lord on the corded instrument; make
melody to him with instruments of music.

3 Make a new song to him; playing expertly with a loud
noise.

4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his works are
certain.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 His delight is in righteousness and wisdom; the earth is
full of the mercy of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all
the army of heaven by the breath of his mouth.

7 He makes the waters of the sea come together in a mass; he
keeps the deep seas in store-houses.

8 Let the earth be full of the fear of the Lord; let all the
people of the world be in holy fear of him.

9 For he gave the word, and it was done; by his order it was
fixed for ever.

10 The Lord undoes the designs of the nations; he makes
the thoughts of the peoples without effect.

11 The Lord's purpose is eternal, the designs of his heart go
on through all the generations of man.

12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the
people whom he has taken for his heritage.

13 The Lord is looking down from heaven; he sees all the
sons of men;

14 From his house he keeps watch on all who are living on
the earth;

15 He makes all their hearts; their works are clear to him.

16 A king's salvation is not in the power of his army; a
strong man does not get free by his great strength.

17 A horse is a false hope; his great power will not make
any man free from danger.

18 See, the eye of the Lord is on those in whose hearts is the
fear of him, on those whose hope is in his mercy;

19 To keep their souls from death; and to keep them living
in time of need.

20 Our souls are waiting for the Lord; he is our help and
our salvation.

21 For in him our hearts have joy; in his holy name is our
hope.

22 Let your mercy be on us, O Lord, as we are waiting for
you.

PSALMS CHAPTER 34

Of David. When he made a change in his behaviour before
Abimelech, who sent him away, and he went.

1 I will be blessing the Lord at all times; his praise will be
ever in my mouth.

2 My soul will say great things of the Lord: the poor in
spirit will have knowledge of it and be glad.

3 O give praise to the Lord with me; let us be witnesses
together of his great name.

4] was searching for the Lord, and he gave ear to my voice,
and made me free from all my fears.

5 Let your eyes be turned to him and you will have light,
and your faces will not be shamed.

6 This poor man's cry came before the Lord, and he gave
him salvation from all his troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord is ever watching over those who
have fear of him, to keep them safe.

8 By experience you will see that the Lord is good; happy is
the man who has faith in him.

9 Keep yourselves in the fear of the Lord, all you his saints;
for those who do so will have no need of anything.

10 The young lions are in need and have no food; but those
who are looking to the Lord will have every good thing.

11 Come, children, give attention to me; I will be your
teacher in the fear of the Lord.

12 What man has a love of life, and a desire that his days
may be increased so that he may see good?

13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from words of
deceit.

14 Be turned from evil, and do good; make a search for
peace, desiring it with all your heart.

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are
open to their cry.

16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to take
away the memory of them from the earth.

17 The cry of the upright comes before the Lord, and he
takes them out of all their troubles.

18 The Lord is near the broken-hearted; he is the saviour of
those whose spirits are crushed down.

19 Great are the troubles of the upright: but the Lord takes
him safely out of them all.

20 He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken.

21 Evil will put an end to the sinner, and those who are
haters of righteousness will come to destruction.

22 The Lord will be the saviour of the souls of his servants,
and no one who has faith in him will be put to shame.

PSALMS CHAPTER 35

Of David.

1 O Lord, be on my side against those who are judging me;
be at war with those who make war against me.

2 Bea breastplate to me, and give me your help.

3 Take up your spear and keep back my attackers; say to my
soul, I am your salvation.

4 Let them be overcome and put to shame who make
attempts to take my soul; let those who would do me damage
be turned back and made foolish.

5 Let them be like dust from the grain before the wind; let
the angel of the Lord send them in flight.

6 Let their way be dark and full of danger; let them be
troubled by the angel of the Lord.

7 For without cause they have put a net ready for me
secretly, in which to take my soul.

8 Let destruction come on them without their knowledge;
let them be taken themselves in their secret nets, falling into
the same destruction.

9 And my soul will have joy in the Lord; it will be glad in
his salvation.

10 All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you? The
saviour of the poor man from the hands of the strong, of him
who is poor and in need from him who takes his goods.

11 False witnesses got up: they put questions to me about
crimes of which I had no knowledge.

12 They gave me back evil for good, troubling my soul.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 But as for me, when they were ill I put on the clothing of
sorrow: I went without food and was sad, and my prayer
came back again to my heart.

14 My behaviour was as if it had been my friend or my
brother: I was bent low in grief like one whose mother is
dead.

15 But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together,
yes, low persons came together against me without my
knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me.

16 Like men of deceit they put me to shame; the voice of
their wrath was loud against me.

17 Lord, how long will you be looking on? take my soul
from their destruction, my life from the lions.

18 I will give you praise in the great meeting; I will give
you honour among a strong people.

19 Do not let my haters be glad over me falsely; let not
those who are against me without cause make sport of me.

20 For they do not say words of peace; in their deceit they
are designing evil things against the quiet ones in the land.

21 Their mouths were open wide against me, and they said,
Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it.

22 You have seen this, O Lord; be not unmoved: O Lord, be
not far from me.

23 Be awake, O Lord, be moved to take up my cause, my
God and my Lord.

24 Be my judge, O Lord my God, in your righteousness; do
not let them be glad over me.

25 Let them not say in their hearts, So we will have it: let
them not say, We have put an end to him.

26 Let all those who take pleasure in my troubles be shamed
and come to nothing: let those who are lifted up against me
be covered with shame and have no honour.

27 Let those who are on my side give cries of joy; let them
ever say, The Lord be praised, for he has pleasure in the peace
of his servant.

28 And my tongue will be talking of your righteousness
and of your praise all the day.

PSALMS CHAPTER 36

To the chief music-maker. Of the servant of the Lord. Of
David.

1 The sin of the evil-doer says in his heart, There is no fear
of the Lord before his eyes.

2 For he takes comfort in the thought that his sin will not
be uncovered and hated.

3 In the words of his mouth are evil and deceit; he has given
up being wise and doing good.

4 He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which
is not good; he is not a hater of evil.

5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and your strong
purpose is as high as the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your
judging is like the great deep; O Lord, you give life to man
and beast.

7 How good is your loving mercy, O God! the children of
men take cover under the shade of your wings.

8 The delights of your house will be showered on them; you
will give them drink from the river of your pleasures.

9 For with you is the fountain of life: in your light we will
see light.

10 O let there be no end to your loving mercy to those who
have knowledge of you, or of your righteousness to the
upright in heart.

11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, or the hand of
the evil-doers put me out of my place.

12 There the workers of evil have come down: they have
been made low, and will not be lifted up.

PSALMS CHAPTER 37

Of David.

1 Do not be angry because of the wrongdoers, or have envy
of the workers of evil.

2 For they will quickly be cut down like grass, and become
dry like the green plants.

3 Have faith in the Lord, and do good; be at rest in the land,
and go after righteousness.

4 So will your delight be in the Lord, and he will give you
your heart's desires.

5 Put your life in the hands of the Lord; have faith in him
and he will do it.

6 And he will make your righteousness be seen like the light,
and your cause like the shining of the sun.

7 Take your rest in the Lord, waiting quietly for him; do
not be angry because of the man who does well in his evil
ways, and gives effect to his bad designs.

8 Put an end to your wrath and be no longer bitter; do not
give way to angry feeling which is a cause of sin.

9 For the evil-doers will be cut off: but those who have faith
in the Lord will have the earth for their heritage.

10 For in a short time the evil-doer will be gone: you will
go searching for his place, and it will not be there.

11 But the gentle will have the earth for their heritage; they
will take their delight in peace without measure.

12 The sinner has evil designs against the upright, lifting
up the voice of wrath against him.

13 He will be laughed at by the Lord, who sees that his day
is coming.

14 The evil-doers have taken out their swords, their bows
are bent; for crushing the poor, and to put to death those
who are upright in their ways.

15 But their swords will be turned into their hearts, and
their bows will be broken.

16 The little which the good man has is better than the
wealth of evil-doers.

17 For the arms of the evil-doers will be broken: but the
Lord is the support of the good.

18 The days of the upright are numbered by the Lord, and
their heritage will be for ever.

19 They will not be shamed in the evil time, and in the days
when all are in need of food they will have enough.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 But the wrongdoers will come to destruction, and the
haters of the Lord will be like the fat of lambs, they will be
burned up; they will go up in smoke, and never again be seen.

21 The sinner takes money and does not give it back; but
the upright man has mercy, and gives to others.

22 Those who have his blessing will have the earth for their
heritage; but those who are cursed by him will be cut off.

23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he
takes delight in his way.

24 Even if he has a fall he will not be without help: for the
hand of the Lord is supporting him.

25 I have been young, and now am old, but I have not seen

the good man without help, or his children looking for bread.

26 All the day he is ready to have mercy and to give; his
children are a blessing.

27 Be turned from evil, and do good; and your place will be
for ever.

28 For the Lord is a lover of righteousness, and takes care
of his saints; they will be kept safe for ever; but the seed of the
evil-doers will be cut off.

29 The upright will have the earth for their heritage, and
will go on living there for ever.

30 The mouth of the good man says words of wisdom; the
talk of his tongue is of righteousness.

31 The law of his God is in his heart; he will never make a
false step.

32 The sinners are watching the upright man, desiring to
put him to death.

33 The Lord will not give him into their hands, or be
against him when he is judged.

34 Be waiting for the Lord, and keep his way; and you will
be lifted up, and have the land for your heritage: when the
evil-doers are cut off, you will see it.

35 I have seen the evil-doer in great power, covering the
earth like a great tree.

36 But he came to an end, and there was no sign of him; I
made a search for him and he was not there.

37 Give attention to the good man, and take note of the
upright; because the end of that man is peace.

38 But as for the sinners, they will be cut off together; the
end of the wrongdoers is destruction.

39 But the Lord is the saviour of the upright: he is their
strength in the time of trouble.

40 And the Lord will be their help, and keep them safe: he
will take them out of the hands of the evil-doers, and be their
saviour, because they had faith in him.

PSALMS CHAPTER 38

A Psalm. Of David. To keep in memory.

1 O Lord, be not bitter with me in your wrath; let not your
hand be on me in the heat of your passion.

2 For your arrows have gone into my flesh, and I am
crushed under the weight of your hand.

3 My flesh is wasted because of your wrath; and there is no
peace in my bones because of my sin.

4 For my crimes have gone over my head; they are like a
great weight which is more than my strength.

5 My wounds are poisoned and evil-smelling, because of my
foolish behaviour.

6 I am troubled, I am made low; I go weeping all the day.

7 For my body is full of burning; all my flesh is unhealthy.

8 I am feeble and crushed down; I gave a cry like a lion
because of the grief in my heart.

9 Lord, all my desire is before you; my sorrow is not kept
secret from you.

10 My heart goes out in pain, my strength is wasting away;
as for the light of my eyes, it is gone from me.

11 My lovers and my friends keep away from my disease; my
relations keep far away.

12 Those who have a desire to take my life put nets for me;
those who are designing my destruction say evil things
against me, all the day their minds are full of deceit.

13 But I kept my ears shut like a man without hearing; like
aman without a voice, never opening his mouth.

14 So I was like a man whose ears are shut, and in whose
mouth there are no sharp words.

15 In you, O Lord, is my hope: you will give me an answer,
O Lord, my God.

16 I said, Let them not be glad over me; when my foot is
moved, let them not be lifted up with pride against me.

17 My feet are near to falling, and my sorrow is ever before
me.

18 I will make clear my wrongdoing, with sorrow in my
heart for my sin.

19 But they are strong who have hate for me without cause:
those who are against me falsely are increased in numbers.

20 They give me back evil for good; they are my haters
because I go after the thing which is right.

21 Do not give me up, O Lord; O my God, be near to me.

22 Come quickly to give me help, O Lord, my salvation.

PSALMS CHAPTER 39

To the chief music-maker. Of Jeduthun. A Psalm. Of David.

1 Isaid, I will give attention to my ways, so that my tongue
may do no wrong; I will keep my mouth under control, while
the sinner is before me.

2 I made no sound, I said no word, even of good; and I was
moved with sorrow.

3 My heart was burning in my breast; while I was deep in
thought the fire was lighted; then I said with my tongue,

4 Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure
of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.

5 You have made my days no longer than a hand's measure;
and my years are nothing in your eyes; truly, every man is but
a breath. (Selah.)

6 Truly, every man goes on his way like an image; he is
troubled for no purpose: he makes a great store of wealth,
and has no knowledge of who will get it.

7 And now, Lord, what am J waiting for? my hope is in you.

8 Make me free from all my sins; do not let me be shamed by
the man of evil behaviour.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 I was quiet, and kept my mouth shut; because you had
done it.

10 No longer let your hand be hard on me; I am wasted by
the blows of your hand.

11 By the weight of your wrath against man's sin, the glory
of his form is wasted away; truly every man is but a breath.
(Selah.)

12 Let my prayer come to your ears, O Lord, and give
attention to my cry, make an answer to my weeping: for my
time here is short before you, and in a little time I will be
gone, like all my fathers.

13 Let your wrath be turned away from me, so that I may
be comforted, before I go away from here, and become
nothing.

PSALMS CHAPTER 40

To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm.

1 When I was waiting quietly for the Lord, his heart was
turned to me, and he gave ear to my cry.

2 He took me up out of a deep waste place, out of the soft
and sticky earth; he put my feet on a rock, and made my steps
certain.

3 And he put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our
God; numbers have seen it with fear, and put their faith in
the Lord.

4 Happy is the man who has faith in the Lord, and does not
give honour to the men of pride or to those who are turned
away to deceit.

5 O Lord my God, great are the wonders which you have
done in your thought for us; it is not possible to put them
out in order before you; when I would give an account of
them, their number is greater than I may say.

6 You had no desire for offerings of beasts or fruits of the
earth; ears you made for me: for burned offerings and sin
offerings you made no request.

7 Then I said, See, I come; it is recorded of me in the roll of
the book,

8 My delight is to do your pleasure, O my God; truly, your
law is in my heart.

9 [have given news of righteousness in the great meeting; O
Lord, you have knowledge that I have not kept back my
words.

10 Your righteousness has not been folded away in my
heart; I have made clear your true word and your salvation; I
have not kept secret your mercy or your faith from the great
meeting.

11 Take not away your gentle mercies from me, O Lord; let
your mercy and your faith keep me safe for ever.

12 For unnumbered evils are round about me; my sins have
overtaken me, so that I am bent down with their weight; they
are more than the hairs of my head, my strength is gone
because of them.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to take me out of danger; O Lord,
come quickly and give me help.

14 Let those who go after my soul for its destruction have
shame and trouble together; let them be turned back and
made foolish who take pleasure in my trouble.

15 Let those who say to me, Aha, aha! be surprised because
of their shame.

16 Let all those who are looking for you be glad and have
joy in you; let the lovers of your salvation ever say, May the
Lord be great.

17 Though I am poor and in need, the Lord has me in mind;
you are my help and my saviour; let there be no waiting, O
my God.

PSALMS CHAPTER 41

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 Happy is the man who gives thought to the poor; the
Lord will be his saviour in the time of trouble.

2 The Lord will keep him safe, and give him life; the Lord
will let him be a blessing on the earth, and will not give him
into the hand of his haters.

3 The Lord will be his support on his bed of pain: by you
will all his grief be turned to strength.

4 I said, Lord, have mercy on me; make my soul well,
because my faith is in you.

5 My haters say evil against me, When will he be dead, and
his name come to an end?

6 If one comes to see me, deceit is in his heart; he keeps a
store of evil, which he makes public in every place.

7 All my haters are talking secretly together against me;
they are designing my downfall.

8 They say, He has an evil disease, which will not let him go:
and now that he is down he will not get up again.

9 Even my dearest friend, in whom I had faith, who took
bread with me, is turned against me.

10 But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, lifting me up, so
that I may give them their punishment.

11 By this I see that you have pleasure in me, because my
hater does not overcome me.

12 And as for me, you are my support in my righteousness,
giving me a place before your face for ever.

13 May the Lord God of Israel be praised, through eternal
days and for ever. So be it. So be it.

PSALMS CHAPTER 42

To the chief music-maker. Maschil. Of the sons of Korah.

1 Like the desire of the roe for the water-streams, so is my
soul's desire for you, O God.

2 My soul is dry for need of God, the living God; when may
T come and see the face of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they
keep saying to me, Where is your God?

4 Let my soul be overflowing with grief when these things
come back to my mind, how I went in company to the house
of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the song of
those who were keeping the feast.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you
troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give
him praise who is my help and my God.

6 My soul is crushed down in me, so I will keep you in mind;
from the land of Jordan and of the Hermons, from the hill
Mizar.

7 Deep is sounding to deep at the noise of your waterfalls;
all your waves have gone rolling over me.

8 But the Lord will send his mercy in the daytime, and in
the night his song will be with me, a prayer to the God of my
life.

9 I will say to God my Rock, Why have you let me go from
your memory? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks
of my haters?

10 The cruel words of my haters are like a crushing of my
bones; when they say to me every day, Where is your God?

11 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you
troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give
him praise who is my help and my God.

PSALMS CHAPTER 43

1 Be my judge, O God, supporting my cause against a
nation without religion; O keep me from the false and evil
man.

2 You are the God of my strength; why have you put me
from you? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks of my
haters?

3 O send out your light and your true word; let them be my
guide: let them take me to your holy hill, and to your tents.

4 Then I will go up to the altar of God, to the God of my
joy; I will be glad and give praise to you on an instrument of
music, O God, my God.

5 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you
troubled in me? put your hope in God, for I will again give
him praise who is my help and my God.

PSALMS CHAPTER 44

To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah Maschil.

1 It has come to our ears, O God, our fathers have given us
the story, of the works which you did in their days, in the old
times,

2 Uprooting the nations with your hand, and planting our
fathers in their place; cutting down the nations, but
increasing the growth of your people.

3 For they did not make the land theirs by their swords,
and it was not their arms which kept them safe; but your
right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because
you had pleasure in them.

4 You are my King and my God; ordering salvation for
Jacob.

5 Through you will we overcome our haters; by your name
will they be crushed under our feet who are violent against us.

6 I will not put faith in my bow, my sword will not be my
salvation.

7 But it is you who have been our saviour from those who
were against us, and have put to shame those who had hate
for us.

8 Our pride is in God at all times, to his name we give
praise for ever. (Selah.)

9 But now you have sent us away from you, and put us to
shame; you do not go out with our armies.

10 Because of this we are turned back by the attacker: those
who have hate for us take our goods for themselves.

11 You have made us like sheep which are taken for meat;
we are put to flight among the nations.

12 You let your people go for nothing; your wealth is not
increased by their price.

13 You have made us to be looked down on by our
neighbours, we are laughed at and shamed by those who are
round about us.

14 Our name is a word of shame among the nations, a sign
for the shaking of heads among the peoples.

15 My downfall is ever before me, and I am covered with
the shame of my face;

16 Because of the voice of him who says sharp and bitter
words; because of the hater and him who is the instrument of
punishment.

17 All this has come on us, but still we have kept you in our
memory; and we have not been false to your word.

18 Our hearts have not gone back, and our steps have not
been turned out of your way;

19 Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals,
though we are covered with darkest shade.

20 If the name of our God has gone out of our minds, or if
our hands have been stretched out to a strange god,

21 Will not God make search for it? for he sees the secrets of
the heart.

22 Truly, because of you we are put to death every day; we
are numbered like sheep for destruction.

23 Why are you sleeping, O Lord? awake! and come to our
help, do not give us up for ever.

24 Why is your face covered, and why do you give no
thought to our trouble and our cruel fate?

25 For our souls are crushed down to the dust: our bodies
are stretched out on the earth.

26 Up! and come to our help, and give us salvation because
of your mercy.

PSALMS CHAPTER 45

To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim. Of the sons
of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves.

| My heart is flowing over with good things; my words are
of that which I have made for a king; my tongue is the pen of
a ready writer.

2 You are fairer than the children of men; grace is flowing
through your lips; for this cause the blessing of God is with
you for ever.

3 Put on your sword, make it ready at your side, O strong
chief, with your glory and power.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And go nobly on in your power, because you are good
and true and without pride; and your right hand will be
teaching you things of fear.

5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's haters;
because of them the peoples are falling under you.

6 Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; the rod
of your kingdom is a rod of honour.

7 You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil:
and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head,
lifting you high over all other kings.

8 Your robes are full of the smell of all sorts of perfumes
and spices; music from the king's ivory houses has made you
glad.

9 Kings' daughters are among your noble women: on your
right is the queen in gold of Ophir.

10 O daughter, give thought and attention, and let your
ear be open; no longer keep in mind your people, and your
father's house;

11 So will the king have a great desire for you, seeing how
beautiful you are; because he is your lord, give him honour.

12 And the daughters of Tyre will be there with an offering;
those who have wealth among the people will be looking for
your approval.

13 In the great house the king's daughter is all shining: her
clothing is worked with gold.

14 She will come before the king in robes of needlework;
the virgins in her train will come before you.

15 With joy and rapture will they come; they will go into
the king's house.

16 Your children will take the place of your fathers; so that
you may make them rulers over all the earth.

17 I will keep the memory of your name living through all
generations; and because of this the people will give you
praise for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 46

To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah; put to
Alamoth. A Song.

1 God is our harbour and our strength, a very present help
in trouble.

2 For this cause we will have no fear, even though the earth
is changed, and though the mountains are moved in the heart
of the sea;

3 Though its waters are sounding and troubled, and
though the mountains are shaking with their violent motion.
(Selah.)

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the resting-place
of God, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.

5 God has taken his place in her; she will not be moved: he
will come to her help at the dawn of morning.

6 The nations were angry, the kingdoms were moved; at the
sound of his voice the earth became like wax.

7 The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our
high tower. (Selah.)

8 Come, see the works of the Lord, the destruction which he
has made in the earth.

9 He puts an end to wars over all the earth; by him the bow
is broken, and the spear cut in two, and the carriage burned
in the fire.

10 Be at peace in the knowledge that I am God: I will be
lifted up among the nations, I will be honoured through all
the earth.

11 The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our
high tower. (Selah.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 47

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.

1 O make a glad noise with your hands, all you peoples;
letting your voices go up to God with joy.

2 For the Lord Most High is to be feared; he is a great King
over all the earth.

3 He will put down the peoples under us, and the nations
under our feet.

4 He will give us our heritage, the glory of Jacob who is
dear to him. (Selah.)

5 God has gone up with a glad cry, the Lord with the sound
of the horn.

6 Give praises to God, make songs of praise; give praises to
our King, make songs of praise.

7 For God is the King of all the earth; make songs of praise
with knowledge.

8 God is the ruler over the nations; God is on the high seat
of his holy rule.

9 The rulers of the peoples have come together, with the
people of the God of Abraham; because the powers of the
earth are God's: he is lifted up on high.

PSALMS CHAPTER 48

A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.

1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the town of
our God, in his holy mountain.

2 Beautiful in its high position, the joy of all the earth, is
the mountain of Zion, the mountain of God, the town of the
great King.

3 In its buildings God is seen to be a high tower.

4 For see! the kings came together by agreement, they were
joined together.

5 They saw it, and so were full of wonder; they were
troubled, and went quickly away in fear.

6 Shaking came on them and pain, as on a woman in
childbirth.

7 By you the ships of Tarshish are broken as by an east wind.

8 As it came to our ears so have we seen it, in the town of
the Lord of armies, in the town of our God; God will keep it
fixed for ever. (Selah.)

9 Our thoughts were of your mercy, O God, while we were
in your Temple.

10 As your name is, O God, so is your praise to the ends of
the earth; your right hand is full of righteousness.

11 Let there be joy in the mountain of Zion, and let the
daughters of Judah be glad, because of your wise decisions.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Make your way about Zion, and go round it, numbering
its towers.

13 Take note of its strong walls, looking well at its fair
buildings; so that you may give word of it to the generation
which comes after.

14 Because this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be
our guide.

PSALMS CHAPTER 49

Alamoth. To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah.
A Psalm.

| Give attention to this, all you peoples; let your ears be
open, all you who are living in the world.

2 High and low together, the poor, and those who have
wealth.

3 From my mouth will come words of wisdom; and in the
thoughts of my heart will be knowledge.

41 will put my teaching into a story; I will make my dark
sayings clear with music.

5 What cause have I for fear in the days of evil, when the
evil-doing of those who are working for my downfall is
round about me?

6 Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose
hearts are lifted up because of their stores.

7 Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to
God the payment for himself;

8 (Because it takes a great price to keep his soul from death,
and man is not able to give it.)

9 So that he might have eternal life, and never see the
underworld.

10 For he sees that wise men come to their end, and foolish
persons of low behaviour come to destruction together,
letting their wealth go to others.

11 The place of the dead is their house for ever, and their
resting-place through all generations; those who come after
them give their names to their lands.

12 But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he
comes to an end like the beasts.

13 This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those
who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of
their gold. (Selah.)

14 Death will give them their food like sheep; the
underworld is their fate and they will go down into it; their
flesh is food for worms; their form is wasted away; the
underworld is their resting-place for ever.

15 But God will get back my soul; for he will take me from
the power of death. (Selah.)

16 Have no fear when wealth comes to a man, and the glory
of his house is increased;

17 For at his death, he will take nothing away; his glory
will not go down after him.

18 Though he might have pride in his soul in his life-time,
and men will give you praise if you do well for yourself,

19 He will go to the generation of his fathers; he will not
see the light again.

20 Man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes
to an end like the beasts.

PSALMS CHAPTER 50

A Psalm. Of Asaph.

1 The God of gods, even the Lord, has sent out his voice,
and the earth is full of fear; from the coming up of the sun to
its going down.

2 From Zion, most beautiful of places, God has sent out his
light.

3 Our God will come, and will not keep quiet; with fire
burning before him, and storm-winds round him.

4 His voice will go out to the heavens and to the earth, for
the judging of his people:

5 Let my saints come together to me; those who have made
an agreement with me by offerings.

6 And let the heavens make clear his righteousness; for God
himselfis the judge. (Selah.)

7 Give ear, O my people, to my words; O Israel, I will be a
witness against you; I am God, even your God.

8 I will not take up a cause against you because of your
offerings, or because of your burned offerings, which are ever
before me.

9 I will take no ox out of your house, or he-goats from your
flocks;

10 For every beast of the woodland is mine, and the cattle
on a thousand hills.

11 Isee all the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the
field are mine.

12 If I had need of food, I would not give you word of it;
for the earth is mine and all its wealth.

13 Am I to take the flesh of the ox for my food, or the blood
of goats for my drink?

14 Make an offering of praise to God; keep the agreements
which you have made with the Most High;

15 Let your voice come up to me in the day of trouble; I
will be your saviour, so that you may give glory to me.

16 But to the sinner, God says, What are you doing,
talking of my laws, or taking the words of my agreement in
your mouth?

17 Seeing that you have no desire for my teaching, turning
your back on my words.

18 When you saw a thief, you were in agreement with him,
and you were joined with those who took other men's wives.

19 You have given your mouth to evil, your tongue to
words of deceit.

20 You say evil of your brother; you make false statements
against your mother's son.

21 These things have you done, and I said nothing; it
seemed to you that I was such a one as yourself; but I will
make a protest against you, and put them in order before
your eyes.

22 Now keep this in mind, you who have no memory of
God, for fear that you may be crushed under my hand, with
no one to give you help:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 Whoever makes an offering of praise gives glory to me;
and to him who is upright in his ways I will make clear the
salvation of God.

PSALMS CHAPTER 51

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. When Nathan
the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.

1 Have pity on me, O God, in your mercy; out of a full
heart, take away my sin.

2 Let all my wrongdoing be washed away, and make me
clean from evil.

3 For Iam conscious of my error; my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I done wrong, working that
which is evil in your eyes; so that your words may be seen to
be right, and you may be clear when you are judging.

5 Truly, I was formed in evil, and in sin did my mother give
me birth.

6 Your desire is for what is true in the inner parts: in the
secrets of my soul you will give me knowledge of wisdom.

7 Make me free from sin with hyssop: let me be washed
whiter than snow.

8 Make me full of joy and rapture; so that the bones which
have been broken may be glad.

9 Let your face be turned from my wrongdoing, and take
away all my sins.

10 Make a clean heart in me, O God; give me a right spirit
again.

11 Do not put me away from before you, or take your holy
spirit from me.

12 Give me back the joy of your salvation; let a free spirit
be my support.

13 Then will I make your ways clear to wrongdoers; and
sinners will be turned to you.

14 Be my saviour from violent death, O God, the God of my
salvation; and my tongue will give praise to your
righteousness.

15 O Lord, let my lips be open, so that my mouth may make
clear your praise.

16 You have no desire for an offering or I would give it;
you have no delight in burned offerings.

17 The offerings of God are a broken spirit; a broken and
sorrowing heart, O God, you will not put from you.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, building up the
walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then you will have delight in the offerings of
righteousness, in burned offerings and offerings of beasts;
then they will make offerings of oxen on your altar.

PSALMS CHAPTER 52

To the chief music-maker. Maschil. Of David. When Doeg
the Edomite came to Saul saying, David has come to the
house of Ahimelech.

1 Why do you take pride in wrongdoing, lifting yourself up
against the upright man all the day?

2 Purposing destruction, using deceit; your tongue is like a
sharp blade.

3 You have more love for evil than for good, for deceit than
for works of righteousness. (Selah.)

4 Destruction is in all your words, O false tongue.

5 But God will put an end to you for ever; driving you out
from your tent, uprooting you from the land of the living.
(Selah.)

6 The upright will see it with fear, and will say, laughing at
you:

7 See, this is the man who did not make God his strength,
but had faith in his goods and his property, and made himself
strong in his wealth.

8 But Iam like a branching olive-tree in the house of God; I
have put my faith in his mercy for ever and ever.

9 I will give you praise without end for what you have done;
I will give honour to your name before your saints, for it is
good.

PSALMS CHAPTER 53

To the chief music-maker; put to Mahalath. Maschil. Of David.

1 The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do
anything. They are unclean, they have done evil works; there
is not one who does good.

2 God was looking down from heaven on the children of
men, to see if there were any who had wisdom, searching
after God.

3 Every one of them has gone back; they are unclean: there
is not one who does good, no, not one.

4 Have the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my
people for food, as they would take bread; they make no
prayer to God.

5 They were in great fear, where there was no cause for fear:
for the bones of those who make war on you have been
broken by God; you have put them to shame, because God
has no desire for them.

6 May the salvation of Israel come out of Zion! When the
fate of his people is changed by God, Jacob will have joy, and
Israel will be glad.

PSALMS CHAPTER 54

To the chief music-maker; on Neginoth. Maschil. Of David.
When the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Is not David
keeping himself secret among us?

1 Let your name be my salvation, O God; let my cause be
judged by your strength.

2 Let my prayer come before you, O God; give ear to the
words of my mouth.

3 For men who are going after me have come out against
me, violent men are purposing to take my soul; they have not
put God before their eyes. (Selah.)

4 See, God is my helper: the Lord is the great supporter of
my soul.

5 Let the evil works of my haters come back on them again;
let them be cut off by your good faith.

6 Freely will I make my offerings to you; I will give praise
to your name, O Lord, for it is good.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 Because it has been my saviour from all my trouble; and
my eyes have seen the punishment of my haters.

PSALMS CHAPTER 55

To the chief music-maker, on Neginoth. Maschil. Of David.

1 Give hearing to my prayer, O God; and let not your ear
be shut against my request.

2 Give thought to me, and let my prayer be answered: I
have been made low in sorrow;

3 I am troubled because of the voice of the cruel ones,
because of the loud cry of the evil-doers; for they put a
weight of evil on me, and they are cruel in their hate for me.

4 My heart is deeply wounded, and the fear of death has
come on me.

5 Fear and shaking have come over me, with deep fear I am
covered.

6 And I said, If only I had wings like a dove! for then I
would go in flight from here and be at rest.

71 would go wandering far away, living in the waste land.
(Selah.)

8 I would quickly take cover from the driving storm and
from the violent wind.

9 Send destruction on them, O Lord, make a division of
tongues among them: for I have seen fighting and violent acts
in the town.

10 By day and night they go round the town, on the walls;
trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it.

11 Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets.

12 For it was not my hater who said evil of me; that would
have been no grief to me; it was not one outside the number
of my friends who made himself strong against me, or I
would have kept myself from him in a secret place;

13 But it was you, my equal, my guide, my well-loved
friend.

14 We had loving talk together, and went to the house of
God in company.

15 Let the hand of death come on them suddenly, and let
them go down living into the underworld; because evil is in
their houses and in their hearts.

16 As for me, I will make my prayer to God, and he will be
my saviour.

17 In the evening and in the morning and in the middle of
the day I will make my prayer with sounds of grief; and my
voice will come to his ears.

18 He has taken my soul away from the attack which was
made against me, and given it peace; for great numbers were
against me.

19 God will give thought to me; he who from early times is
strong will send pain and trouble on them. (Selah.) Because
they are unchanged, they have no fear of God.

20 He has put out his hand against those who were at peace
with him; he has not kept his agreement.

21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but
war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they
were sharp swords.

22 Put your cares on the Lord, and he will be your support;
he will not let the upright man be moved.

23 But you, O God, will send them down into the
underworld; the cruel and the false will be cut off before half
their days are ended; but I will have faith in you.

PSALMS CHAPTER 56

To the chief music-maker; put to Jonath elem rehokim. Of
David. Michtam. When the Philistines took him in Gath.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, for man is attempting my
destruction; every day he makes cruel attacks against me.

2 My haters are ever ready to put an end to me; great
numbers are lifting themselves up against me.

3 In the time of my fear, I will have faith in you.

4 In God will I give praise to his word; in God have I put
my hope; I will have no fear of what flesh may do to me.

5 Every day they make wrong use of my words; all their
thoughts are against me for evil.

6 They come together, they are waiting in secret places,
they take note of my steps, they are waiting for my soul.

7 By evil-doing they will not get free from punishment. In
wrath, O God, let the peoples be made low.

8 You have seen my wanderings; put the drops from my eyes
into your bottle; are they not in your record?

9 When I send up my cry to you, my haters will be turned
back; I am certain of this, for God is with me.

10 In God will I give praise to his word; in the Lord will I
give praise to his word.

11 In God have I put my hope, I will have no fear of what
man may do to me.

12 keep the memory of my debt to you, O God; I will give
you the offerings of praise.

13 Because you have taken my soul from the power of death;
and kept my feet from falling, so that I may be walking
before God in the light of life.

PSALMS CHAPTER 57

To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of
David. When he went in flight from Saul, in the hole of the rock.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me; for the
hope of my soul is in you: I will keep myself safely under the
shade of your wings, till these troubles are past.

2 I will send up my cry to the Most High God; to God who
does all things for me.

3 He will send from heaven, and take me from the power of
him whose desire is for my destruction. God will send out his
mercy and his good faith.

4 My soul is among lions; I am stretched out among those
who are on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears
and arrows, and whose tongue is a sharp sword.

5 O God, be lifted up higher than the heavens; let your
glory be over all the earth.

6 They have made ready a net for my steps; my soul is bent
down; they have made a great hole before me, and have gone
down into it themselves. (Selah.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will make
songs, and give praise.

8 You are my glory; let the instruments of music be awake;
I myself will be awake with the dawn.

9 | will give you praise, O Lord, among the peoples; I will
make songs to you among the nations.

10 For your mercy is great, stretching up to the heavens,
and your righteousness goes up to the clouds.

11 Be lifted up, O God, higher than the heavens, let your
glory be over all the earth.

PSALMS CHAPTER 58

To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of
David.

1 Is there righteousness in your mouths, O you gods? are
you upright judges, O you sons of men?

2 The purposes of your hearts are evil; your hands are full
of cruel doings on the earth.

3 The evil-doers are strange from the first; from the hour of
their birth they go out of the true way, saying false words.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake; they are like the
adder, whose ears are shut;

5 Who will not be moved by the voice of the wonder-
worker, however great are his powers.

6 O God, let their teeth be broken in their mouths; let the
great teeth of the young lions be pulled out, O Lord.

7 Let them be turned to liquid like the ever-flowing waters;
let them be cut off like the grass by the way.

8 Let them be like an after-birth which is turned to water
and comes to an end; like the fruit of a woman who gives
birth before her time, let them not see the sun.

9 Before they are conscious of it, let them be cut down like
thorns; let a strong wind take them away like waste growth.

10 The upright man will be glad when he sees their
punishment; his feet will be washed in the blood of the evil-
doer.

11 So that men will say, Truly there is a reward for
righteousness; truly there is a God who 1s judge on the earth.

PSALMS CHAPTER 59

To the chief music-maker; put to At-tashheth. Michtam. Of
David. When Saul sent, and they were watching the house, to
put him to death.

1 Take me out of the hands of the cruel ones, O my God;
keep me safe from those who come up against me.

2 Take me out of the power of the workers of evil, and keep
me safe from the men of blood.

3 For see, they are watching in secret for my soul; the
strong have come together against me? but not because of my
sin, or my evil-doing, O Lord.

4 For no sin of mine they go quickly and get themselves
ready; be awake and come to my help, and see.

5 You, O Lord God of armies, are the God of Israel; come
now and give punishment to the nations; have no mercy on
any workers of deceit. (Selah.)

6 They come back in the evening; they make a noise like a
dog, and go round the town.

7 See, hate is dropping from their lips; curses are on their
tongues: they say, Who gives attention to it?

8 But you are laughing at them, O Lord; you will make
sport of all the nations.

9 O my strength, I will put my hope in you; because God is
my strong tower.

10 The God of my mercy will go before me: God will let me
see my desire effected on my haters.

11 Put them not to death, for so my people will keep the
memory of them: let them be sent in all directions by your
power; make them low, O Lord our saviour.

12 Because of the sin of their mouths and the word of their
lips, let them even be taken in their pride; and for their curses
and their deceit,

13 Put an end to them in your wrath, put an end to them,
so that they may not be seen again; let them see that God is
ruling in Jacob and to the ends of the earth. (Selah.)

14 And in the evening let them come back, and make a noise
like a dog, and go round the town.

15 Let them go wandering up and down in search of food,
and be there all night if they have not enough.

16 But I will make songs of your power; yes, I will give cries
of joy for your mercy in the morning; because you have been
my strength and my high tower in the day of my trouble.

17 To you, O my strength, will I make my song: because
God is my high tower, even the God of my mercy.

PSALMS CHAPTER 60

To the chief music-maker; put to Shushan-eduth. Michtam. Of
David. For teaching. When he was fighting against Aram-
naharaim and Aramzobah, when Joab came back, and put
twelve thousand of the Edomites to death, in the Valley of Salt.

1 God, you have put us away from you, you have sent us in
all directions, you have been angry; O be turned to us again.

2 By the power of your hand the earth is shaking and
broken; make it strong again, for it is moved.

3 You have made the people see hard times; you have given
us the wine of shaking for our drink.

4 Give a safe place to those who have fear of you, where
they may go in flight from before the bow. (Selah.)

5 So that your loved ones may be made safe, let your right
hand be my salvation, and give me an answer.

6 God has said in his holy place, I will be glad: I will make a
division of Shechem, and the valley of Succoth will be
measured out.

7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the
strength of my head; Judah is my law-giver;

8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I put out my shoe;
over Philistia will a glad cry be sounded.

9 Who will take me into the strong town? who will be my
guide into Edom?

10 Have not you put us away, O God? and you have not
gone out with our armies.

11 Give us help in our trouble; for there is no help in man.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Through God we will do great things, for through him
our haters will be crushed under our feet.

PSALMS CHAPTER 61

To the chief music-maker. On a corded instrument. Of David.

1 Let my cry come to you, O God; let your ears be open to
my prayer.

2 From the end of the earth will I send up my cry to you,
when my heart is overcome: take me to the rock which is
over-high for me.

3 For you have been my secret place, and my high tower
from those who made war on me.

4] will make your tent my resting-place for ever: I will keep
myself under the cover of your wings. (Selah.)

5 For you, O God, have made answer to my prayers; you
have given me the heritage of those who give honour to your
name.

6 You will give the king long life; and make his years go on
through the generations.

7 May the seat of his authority be before God for ever; may
mercy and righteousness keep him safe.

8 So will I make songs in praise of your name for ever,
giving to God that which is right day by day.

PSALMS CHAPTER 62

To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. A Psalm. Of David.

1 My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes
my salvation.

2 He only is my Rock and my salvation; he is my high tower;
I will not be greatly moved.

3 How long will you go on designing evil against a man?
running against him as against a broken wall, which is on the
point of falling?

4 Their only thought is to put him down from his place of
honour; their delight is in deceit: blessing is in their mouths
but cursing in their hearts. (Selah.)

5 My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes
my hope.

6 He only is my Rock and my salvation; he is my high tower;
I will not be greatly moved.

7 In God is my salvation, and my glory; the Rock of my
strength, and my safe place.

8 Have faith in him at all times, you people; let your hearts
go flowing out before him: God is our safe place. (Selah.)

9 Truly men of low birth are nothing, and men of high
position are not what they seem; if they are put in the scales
together they are less than a breath.

10 Have no faith in the rewards of evil-doing, or in profits
wrongly made: if your wealth is increased, do not put your
hopes on it.

11 Once has God said, twice has it come to my ears, that
power is God's:

12 And mercy, O Lord, is yours, for you give to every man
the reward of his work.

PSALMS CHAPTER 63

A Psalm. Of David. When he was in the waste land of Judah.

1 O God, you are my God; early will I make my search for
you: my soul is dry for need of you, my flesh is wasted with
desire for you, as a dry and burning land where no water is;

2 To see your power and your glory, as I have seen you in
the holy place.

3 Because your mercy is better than life, my lips will give
you praise.

4 So will I go on blessing you all my life, lifting up my
hands in your name.

5 My soul will be comforted, as with good food; and my
mouth will give you praise with songs of joy;

6 When the memory of you comes to me on my bed, and
when I give thought to you in the night-time.

7 Because you have been my help, I will have joy in the
shade of your wings.

8 My soul keeps ever near you: your right hand is my
support.

9 But those whose desire is my soul's destruction will go
down to the lower parts of the earth.

10 They will be cut off by the sword; they will be food for
foxes.

11 But the king will have joy in God; everyone who takes
an oath by him will have cause for pride; but the false mouth
will be stopped.

PSALMS CHAPTER 64

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O God, let the voice of my grief come to your ear: keep
my life from the fear of those who are against me.

2 Keep me safe from the secret purpose of wrongdoers; from
the band of the workers of evil;

3 Who make their tongues sharp like a sword, and whose
arrows are pointed, even bitter words;

4 So that in secret they may let loose their arrows at the
upright, suddenly and unseen.

5 They make themselves strong in an evil purpose; they
make holes for secret nets; they say, Who will see it,

6 Or make discovery of our secret purpose? The design is
framed with care; and the inner thought of a man, and his
heart, is deep.

7 But God sends out an arrow against them; suddenly they
are wounded.

8 The evil of their tongues is the cause of their fall; all those
who see them are shaking their heads at them.

9 And in fear men make public the works of God; and
giving thought to his acts they get wisdom.

10 The upright will be glad in the Lord and have hope in
him; and all the lovers of righteousness will give him glory.

PSALMS CHAPTER 65

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. A Song.

1 It is right for you, O God, to have praise in Zion: to you
let the offering be made.

2 To you, O hearer of prayer, let the words of all flesh come.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Evils have overcome us: but as for our sins, you will take
them away.

4 Happy is the man of your selection, to whom you give a
resting-place in your house; we will be full of the good things
out of your holy place.

5 You will give us an answer in righteousness by great acts
of power, O God of our salvation; you who are the hope of
all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off lands of the sea;

6 The God by whose strength the mountains are fixed; who
is robed with power:

7 Who makes the loud voice of the sea quiet, and puts an
end to the sound of its waves.

8 Those in the farthest parts of the earth have fear when
they see your signs: the outgoings of the morning and
evening are glad because of you.

9 You have given your blessing to the earth, watering it
and making it fertile; the river of God is full of water: and
having made it ready, you give men grain.

10 You make the ploughed lands full of water; you make
smooth the slopes: you make the earth soft with showers,
sending your blessing on its growth.

11 The year is crowned with the good you give; life-giving
rain is dropping from your footsteps,

12 Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills
are glad on every side.

13 The grass-land is thick with flocks; the valleys are full of
grain; they give glad cries and songs of joy.

PSALMS CHAPTER 66

To the chief music-maker. A Song. A Psalm.

1 Send up a glad cry to God, all the earth:

2 Make a song in honour of his name: give praise and glory
to him.

3 Say to God, How greatly to be feared are your works!
because of your great power your haters are forced to put
themselves under your feet.

4 Let all the earth give you worship, and make songs to you;
let them make songs to your name. (Selah.)

5 Come and see the works of God: he is to be feared in all he
does to the children of men.

6 The sea was turned into dry land: they went through the
river on foot: there did we have joy in him.

7 He is ruling in power for ever; his eyes are watching the
nations: may his haters have no strength against him. (Selah.)

8 Give blessings to our God, O you peoples, let the voice of
his praise be loud;

9 Because he gives us life, and has not let our feet be moved.

10 For you, O God, have put us to the test: testing us by
fire like silver.

11 You let us be put in prison; chains were put on our legs.

12 You let men go driving over our heads; we went through
fire and through water; but you took us out into a wide place.

13 I will come into your house with burned offerings, I will
make payment of my debt to you,

14 Keeping the word which came from my lips, and which
my mouth said, when I was in trouble.

15 I will give you burned offerings of fat beasts, and the
smoke of sheep; I will make offerings of oxen and goats.
(Selah.)

16 Come, give ear to me, all you God-fearing men, so that I
may make clear to you what he has done for my soul.

17 My voice went up to him, and I was lifted up from the
underworld.

18 I said in my heart, The Lord will not give ear to me:

19 But truly God's ear has been open; he has give attention
to the voice of my prayer.

20 Praise be to God who has not taken away his good faith
and his mercy from me.

PSALMS CHAPTER 67

To the chief music-maker. With corded instruments. A
Psalm. A Song.

1 May God give us mercy and blessing, and let the light of
his face be shining on us; (Selah.)

2 So that men may see your way on the earth, and your
salvation among all nations.

3 Let the peoples give you praise, O God; let all the peoples
give you praise.

4 O let the nations be glad, and make song of joy; for you
will be the judge of the peoples in righteousness, guiding the
nations of the earth. (Selah.)

5 Let the peoples give you praise, O God; let all the peoples
give you praise.

6 The earth has given her increase; and God, even our God,
will give us his blessing.

7 God will give us his blessing; so let all the ends of the
earth be in fear of him.

PSALMS CHAPTER 68

To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm. A Song.

1 Let God be seen, and let his haters be put to flight; let
those who are against him be turned back before him.

2 Let them be like smoke before the driving wind; as wax
turning soft before the fire, so let them come to an end before
the power of God.

3 But let the upright be glad; let them have delight before
God; let them be full of joy.

4 Make songs to God, make songs of praise to his name;
make a way for him who comes through the waste lands; his
name is Jah; be glad before him.

5 A father to those who have no father, a judge of the
widows, is God in his holy place.

6 Those who are without friends, God puts in families; he
makes free those who are in chains; but those who are turned
away from him are given a dry land.

7 O God, when you went out before your people,
wandering through the waste land; (Selah.)

8 The earth was shaking and the heavens were streaming,
because God was present; even Sinai itself was moved before
God, the God of Israel.

9 You, O God, did freely send the rain, giving strength to
the weariness of your heritage.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Those whose resting-place was there, even the poor,
were comforted by your good things, O God.

11 The Lord gives the word; great is the number of the
women who make it public.

12 Kings of armies quickly go in flight: and the women in
the houses make a division of their goods.

13 Will you take your rest among the flocks? like the wings
of a dove covered with silver, and its feathers with yellow
gold.

14 When the Most High put the kings to flight, it was as
white as snow in Salmon.

15 A hill of God is the hill of Bashan; a hill with high tops
is the hill of Bashan.

16 Why are you looking with envy, you high hills, on the
hill desired by God as his resting-place? truly, God will make
it his house for ever.

17 The war-carriage of God is among Israel's thousands;
the Lord has come from Sinai to the holy place.

18 You have gone up on high, taking your prisoners with
you; you have taken offerings from men; the Lord God has
taken his place on the seat of his power.

19 Praise be to the Lord, who is our support day by day,
even the God of our salvation. (Selah.)

20 Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways
out of death.

21 The heads of the haters of God will be crushed; even the
head of him who still goes on in his evil ways.

22 The Lord said, I will make them come back from Bashan,
and from the deep parts of the sea;

23 So that your foot may be red with blood, and the
tongues of your dogs with the same.

24 We see your going, O God: even the going of my God,
my King, into the holy place.

25 The makers of songs go before, the players of music
come after, among the young girls playing on brass
instruments.

26 Give praise to God in the great meeting; even the Lord,
you who come from the fountain of Israel.

27 There is little Benjamin ruling them, the chiefs of Judah
and their army, the rulers of Zebulun and the rulers of
Naphtali.

28 O God, send out your strength; the strength, O God,
with which you have done great things for us,

29 Out of your Temple in Jerusalem.

30 Say sharp words to the beast among the water-plants,
the band of strong ones, with the lords of the peoples, put an
end to the people whose delight is in war.

31 Kings will give you offerings, they will come out of
Egypt; from Pathros will come offerings of silver; Ethiopia
will be stretching out her hands to God.

32 Make songs to God, you kingdoms of the earth; O make
songs of praise to the Lord; (Selah.)

33 To him who goes or the clouds of heaven, the heaven
which was from earliest times; he sends out his voice of power.

34 Make clear that strength is God's: he is lifted up over
Israel, and his power is in the clouds.

35 O God, you are to be feared in your holy place: the God
of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to
God.

PSALMS CHAPTER 69

To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim. Of David.

1 Be my saviour, O God; because the waters have come in,
even to my neck.

2 My feet are deep in the soft earth, where there is no
support; I have come into deep waters, the waves are flowing
over me.

3 I am tired with my crying; my throat is burning: my eyes
are wasted with waiting for my God.

4 Those who have hate for me without cause are greater in
number than the hairs of my head; those who are against me,
falsely desiring my destruction, are very strong; I gave back
what I had not taken away.

5 O God, you see how foolish I am; and my wrongdoing is
clear to you.

6 Let not those who have hope in you be put to shame
because of me, O Lord God of armies: let not those who are
waiting for you be made low because of me, O God of Israel.

7 [have been wounded with sharp words because of you; my
face has been covered with shame.

8 I have become strange to my brothers, and like a man
from a far country to my mother's children.

9 I am on fire with passion for your house; and the hard
things which are said about you have come on me.

10 My bitter weeping, and my going without food, were
turned to my shame.

11 When I put on the clothing of grief, they said evil of me.

12 I am a cause of wonder to those in authority; a song to
those who are given to strong drink.

13 But as for me, let my prayer be made to you, O Lord, at
a time when you are pleased; O God, give me an answer in
your great mercy, for your salvation is certain.

14 Take me from the grip of the sticky earth, so that I may
not go down into it; let me be lifted up from the deep waters.

15 Let me not be covered by the flowing waters; let not the
deep waters go over my head, and let me not be shut up in the
underworld.

16 Give an answer to my words, O Lord; for your mercy is
good: be turned to me, because of your great pity.

17 Let not your face be covered from your servant, for I am
in trouble; quickly give me an answer.

18 Come near to my soul, for its salvation: be my saviour,
because of those who are against me.

19 You have seen my shame, how I was laughed at and
made low; my haters are all before you.

20 My heart is broken by bitter words, I am full of grief; I
made a search for some to have pity on me, but there was no
one; I had no comforter.

21 They gave me poison for my food; and bitter wine for my
drink.

22 Let their table before them be for their destruction; let
their feasts become a net to take them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 Let their eyes be blind so that they may not see; let their
bodies for ever be shaking.

24 Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath
overtake them.

25 Give their houses to destruction, and let there be no one
in their tents.

26 Because they are cruel to him against whom your hand is
turned; they make bitter the grief of him who is wounded by
you.

27 Let their punishment be increased; let them not come
into your righteousness.

28 Let their names be taken from the book of the living, let
them not be numbered with the upright.

29 But Iam poor and full of sorrow; let me be lifted up by
your salvation, O Lord.

30 I will give praise to the name of God with a song; I will
give glory to him for what he has done.

31 This will be more pleasing to the Lord than an ox, or a
young ox of full growth.

32 The poor will see it and be glad: you who are lovers of
God, let your hearts have life.

33 For the ears of the Lord are open to the poor, and he
takes thought for his prisoners.

34 Let the heavens and the earth give praise to him, the seas,
and everything moving in them.

35 For God will be the saviour of Zion, and the builder of
the towns of Judah; so that it may be their resting-place and
heritage.

36 The seed of his servants will have their part in it, and
there the lovers of his name will have rest.

PSALMS CHAPTER 70

To the chief music-maker. Of David. To keep in memory.

1 Let your salvation come quickly, O God; come quickly to
my help, O Lord.

2 Let those who go after my soul have shame and trouble;
let those who have evil designs against me be turned back and
made foolish.

3 Let those who say Aha, aha! be turned back as a reward of
their shame.

4 Let all those who are looking for you be glad and have
joy in you; let the lovers of your salvation ever say, May God
be great.

5 But I am poor and in need; come to me quickly, O God;
you are my help and my saviour; let there be no waiting, O
Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 71

1 In you, O Lord, have I put my hope; let me never be
shamed.

2 Keep me safe in your righteousness, and come to my help;
give ear to my voice, and be my saviour.

3 Be my strong Rock, the strong place of my salvation; for
you are my Rock, and my safe place.

4 O my God, take me out of the hand of the sinner, out of
the hand of the evil and cruel man.

5 For you are my hope, O Lord God; I have had faith in
you from the time when I was young.

6 You have been my support from the day of my birth; you
took me out of my mother's body; my praise will be ever of
you.

71am a wonder to all; but you are my strong tower.

8 My mouth will be full of your praise and glory all the day.

9 Do not give me up when I am old; be my help even when
my strength is gone.

10 For my haters are waiting secretly for me; and those
who are watching for my soul are banded together in their
evil designs,

11 Saying, God has given him up; go after him and take
him, for he has no helper.

12 O God, be not far from me; O my God, come quickly to
my help.

13 Let those who say evil against my soul be overcome and
put to shame; let my haters be made low and have no honour.

14 But I will go on ever hoping, and increasing in all your
praise.

15 My mouth will make clear your righteousness and your
salvation all the day; for they are more than may be measured.

16 I will give news of the great acts of the Lord God; my
words will be of your righteousness, and of yours only.

17 O God, you have been my teacher from the time when I
was young; and I have been talking of your works of wonder
even till now.

18 Now when I am old and grey-headed, O God, give me
not up; till Ihave made clear your strength to this generation,
and your power to all those to come.

19 Your righteousness, O God, is very high; you have done
great things; O God, who is like you?

20 You, who have sent great and bitter troubles on me, will
give me life again, lifting me up from the deep waters of the
underworld.

21 You will make me greater than before, and give me
comfort on every side.

22 I will give praise to you with instruments of music, O my
God, for you are true; I will make songs to you with music, O
Holy One of Israel.

23 Joy will be on my lips when I make melody to you; and
in my soul, to which you have given salvation.

24 My tongue will be talking of your righteousness all the
day; for those whose purpose is to do me evil have been
crushed and put to shame.

PSALMS CHAPTER 72

Of Solomon.

1 Give the king your authority, O God, and your
righteousness to the king's son.

2 May he be a judge of your people in righteousness, and
make true decisions for the poor.

3 May the mountains give peace to the people, and the hills
righteousness.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he
give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by
him let the violent be crushed.

5 May his life go on as long as the sun and moon, through
all generations.

6 May he come down like rain on the cut grass; like showers
watering the earth.

7 In his days may the upright do well, living in peace as
long as there is a moon in heaven.

8 Let his kingdom be from sea to sea, from the River to the
ends of the earth.

9 Let those who are against him go down before him; and
let his haters be low in the dust.

10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back
with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their
stores.

11 Yes, let all kings go down before him; let all nations be
his servants.

12 For he will be a saviour to the poor in answer to his cry;
and to him who is in need, without a helper.

13 He will have pity on the poor, and be the saviour of
those who are in need.

14 He will keep their souls free from evil designs and
violent attacks; and their blood will be of value in his eyes.

15 May he have long life, and may gold from Sheba be
given to him: may prayers be made for him at all times; may
blessings be on him every day.

16 May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land,
shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like
Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the
earth.

17 May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may
men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be
blessing his name.

18 Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, the only
doer of wonders.

19 Praise to the glory of his noble name for ever; let all the
earth be full of his glory. So be it, So be it.

20 The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

PSALMS CHAPTER 73

A Psalm. Of Asaph.

1 Truly, God is good to Israel, even to such as are clean in
heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost gone from under me; I
was near to slipping;

3 Because of my envy of the men of pride, when I saw the
well-being of the wrongdoers.

4 For they have no pain; their bodies are fat and strong.

5 They are not in trouble as others are; they have no part in
the unhappy fate of men.

6 For this reason pride is round them like a chain; they are
clothed with violent behaviour as with a robe.

7 Their eyes are bursting with fat; they have more than
their heart's desire.

8 Their thoughts are deep with evil designs; their talk from
their seats of power is of cruel acts.

9 Their mouth goes up to heaven; their tongues go walking
through the earth.

10 For this reason they are full of bread; and water is ever
flowing for them.

11 And they say, How will the Lord see this? is there
knowledge in the Most High?

12 Truly, such are the sinners; they do well at all times, and
their wealth is increased.

13 As for me, I have made my heart clean to no purpose,
washing my hands in righteousness;

14 For I have been troubled all the day; every morning have
T undergone punishment.

15 If 1 would make clear what it is like, I would say, You
are false to the generation of your children.

16 When my thoughts were turned to see the reason of this,
it was a weariness in my eyes;

17 Till I went into God's holy place, and saw the end of the
evil-doers.

18 You put their feet where there was danger of slipping, so
that they go down into destruction.

19 How suddenly are they wasted! fears are the cause of
their destruction.

20 As a dream when one is awake, they are ended; they are
like an image gone out of mind when sleep is over.

21 My heart was made bitter, and I was pained by the bite
of grief:

22 As for me, I was foolish, and without knowledge; I was
like a beast before you.

23 But still I am ever with you; you have taken me by my
right hand.

24 Your wisdom will be my guide, and later you will put
me in a place of honour.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? and having you I have
no desire for anything on earth.

26 My flesh and my heart are wasting away: but God is the
Rock of my heart and my eternal heritage.

27 For those who are far away from you will come to
destruction: you will put an end to all those who have not
kept faith with you.

28 But it is good for me to come near to God: I have put my
faith in the Lord God, so that I may make clear all his works.

PSALMS CHAPTER 74

Maschil. Of Asaph.

1 Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever?
why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who
are your care?

2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you
gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for
yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of
Zion, which has been your resting-place.

3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which
your haters have done in the holy place;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 Sending out their voices like lions among your
worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen.

5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up
against the thick trees.

6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron
blades.

7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the
place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth.

8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them
all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places
of worship in the land.

9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet,
or anyone among us to say how long.

10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel
things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for
ever?

11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your
right hand in your robe?

12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in
the earth.

13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of
the great sea-beasts were broken.

14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you
gave them as food to the fishes of the sea.

15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made
the ever-flowing rivers dry.

16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the
light and the sun.

17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have
made summer and winter.

18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said
cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by
a people of evil behaviour.

19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the
life of the poor go out of your memory for ever.

20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of
the earth are full of pride and cruel acts.

21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the
low man and the poor give praise to your name.

22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the
bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against
you every day.

23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of
those who come against you goes up every day.

PSALMS CHAPTER 75

To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. A Psalm. Of
Asaph. A Song.

1 To you, O God, we give praise, to you we give praise: and
those who give honour to your name make clear your works
of power.

2 When the right time has come, I will be the judge in
righteousness.

3 When the earth and all its people become feeble, I am the
support of its pillars. (Selah.)

4 I say to the men of pride, Let your pride be gone: and to
the sinners, Let not your horn be lifted up.

5 Let not your horn be lifted up: let no more words of pride
come from your outstretched necks.

6 For honour does not come from the east, or from the west,
or uplifting from the south;

7 But God is the judge, putting down one, and lifting up
another.

8 For in the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red;
it is well mixed, overflowing from his hand: he will make all
the sinners of the earth take of it, even to the last drop.

9 But I will ever be full of joy, making songs of praise to the
God of Jacob.

10 By him will all the horns of the sinners be cut off; but the
horns of the upright will be lifted up.

PSALMS CHAPTER 76

To the chief music-maker; put to Neginoth. A Psalm. Of
Asaph. A Song.

1 In Judah is the knowledge of God; his name is great in
Israel,

2 In Salem is his tent, his resting-place in Zion.

3 There were the arrows of the bow broken, there he put an
end to body-cover, sword, and fight. (Selah.)

4 You are shining and full of glory, more than the eternal
mountains.

5 Gone is the wealth of the strong, their last sleep has
overcome them; the men of war have become feeble.

6 At the voice of your wrath, O God of Jacob, deep sleep
has overcome carriage and horse.

7 You, you are to be feared; who may keep his place before
you in the time of your wrath?

8 From heaven you gave your decision; the earth, in its fear,
gave no sound,

9 When God took his place as judge, for the salvation of the
poor on the earth. (Selah.)

10 Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of
your wrath are restrained.

11 Give to the Lord your God what is his by right; let all
who are round him give offerings to him who is to be feared.

12 He puts an end to the wrath of rulers; he is feared by the
kings of the earth.

PSALMS CHAPTER 77

To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

1 I was crying to God with my voice; even to God with my
voice, and he gave ear to me.

2 In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord:
my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my
soul would not be comforted.

3 I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my
thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.)

4 You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no
words come.

5 My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years
which are gone.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 The memory of my song comes back to me in the night;
my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching
with care.

7 Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no
longer?

8 Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to
nothing?

9 Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies
shut up by his wrath? (Selah.)

10 And I said, It is a weight on my spirit; but I will keep in
mind the years of the right hand of the Most High.

11 I will keep in mind the works of Jah: I will keep the
memory of your wonders in the past.

12 I will give thought to all your work, while my mind goes
over your acts of power.

13 Your way, O God, is holy: what god is so great as our
God?

14 You are the God who does works of power: you have
made your strength clear to the nations.

15 With your arm you have made your people free, the sons
of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah.)

16 The waters saw you, O God; the waters saw you, they
were in fear: even the deep was troubled.

17 The clouds sent out water; the skies gave out a sound;
truly, your arrows went far and wide.

18 The voice of your thunder went rolling on; the world
was flaming with the light of the storm; the earth was
shaking.

19 Your way was in the sea, and your road in the great
waters; there was no knowledge of your footsteps.

20 You were guiding your people like a flock, by the hand
of Moses and Aaron.

PSALMS CHAPTER 78

Maschil. Of Asaph.

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law; let your ears be bent
down to the words of my mouth.

2 Opening my mouth I will give out a story, even the dark
sayings of old times;

3 Which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as
they were given to us by our fathers.

4 We will not keep them secret from our children; we will
make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord
and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has
done.

5 He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel;
which he gave to our fathers so that they might give
knowledge of them to their children;

6 So that the generation to come might have knowledge of
them, even the children of the future, who would give word
of them to their children;

7 So that they might put their hope in God, and not let
God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws;

8 And not be like their fathers, a stiff-necked and
uncontrolled generation; a generation whose heart was hard,
whose spirit was not true to God.

9 The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned
back on the day of the fight.

10 They were not ruled by God's word, and they would not
go in the way of his law;

11 They let his works go out of their memory, and the
wonders which he had made them see.

12 He did great works before the eyes of their fathers, in the
land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

13 The sea was cut in two so that they might go through;
the waters were massed together on this side and on that.

14 In the daytime he was guiding them in the cloud, and all
through the night with a light of fire.

15 The rocks of the waste land were broken by his power,
and he gave them drink as out of the deep waters.

16 He made streams come out of the rock; and waters came
flowing down like rivers.

17 And they went on sinning against him even more,
turning away from the Most High in the waste land;

18 Testing God in their hearts, requesting meat for their
desire.

19 They said bitter words against God, saying, Is God able
to make ready a table in the waste land?

20 See, the rock was cut open by his power, so that the
water came rushing out, and overflowing streams; is he able
to give us bread? is he able to get meat for his people?

21 So these things came to the Lord's ears, and he was
angry; and a fire was lighted against Jacob, and wrath came
up against Israel;

22 Because they had no faith in God, and no hope in his
salvation.

23 And he gave orders to the clouds on high, and the doors
of heaven were open;

24 And he sent down manna like rain for their food, and
gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Man took part in the food of strong ones; he sent them
meat in full measure.

26 He sent an east wind from heaven, driving on the south
wind by his power.

27 He sent down meat on them like dust, and feathered
birds like the sand of the sea,

28 And he let it come down into their resting-place, round
about their tents.

29 So they had food and were full; for he gave them their
desire;

30 But they were not turned from their desires; and while
the food was still in their mouths,

31 The wrath of God came on them, and put to death the
fattest of them, and put an end to the young men of Israel.

32 For all this they went on sinning even more, and had no
faith in his great wonders.

33 So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years
in trouble.

34 When he sent death on them, then they made search for
him; turning to him and looking for him with care;

35 In the memory that God was their Rock, and the Most
High God their saviour.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

36 But their lips were false to him, and their tongues were
untrue to him;

37 And their hearts were not right with him, and they did
not keep their agreement with him.

38 But he, being full of pity, has forgiveness for sin, and
does not put an end to man: frequently turning back his
wrath, and not being violently angry.

39 So he kept in mind that they were only flesh; a breath
which is quickly gone, and will not come again.

40 How frequently did they go against him in the waste
land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places!

41 Again they put God to the test, and gave pain to the
Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not keep in mind the work of his hand, or the
day when he took them from the power of their haters;

43 How he had done his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in
the field of Zoan;

44 So that their rivers were turned to blood, and they were
not able to get drink from their streams.

45 He sent different sorts of flies among them, poisoning
their flesh; and frogs for their destruction.

46 He gave the increase of their fields to worms, the fruits
of their industry to the locusts.

47 He sent ice for the destruction of their vines; their trees
were damaged by the bitter cold.

48 Ice was rained down on their cattle; thunderstorms sent
destruction among the flocks.

49 He sent on them the heat of his wrath, his bitter disgust,
letting loose evil angels among them.

50 He let his wrath have its way; he did not keep back their
soul from death, but gave their life to disease.

51 He gave to destruction all the first sons of Egypt; the
first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;

52 But he took his people out like sheep, guiding them in
the waste land like a flock.

53 He took them on safely so that they had no fear; but
their haters were covered by the sea.

54 And he was their guide to his holy land, even to the
mountain, which his right hand had made his;

55 Driving out nations before them, marking out the line
of their heritage, and giving the people of Israel their tents
for a resting-place.

56 But they were bitter against the Most High God, testing
him, and not keeping his laws;

57 Their hearts were turned back and untrue like their
fathers; they were turned to one side like a twisted bow.

58 They made him angry with their high places; moving
him to wrath with their images.

59 When this came to God's ears he was very angry, and
gave up Israel completely;

60 So that he went away from the holy place in Shiloh, the
tent which he had put among men;

61 And he let his strength be taken prisoner, and gave his
glory into the hands of his hater.

62 He gave his people up to the sword, and was angry with
his heritage.

63 Their young men were burned in the fire; and their
virgins were not praised in the bride-song.

64 Their priests were put to death by the sword, and their
widows made no weeping for them.

65 Then was the Lord like one awaking from sleep, and like
astrong man crying out because of wine.

66 His haters were turned back by his blows and shamed for
ever.

67 And he put the tent of Joseph on one side, and took not
the tribe of Ephraim;

68 But he took the tribe of Judah for himself, and the
mountain of Zion, in which he had pleasure.

69 And he made his holy place like the high heaven, like the
earth which is fixed by him for ever.

70 He took David to be his servant, taking him from the
place of the flocks;

71 From looking after the sheep which were giving milk, he
took him to give food to Jacob his people, and to Israel his
heritage.

72 So he gave them food with an upright heart, guiding
them by the wisdom of his hands.

PSALMS CHAPTER 79

A Psalm. Of Asaph.

1 O God, the nations have come into your heritage; they
have made your holy Temple unclean; they have made
Jerusalem a mass of broken walls.

2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the
birds of the air, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of
the earth.

3 Their blood has been flowing like water round about
Jerusalem; there was no one to put them in their last resting-
place.

4 We are looked down on by our neighbours, we are
laughed at and made sport of by those who are round us.

5 How long, O Lord? will you be angry for ever? will your
wrath go on burning like fire?

6 Let your wrath be on the nations who have no knowledge
of you, and on the kingdoms who have not made prayer to
your name.

7 For they have taken Jacob for their meat, and made waste
his house.

8 Do not keep in mind against us the sins of our fathers; let
your mercy come to us quickly, for we have been made very
low.

9 Give us help, O God of our salvation, for the glory of
your name; take us out of danger and give us forgiveness for
our sins, because of your name.

10 Why may the nations say, Where is their God? Let
payment for the blood of your servants be made openly
among the nations before our eyes.

11 Let the cry of the prisoner come before you; with your
strong arm make free the children of death;

12 And give punishment seven times over into the breast of
our neighbours for the bitter words which they have said
against you, O Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 So we your people, and the sheep of your flock, will give
you glory for ever: we will go on praising you through all
generations.

PSALMS CHAPTER 80

To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim-eduth. Of
Asaph. A Psalm.

| Give ear, O Keeper of Israel, guiding Joseph like a flock;
you who have your seat on the winged ones, let your glory be
seen.

2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, let your
strength be awake from sleep, and come as our salvation.

3 Take us back again, O God; let us see the shining of your
face, and let us be safe.

4 O Lord God of armies, how long will your wrath be
burning against the rest of your people?

5 You have given them the bread of weeping for food; for
their drink you have given them sorrow in great measure.

6 You make us a cause of war among our neighbours; our
haters are laughing at us among themselves.

7 Take us back again, O God of armies; let us see the
shining of your face, and let us be safe.

8 You took a vine out of Egypt: driving out the nations,
and planting it in their land.

9 You made ready a place for it, so that it might take deep
root, and it sent out its branches over all the land.

10 The mountains were covered with its shade, and the
great trees with its branches.

11 It sent out its arms to the Sea, and its branches to the
River.

12 Why are its walls broken down by your hands, so that
all who go by may take its fruit?

13 It is uprooted by the pigs from the woods, the beasts of
the field get their food from it.

14 Come back, O God of armies: from heaven let your eyes
be turned to this vine, and give your mind to it,

15 Even to the tree which was planted by your right hand,
and to the branch which you made strong for yourself.

16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down: they are made waste
by the wrath of your face.

17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the
son of man whom you made strong for yourself.

18 So will we not be turned back from you; keep us in life,
and we will give praise to your name.

19 Take us back, O Lord God of armies; let us see the
shining of your face, and let us be safe.

PSALMS CHAPTER 81

To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith. Of Asaph.

| Make a song to God our strength: make a glad cry to the
God of Jacob.

2 Take up the melody, playing on an instrument of music,
even on corded instruments.

3 Let the horn be sounded in the time of the new moon, at
the full moon, on our holy feast-day:

4 For this is a rule for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

5 He gave it to Joseph as a witness, when he went out over
the land of Egypt; then the words of a strange tongue were
sounding in my ears.

6 I took the weight from his back; his hands were made free
from the baskets.

7 You gave a cry in your trouble, and I made you free; I
gave you an answer in the secret place of the thunder; I put
you to the test at the waters of Meribah. (Selah.)

8 Give ear, O my people, and I will give you my word, O
Israel, if you will only do as I say!

9 There is to be no strange god among you; you are not to
give worship to any other god.

10 Iam the Lord your God, who took you up from the land
of Egypt: let your mouth be open wide, so that I may give
you food.

11 But my people did not give ear to my voice; Israel would
have nothing to do with me.

12 So I gave them up to the desires of their hearts; that they
might go after their evil purposes.

13 If only my people would give ear to me, walking in my
ways!

14 I would quickly overcome their haters: my hand would
be turned against those who make war on them.

15 The haters of the Lord would be broken, and their
destruction would be eternal.

16 I would give them the best grain for food; you would be
full of honey from the rock.

PSALMS CHAPTER 82

A Psalm. Of Asaph.

1 God is in the meeting-place of God; he is judging among
the gods.

2 How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect
for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.)

3 Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without
fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their
rights.

4 Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing:
take them out of the hand of the evil-doers.

5 They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the
dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.

6 I said, You are gods; all of you are the sons of the Most
High:

7 But you will come to death like men, falling like one of
the rulers of the earth.

8 Up! O God, come as judge of the earth; for all the nations
are your heritage.

PSALMS CHAPTER 83

A Song. A Psalm. Of Asaph.

1 O God, do not keep quiet: let your lips be open and take
no rest, O God.

2 For see! those who make war on you are out of control;
your haters are lifting up their heads.

3 They have made wise designs against your people, talking
together against those whom you keep in a secret place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 They have said, Come, let us put an end to them as a
nation; so that the name of Israel may go out of man's
memory.

5 For they have all come to an agreement; they are all
joined together against you:

6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the
Hagarites;

7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek; the Philistines and the
people of Tyre;

8 Assur is joined with them; they have become the support
of the children of Lot. (Selah.)

9 Do to them what you did to the Midianites; what you did
to Sisera and Jabin, at the stream of Kishon:

10 Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became
dust and waste.

11 Make their chiefs like Oreb and Zeeb; and all their rulers
like Zebah and Zalmunna:

12 Who have said, Let us take for our heritage the resting-
place of God.

13 O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry
stems before the wind.

14 As fire burning a wood, and as a flame causing fire on
the mountains,

15 So go after them with your strong wind, and let them be
full of fear because of your storm.

16 Let their faces be full of shame; so that they may give
honour to your name, O Lord.

17 Let them be overcome and troubled for ever; let them be
put to shame and come to destruction;

18 So that men may see that you only, whose name is
Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth.

PSALMS CHAPTER 84

To the chief mustc-maker; put to the Gittith A Psalm. Of
the sons of Korah.

1 How dear are your tents, O Lord of armies!

2 The passion of my soul's desire is for the house of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God.

3 The little birds have places for themselves, where they
may put their young, even your altars, O Lord of armies, my
King and my God.

4 Happy are they whose resting-place is in your house: they
will still be praising you. (Selah.)

5 Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart
are the highways to Zion.

6 Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a
place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain.

7 They go from strength to strength; every one of them
comes before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of armies, let my prayer come to you: give
ear, O God of Jacob. (Selah.)

9 O God, let your eyes be on him who is our safe cover, and
let your heart be turned to your king.

10 For a day in your house is better than a thousand. It is
better to be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to be
living in the tents of sin.

11 The Lord God is our sun and our strength: the Lord will
give grace and glory: he will not keep back any good thing
from those whose ways are upright.

12 O Lord of armies, happy is the man whose hope is in you.

PSALMS CHAPTER 85

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.

1 Lord, you were good to your land: changing the fate of
Jacob.

2 The wrongdoing of your people had forgiveness; all their
sin had been covered. (Selah.)

3 You were no longer angry: you were turned from the heat
of your wrath.

4 Come back to us, O God of our salvation, and be angry
with us no longer.

5 Will you go on being angry with us for ever? will you
keep your wrath against us through all the long generations?

6 Will you not give us life again, so that your people may be
glad in you?

7 Let us see your mercy, O Lord, and give us your salvation.

8 I will give ear to the voice of the Lord; for he will say
words of peace to his people and to his saints; but let them
not go back to their foolish ways.

9 Truly, his salvation is near to his worshippers; so that
glory may be in our land.

10 Mercy and faith have come together; righteousness and
peace have given one another a kiss.

11 Faith comes up from the earth like a plant;
righteousness is looking down from heaven.

12 The Lord will give what is good; and our land will give
its increase.

13 Righteousness will go before him, making a way for his
footsteps.

PSALMS CHAPTER 86

A Prayer. Of David.

1 Let your ears be open to my voice, O Lord, and give me
an answer; for I am poor and in need.

2 Keep my soul, for I am true to you; O my God, give
salvation to your servant, whose hope is in you.

3 Have mercy on me, O Lord; for my cry goes up to you all
the day.

4 Make glad the soul of your servant; for it is lifted up to
you, O Lord.

5 You are good, O Lord, and full of forgiveness; your
mercy is great to all who make their cry to you.

6 O Lord, give ear to my prayer; and take note of the sound
of my requests.

7 In the day of my trouble I send up my cry to you; for you
will give me an answer.

8 There is no god like you, O Lord; there are no works like
your works.

9 Let all the nations whom you have made come and give
worship to you, O Lord, giving glory to your name.

10 For you are great, and do great works of wonder; you
only are God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Make your way clear to me, O Lord; I will go on my way
in your faith: let my heart be glad in the fear of your name.

12 I will give you praise, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will give glory to your name for ever.

13 For your mercy to me is great; you have taken my soul
up from the deep places of the underworld.

14 O God, men of pride have come up against me, and the
army of violent men would take my life; they have not put
you before them.

15 But you, O Lord, are a God full of pity and forgiveness,
slow to get angry, great in mercy and wisdom.

16 O be turned to me and have mercy on me: give your
strength to your servant, and your salvation to the son of her
who is your servant.

17 Give me a sign for good; so that my haters may see it and
be shamed; because you, Lord, have been my help and
comfort.

PSALMS CHAPTER 87

Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm. A Song.

1 This house is resting on the holy mountain.

2 The Lord has more love for the doors of Zion than for all
the tents of Jacob.

3 Noble things are said of you, O town of God. (Selah.)

4 Rahab and Babylon will be named among those who have
knowledge of me; see, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this
man had his birth there.

5 And of Zion it will be said, This or that man had his birth
there; and the Most High will make her strong.

6 The Lord will keep in mind, when he is writing the
records of the people, that this man had his birth there.
(Selah.)

7 The players on instruments will be there, and the dancers
will say, All my springs are in you.

PSALMS CHAPTER 88

A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah. To the chief music-
maker; put to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil. Of Heman the
Exzrahite.

1 O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you
for help by day and by night:

2 Let my prayer come before you; give ear to my cry:

3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to
the underworld.

4] am numbered among those who go down into the earth;
Thave become like a man for whom there is no help:

5 My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld,
to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from
your care.

6 You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places.

7 The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves
have overcome me. (Selah.)

8 You have sent my friends far away from me; you have
made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and
not able to come out.

9 My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord,
my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched
out to you.

10 Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the
shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.)

11 Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the
dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction?

12 May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or
of your righteousness where memory is dead?

13 But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning
my prayer came before you.

14 Lord, why have you sent away my soul? why is your face
covered from me?

15 I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time
when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no
strength.

16 The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken
by your cruel punishments.

17 They are round me all the day like water; they have
made a circle about me.

18 You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am
gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.

PSALMS CHAPTER 89

Maschil. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.

1 My song will be of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with
my mouth will I make his faith clear to all generations.

2 For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever;
my faith will be unchanging in the heavens.

3 [have made an agreement with the man of my selection, I
have made an oath to David my servant;

4] will make your seed go on for ever, your kingdom will
be strong through all generations. (Selah.)

5 In heaven let them give praise for your wonders, O Lord;
and your unchanging faith among the saints.

6 For who is there in the heavens in comparison with the
Lord? who is like the Lord among the sons of the gods?

7 God is greatly to be feared among the saints, and to be
honoured over all those who are about him.

8 O Lord God of armies, who is strong like you, O Jah? and
your unchanging faith is round about you.

9 You have rule over the sea in storm; when its waves are
troubled, you make them calm.

10 Rahab was crushed by you like one wounded to death;
with your strong arm you put to flight all your haters.

11 Yours are the heavens, and the earth is yours; you have
made the world, and everything which is in it.

12 You have made the north and the south; Tabor and
Hermon are sounding with joy at your name.

13 Yours is an arm of power; strong is your hand and high
your right hand.

14 The seat of your kingdom is resting on righteousness
and right judging: mercy and good faith come before your
face.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Happy are the people who have knowledge of the holy
cry: the light of your face, O Lord, will be shining on their
way.

16 In your name will they have joy all the day: in your
righteousness will they be lifted up.

17 For you are the glory of their strength; in your pleasure
will our horn be lifted up.

18 For our breastplate is the Lord; and our king is the
Holy One of Israel's.

19 Then your voice came to your holy one in a vision,
saying, I have put the crown on a strong one, lifting up one
taken from among the people.

20 I have made discovery of David my servant; I have put
my holy oil on his head.

21 My hand will be his support; my arm will give him
strength.

22 The deceit of those who are against him will not
overcome him; he will not be troubled by the sons of evil.

23 I will have those who are against him broken before his
face, and his haters will be crushed under my blows.

24 But my faith and my mercy will be with him; and in my
name will his horn be lifted up.

25 I will put his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the
rivers.

26 He will say to me, You are my father, my God, and the
Rock of my salvation.

27 And I will make him the first of my sons, most high over
the kings of the earth.

28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever; my agreement
with him will not be changed.

29 His seed will keep their place for ever; his kingdom will
be eternal, like the heavens.

30 If his children give up my law, and are not ruled by my
decisions;

31 If my rules are broken, and my orders are not kept;

32 Then I will send punishment on them for their sin; my
rod will be the reward of their evil-doing.

33 But I will not take away my mercy from him, and will
not be false to my faith.

34 I will be true to my agreement; the things which have
gone out of my lips will not be changed.

35 I have made an oath once by my holy name, that I will
not be false to David.

36 His seed will not come to an end for ever; the seat of his
kingdom will be like the sun before me.

37 It will be fixed for ever like the moon; and the witness in
heaven is true. (Selah.)

38 But you have put him away in disgust; you have been
angry with the king of your selection.

39 You have made your agreement with your servant of no
effect: you have had no respect for his crown, it has come
down even to the earth.

40 All his walls are broken down; you have given his strong
towers to destruction.

41 All those who come by take away his goods; he is
laughed at by his neighbours.

42 You have given power to the right hand of his haters;
you have made glad all those who are against him.

43 His sword is turned back; you have not been his support
in the fight.

44 You have put an end to his glory: the seat of his
kingdom has been levelled to the earth.

45 You have made him old before his time; he is covered
with shame. (Selah.)

46 How long, O Lord, will you Keep yourself for ever from
our eyes? how long will your wrath be burning like fire?

47 See how short my time is; why have you made all men for
no purpose?

48 What man now living will not see death? will he be able
to keep back his soul from the underworld? (Selah.)

49 Lord, where are your earlier mercies? where is the oath
which you made to David in unchanging faith?

50 Keep in mind, O Lord, the shame of your servants, and
how the bitter words of all the people have come into my
heart;

51 The bitter words of your haters, O Lord, shaming the
footsteps of your king.

52 Let the Lord be praised for ever. So be it, So be it.

PSALMS CHAPTER 90

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

1 Lord, you have been our resting-place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were made, before you had given
birth to the earth and the world, before time was, and for
ever, you are God.

3 You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you
children of men.

4 For to you a thousand years are no more than yesterday
when it is past, and like a watch in the night.

5 You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they
sprout like new grass.

6 In the morning it is green; in the evening it is cut down,
and becomes dry.

7 We are burned up by the heat of your passion, and
troubled by your wrath.

8 You have put our evil doings before you, our secret sins in
the light of your face.

9 For all our days have gone by in your wrath; our years
come to an end like a breath.

10 The measure of our life is seventy years; and if through
strength it may be eighty years, its pride is only trouble and
sorrow, for it comes to an end and we are quickly gone.

11 Who has knowledge of the power of your wrath, or who
takes note of the weight of your passion?

12 So give us knowledge of the number of our days, that we
may get a heart of wisdom.

13 Come back, O Lord; how long? let your purpose for
your servants be changed.

14 In the morning give us your mercy in full measure; so
that we may have joy and delight all our days.

15 Make us glad in reward for the days of our sorrow, and
for the years in which we have seen evil.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 Make your work clear to your servants, and your glory
to their children.

17 Let the pleasure of the Lord our God be on us: O Lord,
give strength to the work of our hands.

PSALMS CHAPTER 91

1 Happy is he whose resting-place is in the secret of the
Lord, and under the shade of the wings of the Most High;

2 Who says of the Lord, He is my safe place and my tower of
strength: he is my God, in whom is my hope.

3 He will take you out of the bird-net, and keep you safe
from wasting disease.

4 You will be covered by his feathers; under his wings you
will be safe: his good faith will be your salvation.

5 You will have no fear of the evil things of the night, or of
the arrow in flight by day,

6 Or of the disease which takes men in the dark, or of the
destruction which makes waste when the sun is high.

7 You will see a thousand falling by your side, and ten
thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you.

8 Only with your eyes will you see the reward of the evil-
doers.

9 Because you have said, I am in the hands of the Lord, the
Most High is my safe resting-place;

10 No evil will come on you, and no disease will come near
your tent.

11 For he will give you into the care of his angels to keep
you wherever you go.

12 In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot
may not be crushed against a stone.

13 You will put your foot on the lion and the snake; the
young lion and the great snake will be crushed under your
feet.

14 Because he has given me his love, I will take him out of
danger: I will put him in a place of honour, because he has
kept my name in his heart.

15 When his cry comes up to me, I will give him an answer:
I will be with him in trouble; I will make him free from
danger and give him honour.

16 With long life will he be rewarded; and I will let him see
my salvation.

PSALMS CHAPTER 92

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

| It is a good thing to give praise to the Lord, and to make
melody to your name, O Most High;

2 To make clear your mercy in the morning, and your
unchanging faith every night;

3 On a ten-corded instrument, and on an instrument of
music with a quiet sound.

4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad through your work;
I will have joy in the works of your hands.

5 O Lord, how great are your works! and your thoughts are
very deep.

6 A man without sense has no knowledge of this; and a
foolish man may not take it in.

7 When the sinners come up like the grass, and all the
workers of evil do well for themselves, it is so that their end
may be eternal destruction.

8 But you, O Lord, are on high for ever.

9 For see! your haters, O Lord, will be put to death; all the
workers of evil will be put to flight;

10 But my horn is lifted up like the horn of the ox: the best
oil is flowing on my head.

11 My eyes have seen trouble come on my haters; my ears
have news of the fate of the evil-doers who have come up
against me.

12 The good man will be like a tall tree in his strength; his
growth will be as the wide-stretching trees of Lebanon.

13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will
come up tall and strong in his gardens.

14 They will give fruit even when they are old; they will be
fertile and full of growth;

15 For a sign that the Lord is upright; he is my Rock, there
is no deceit in him.

PSALMS CHAPTER 93

1 The Lord is King; he is clothed with glory; the Lord is
clothed with strength; power is the cord of his robe; the
world is fixed, so that it may not be moved.

2 The seat of your power has been from the past; you are
eternal.

3 The rivers send up, O Lord, the rivers send up their voices;
they send them up with a loud cry.

4 The Lord in heaven is stronger than the noise of great
waters, yes, he is stronger than the great waves of the sea.

5 Your witness is most certain; it is right for your house to
be holy, O Lord, for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 94

1 O God, in whose hands is punishment, O God of
punishment, let your shining face be seen.

2 Be lifted up, O judge of the earth; let their reward come
to the men of pride.

3 How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners
have joy over us?

4 Words of pride come from their lips; all the workers of
evil say great things of themselves.

5 Your people are crushed by them, O Lord, your heritage
is troubled,

6 They put to death the widow and the guest, they take the
lives of children who have no father;

7 And they say, Jah will not see it, the God of Jacob will
not give thought to it.

8 Give your mind to my words, you who are without
wisdom among the people; you foolish men, when will you be
wise?

9 Has he by whom your ears were planted no hearing? or is
he blind by whom your eyes were formed?

10 He who is the judge of the nations, will he not give men
the reward of their acts, even he who gives knowledge to man?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 The Lord has knowledge of the thoughts of man, for
they are only a breath.

12 Happy is the man who is guided by you, O Jah, and to
whom you give teaching out of your law;

13 So that you may give him rest from the days of evil, till a
hole is made ready for the destruction of the sinners.

14 The Lord will not give up his people, or take away his
support from his heritage;

15 But decisions will again be made in righteousness; and
they will be kept by all whose hearts are true.

16 Who will give me help against the sinners? and who will
be my support against the workers of evil?

17 If the Lord had not been my helper, my soul would
quickly have gone down into death.

18 If I say, My foot is slipping; your mercy, O Lord, is my
support.

19 Among all my troubled thoughts, your comforts are the
delight of my soul.

20 What part with you has the seat of sin, which makes evil
into a law?

21 They are banded together against the soul of the upright,
to give decisions against those who have done no wrong.

22 But the Lord is my safe resting-place; my God is the
Rock where I am safe.

23 And he has made their evil designs come back on
themselves, cutting them off in their sin; the Lord our God
will put an end to them.

PSALMS CHAPTER 95

1 O come, let us make songs to the Lord; sending up glad
voices to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody
with holy songs.

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all
gods.

4 The deep places of the earth are in his hand; and the tops
of the mountains are his.

5 The sea is his, and he made it; and the dry land was
formed by his hands.

6 O come, let us give worship, falling down on our knees
before the Lord our Maker.

7 For he is our God; and we are the people to whom he
gives food, and the sheep of his flock. Today, if you would
only give ear to his voice!

8 Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day
of Massah in the waste land;

9 When your fathers put me to the test and saw my power
and my work.

10 For forty years I was angry with this generation, and
said, They are a people whose hearts are turned away from
me, for they have no knowledge of my ways;

11 And I made an oath in my wrath, that they might not
come into my place of rest.

PSALMS CHAPTER 96

1 O make a new song to the Lord; let all the earth make
melody to the Lord.

2 Make songs to the Lord, blessing his name; give the good
news of his salvation day by day.

3 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all
the peoples.

4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is
more to be feared than all other gods.

5 For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the
Lord made the heavens.

6 Honour and glory are before him: strong and fair is his
holy place.

7 Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to
the Lord glory and strength.

8 Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an
offering and come into his house.

9 O give worship to the Lord in holy robes; be in fear
before him, all the earth.

10 Say among the nations, The Lord is King; yes, the world
is ordered so that it may not be moved; he will be an upright
judge of the peoples.

11 Let the heavens have joy and the earth be glad; let the
sea be thundering with all its waters;

12 Let the field be glad, and everything which is in it; yes,
let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy,

13 Before the Lord, for he is come; he is come to be the
judge of the earth; the earth will be judged in righteousness,
and the peoples with unchanging faith.

PSALMS CHAPTER 97

1 The Lord is King, let the earth have joy; let all the sea-
lands be glad.

2 Dark clouds are round him; his kingdom is based on
righteousness and right judging.

3 Fire goes before him, burning up all those who are
against him round about.

4 His bright flames give light to the world; the earth saw it
with fear.

5 The mountains became like wax at the coming of the Lord,
at the coming of the Lord of all the earth.

6 The heavens gave out the news of his righteousness, and
all the people saw his glory.

7 Shamed be all those who give worship to images, and take
pride in false gods; give him worship, all you gods.

8 Zion gave ear and was glad; and the daughters of Judah
were full of joy, because of your decisions, O Lord.

9 For you, Lord, are most high over the earth; you are
lifted up over all other gods.

10 You who are lovers of the Lord, be haters of evil; he
keeps the souls of his saints; he takes them out of the hand of
sinners.

11 Light is shining on the lovers of righteousness, and for
the upright in heart there is joy.

12 Be glad in the Lord, you upright men; praising the
memory of his holy name.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 98

A Psalm.

1 O make a new song to the Lord, because he has done
works of wonder; with his right hand, and with his holy arm,
he has overcome.

2 The Lord has given to all the knowledge of his salvation;
he has made clear his righteousness in the eyes of the nations.

3 He has kept in mind his mercy and his unchanging faith to
the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the
salvation of our God.

4 Let all the earth send out a glad cry to the Lord;
sounding with a loud voice, and praising him with songs of
joy.

5 Make melody to the Lord with instruments of music; with
a corded instrument and the voice of song.

6 With wind instruments and the sound of the horn, make a
glad cry before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea be thundering, with all its waters; the world,
and all who are living in it;

8 Let the streams make sounds of joy with their hands; let
the mountains be glad together,

9 Before the Lord, for he has come as judge of the earth;
judging the world in righteousness, and giving true decisions
for the peoples.

PSALMS CHAPTER 99

| The Lord is King; let the peoples be in fear: his seat is on
the winged ones; let the earth be moved.

2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is high over all the nations.

3 Let them give praise to your name, for it is great and to
be feared; holy is he.

4 The king's power is used for righteousness; you give true
decisions, judging rightly in the land of Jacob.

5 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping at
his feet; holy is he.

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among
those who gave honour to his name; they made prayers to the
Lord, and he gave answers to them.

7 His voice came to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept
his witness, and the law which he gave them.

8 You gave them an answer, O Lord our God; you took
away their sin, though you gave them punishment for their
wrongdoing.

9 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping
with your faces turned to his holy hill; for the Lord our God
is holy.

PSALMS CHAPTER 100

A Psalm of Praise.

1 Make a glad sound to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Give worship to the Lord with joy; come before him with
asong.

3 Be certain that the Lord is God; it is he who has made us,
and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep to whom he
gives food.

4 Come into his doors with joy, and into his house with
praise; give him honour, blessing his name.

5 For the Lord is good, and his mercy is never-ending; his
faith is unchanging through all generations.

PSALMS CHAPTER 101

A Psalm. Of David.

1 I will make a song of mercy and righteousness; to you, O
Lord, will I make melody.

2 I will do wisely in the way of righteousness: O when will
you come to me? I will be walking in my house with a true
heart.

3 I will not put any evil thing before my eyes; I am against
all turning to one side; I will not have it near me.

4 The false heart I will send away from me: I will not have
an evil-doer for a friend.

5 I will put to death anyone who says evil of his neighbour
secretly; the man with a high look and a heart of pride is
disgusting to me.

6 My eyes will be on those of good faith in the land, so that
they may be living in my house; he who is walking in the
right way will be my servant.

7 The worker of deceit will not come into my house; the
false man will have no place before my eyes.

8 Morning by morning will I put to death all the sinners in
the land, so that all evil-doers may be cut off from Jerusalem.

PSALMS CHAPTER 102

A Prayer of the man who 1s in trouble, when he 1s overcome,
and puts his grief before the Lord.

1; Give ear to my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to
you.

2 Let not your face be veiled from me in the day of my
trouble; give ear to me, and let my cry be answered quickly.

3 My days are wasted like smoke, and my bones are burned
up asin a fire.

4 My heart is broken; it has become dry and dead like grass,
so that I give no thought to food.

5 Because of the voice of my sorrow, my flesh is wasted to
the bone.

6 J am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the
night-bird in a waste of sand.

7 keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top.

8 My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent
against me make use of my name as a curse.

9 I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed
with weeping:

10 Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been
lifted up and then made low by you.

11 My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry
like the grass.

12 But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never
come to an end.

13 You will again get up and have mercy on Zion: for the
time has come for her to be comforted.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, looking
with love on her dust.

15 So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory:

16 When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has
been been in his glory;

17 When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has
not put his request on one side.

18 This will be put in writing for the coming generation,
and the people of the future will give praise to the Lord.

19 For from his holy place the Lord has seen, looking down
on the earth from heaven;

20 Hearing the cry of the prisoner, making free those for
whom death is ordered;

21 So that they may give out the name of the Lord in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem;

22 When the peoples are come together, and the kingdoms,
to give worship to the Lord.

23 He has taken my strength from me in the way; he has
made short my days.

24 I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time;
your years go on through all generations:

25 In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens
are the work of your hands.

26 They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they
all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be
changed:

27 But you are the unchanging One, and your years will
have no end.

28 The children of your servants will have a safe resting-
place, and their seed will be ever before you.

PSALMS CHAPTER 103

Of David.

1 Give praise to the Lord, O my soul; let everything in me
give praise to his holy name.

2 Give praise to the Lord, O my soul; let not all his
blessings go from your memory.

3 He has forgiveness for all your sins; he takes away all your
diseases;

4 He keeps back your life from destruction, crowning you
with mercy and grace.

5 He makes your mouth full of good things, so that your
strength is made new again like the eagle's.

6 The Lord gives decisions in righteousness for all who are
in trouble.

7 He gave knowledge of his way to Moses, and made his acts
clear to the children of Israel.

8 The Lord is kind and full of pity, not quickly made angry,
but ever ready to have mercy.

9 His feeling will no longer be bitter; he will not keep his
wrath for ever.

10 He has not given us the punishment for our sins, or the
reward of our wrongdoing.

11 For as the heaven is high over the earth, so great is his
mercy to his worshippers.

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our
sins from us.

13 Asa father has pity on his children, so the Lord has pity
on his worshippers.

14 For he has knowledge of our feeble frame; he sees that
we are only dust.

15 As for man, his days are as grass: his beautiful growth is
like the flower of the field.

16 The wind goes over it and it is gone; and its place sees it
no longer.

17 But the mercy of the Lord is eternal for his worshippers,
and their children's children will see his righteousness;

18 If they keep his agreement, and have his laws in mind to
do them.

19 The Lord has made ready his high seat in the heavens;
his kingdom is ruling over all.

20 Give praise to the Lord, you his angels, who are great in
strength, doing his orders, and waiting for his voice.

21 Give praise to the Lord, all you his armies; and you his
servants who do his pleasure.

22 Give praise to the Lord, all his works, in all places under
his rule: give praise to the Lord, O my soul.

PSALMS CHAPTER 104

1 Give praise to the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you
are very great; you are robed with honour and power.

2 You are clothed with light as with a robe; stretching out
the heavens like a curtain:

3 The arch of your house is based on the waters; you make
the clouds your carriage; you go on the wings of the wind:

4 He makes winds his angels, and flames of fire his servants.

5 He has made the earth strong on its bases, so that it may
not be moved for ever and ever;

6 Covering it with the sea as with a robe: the waters were
high over the mountains;

7 At the voice of your word they went in flight; at the
sound of your thunder they went away in fear;

8 The mountains came up and the valleys went down into
the place which you had made ready for them.

9 You made a limit over which they might not go, so that
the earth would never again be covered by them.

10 You sent the springs into the valleys; they are flowing
between the hills.

11 They give drink to every beast of the field; the mountain
asses come to them for water.

12 The birds of the air have their resting-places by them,
and make their song among the branches.

13 He sends down rain from his store-houses on the hills:
the earth is full of the fruit of his works.

14 He makes the grass come up for the cattle, and plants for
the use of man; so that bread may come out of the earth;

15 And wine to make glad the heart of man, and oil to
make his face shining, and bread giving strength to his heart.

16 The trees of the Lord are full of growth, the cedars of
Lebanon of his planting;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Where the birds have their resting-places; as for the
stork, the tall trees are her house.

18 The high hills are a safe place for the mountain goats,
and the rocks for the small beasts.

19 He made the moon for a sign of the divisions of the year;
teaching the sun the time of its going down.

20 When you make it dark, it is night, when all the beasts
of the woods come quietly out of their secret places.

21 The young lions go thundering after their food;
searching for their meat from God.

22 The sun comes up, and they come together, and go back
to their secret places to take their rest.

23 Man goes out to his work, and to his business, till the
evening.

24 O Lord, how great is the number of your works! in
wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of the things
you have made.

25 There is the great, wide sea, where there are living
things, great and small, more than may be numbered.

26 There go the ships; there is that great beast, which you
have made as a plaything.

27 All of them are waiting for you, to give them their food
in its time.

28 They take what you give them; they are full of the good
things which come from your open hand.

29 If your face is veiled, they are troubled; when you take
away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the
dust.

30 If you send out your spirit, they are given life; you make
new the face of the earth.

31 Let the glory of the Lord be for ever; let the Lord have
joy in his works:

32 At whose look the earth is shaking; at whose touch the
mountains send out smoke.

33 I will make songs to the Lord all my life; I will make
melody to my God while I have my being.

34 Let my thoughts be sweet to him: I will be glad in the
Lord.

35 Let sinners be cut off from the earth, and let all evil-
doers come to an end. Give praise to the Lord, O my soul.
Give praise to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 105

1 O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name,
talking of his doings among the peoples.

2 Let your voice be sounding in songs and melody; let all
your thoughts be of the wonder of his works.

3 Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who
are searching after the Lord be glad.

4 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let
your hearts ever be turned to him.

5 Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his
wonders, and the decisions of his mouth;

60 you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob,
his loved ones.

7 He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth.

8 He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word
which he gave for a thousand generations;

9 The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his
oath to Isaac;

10 And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an
eternal agreement;

11 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the
measured line of your heritage:

12 When they were still small in number, and strange in the
land;

13 When they went about from one nation to another, and
from one kingdom to another people.

14 He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept
back kings because of them,

15 Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been
marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong.

16 And he took away all food from the land, so that the
people were without bread.

17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was given
as a servant for a price:

18 His feet were fixed in chains; his neck was put in iron
bands;

19 Till the time when his word came true; he was tested by
the word of the Lord.

20 The king sent men to take off his chains; even the ruler
of the people, who let him go free.

21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler over
everything he had;

22 To give his chiefs teaching at his pleasure, and so that
his law-givers might get wisdom from him.

23 Then Israel came into Egypt, and Jacob was living in the
land of Ham.

24 And his people were greatly increased, and became
stronger than those who were against them.

25 Their hearts were turned to hate against his people, so
that they made secret designs against them.

26 He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, the man of his
selection.

27 He let his signs be seen among the people, and his
wonders in the land of Ham.

28 He sent black night and made it dark; and they did not
go against his word.

29 At his word their waters were turned to blood, and he
sent death on all their fish.

30 Their land was full of frogs, even in the rooms of the
king.

31 He gave the word, and there came the dog-fly, and
insects over all the land.

32 He gave them ice for rain, and flaming fire in their land.

33 He gave their vines and their fig-trees to destruction,
and the trees of their land were broken down.

34 At his word the locusts came, and young locusts more
than might be numbered,

35 And put an end to all the plants of their land, taking all
the fruit of the earth for food.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

36 He put to death the first child of every family in the land,
the first-fruits of their strength.

37 He took his people out with silver and gold: there was
not one feeble person among them.

38 Egypt was glad when they went; for the fear of them had
come down on them.

39 A cloud was stretched over them for a cover; and he sent
fire to give light in the night.

40 At the people's request he sent birds, and gave them the
bread of heaven for food.

41 His hand made the rock open, and the waters came
streaming out; they went down through the dry places like a
river.

42 For he kept in mind his holy word, and Abraham, his
servant.

43 And he took his people out with joy, the men of his
selection with glad cries:

44 And gave them the lands of the nations; and they took
the work of the peoples for a heritage;

45 So that they might keep his orders, and be true to his
laws. Give praise to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 106

1 Let the Lord be praised. O give praise to the Lord, for he
is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

2 Who is able to give an account of the great acts of the
Lord, or to make clear all his praise?

3 Happy are they whose decisions are upright, and he who
does righteousness at all times.

4 Keep me in mind, O Lord, when you are good to your
people; O let your salvation come to me;

5 So that I may see the well-being of the people of your
selection, and have a part in the joy of your nation, and take
pride in your heritage.

6 We are sinners like our fathers, we have done wrong, our
acts are evil.

7 Our fathers did not give thought to your wonders in
Egypt; they did not keep in memory the great number of
your mercies, but gave you cause for wrath at the sea, even at
the Red Sea.

8 But he was their saviour because of his name, so that men
might see his great power.

9 By his word the Red Sea was made dry: and he took them
through the deep waters as through the waste land.

10 And he took them safely out of the hands of their haters,
and kept them from the attacks of those who were against
them.

11 And the waters went over their haters; all of them came
to an end.

12 Then they had faith in his words; they gave him songs of
praise.

13 But their memory of his works was short; not waiting to
be guided by him,

14 They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and
put God to the test in the dry places.

15 And he gave them their request, but sent a wasting
disease into their souls.

16 They were full of envy against Moses among the tents,
and against Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.

17 The earth opening put an end to Dathan, covering up
Abiram and his band.

18 And a fire was lighted among their tents; the sinners
were burned up by the flames.

19 They made a young ox in Horeb, and gave worship to an
image of gold.

20 And their glory was changed into the image of an ox,
whose food is grass.

21 They had no memory of God their saviour, who had
done great things in Egypt;

22 Works of wonder in the land of Ham, and things of fear
by the Red Sea.

23 And he was purposing to put an end to them if Moses,
his special servant, had not gone up before him, between him
and his people, turning back his wrath, to keep them from
destruction.

24 They were disgusted with the good land; they had no
belief in his word;

25 Talking against him secretly in their tents, they did not
give ear to the voice of the Lord.

26 So he made an oath against them, to put an end to them
in the waste land:

27 That their children might be mixed among the nations,
and sent away into other lands.

28 And they were joined to Baal-peor, and took part in the
offerings to the dead.

29 So they made him angry by their behaviour; and he sent
disease on them.

30 Then Phinehas got up, and made prayer for them; and
the disease went no farther.

31 And all the generations coming after him kept the
memory of his righteousness for ever.

32 They made God angry again at the waters of Meribah,
so that Moses was troubled because of them;

33 For they made his spirit bitter, and he said unwise
things.

34 They did not put an end to the peoples, as the Lord had
said;

35 But they were joined to the nations, learning their
works.

36 And they gave worship to images; which were a danger
to them:

37 They even made offerings of their sons and their
daughters to evil spirits,

38 And gave the blood of their sons and their daughters
who had done no wrong, offering them to the images of
Canaan; and the land was made unclean with blood.

39 So they became unclean through their works, going
after their evil desires.

40 Then the wrath of the Lord was burning against his
people, and he was angry with his heritage.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

41 And he gave them into the hands of the nations; and
they were ruled by their haters.

42 By them they were crushed, and made low under their
hands.

43 Again and again he made them free; but their hearts
were turned against his purpose, and they were overcome by
their sins.

44 But when their cry came to his ears, he had pity on their
trouble:

45 And kept in mind his agreement with them, and in his
great mercy gave them forgiveness.

46 He put pity into the hearts of those who made them
prisoners.

47 Be our saviour, O Lord our God, and let us come back
together from among the nations, so that we may give
honour to your holy name, and have glory in your praise.

48 Praise be to the Lord God of Israel for ever and for ever;
and let all the people say, So be it. Give praise to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 107

1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

2 Let those whose cause the Lord has taken up say so, his
people whom he has taken out of the hands of their haters;

3 Making them come together out of all the lands, from the
east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

4 They were wandering in the waste places; they saw no way
to a resting-place.

5 Their souls became feeble for need of food and drink.

6 Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow,
and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles;

7 Guiding them in the right way, so that they might come
into the town of their resting-place.

8 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the
wonders which he does for the children of men!

9 He gives its desire to the unresting soul, so that it is full of
good things.

10 Those who were in the dark, in the black night, in chains
of sorrow and iron;

11 Because they went against the words of God, and gave
no thought to the laws of the Most High:

12 So that he made their hearts weighted down with grief;
they were falling, and had no helper.

13 Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow,
and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles.

14 He took them out of the dark and the black night, and
all their chains were broken.

15 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for
the wonders which he does for the children of men!

16 The doors of brass are broken by his arm, and the bands
of iron are cut in two.

17 Foolish men, because of their sins, and because of their
wrongdoing, are troubled;

18 They are disgusted by all food, and they come near to
the doors of death.

19 Then they send up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow,
and he gives them salvation out of all their troubles.

20 He sent his word and made them well, and kept them
safe from the underworld.

21 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for
the wonders which he does for the children of men!

22 Let them make offerings of praise, giving news of his
works with cries of joy.

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business
in the great waters;

24 They see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the
deep.

25 For at his word comes up the storm-wind, lifting high
the waves.

26 The sailors go up to heaven, and down into the deep;
their souls are wasted because of their trouble.

27 They are turned here and there, rolling like a man who
is full of wine; and all their wisdom comes to nothing.

28 Then they send up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow,
and he gives them salvation out of all their troubles.

29 He makes the storm into a calm, so that the waves are at
peace.

30 Then they are glad, because the sea is quiet, and he takes
them to the harbour of their desire.

31 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for
the wonders which he does for the children of men!

32 Let them give glory to him in the meeting of the people,
and praise among the chiefs.

33 He makes rivers into waste places, and springs of water
into a dry land;

34 He makes a fertile country into a salt waste, because of
the sins of those who are living there.

35 He makes a waste land into a place of water, and a dry
land into water-springs.

36 And there he gives the poor a resting-place, so that they
may make themselves a town;

37 And put seed in the fields and make vine-gardens, to give
them fruit.

38 He gives them his blessing so that they are increased
greatly, and their cattle do not become less.

39 And when they are made low, and crushed by trouble
and sorrow,

40 He puts an end to the pride of kings, and sends them
wandering in the waste lands where there is no way.

41 But he puts the poor man on high from his troubles, and
gives him families like a flock.

42 The upright see it and are glad: the mouth of the sinner
is stopped.

43 Let the wise give thought to these things, and see the
mercies of the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 108

A Song. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will make songs and melody,
even with my glory.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 Give out your sounds, O corded instruments: the dawn
will be awaking with my song.

3 I will give you praise, O Lord, among the peoples; I will
make melody to you among the nations.

4 For your mercy is higher than the heavens: and your
unchanging faith than the clouds.

5 Be lifted up, O God, higher than the heavens; let your
glory be over all the earth.

6 Let your right hand be stretched out for salvation, and
give me an answer, so that your loved ones may be safe from
danger.

7 This is the word of the holy God: I will be glad; I will
make Shechem a heritage, measuring out the valley of
Succoth.

8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is the strength
of my head; Judah is my law-giver;

9 Moab is my washpot; on Edom is the resting-place of my
shoe; over Philistia will I send out a glad cry.

10 Who will take me into the strong town? who will be my
guide into Edom?

11 Have you not sent us away from you, O God? and you go
not out with our armies.

12 Give us help in our trouble; for there is no help in man.

13 With God we will do great things; for by him will our
haters be crushed underfoot.

PSALMS CHAPTER 109

To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm.

1 God of my praise, let my prayer be answered;

2 For the mouth of the sinner is open against me in deceit:
his tongue has said false things against me.

3 Words of hate are round about me; they have made war
against me without cause.

4 For my love they give me back hate; but I have given
myself to prayer.

5 They have put on me evil for good; hate in exchange for
my love.

6 Put an evil man over him; and let one be placed at his
right hand to say evil of him.

7 When he is judged, let the decision go against him; and
may his prayer become sin.

8 Let his life be short; let another take his position of
authority.

9 Let his children have no father, and his wife be made a
widow.

10 Let his children be wanderers, looking to others for
their food; let them be sent away from the company of their
friends.

11 Let his creditor take all his goods; and let others have
the profit of his work.

12 Let no man have pity on him, or give help to his children
when he is dead.

13 Let his seed be cut off; in the coming generation let their
name go out of memory.

14 Let the Lord keep in mind the wrongdoing of his fathers;
and may the sin of his mother have no forgiveness.

15 Let them be ever before the eyes of the Lord, so that the
memory of them may be cut off from the earth.

16 Because he had no mercy, but was cruel to the low and
the poor, designing the death of the broken-hearted.

17 As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him;
and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him.

18 He put on cursing like a robe, and it has come into his
body like water, and into his bones like oil.

19 Let it be to him as a robe which he puts on, let it be like
a band which is round him at all times.

20 Let this be the reward given to my haters from the Lord,
and to those who say evil of my soul.

21 But, O Lord God, give me your help, because of your
name; take me out of danger, because your mercy is good.

22 For I am poor and in need, and my heart is wounded in
me.

23 Tam gone like the shade when it is stretched out: I am
forced out of my place like a locust.

24 My knees are feeble for need of food; there is no fat on
my bones.

25 As for me, they make sport of me; shaking their heads
when they see me.

26 Give me help, O Lord my God; in your mercy be my
saviour;

27 So that they may see that it is the work of your hand;
that you, Lord, have done it.

28 They may give curses but you give blessing; when they
come up against me, put them to shame; but let your servant
be glad.

29 Let my haters be clothed with shame, covering
themselves with shame as with a robe.

30 I will give the Lord great praise with my mouth; yes, I
will give praise to him among all the people.

31 For he is ever at the right hand of the poor, to take him
out of the hands of those who go after his soul.

PSALMS CHAPTER 110

A Psalm. Of David.

1 The Lord said to my lord, Be seated at my right hand, till
I put all those who are against you under your feet.

2 The Lord will send out the rod of your strength from
Zion; be king over your haters.

3 Your people give themselves gladly in the day of your
power; like the dew of the morning on the holy mountains is
the army of your young men.

4 The Lord has made an oath, and will not take it back.
You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.

5 In the day of his wrath kings will be wounded by the Lord
at your right hand.

6 He will be judge among the nations, the valleys will be
full of dead bodies; the head over a great country will be
wounded by him.

7 He will take of the stream by the way; so his head will be
lifted up.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 111

1 Let the Lord be praised. I will give praise to the Lord
with all my heart, among the upright, and in the meeting of
the people.

2 The works of the Lord are great, searched out by all those
who have delight in them.

3 His work is full of honour and glory; and _ his
righteousness is unchanging for ever.

4 Certain for ever is the memory of his wonders: the Lord is
full of pity and mercy.

5 He has given food to his worshippers; he will keep his
agreement in mind for ever.

6 He has made clear to his people the power of his works,
giving them the heritage of the nations.

7 The works of his hands are faith and righteousness; all his
laws are unchanging.

8 They are fixed for ever and ever, they are done in faith
and righteousness.

9 He has sent salvation to his people; he has given his word
for ever: holy is his name and greatly to be feared.

10 The fear of the Lord is the best part of wisdom: all those
who keep his laws are wise: his praise is eternal.

PSALMS CHAPTER 112

1 Let the Lord be praised. Happy is the man who gives
honour to the Lord, and has great delight in his laws.

2 His seed will be strong on the earth; blessings will be on
the generation of the upright.

3 A store of wealth will be in his house, and his
righteousness will be for ever.

4 For the upright there is a light shining in the dark; he is
full of grace and pity.

5 All is well for the man who is kind and gives freely to
others; he will make good his cause when he is judged.

6 He will not ever be moved; the memory of the upright will
be living for ever.

7 He will have no fear of evil news; his heart is fixed, for his
hope is in the Lord.

8 His heart is resting safely, he will have no fear, till he sees
trouble come on his haters.

9 He has given with open hands to the poor; his
righteousness is for ever; his horn will be lifted up with
honour.

10 The sinner will see it with grief; he will be wasted away
with envy; the desire of the evil-doers will come to nothing.

PSALMS CHAPTER 113

1 Let the Lord be praised. O you servants of the Lord, give
praise to the name of the Lord.

2 Let blessing be on the name of the Lord, from this time
and for ever.

3 From the coming up of the sun to its going down, the
Lord's name is to be praised.

4 The Lord is high over all nations, and his glory is higher
than the heavens.

5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,

6 Looking down on the heavens, and on the earth?

7 He takes the poor man out of the dust, lifting him up
from his low position;

8 To give him a place among the rulers, even with the rulers
of his people.

9 He gives the unfertile woman a family, making her a
happy mother of children. Give praise to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 114

1 When Israel came out of Egypt, the children of Jacob
from a people whose language was strange to them;

2 Judah became his holy place, and Israel his kingdom.

3 The sea saw it, and went in flight; Jordan was turned back.

4 The mountains were jumping like goats, and the little
hills like lambs.

5 What was wrong with you, O sea, that you went in flight?
O Jordan, that you were turned back?

6 You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and
you little hills like lambs?

7 Be troubled, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of
Jacob;

8 Who made the rock into a water-spring, and the hard
stone into a fountain.

PSALMS CHAPTER 115

1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name let glory
be given, because of your mercy and your unchanging faith.

2 Why may the nations say, Where is now their God?

3 But our God is in heaven: he has done whatever was
pleasing to him.

4 Their images are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

5 They have mouths, but no voice; they have eyes, but they
see not;

6 They have ears, but no hearing; they have noses, but no
sense of smell;

7 They have hands without feeling, and feet without power
of walking; and no sound comes from their throat.

8 Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone
who puts his faith in them.

9 O Israel, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their
breastplate.

10 O house of Aaron, have faith in the Lord: he is their help
and their breastplate.

11 You worshippers of the Lord, have faith in the Lord: he
is their help and their breastplate.

12 The Lord has kept us in mind and will give us his
blessing; he will send blessings on the house of Israel and on
the house of Aaron.

13 He will send blessings on the worshippers of the Lord,
on the small and on the great.

14 May the Lord give you and your children still greater
increase.

15 May you have the blessing of the Lord, who made
heaven and earth.

16 The heavens are the Lord's; but the earth he has given to
the children of men.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 The dead do not give praise to the Lord; or those who
go down to the underworld.

18 But we will give praise to the Lord now and for ever.
Praise be to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 116

1 Thave given my love to the Lord, because he has given ear
to the voice of my cry and my prayer.

2 He has let my request come before him, and I will make
my prayer to him all my days.

3 The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the
underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and
sorrow.

4 Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take
my soul out of trouble.

5 The Lord is full of grace and righteousness; truly, he is a
God of mercy.

6 The Lord keeps the simple; I was made low, and he was
my saviour.

7 Come back to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has given
you your reward.

8 You have taken my soul from the power of death, keeping
my eyes from weeping, and my feet from falling.

9 T will go before the Lord in the land of the living.

10 I still had faith, though I said, I am in great trouble;

11 Though I said in my fear, All men are false.

12 What may I give to the Lord for all the good things
which he has done for me?

13 I will take the cup of salvation, and give praise to the
name of the Lord.

14 I will make the offering of my oath to the Lord, even
before all his people.

15 Dear in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.

16 O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the
son of her who is your servant; by you have my cords been
broken.

17 I will give an offering of praise to you, and make my
prayer in the name of the Lord.

18 I will make the offerings of my oath, even before all his
people;

19 In the Lord's house, even in Jerusalem. Praise be to the
Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 117

1 Let all the nations give praise to the Lord: let all the
people give him praise.

2 For great is his mercy to us, and his faith is unchanging
for ever. Praise be to the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 118

1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy is unchanging for ever.

3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

4 Let all worshippers of the Lord now say, that his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

5 I made my prayer to the Lord in my trouble: and the Lord
gave me an answer, and put me in a wide place.

6 The Lord is on my side; I will have no fear: what is man
able to do to me?

7 The Lord is my great helper: I will see my desire against
my haters.

8 It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's
hope in man.

9 It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's
hope in rulers.

10 All the nations have come round me; but in the name of
the Lord I will have them cut down.

11 They are round me, yes, they are all about me; but in the
name of the Lord J will have them cut down.

12 They are round me like bees; but they are put out like a
fire among thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will have
them cut down.

13 I have been hard pushed by you, so that I might have a
fall: but the Lord was my helper.

14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation.

15 The sound of joy and salvation is in the tents of the
upright; the right hand of the Lord does works of power.

16 The right hand of the Lord is lifted up; the right hand of
the Lord does works of power.

17 Life and not death will be my part, and I will give out
the story of the works of the Lord.

18 The hand of Jah has been hard on me; but he has not
given me up to death.

19 Let the doors of righteousness be open to me; I will go in
and give praise to the Lord.

20 This is the door of the Lord's house; the workers of
righteousness will go in through it.

21 I will give you praise, for you have given me an answer,
and have become my salvation.

22 The stone which the builders put on one side has become
the chief stone of the building.

23 This is the Lord's doing; it is a wonder in our eyes.

24 This is the day which the Lord has made; we will be full
of joy and delight in it.

25 Send salvation now, O Lord; Lord, send us your blessing.

26 A blessing be on him who comes in the name of the Lord;
we give you blessing from the house of the Lord.

27 The Lord is God, and he has given us light; let the holy
dance be ordered with branches, even up to the horns of the
altar.

28 You are my God, and I will give you praise; my God,
and J will give honour to your name.

29 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 119
(The words from ALEPH to TAW are the Egyptian and
Mesopotamian names of the letters of the Phoentcian-Hebrew
Alphabet. They headline the paragraphs of this chapter. Letter
names and their meaning, see detailed information at the end of
Appendix B.)

1 [ALEPH]; Happy are they who are without sin in their ways,
walking in the law of the Lord.

2 Happy are they who keep his unchanging word, searching
after him with all their heart.

3 They do no evil; they go in his ways.

4 You have put your orders into our hearts, so that we might
keep them with care.

5 If only my ways were ordered so that I might keep your rules!

6 Then I would not be put to shame, as long as I have respect
for all your teaching.

7 I will give you praise with an upright heart in learning your
right decisions.

8 I will keep your rules: O give me not up completely.

9 [BETH]; How may a young man make his way clean? by
guiding it after your word.

10 I have made search for you with all my heart: O let me not
go wandering far from your teaching.

11 I have kept your sayings secretly in my heart, so that I
might do no sin against you.

12 Praise be to you, O Lord: give me knowledge of your rules.

13 With my lips have I made clear all the decisions of your
mouth.

14 Thave taken as much delight in the way of your unchanging
word, as in all wealth.

15 I will give thought to your orders, and have respect for
your ways.

16 I will have delight in your rules; I will not let your word go
out of my mind.

17 [GIMEL]; Give me, your servant, the reward of life, so that
I may keep your word;

18 Let my eyes be open to see the wonders of your law.

19 I am living in a strange land: do not let your teachings be
kept secret from me.

20 My soul is broken with desire for your decisions at all times.

21 Your hand has been against the men of pride, a curse is on
those who go wandering out of your way.

22 Take away from me shame and bitter words; for I have kept
your unchanging word in my heart.

23 Rulers make evil designs against me; but your servant gives
thought to your rules.

24 Your unchanging word is my delight, and the guide of my
footsteps.

25 [DALETH]; My soul is joined to the dust: O give me life, in
keeping with your word.

26 I put the record of my ways before you, and you gave me an
answer: O give me knowledge of your rules.

27 Make the way of your orders clear to me; then my thoughts
will be ever on your wonders.

28 My soul is wasted with sorrow; give me strength again in
keeping with your word

29 Take from me every false way; and in mercy give me your
law.

30 I have taken the way of faith: I have kept your decisions
before me.

31 Ihave been true to your unchanging word; O Lord, do not
put me to shame.

32 I will go quickly in the way of your teaching, because you
have given me a free heart.

33 [HE]; O Lord, let me see the way of your rules, and I will
keep it to the end.

34 Give me wisdom, so that I may keep your law; going after
it with all my heart.

35 Make me go in the way of your teachings; for they are my
delight.

36 Let my heart be turned to your unchanging word, and not
to evil desire.

37 Let my eyes be turned away from what is false; give me life
in your ways.

38 Give effect to your word to your servant, in whose heart is
the fear of you.

39 Take away the shame which is my fear; for your decisions
are good.

40 See how great is my desire for your orders: give me life in
your righteousness.

41 [VAW]; Let your mercies come to me, O Lord, even your
salvation, as you have said.

42 So that I may have an answer for the man who would put
me to shame; for I have faith in your word.

43 Take not your true word quite out of my mouth; for I have
put my hope in your decisions.

44 So that I may keep your law for ever and ever;

45 So that my way may be in a wide place: because my search
has been for your orders.

46 So that I may give knowledge of your unchanging word
before kings, and not be put to shame.

47 And so that I may take delight in your teachings, to which I
have given my love.

48 And so that my hands may be stretched out to you; and I
will give thought to your rules.

49 [ZAYIN; Keep in mind your word to your servant, for on it
has my hope been fixed.

50 This is my comfort in my trouble; that your sayings have
given me life.

51 The men of pride have made great sport of me; but I have
not been turned from your law.

52 I have kept the memory of your decisions from times past,
O Lord; and they have been my comfort.

53 I am burning with wrath, because of the sinners who have
given up your law.

54 Your rules have been melodies to me, while I have been
living in strange lands.

55 I have given thought to your name in the night, O Lord,
and have kept your law.

56 This has been true of me, that I have kept your orders in my
heart.

57 [KHETH]; The Lord is my heritage: I have said that I
would be ruled by your words.

58 I have given my mind to do your pleasure with all my heart;
have mercy on me, as you have said.

59 I gave thought to my steps, and my feet were turned into
the way of your unchanging word.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

60 I was quick to do your orders, and let no time be wasted.

61 The cords of evil-doers are round me; but I have kept in
mind your law.

62 In the middle of the night I will get up to give you praise,
because of all your right decisions.

63 I keep company with all your worshippers, and those who
have your orders in their memory.

64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy: give me
knowledge of your rules.

65 [TSETH]; You have done good to your servant, O Lord, in
keeping with your word.

66 Give me knowledge and good sense; for I have put my faith
in your teachings.

67 Before I was in trouble I went out of the way; but now I
keep your word.

68 You are good, and your works are good; give me
knowledge of your rules.

69 The men of pride have said false things about me; but I will
keep your orders in my heart.

70 Their hearts are shut up with fat; but my delight is in your
law.

71 It is good for me to have been through trouble; so that I
might come to the knowledge of your rules.

72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of
gold and silver.

73 [JODH]; Your hands have made me, and given me form:

give me wisdom, so that I may have knowledge of your teaching.

74 Your worshippers will see me and be glad; because my hope
has been in your word.

75 [have seen, O Lord, that your decisions are right, and that
in unchanging faith you have sent trouble on me.

76 Let your mercy now be my comfort, as you have said to
your servant.

77 Let your gentle mercies come to me, so that I may have life;
for your law is my delight.

78 Let the men of pride be shamed; because they have falsely
given decision against me; but I will give thought to your
orders.

79 Let your worshippers be turned to me, and those who have
knowledge of your words.

80 Let all my heart be given to your orders, so that I may not
be put to shame.

81 [KAPH]; My soul is wasted with desire for your salvation:
but I have hope in your word.

82 My eyes are full of weariness with searching for your word,
saying, When will you give me comfort?

83 For I have become like a wine-skin black with smoke; but I
still keep the memory of your rules.

84 How short is the life of your servant! when will you give
your decision against those who are attacking me?

85 The men of pride, who are turned away from your law,
have put nets for me.

86 All your teachings are certain; they go after me with evil
design; give me your help.

87 They had almost put an end to me on earth; but I did not
give up your orders.

88 Give me life in your mercy; so that I may be ruled by the
unchanging word of your mouth.

89 [LAMEDH]; For ever, O Lord, your word is fixed in
heaven.

90 Your faith is unchanging from generation to generation:
you have put the earth in its place, and it is not moved.

91 They are ruled this day by your decisions; for all things are
your servants.

92 If your law had not been my delight, my troubles would
have put an end to me.

93 I will ever keep your orders in mind; for in them I have life.

94 I am yours, O be my saviour; for my desire has been for
your rules.

95 The sinners have been waiting for me to give me up to
destruction; but I will give all my mind to your unchanging
ward.

96 I have seen that nothing on earth is complete; but your
teaching is very wide.

97 [MEM]; O what love I have for your law! I give thought to
it all the day.

98 Your teaching has made me wiser than my haters: for it is
mine for ever.

99 I have more knowledge than all my teachers, because I give
thought to your unchanging word.

100 I have more wisdom than the old, because I have kept your
orders.

101 Ihave kept back my feet from all evil ways, so that I might
be true to your word.

102 My heart has not been turned away from your decisions;
for you have been my teacher.

103 How sweet are your sayings to my taste! truly, they are
sweeter than honey in my mouth!

104 Through your orders I get wisdom; for this reason I am a
hater of every false way.

105 [NUN]; Your word is a light for my feet, ever shining on
my way.

106 I have made an oath and kept it, to be guided by your
upright decisions.

107 I am greatly troubled, O Lord, give me life in keeping
with your word.

108 Take, O Lord, the free offerings of my mouth, and give me
knowledge of your decisions.

109 My soul is ever in danger; but I still keep the memory of
your law.

110 Sinners have put a net to take me; but I was true to your
orders.

111 [have taken your unchanging word as an eternal heritage;
for it is the joy of my heart.

112 My heart is ever ready to keep your rules, even to the end.

113 [SAMEKH]; I am a hater of men of doubting mind; but I
am a lover of your law.

114 You are my secret place and my breastplate against
danger; my hope is in your word.

115 Go far from me, you evil-doers; so that I may keep the
teachings of my God.

116 Be my support as you have said, and give me life; let not
my hope be turned to shame.

117 Let me not be moved, and I will be safe, and ever take
delight in your rules.

118 You have overcome all those who are wandering from
your rules; for all their thoughts are false.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

119 All the sinners of the earth are like waste metal in your
eyes; and for this cause I give my love to your unchanging word.

120 My flesh is moved for fear of you; I give honour to your
decisions.

121 [AYIN]; I have done what is good and right: you will not
give me into the hands of those who are working against me.

122 Take your servant's interests into your keeping; let me not
be crushed by the men of pride.

123 My eyes are wasted with desire for your salvation, and for
the word of your righteousness.

124 Be good to your servant in your mercy, and give me
teaching in your rules.

125 I am your servant; give me wisdom, so that I may have
knowledge of your unchanging word.

126 It is time, O Lord, for you to let your work be seen; for
they have made your law without effect.

127 For this reason I have greater love far your teachings than
for gold, even for shining gold.

128 Because of it I keep straight in all things by your orders;
and I am a hater of every false way.

129 [PE]; Your unchanging word is full of wonder; for this
reason my soul keeps it.

130 The opening of your words gives light; it gives good sense
to the simple.

131 My mouth was open wide, waiting with great desire for
your teachings.

132 Let your eyes be turned to me, and have mercy on me, as it
is right for you to do to those who are lovers of your name.

133 Let my steps be guided by your word; and let not sin have
control over me.

134 Make me free from the cruel rule of man; then I will keep
your orders.

135 Let your servant see the shining of your face; give me
knowledge of your rules.

136 Rivers of water are flowing from my eyes, because men do
not keep your law.

137 [TSADE]; O Lord, great is your righteousness, and
upright are your decisions.

138 You have given your unchanging word in righteousness,
and it is for ever.

139 My passion has overcome me; because my haters are
turned away from your words.

140 Your word is of tested value; and it is dear to your servant.

141 Tam small and of no account; but I keep your orders in
mind.

142 Your righteousness is an unchanging righteousness, and
your law is certain.

143 Pain and trouble have overcome me: but your teachings
are my delight.

144 The righteousness of your unchanging word is eternal;
give me wisdom so that I may have life.

145 [QOPH]; I have made my prayer with all my heart; give
answer to me, O Lord: I will keep your rules.

146 My cry has gone up to you; take me out of trouble, and I
will be guided by your unchanging word.

147 Before the sun is up, my cry for help comes to your ear; my
hope is in your words.

148 In the night watches I am awake, so that I may give
thought to your saying.

149 Let my voice come to you, in your mercy; O Lord, by your
decisions give me life.

150 Those who have evil designs against me come near; they
are far from your law.

151 You are near, O Lord; and all your teachings are true.

152 I have long had knowledge that your unchanging word is
for ever.

153 [RESH]; O see my trouble, and be my saviour; for I keep
your law in my mind,

154 Undertake my cause, and come to my help, give me life, as
you have said.

155 Salvation is far from evil-doers; for they have made no
search for your rules.

156 Great is the number of your mercies, O Lord; give me life
in keeping with your decisions.

157 Great is the number of those who are against me; but I
have not been turned away from your unchanging word.

158 I saw with hate those who were untrue to you; for they did
not keep your saying.

159 See how great is my love for your orders: give me life, O
Lord, in keeping with your mercy.

160 Your word is true from the first; and your upright
decision is unchanging for ever.

161 [SHIN]; Rulers have been cruel to me without cause; but I
have the fear of your word in my heart.

162 I am delighted by your saying, like a man who makes
discovery of great wealth.

163 I am full of hate and disgust for false words; but I am a
lover of your law.

164 Seven times a day do I give you praise, because of your
upright decisions.

165 Great peace have lovers of your law; they have no cause
for falling.

166 Lord, my hope has been in your salvation; and I have kept
your teachings.

167 My soul has kept your unchanging word; great is my love
for it.

168 I have been ruled by your orders; for all my ways are
before you.

169 [TAW]; Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me
wisdom in keeping with your word.

170 Let my prayer come before you; take me out of trouble, as
you have said.

171 Let my lips be flowing with praise, because you have given
me knowledge of your rules.

172 Let my tongue make songs in praise of your word; for all
your teachings are righteousness.

173 Let your hand be near for my help; for I have given my
heart to your orders.

174 All my desire has been for your salvation, O Lord; and
your law is my delight.

175 Give life to my soul so that it may give you praise; and let
your decisions be my support.

176 I have gone out of the way like a wandering sheep; make
search for your servant; for I keep your teachings ever in mind.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 120

A Song of the going up.

1 In my trouble my cry went up to the Lord, and he gave me
an answer.

2 O Lord, be the saviour of my soul from false lips, and
from the tongue of deceit.

3 What punishment will he give you? what more will he do
to you, you false tongue?

4 Sharp arrows of the strong, and burning fire.

5 Sorrow is mine because I am strange in Meshech, and
living in the tents of Kedar.

6 My soul has long been living with the haters of peace.

71am for peace: but when I say so, they are for war.

PSALMS CHAPTER 121

A Song of the going up.

1 My eyes are lifted up to the hills: O where will my help
come from?

2 Your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and
earth.

3 May he not let your foot be moved: no need of sleep has he
who keeps you.

4 See, the eyes of Israel's keeper will not be shut in sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your
right hand.

6 You will not be touched by the sun in the day, or by the
moon at night.

7 The Lord will keep you safe from all evil; he will take care
of your soul.

8 The Lord will keep watch over your going out and your
coming in, from this time and for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 122

A Song of the going up. Of David.

1 I was glad because they said to me, We will go into the
house of the Lord.

2 At last our feet were inside your doors, O Jerusalem.

3 O Jerusalem, you are like a town which is well joined
together;

4 To which the tribes went up, even the tribes of the Lord,
for a witness to Israel, to give praise to the name of the Lord.

5 For there seats for the judges were placed, even the rulers'
seats of the line of David.

6 O make prayers for the peace of Jerusalem; may they
whose love is given to you do well.

7 May peace be inside your walls, and wealth in your noble
houses.

8 Because of my brothers and friends, I will now say, Let
peace be with you.

9 Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will be
working for your good.

PSALMS CHAPTER 123

A Song of the going up.

1 To you my eyes are lifted up, even to you whose seat is in
the heavens.

2 See! as the eyes of servants are turned to the hands of their
masters, and the eyes of a servant-girl to her owner, so our
eyes are waiting for the Lord our God, till he has mercy on us.

3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for all men
are looking down on us.

4 For long enough have men of pride made sport of our
soul.

PSALMS CHAPTER 124

A Song of the going up. Of David.

1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side (let Israel
now say);

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when
men came up against us;

3 They would have made a meal of us while still living, in
the heat of their wrath against us:

4 We would have been covered by the waters; the streams
would have gone over our soul;

5 Yes, the waters of pride would have gone over our soul.

6 Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be wounded by
their teeth.

7 Our soul has gone free like a bird out of the net of those
who would take her: the net is broken, and we are free.

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven
and earth.

PSALMS CHAPTER 125

A Song of the going up.

1 Those whose hope is in the Lord are like the mountain of
Zion, which may not be moved, but keeps its place for ever.

2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord
is round about his people, from this time and for ever.

3 For the rod of sinners will not be resting on the heritage
of the upright; so that the upright may not put out their
hands to evil.

4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those
who are upright in heart.

5 But as for such as are turned out of the straight way, the
Lord will take them away with the workers of evil. Let peace
be on Israel.

PSALMS CHAPTER 126

A Song of the going up.

1 When the Lord made a change in Zion's fate, we were like
men ina dream.

2 Then our mouths were full of laughing, and our tongues
gave a glad cry; they said among the nations, The Lord has
done great things for them.

3 The Lord has done great things for us; because of which
we are glad.

4 Let our fate be changed, O Lord, like the streams in the
South.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Those who put in seed with weeping will get in the grain
with cries of joy.

6 Though a man may go out weeping, taking his vessel of
seed with him; he will come again in joy, with the corded
stems of grain in his arms.

PSALMS CHAPTER 127

A Song of the going up. Of Solomon.

1 If the Lord is not helping the builders, then the building
of a house is to no purpose: if the Lord does not keep the
town, the watchman keeps his watch for nothing.

2 It is of no use for you to get up early, and to go late to
your rest, with the bread of sorrow for your food; for the
Lord gives to his loved ones in sleep.

3 See, sons are a heritage from the Lord; the fruit of the
body is his reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of a man of war, are the children
of the young.

5 Happy is the man who has a good store of them; he will
not be put to shame, but his cause will be supported by them
against his haters.

PSALMS CHAPTER 128

A Song of the going up.

1 Happy is the worshipper of the Lord, who is walking in
his ways.

2 You will have the fruit of the work of your hands: happy
will you be, and all will be well for you.

3 Your wife will be like a fertile vine in the inmost parts of
your house: your children will be like olive plants round
your table.

4 See! this is the blessing of the worshipper of the Lord.

5 May the Lord send you blessing out of Zion: may you see
the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

6 May you see your children's children. Peace be on Israel.

PSALMS CHAPTER 129

A Song of the going up.

1 Great have been my troubles from the time when | was
young (let Israel now say);

2 Great have been my troubles from the time when I was
young, but my troubles have not overcome me.

3 The ploughmen were ploughing on my back; long were
the wounds they made.

4 The Lord is true: the cords of the evil-doers are broken in
two.

5 Let all the haters of Zion be shamed and turned back.

6 Let them be like the grass on the house-tops, which is dry
before it comes to full growth.

7 He who gets in the grain has no use for it; and they do not
make bands of it for the grain-stems.

8 And those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord
be on you; we give you blessing in the name of the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 130

A Song of the going up.

1 Out of the deep have I sent up my cry to you, O Lord.

2 Lord, let my voice come before you: let your ears be
awake to the voice of my prayer.

3 O Jah, if you took note of every sin, who would go free?

4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be
feared.

5] am waiting for the Lord, my soul is waiting for him, and
my hope is in his word.

6 My soul is watching for the Lord more than those who
are watching for the morning; yes, more than the watchers
for the morning.

7 O Israel, have hope in the Lord; for with the Lord is
mercy and full salvation.

8 And he will make Israel free from all his sins.

PSALMS CHAPTER 131

A Song of the going up. Of David.

1 Lord, there is no pride in my heart and my eyes are not
lifted up; and I have not taken part in great undertakings, or
in things over-hard for me.

2 See, I have made my soul calm and quiet, like a child on
its mother's breast; my soul is like a child on its mother's
breast.

3 O Israel, have hope in the Lord, from this time and for
ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 132

A Song of the going up.

1 Lord, give thought to David, and to all his troubles;

2 How he made an oath to the Lord, and gave his word to
the great God of Jacob, saying,

3 Truly, I will not come into my house, or go to my bed,

4T will not give sleep to my eyes, or rest to my eyeballs,

5 Till I have got a place for the Lord, a resting-place for the
great God of Jacob.

6 We had news of it at Ephrathah: we came to it in the
fields of the wood.

7 Let us go into his tent; let us give worship at his feet.

8 Come back, O Lord, to your resting-place; you and the
ark of your strength.

9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; and let
your saints give cries of joy.

10 Because of your servant David, do not give up your king.

11 The Lord gave a true oath to David, which he will not
take back, saying, I will give your kingdom to the fruit of
your body.

12 If your children keep my word, and the teachings which
I will give them, their children will be rulers of your
kingdom for ever.

13 For the Lord's heart is on Zion, desiring it for his
resting-place.

14 This is my rest for ever: here will I ever be; for this is my
desire.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 My blessing will be on her food; and her poor will be full
of bread.

16 Her priests will be clothed with salvation; and her saints
will give cries of joy.

17 There I will make the horn of David fertile: I have made
ready a light for my king.

18 His haters will be clothed with shame; but I will make
his crown shining.

PSALMS CHAPTER 133

A Song of the going up. Of David.

1 See how good and how pleasing it is for brothers to be
living together in harmony!

2 It is like oil of great price on the head, flowing down over
the face, even Aaron's face: coming down to the edge of his
robe;

3 Like the dew of Hermon, which comes down on the
mountains of Zion: for there the Lord gave orders for the
blessing, even life for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 134

A Song of the going up.

1 Give praise to the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who
take your places in the house of the Lord by night.

2 Give praise to the Lord, lifting up your hands in his holy
place.

3 May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, send you
blessing out of Zion,

PSALMS CHAPTER 135

1 Let the Lord be praised. O you servants of the Lord, give
praise to the name of the Lord.

2 You who are in the house of the Lord, and in the open
spaces of the house of our God,

3 Give praise to Jah, for he is good: make melody to his
name, for it is pleasing.

4 For the Lord has taken Jacob for himself, and Israel for
his property.

5 I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is
greater than all other gods.

6 The Lord has done whatever was pleasing to him, in
heaven, and on the earth, in the seas and in all the deep
waters.

7 He makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he
makes thunder-flames for the rain; he sends out the winds
from his store-houses.

8 He put to death the first-fruits of Egypt, of man and of
beast.

9 He sent signs and wonders among you, O Egypt, on
Pharaoh, and on all his servants.

10 He overcame great nations, and put strong kings to
death;

11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms of Canaan;

12 And gave their land for a heritage, even for a heritage to
Israel his people.

13 O Lord, your name is eternal; and the memory of you
will have no end.

14 For the Lord will be judge of his people's cause; his
feelings will be changed to his servants.

15 The images of the nations are silver and gold, the work
of men's hands.

16 They have mouths, but no voice, they have eyes, but they
do not see;

17 They have ears, but no hearing; and there is no breath in
their mouths.

18 Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone
who puts his hope in them.

19 Give praise to the Lord, O children of Israel: give praise
to the Lord, O sons of Aaron:

20 Give praise to the Lord, O sons of Levi: let all the
worshippers of the Lord give him praise.

21 Praise be to the Lord out of Zion, even to the Lord
whose house is in Jerusalem, Let the Lord be praised.

PSALMS CHAPTER 136

1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

2 O give praise to the God of gods: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

3 O give praise to the Lord of lords: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

4 To him who only does great wonders: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

5 To him who by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

6 To him by whom the earth was stretched out over the
waters: for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

7 To him who made great lights: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

8 The sun to have rule by day: for his mercy is unchanging
for ever.

9 The moon and the stars to have rule by night: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever.

10 To him who put to death the first-fruits of Egypt: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever:

11 And took out Israel from among them: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever:

12 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever.

13 To him who made a way through the Red Sea: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever:

14 And let Israel go through it: for his mercy is unchanging
for ever:

15 By him Pharaoh and his army were overturned in the
Red Sea: for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

16 To him who took his people through the waste land: for
his mercy is unchanging for ever.

17 To him who overcame great kings: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever:

18 And put noble kings to death: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Sihon, king of the Amorites: for his mercy is unchanging
for ever:

20 And Og, king of Bashan: for his mercy is unchanging for
ever:

21 And gave their land to his people for a heritage: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever.

22 Even a heritage for his servant Israel: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

23 Who kept us in mind when we were in trouble: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever.

24 And has taken us out of the hands of our haters: for his
mercy is unchanging for ever.

25 Who gives food to all flesh: for his mercy is unchanging
for ever.

26 O give praise to the God of heaven: for his mercy is
unchanging for ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we were seated, weeping at the
memory of Zion,

2 Hanging our instruments of music on the trees by the
waterside.

3 For there those who had taken us prisoners made request
for a song; and those who had taken away all we had gave us
orders to be glad, saying, Give us one of the songs of Zion.

4 How may we give the Lord's song in a strange land?

5 If I keep not your memory, O Jerusalem, let not my right
hand keep the memory of its art.

6 If I let you go out of my thoughts, and if I do not put
Jerusalem before my greatest joy, let my tongue be fixed to
the roof of my mouth.

7 O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the
day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered,
uncovered even to its base.

8 O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy
is the man who does to you what you have done to us.

9 Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing
them against the rocks.

PSALMS CHAPTER 138

Of David.

1 I will give you praise with all my heart: I will make
melody to you before the gods.

2 I will give worship before your holy Temple, praising
your name for your mercy and for your unchanging faith: for
you have made your word greater than all your name.

3 When my cry came to your ears you gave me an answer,
and made me great with strength in my soul.

4 All the kings of the earth will give you praise, O Lord,
when the words of your mouth come to their ears.

5 They will make songs about the ways of the Lord; for
great is the glory of the Lord.

6 Though the Lord is high, he sees those who are low; and
he has knowledge from far off of those who are lifted up.

7 Even when trouble is round me, you will give me life;
your hand will be stretched out against the wrath of my
haters, and your right hand will be my salvation.

8 The Lord will make all things complete for me: O Lord,
your mercy is eternal; do not give up the works of your hands.

PSALMS CHAPTER 139

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my
secrets.

2 You have knowledge when I am seated and when I get up,
you see my thoughts from far away.

3 You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have
knowledge of all my ways.

4 For there is not a word on my tongue which is not clear
to you, O Lord.

5 Tam shut in by you on every side, and you have put your
hand on me.

6 Such knowledge is a wonder greater than my powers; it is
so high that I may not come near it.

7 Where may I go from your spirit? how may I go in flight
from you?

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there: or if I make my bed in
the underworld, you are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning, and go to the farthest
parts of the sea;

10 Even there will I be guided by your hand, and your right
hand will keep me.

11 If I say, Only let me be covered by the dark, and the light
about me be night;

12 Even the dark is not dark to you; the night is as bright
as the day: for dark and light are the same to you.

13 My flesh was made by you, and my parts joined together
in my mother's body.

14 I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately
formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is
fully conscious.

15 My frame was not unseen by you when I was made
secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all
my days were recorded, even those which were purposed
before they had come into being.

17 How dear are your thoughts to me, O God! how great is
the number of them!

18 If I made up their number, it would be more than the
grains of sand; when I am awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you would put the sinners to death, O God; go
far from me, you men of blood.

20 For they go against you with evil designs, and your
haters make sport of your name.

21 Are not your haters hated by me, O Lord? are not those
who are lifted up against you a cause of grief to me?

22 My hate for them is complete; my thoughts of them are
as if they were making war on me.

23 O God, let the secrets of my heart be uncovered, and let
my wandering thoughts be tested:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 See if there is any way of sorrow in me, and be my guide
in the eternal way.

PSALMS CHAPTER 140

To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.

1 O Lord, take me out of the power of the evil man; keep me
safe from the violent man:

2 For their hearts are full of evil designs; and they are ever
making ready causes of war.

3 Their tongues are sharp like the tongue of a snake; the
poison of snakes is under their lips. (Selah.)

40 Lord, take me out of the hands of sinners; keep me safe
from the violent man: for they are designing my downfall.

5 The men of pride have put secret cords for my feet;
stretching nets in my way, so that they may take me with
their tricks. (Selah.)

6 I have said to the Lord, You are my God: give ear, O
Lord, to the voice of my prayer.

7 O Lord God, the strength of my salvation, you have been
acover over my head in the day of the fight.

8 O Lord, give not the wrongdoer his desire; give him no
help in his evil designs, or he may be uplifted in pride. (Selah.)

9 As for those who come round me, let their heads be
covered by the evil of their lips.

10 Let burning flames come down on them: let them be put
into the fire, and into deep waters, so that they may not get
up again.

11 Let not a man of evil tongue be safe on earth: let
destruction overtake the violent man with blow on blow.

12 I am certain that the Lord will take care of the cause of
the poor, and of the rights of those who are troubled.

13 Truly, the upright will give praise to your name: the
holy will have a place in your house.

PSALMS CHAPTER 141

A Psalm. Of David.

1 Lord, I have made my cry to you; come to me quickly;
give ear to my voice, when it goes up to you.

2 Let my prayer be ordered before you like a sweet smell;
and let the lifting up of my hands be like the evening offering.

3 O Lord, keep a watch over my mouth; keep the door of
my lips.

4 Keep my heart from desiring any evil thing, or from
taking part in the sins of the evil-doers with men who do
wrong: and let me have no part in their good things.

5 Let the upright give me punishment; and let the god-
fearing man put me in the right way; but I will not let the oil
of sinners come on my head: when they do evil I will give
myself to prayer.

6 When destruction comes to their judges by the side of the
rock, they will give ear to my words, for they are sweet.

7 Our bones are broken up at the mouth of the underworld,
as the earth is broken by the plough.

8 But my eyes are turned to you, O Lord God: my hope is in
you; let not my soul be given up to death.

9 Keep me from the net which they have put down for me,
and from the designs of the workers of evil.

10 Let the sinners be taken in the nets which they
themselves have put down, while I go free.

PSALMS CHAPTER 142

Maschil. Of David. A prayer when he was in the hole of the
rock.

| The sound of my cry went up to the Lord; with my voice I
made my prayer for grace to the Lord.

2 I put all my sorrows before him; and made clear to him all
my trouble.

3 When my spirit is overcome, your eyes are on my goings;
nets have been secretly placed in the way in which I go.

4 Looking to my right side, I saw no man who was my
friend: I had no safe place; no one had any care for my soul.

5 I have made my cry to you, O Lord; I have said, You are
my safe place, and my heritage in the land of the living.

6 Give ear to my cry, for Iam made very low: take me out of
the hands of my haters, for they are stronger than I.

7 Take my soul out of prison, so that I may give praise to
your name: the upright will give praise because of me; for
you have given me a full reward.

PSALMS CHAPTER 143

A Psalm. Of David.

1 Let my prayer come to you, O Lord; give ear to my
requests for your grace; keep faith with me, and give me an
answer in your righteousness;

2 Let not your servant come before you to be judged; for no
man living is upright in your eyes.

3 The evil man has gone after my soul; my life is crushed
down to the earth: he has put me in the dark, like those who
have long been dead.

4 Because of this my spirit is overcome; and my heart is full
of fear.

5 I keep in mind the early days of the past, giving thought
to all your acts, even to the work of your hands.

6 My hands are stretched out to you: my soul is turned to
you, like a land in need of water. (Selah.)

7 Be quick in answering me, O Lord, for the strength of my
spirit is gone: let me see your face, so that I may not be like
those who go down into the underworld.

8 Let the story of your mercy come to me in the morning,
for my hope is in you: give me knowledge of the way in which
Tam to go; for my soul is lifted up to you.

9 O Lord, take me out of the hands of my haters; my soul is
waiting for you.

10 Give me teaching so that I may do your pleasure; for you
are my God: let your good Spirit be my guide into the land
of righteousness.

11 Give me life, O Lord, because of your name; in your
righteousness take my soul out of trouble.

12 And in your mercy put an end to my haters, and send
destruction on all those who are against my soul; for I am
your servant.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 144

A Psalm. Of David.

| Praise be to the God of my strength, teaching my hands
the use of the sword, and my fingers the art of fighting:

2 He is my strength, and my Rock; my high tower, and my
saviour; my keeper and my hope: he gives me authority over
my people.

3 Lord, what is man, that you keep him in mind? or the son
of man that you take him into account?

4 Man is like a breath: his life is like a shade which is
quickly gone.

5 Come down, O Lord, from your heavens: at your touch
let the mountains give out smoke.

6 With your storm-flames send them in flight: send out
your arrows for their destruction.

7 Put out your hand from on high; make me free, take me
safely out of the great waters, and out of the hands of strange
men;

8 In whose mouths are false words, and whose right hand is
aright hand of deceit.

9 T will make a new song to you, O God; I will make melody
to you on an instrument of ten cords.

10 It is God who gives salvation to kings; and who kept his
servant David from the wounding sword.

11 Make me free, and take me out of the hands of strange
men, in whose mouths are false words, and whose right hand
is a right hand of deceit.

12 Our sons are like tall young plants; and our daughters
like the shining stones of a king's house;

13 Our store-houses are full of all good things; and our
sheep give birth to thousands and ten thousands in our fields.

14 Our oxen are well weighted down; our cows give birth
safely; there is no going out, and there is no cry of sorrow in
our open places.

15 Happy is the nation whose ways are so ordered: yes,
happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 145

A Song of praise. Of David.

1 Let me give glory to you, O God, my King; and blessing
to your name for ever and ever.

2 Every day will I give you blessing, praising your name for
ever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his power
may never be searched out.

4 One generation after another will give praise to your
great acts, and make clear the operation of your strength.

5 My thoughts will be of the honour and glory of your rule,
and of the wonder of your works.

6 Men will be talking of the power and fear of your acts; I
will give word of your glory.

7 Their sayings will be full of the memory of all your mercy,
and they will make songs of your righteousness.

8 The Lord is full of grace and pity; not quickly angry, but
great in mercy.

9 The Lord is good to all men; and his mercies are over all
his works.

10 All the works of your hands give praise to you, O Lord;
and your saints give you blessing.

11 Their words will be of the glory of your kingdom, and
their talk of your strength;

12 So that the sons of men may have knowledge of his acts
of power, and of the great glory of his kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and your rule is
through all generations.

14 The Lord is the support of all who are crushed, and the
lifter up of all who are bent down.

15 The eyes of all men are waiting for you; and you give
them their food in its time.

16 By the opening of your hand, every living thing has its
desire in full measure.

17 The Lord is upright in all his ways, and kind in all his
works.

18 The Lord is near all those who give honour to his name;
even to all who give honour to him with true hearts.

19 To his worshippers, he will give their desire; their cry
comes to his ears, and he gives them salvation.

20 The Lord will keep all his worshippers from danger; but
he will send destruction on all sinners.

21 My mouth will give praise to the Lord; let all flesh be
blessing his holy name for ever and ever.

PSALMS CHAPTER 146

1 Let the Lord be praised. Give praise to the Lord, O my
soul.

2 While I have breath I will give praise to the Lord: I will
make melody to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your faith in rulers, or in the son of man, in
whom there is no salvation.

4 Man's breath goes out, he is turned back again to dust; in
that day all his purposes come to an end.

5 Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God:

6 Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things in
them; who keeps faith for ever:

7 Who gives their rights to those who are crushed down;
and gives food to those who are in need of it: the Lord makes
the prisoners free;

8 The Lord makes open the eyes of the blind; the Lord is the
lifter up of those who are bent down; the Lord is a lover of
the upright;

9 The Lord takes care of those who are in a strange land; he
gives help to the widow and to the child who has no father;
but he sends destruction on the way of sinners.

10 The Lord will be King for ever; your God, O Zion, will
be King through all generations. Praise be to the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PSALMS CHAPTER 147

1 Give praise to the Lord; for it is good to make melody to
our God; praise is pleasing and beautiful.

2 The Lord is building up Jerusalem; he makes all the
outlaws of Israel come together.

3 He makes the broken-hearted well, and puts oil on their
wounds.

4 He sees the number of the stars; he gives them all their
names.

5 Great is our Lord, and great his power; there is no limit
to his wisdom.

6 The Lord gives help to the poor in spirit; but he sends
sinners down in shame.

7 Make songs of praise to the Lord; make melody to our
God with instruments of music.

8 By his hand the heaven is covered with clouds and rain is
stored up for the earth; he makes the grass tall on the
mountains.

9 He gives food to every beast, and to the young ravens in
answer to their cry.

10 He has no delight in the strength of a horse; he takes no
pleasure in the legs of a man.

11 The Lord takes pleasure in his worshippers, and in those
whose hope is in his mercy.

12 Give praise to the Lord, O Jerusalem; give praise to your
God, O Zion.

13 He has made strong the iron bands of your doors; he has
sent blessings on your children inside your walls.

14 He gives peace in all your land, making your stores full
of fat grain.

15 He sends out his orders to the earth; his word goes out
quickly.

16 He gives snow like wool; he sends out ice-drops like dust.

17 He sends down ice like raindrops: water is made hard by
his cold.

18 At the outgoing of his word, the ice is turned to water;
when he sends out his wind, there is a flowing of waters.

19 He makes his word clear to Jacob, teaching Israel his
laws and his decisions.

20 He has not done these things for any other nation: and
as for his laws, they have no knowledge of them. Let the
Lord be praised.

PSALMS CHAPTER 148

| Give praise to the Lord. Let the Lord be praised from the
heavens: give him praise in the skies.

2 Give praise to him, all you his angels: give praise to him,
all his armies.

3 Give praise to him, you sun and moon: give praise to him,
all you stars of light.

4 Give praise to him, you highest heavens, and you waters
which are over the heavens.

5 Let them give praise to the name of the Lord: for he gave
the order, and they were made.

6 He has put them in their places for ever; he has given them
their limits which may not be broken.

7 Give praise to the Lord from the earth, you great sea-
beasts, and deep places:

8 Fire and rain of ice, snow and mists; storm-wind, doing
his word:

9 Mountains and all hills; fruit-trees and all trees of the
mountains:

10 Beasts and all cattle; insects and winged birds:

11 Kings of the earth, and all peoples; rulers and all judges
of the earth:

12 Young men and virgins; old men and children:

13 Let them give glory to the name of the Lord: for his
name only is to be praised: his kingdom is over the earth and
the heaven.

14 He has put on high the horn of his people, for the praise
of all his saints; even the children of Israel, a people which is
near to him. Let the Lord be praised.

PSALMS CHAPTER 149

| Let the Lord be praised. Make a new song to the Lord, let
his praise be in the meeting of his saints.

2 Let Israel have joy in his maker; let the children of Zion
be glad in their King.

3 Let them give praise to his name in the dance: let them
make melody to him with instruments of brass and corded
instruments of music.

4 For the Lord has pleasure in his people: he gives the poor
in spirit a crown of salvation.

5 Let the saints have joy and glory: let them give cries of joy
on their beds.

6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-
edged sword in their hands;

7 To give the nations the reward of their sins, and the
peoples their punishment;

8 To put their kings in chains, and their rulers in bands of
iron;

9 To give them the punishment which is in the holy
writings: this honour is given to all his saints. Praise be to
the Lord.

PSALMS CHAPTER 150

1 Let the Lord be praised. Give praise to God in his holy
place: give him praise in the heaven of his power.

2 Give him praise for his acts of power: give him praise in
the measure of his great strength.

3 Give him praise with the sound of the horn: give him
praise with corded instruments of music.

4 Give him praise with instruments of brass and in the
dance: give him praise with horns and corded instruments.

5 Give him praise with the loud brass: give him praise with
the high-sounding brass.

6 Let everything which has breath give praise to the Lord.
Let the Lord be praised.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE HIDDEN OR LOST PSALMS 151-155

The Apocryphal Psalms in Syriac Aramaic

(The psalms 151-155 were considered fake by most Jewish
and Christian authorities, but not by the Eastern Orthodox
communities were we can find them in copies of the Greek
Septuagint, Ethiopic, Syriac and Armenian Bibles. With the
Dead Sea Scrolls found in the caves of Qumran in 1947 and
1956, we know that at least Psalms 151, 154 and 155 are
authentic. For this reason, we show them here.)

PSALMS CHAPTER 151
(Dead Sea scroll 11QPs(a) or 11Q5) This Psalm narrates the
story of David when he slew Goliath in single combat.)

[Superscription:] This psalm was written by David himself
after he fought single-handedly with Goliath.

1 I was the youngest among my brethren, and a youth in my
father's house.

2 T used to feed my father's flock, and I found a lion and a
wolf, and slew them and rent them.

3 My hands made a harp, and my fingers fashioned a lyre.

4 Who will show me my Lord? He, my Lord, is become my
God.

5 He sent His angel and took me away from my father's
sheep, and anointed me with the oil of anointing.

6 My brethren, the fair and the tall, in them the Lord had
no pleasure.

7 And I went forth to meet the Philistine, and he cursed me
by his idols.

8 But I drew his sword and cut off his head, and took away
the reproach from the children of Israel.

PSALMS CHAPTER 152

(This text survived only in Syriac. The original language
may be Hebrew from about 323-31 BC.) Spoken by David
when he was contending with the lion and the wolf which
took a sheep from his flock.)

1 With a loud voice glorify ye God; in the assembly of many
proclaim ye His glory.

2 Amid the multitude of the upright glorify His praise; and
speak of His glory with the righteous.

3 Join yourselves literally, your soul to the good and to the
perfect, to glorify the Most High.

4 Gather yourselves together to make known His strength;
and be not slow in showing forth His deliverance [and His
strength] and His glory to all babes.

5 That the honour of the Lord may be known, wisdom hath
been given; and to tell of His works it hath been made known
to men:

6 to make known unto babes His strength, and to make
them that lack understanding literally, heart to comprehend
His glory;

7 who are far from His entrances and distant from His gates:

8 because the Lord of Jacob is exalted, and His glory is
upon all His works.

9 And a man who glorifies the Most High, in him will He
take pleasure; as in one who offers fine meal, and as in one
who offers he-goats and calves;

10 and as in one who makes fat the altar with a multitude
of burnt offerings; and as the smell of incense from the hands
of the just.

11 From thy upright gates 2 shall be heard His voice, and
from the voice of the upright admonition.

12 And in their eating shall be satisfying in truth, and in
their drinking, when they share together.

13 Their dwelling is in the law of the Most High, and their
speech is to make known His strength.

14 How far from the wicked is speech of Him, and from all
transgressors to know Him!

15 Lo, the eye of the Lord taketh pity on the good, and
unto them that glorify Him will He multiply mercy, and
from the time of evil will He deliver their soul.

16 Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered the wretched
from the hand of the wicked; who raiseth up a horn out of
Jacob and a judge of the nations out of Israel;

17 that He may prolong His dwelling in Zion, and may
adorn our age in Jerusalem.

PSALMS CHAPTER 153

(Spoken by David when returning thanks to God, who had
delivered him from the lion and the wolf and he had slain
both of them. This text survived only in Syriac. Date and
provenance are like Psalm 152.)

1 O Lord, Ihave cried unto Thee; hearken Thou unto me.

2 T have lifted up my hands to Thy holy dwelling-place;
incline Thine ear unto me.

3 And grant me my request;3 my prayer withhold not from
me.

4 Build up my soul, and destroy it not; and lay it not bare
before the wicked.

5 Them that recompense evil things turn Thou away from
me, O judge of truth.

6 O Lord, judge me not according to my sins, because no
flesh is innocent before Thee.

7 Make plain to me, O Lord, Thy law, and teach me Thy
judgements;

8 and many shall hear of Thy works, and the nations shall
praise Thine honour.

9 Remember me and forget me not; and lead me not into
things that be too hard for me.

10 The sins of my youth make Thou to pass from me, and
my chastisement let them not remember against me.

11 Cleanse me, O Lord, from the evil leprosy, and let it no
more come unto me.

12 Dry up its roots in literally, from me, and let not its
leaves sprout within me.

13 Great art Thou, O Lord; therefore my request shall be
fulfilled from before Thee.

14 To whom shall I complain that he may give unto me?
and what can the strength of men add [unto me]?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OER ERY oN EOE
FE CY

15 From before Thee, O Lord, is my confidence; I cried
unto the Lord and He heard me, and healed the breaking of
my heart.

16 I slumbered and slept; I dreamed and was helped, and
the Lord sustained me.

17 They sorely pained my heart; I will return thanks
because the Lord delivered me.

18 Now will I rejoice in their shame; I have hoped in Thee,
and I shall not be ashamed.

19 Give Thou honour for ever, even for ever and ever.

20 Deliver Israel Thine elect, and them of the house of
Jacob Thy proved one.

PSALMS CHAPTER 154

(This Psalm survived in Syriac biblical manuscripts and
also was found in Hebrew, in the Dead Sea scroll
11QPs(a)154 (also known as 11Q5), a first-century AD
manuscript.) Spoken by David when he was contending with
the lion and the wolf which took a sheep from his flock.).

1 O God, O God, come to my aid; help Thou me and save
me; deliver Thou my soul from the slayer.

2 Shall I go down to Sheol by the mouth of the lion? or
shall the wolf confound me?

3 Was it not enough for them that they lay in wait for my
father's flock, and rent in pieces a sheep of my father's drove,
but they were wishing also to destroy my soul?

4 Have pity, O Lord, and save Thy holy one from
destruction; that he may rehearse Thy glories in all his times,
and may praise Thy great name:

5 when Thou hast delivered him from the hands of the
destroying lion and of the ravening wolf, and when Thou
hast rescued my captivity from the hands of the wild beasts.

6 Quickly, O my Lord Adonai, send from before Thee a
deliverer, and draw me out of the gaping pit, which
imprisons me in its depths.

PSALMS CHAPTER 155

(This psalm 1s extant in Syriac and was also found in the
Dead Sea scroll 11QPs(a)155 (also called 11Q5), a first-
century AD Hebrew manuscript. The theme of this psalm 1s
similar to Psalm 22, date and origin unclear but its origin is
clearly pre-Christian.) Spoken by David when returning
thanks to God, who had delivered him from the lion and the
wolf and he had slain both of them.)

1 Praise the Lord, all ye nations; glorify Him, and bless His
name:

2 Who rescued the soul of His elect from the hands of death,
and delivered His holy one from destruction:

3 and saved me from the nets of Sheol, and my soul from the
pit that cannot be fathomed.

4 Because, ere my deliverance could go forth from before
Him, I was well nigh rent in two pieces by two wild beasts.

5 But He sent His angel, and shut up from me the gaping
mouths, and rescued my life from destruction.

6 My soul shall glorify Him and exalt Him, because of all
His kindnesses which He hath done and will do unto me.

ETD

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
Proverbs of Solomon
Hebrew title: Mishle Shlomoh
Estimated Range of Dating: c. Sth - Ist centuries B.C.

(The Book of Proverbs (Hebrew: Mishle (Shlomoh),
"Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section
(called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the
Christian Old Testament. When translated into Greek and
Latin, the title took on different forms: in the Greek
Septuagint (LXX) it became Paroimiai ("Proverbs"); in the
Latin Vulgate the title was Proverbia, from which the
English name 1s derived.

Proverbs is not merely an anthology but a "collection of
collections" relating to a pattern of life which lasted for
more than a millennium. It 1s an example of the Biblical
wisdom tradition, and raises questions of values, moral
behaviour, the meaning of human Iife, and right conduct.
The repeated theme is that "the fear of God (meaning
submission to the will of God) is the beginning of wisdom."
Wisdom 1s praised for her role in creation; God acquired her
before all else, and through her he gave order to chaos; and
since humans have life and prosperity by conforming to the
order of creation, seeking wisdom 1s the essence and goal of
the religious life.

The superscriptions divide the collections as follows:

¢ Proverbs 1-9: "Proverbs of Solomon, Son of David, King
of Israel"

¢ Proverbs 10—22:16: "Proverbs of Solomon"

¢ Proverbs 22:17—24:22: "The Sayings of the Wise"

¢ Proverbs 24:23—34: "These Also are Sayings of the Wise"

¢ Proverbs 25—29: "These are Other Proverbs of Solomon
that the Officials of King Hezekiah of Judah Copied"

¢ Proverbs 30: "The Words of Agur"

¢ Proverbs 31:1—9: "The Words of King Lemuel of Massa,
Which his Mother Taught Him"

¢ Proverbs 31:10-31: the ideal wise woman (elsewhere
called the "woman of substance").

It is impossible to offer precise dates for the sayings in
Proverbs, a "collection of collections" relating to a pattern
of life which lasted for more than a millennium. The phrase
conventionally used for the title 1s taken from chapter 1:1,
mishley shelomoh, Proverbs of Solomon (the phrase 1s
repeated at 10:1 and 25:1), is likely more concerned with
labeling the material than ascribing authorship.)

PROVERBS CHAPTER |
1 The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of
Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the
words of reason:

3 To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and
judging truly and straight behaviour:

4 To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young
man knowledge, and serious purpose:

5 (The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the
acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:)

6 To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the
words of the wise and their dark sayings.

7 The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the
foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching.

8 My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do
not give up the teaching of your mother:

9 For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and
chain-ornaments about your neck.

10 My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way,
do not go with them.

11 If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the
good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;

12 Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and
in their strength, as those who go down to death;

13 Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full
of wealth;

14 Take your chance with us, and we will all have one
money-bag:

15 My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their
ways:

16 For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick
to take a man's life.

17 Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the
eyes of the bird:

18 And they are secretly waiting for their blood and
making ready destruction for themselves.

19 Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit;
it takes away the life of its owners.

20 Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in
the open places;

21 Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in
the doorways of the town:

22 How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear
to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how
long will the foolish go on hating knowledge?

23 Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the
flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you.

24 Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave
attention to my out-stretched hand;

25 You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have
nothing to do with my sharp words:

26 So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will
make sport of your fear;

27 When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your
trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on
you.

28 Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for
me early, they will not see me:

29 For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give
their hearts to the fear of the Lord:

30 They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of
protest were as nothing to them.

31 So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the
designs of their hearts they will be made full.

32 For the turning back of the simple from teaching will be
the cause of their death, and the peace of the foolish will be
their destruction.

33 But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely,
living in peace without fear of evil.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 2

1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing
up my laws in your mind;

2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your
heart is turned to knowledge;

3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your
request is for knowledge;

4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for
her as for stored-up wealth;

5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and
knowledge of God will be yours.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come
knowledge and reason:

7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a
breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;

8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes
care of those who have the fear of him.

9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right
acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.

10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge
will be pleasing to your soul;

11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and
knowledge will keep you;

12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those
whose words are false;

13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark
roads;

14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the
evil designs of the sinner;

15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are
turned to evil:

16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman,
who says smooth words with her tongue;

17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does
not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps
go down to the shades:

19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet
do not keep in the ways of life:

20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in
the footsteps of the upright.

21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good
will have it for their heritage.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those
whose acts are false will be uprooted.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 3

| My son, keep my teaching in your memory, and my rules
in your heart:

2 For they will give you increase of days, years of life, and
peace.

3 Let not mercy and good faith go from you; let them be
hanging round your neck, recorded on your heart;

4 So you will have grace and a good name in the eyes of
God and men.

5 Put all your hope in God, not looking to your reason for
support.

6 In all your ways give ear to him, and he will make
straight your footsteps.

7 Put no high value on your wisdom: let the fear of the
Lord be before you, and keep yourself from evil:

8 This will give strength to your flesh, and new life to your
bones.

9 Give honour to the Lord with your wealth, and with the
first-fruits of all your increase:

10 So your store-houses will be full of grain, and your
vessels overflowing with new wine.

11 My son, do not make your heart hard against the Lord's
teaching; do not be made angry by his training:

12 For to those who are dear to him the Lord says sharp
words, and makes the son in whom he has delight undergo
pain.

13 Happy is the man who makes discovery of wisdom, and
he who gets knowledge.

14 For trading in it is better than trading in silver, and its
profit greater than bright gold.

15 She is of more value than jewels, and nothing for which
you may have a desire is fair in comparison with her.

16 Long life is in her right hand, and in her left are wealth
and honour.

17 Her ways are ways of delight, and all her goings are
peace.

18 She is a tree of life to all who take her in their hands,
and happy is everyone who Keeps her.

19 The Lord by wisdom put in position the bases of the
earth; by reason he put the heavens in their place.

20 By his knowledge the deep was parted, and dew came
dropping from the skies.

21 My son, keep good sense, and do not let wise purpose go
from your eyes.

22 So they will be life for your soul, and grace for your
neck.

23 Then you will go safely on your way, and your feet will
have no cause for slipping.

24 When you take your rest you will have no fear, and on
your bed sleep will be sweet to you.

25 Have no fear of sudden danger, or of the storm which
will come on evil-doers:

26 For the Lord will be your hope, and will keep your foot
from being taken in the net.

27 Do not keep back good from those who have a right to
it, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.

28 Say not to your neighbour, Go, and come again, and
tomorrow I will give; when you have it by you at the time.

29 Do not make evil designs against your neighbour, when
he is living with you without fear.

30 Do not take up a cause at law against a man for nothing,
if he has done you no wrong.

31 Have no envy of the violent man, or take any of his ways
as an example.

32 For the wrong-hearted man is hated by the Lord, but he
isa friend to the upright.

33 The curse of the Lord is on the house of the evil-doer,
but his blessing is on the tent of the upright.

34 He makes sport of the men of pride, but he gives grace to
the gentle-hearted.

35 The wise will have glory for their heritage, but shame
will be the reward of the foolish.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 4

1 Give ear, my sons, to the teaching of a father; give
attention so that you may have knowledge:

2 For I give you good teaching; do not give up the
knowledge you are getting from me.

3 For I was a son to my father, a gentle and an only one to
my mother.

4 And he gave me teaching, saying to me, Keep my words in
your heart; keep my rules so that you may have life:

5 Get wisdom, get true knowledge; keep it in memory, do
not be turned away from the words of my mouth.

6 Do not give her up, and she will keep you; give her your
love, and she will make you safe.

7 The first sign of wisdom is to get wisdom; go, give all you
have to get true knowledge.

8 Put her in a high place, and you will be lifted up by her;
she will give you honour, when you give her your love.

9 She will put a crown of grace on your head, giving you a
head-dress of glory.

10 Give ear, O my son, and let your heart be open to my
sayings; and long life will be yours.

11 Thave given you teaching in the way of wisdom, guiding
your steps in the straight way.

12 When you go, your way will not be narrow, and in
running you will not have a fall.

13 Take learning in your hands, do not let her go: keep her,
for she is your life.

14 Do not go in the road of sinners, or be walking in the
way of evil men.

15 Keep far from it, do not go near; be turned from it, and
go on your way.

16 For they take no rest till they have done evil; their sleep
is taken away if they have not been the cause of someone's fall.

17 The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent
acts their drink.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 But the way of the upright is like the light of early
morning, getting brighter and brighter till the full day.

19 The way of sinners is dark; they see not the cause of their
fall.

20 My son, give attention to my words; let your ear be
turned to my sayings.

21 Let them not go from your eyes; keep them deep in your
heart.

22 For they are life to him who gets them, and strength to
all his flesh.

23 And keep watch over your heart with all care; so you
will have life.

24 Put away from you an evil tongue, and let false lips be
far from you.

25 Keep your eyes on what is in front of you, looking
straight before you.

26 Keep a watch on your behaviour; let all your ways be
rightly ordered.

27 Let there be no turning to the right or to the left, keep
your feet from evil.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 5

1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be
turned to my teaching:

2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips
may keep knowledge.

3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman,
and her mouth is smoother than oil;

4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-
edged sword;

5 Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the
underworld;

6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are
uncertain, she has no knowledge.

7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my
words from you.

8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her
house;

9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and
your wealth to strange men:

10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the
fruit of your work go to the house of others;

11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when
your flesh and your body are wasted;

12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and
my heart put no value on training;

13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my
ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!

14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.

15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your
drink, and running water from your fountain.

16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your
streams of water in the open places.

17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with
you.

18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of
your early years.

19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever
give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by
her love.

20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a
strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he
puts all his goings in the scales.

22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and
prisoned in the cords of his sin.

23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so
foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 6

1 My son, if you have made yourself responsible for your
neighbour, or given your word for another,

2 You are taken as in a net by the words of your mouth, the
sayings of your lips have overcome you.

3 Do this, my son, and make yourself free, because you have
come into the power of your neighbour; go without waiting,
and make a strong request to your neighbour.

4 Give no sleep to your eyes, or rest to them;

5 Make yourself free, like the roe from the hand of the
archer, and the bird from him who puts a net for her.

6 Go to the ant, you hater of work; give thought to her
ways and be wise:

7 Having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

8 She gets her meat in the summer, storing up food at the
time of the grain-cutting.

9 How long will you be sleeping, O hater of work? when
will you get up from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in
sleep:

11 Then loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your
need like an armed man

12 A good-for-nothing man is an evil-doer; he goes on his
way causing trouble with false words;

13 Making signs with his eyes, rubbing with his feet, and
giving news with his fingers;

14 His mind is ever designing evil: he lets loose violent acts.

15 For this cause his downfall will be sudden; quickly he
will be broken, and there will be no help for him.

16 Six things are hated by the Lord; seven things are
disgusting to him:

17 Eyes of pride, a false tongue, hands which take life
without cause;

18 A heart full of evil designs, feet which are quick in
running after sin;

19 A false witness, breathing out untrue words, and one
who lets loose violent acts among brothers.

20 My son, keep the rule of your father, and have in
memory the teaching of your mother:

21 Keep them ever folded in your heart, and have them
hanging round your neck.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 In your walking, it will be your guide; when you are
sleeping, it will keep watch over you; when you are awake, it
will have talk with you.

23 For the rule is a light, and the teaching a shining light;
and the guiding words of training are the way of life.

24 They will keep you from the evil woman, from the
smooth tongue of the strange woman.

25 Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not
her eyes take you prisoner.

26 For a loose woman is looking for a cake of bread, but
another man's wife goes after one's very life.

27 May a man take fire to his breast without burning his
clothing?

28 Or may one go on lighted coals, and his feet not be
burned?

29 So it is with him who goes in to his neighbour's wife; he
who has anything to do with her will not go free from
punishment.

30 Men do not have a low opinion of a thief who takes food
when he is in need of it:

31 But if he is taken in the act he will have to give back
seven times as much, giving up all his property which is in his
house.

32 He who takes another man's wife is without all sense: he
who does it is the cause of destruction to his soul.

33 Wounds will be his and loss of honour, and his shame
may not be washed away.

34 For bitter is the wrath of an angry husband; in the day
of punishment he will have no mercy.

35 He will not take any payment; and he will not make
peace with you though your money offerings are increased.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 7

1 My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up
with you.

2 Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to
you as the light of your eyes;

3 Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your
heart.

4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be
named your special friend:

5 So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even
from her whose words are smooth.

6 Looking out from my house, and watching through the
window,

7 Isaw among the young men one without sense,

8 Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on
the way to her house,

9 At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark
of the night.

10 And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose
woman, with a designing heart;

11 She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in
her house.

12 Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting
at every turning of the road.

13 So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a
sign of shame she said to him:

14 [have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have
been effected.

15 So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for
you with care, and now I have you.

16 My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with
coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt;

17 [have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices.

18 Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning,
having joy in love's delights.

19 For the master of the house is away on a long journey:

20 He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming
back at the full moon.

21 With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with
her smooth lips.

22 The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its
death, like a roe pulled by a cord;

23 Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his
life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side.

24 So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the
sayings of my mouth;

25 Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go
wandering in her footsteps.

26 For those wounded and made low by her are great in
number; and all those who have come to their death through
her are a great army.

27 Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to
the rooms of death.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 8

1 Is not wisdom crying out, and the voice of knowledge
sounding?

2 At the top of the highways, at the meeting of the roads,
she takes her place;

3 Where the roads go into the town her cry goes out, at the
doorways her voice is loud:

4T am crying out to you, O men; my voice comes to the sons
of men.

5 Become expert in reason, O you simple ones; you foolish
ones, take training to heart.

6 Give ear, for my words are true, and my lips are open to
give out what is upright.

7 For good faith goes out of my mouth, and false lips are
disgusting to me.

8 All the words of my mouth are righteousness; there is
nothing false or twisted in them.

9 They are all true to him whose mind is awake, and
straightforward to those who get knowledge.

10 Take my teaching, and not silver; get knowledge in
place of the best gold.

11 For wisdom is better than jewels, and all things which
may be desired are nothing in comparison with her.

12 I, wisdom, have made wise behaviour my near relation; |
am seen to be the special friend of wise purposes.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 The fear of the Lord is seen in hating evil: pride, a high
opinion of oneself, the evil way, and the false tongue, are
unpleasing to me.

14 Wise design and good sense are mine; reason and
strength are mine.

15 Through me kings have their power, and rulers give
right decisions.

16 Through me chiefs have authority, and the noble ones
are judging in righteousness.

17 Those who have given me their love are loved by me, and
those who make search for me with care will get me.

18 Wealth and honour are in my hands, even wealth
without equal and righteousness.

19 My fruit is better than gold, even than the best gold; and
my increase is more to be desired than silver.

20 I go in the road of righteousness, in the way of right
judging:

21 So that I may give my lovers wealth for their heritage,
making their store-houses full.

22 The Lord made me as the start of his way, the first of his
works in the past.

23 From eternal days I was given my place, from the birth
of time, before the earth was.

24 When there was no deep I was given birth, when there
were no fountains flowing with water.

25 Before the mountains were put in their places, before the
hills was my birth:

26 When he had not made the earth or the fields or the dust
of the world.

27 When he made ready the heavens I was there: when he
put an arch over the face of the deep:

28 When he made strong the skies overhead: when the
fountains of the deep were fixed:

29 When he put a limit to the sea, so that the waters might
not go against his word: when he put in position the bases of
the earth:

30 Then I was by his side, as a master workman: and I was
his delight from day to day, playing before him at all times;

31 Playing in his earth; and my delight was with the sons of
men.

32 Give ear to me then, my sons: for happy are those who
keep my ways.

33 Take my teaching and be wise; do not let it go.

34 Happy is the man who gives ear to me, watching at my

doors day by day, keeping his place by the pillars of my house.

35 For whoever gets me gets life, and grace from the Lord
will come to him.

36 But he who does evil to me, does wrong to his soul: all
my haters are in love with death.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 1

1 Wisdom has made her house, putting up her seven pillars.

2 She has put her fat beasts to death; her wine is mixed, her
table is ready.

3 She has sent out her women-servants; her voice goes out
to the highest places of the town, saying,

4 Whoever is simple, let him come in here; and to him who
has no sense, she says:

5 Come, take of my bread, and of my wine which is mixed.

6 Give up the simple ones and have life, and go in the way
of knowledge.

7 He who gives teaching to a man of pride gets shame for
himself; he who says sharp words to a sinner gets a bad name.

8 Do not say sharp words to a man of pride, or he will have
hate for you; make them clear to a wise man, and you will be
dear to him.

9 Give teaching to a wise man, and he will become wiser;
give training to an upright man, and his learning will be
increased.

10 The fear of the Lord is the start of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One gives a wise mind

11 For by me your days will be increased, and the years of
your life will be long.

12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if your heart is
full of pride, you only will have the pain of it.

13 The foolish woman is full of noise; she has no sense at all.

14 Seated at the door of her house, in the high places of the
town,

15 Crying out to those who go by, going straight on their
way, she says:

16 Whoever is simple, let him come in here: and to him who
is without sense, she says:

17 Drink taken without right is sweet, and food in secret is
pleasing.

18 But he does not see that the dead are there, that her
guests are in the deep places of the underworld.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 10

1 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a
sorrow to his mother.

2 Wealth which comes from sin is of no profit, but
righteousness gives salvation from death.

3 The Lord will not let the upright be in need of food, but
he puts far from him the desire of the evil-doers.

4 He who is slow in his work becomes poor, but the hand of
the ready worker gets in wealth.

5 He who in summer gets together his store is a son who
does wisely; but he who takes his rest when the grain is being
cut is a son causing shame.

6 Blessings are on the head of the upright, but the face of
sinners will be covered with sorrow.

7 The memory of the upright is a blessing, but the name of
the evil-doer will be turned to dust.

8 The wise-hearted man will let himself be ruled, but the
man whose talk is foolish will have a fall.

9 He whose ways are upright will go safely, but he whose
ways are twisted will be made low.

10 He who makes signs with his eyes is a cause of trouble,
but he who makes a man see his errors 1s a cause of peace.

11 The mouth of the upright man is a fountain of life, but
the mouth of the evil-doer is a bitter cup.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Hate is a cause of violent acts, but all errors are covered
up by love.

13 In the lips of him who has knowledge wisdom is seen;
but a rod is ready for the back of him who is without sense.

14 Knowledge is stored up by the wise, but the mouth of
the foolish man is a destruction which is near.

15 The property of the man of wealth is his strong town:
the poor man's need is his destruction.

16 The work of the upright gives life: the increase of the
evil-doer is a cause of sin.

17 He who takes note of teaching is a way of life, but he
who gives up training is a cause of error.

18 Hate is covered up by the lips of the upright man, but he
who lets out evil about another is foolish.

19 Where there is much talk there will be no end to sin, but
he who keeps his mouth shut does wisely.

20 The tongue of the upright man is like tested silver: the
heart of the evil-doer is of little value.

21 The lips of the upright man give food to men, but the
foolish come to death for need of sense.

22 The blessing of the Lord gives wealth: hard work makes
it no greater.

23 It is sport to the foolish man to do evil, but the man of
good sense takes delight in wisdom.

24 The thing feared by the evil-doer will come to him, but
the upright man will get his desire.

25 When the storm-wind is past, the sinner is seen no
longer, but the upright man is safe for ever.

26 Like acid drink to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so
is the hater of work to those who send him.

27 The fear of the Lord gives long life, but the years of the
evil-doer will be cut short.

28 The hope of the upright man will give joy, but the
waiting of the evil-doer will have its end in sorrow.

29 The way of the Lord is a strong tower for the upright
man, but destruction to the workers of evil.

30 The upright man will never be moved, but evil-doers
will not have a safe resting-place in the land.

31 The mouth of the upright man is budding with wisdom,
but the twisted tongue will be cut off.

32 The lips of the upright man have knowledge of what is
pleasing, but twisted are the mouths of evil-doers.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 11

1 Scales of deceit are hated by the Lord, but a true weight is
his delight.

2 When pride comes, there comes shame, but wisdom is
with the quiet in spirit.

3 The righteousness of the upright will be their guide, but
the twisted ways of the false will be their destruction.

4 Wealth is of no profit in the day of wrath, but
righteousness keeps a man safe from death.

5 The righteousness of the good man will make his way
straight, but the sin of the evil-doer will be the cause of his
fall.

6 The righteousness of the upright will be their salvation,
but the false will themselves be taken in their evil designs.

7 At the death of an upright man his hope does not come to
an end, but the hope of the evil-doer comes to destruction.

8 The upright man is taken out of trouble, and in his place
comes the sinner.

9 With his mouth the evil man sends destruction on his
neighbour; but through knowledge the upright are taken out
of trouble.

10 When things go well for the upright man, all the town is
glad; at the death of sinners, there are cries of joy.

11 By the blessing of the upright man the town is made
great, but it is overturned by the mouth of the evil-doer.

12 He who has a poor opinion of his neighbour has no sense,
but a wise man keeps quiet.

13 He who goes about talking of others makes secrets
public, but the true-hearted man keeps things covered.

14 When there is no helping suggestion the people will have
a fall, but with a number of wise guides they will be safe.

15 He who makes himself responsible for a strange man will
undergo much loss; but the hater of such undertakings will
be safe.

16 A woman who is full of grace is honoured, but a woman
hating righteousness is a seat of shame: those hating work
will undergo loss, but the strong keep their wealth.

17 The man who has mercy will be rewarded, but the cruel
man is the cause of trouble to himself.

18 The sinner gets the payment of deceit; but his reward is
certain who puts in the seed of righteousness.

19 So righteousness gives life; but he who goes after evil
gets death for himself.

20 The uncontrolled are hated by the Lord, but those
whose ways are without error are his delight

21 Certainly the evil-doer will not go free from punishment,
but the seed of the upright man will be safe.

22 Like a ring of gold in the nose of a pig, is a beautiful
woman who has no sense.

23 The desire of the upright man is only for good, but
wrath is waiting for the evil-doer.

24 A man may give freely, and still his wealth will be
increased; and another may keep back more than is right, but
only comes to be in need.

25 He who gives blessing will be made fat, but the curser
will himself be cursed.

26 He who keeps back grain will be cursed by the people;
but a blessing will be on the head of him who lets them have
it for a price.

27 He who, with all his heart, goes after what is good is
searching for grace; but he who is looking for trouble will
get it.

28 He who puts his faith in wealth will come to nothing;
but the upright man will be full of growth like the green leaf.

29 The troubler of his house will have the wind for his
heritage, and the foolish will be servant to the wise-hearted.

30 The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, but violent
behaviour takes away souls.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 If the upright man is rewarded on earth, how much more
the evil-doer and the sinner!

PROVERBS CHAPTER 12

1 A lover of training is a lover of knowledge; but a hater of
teaching is like a beast.

2 A good man has grace in the eyes of the Lord; but the
man of evil designs gets punishment from him.

3 No man will make himself safe through evil-doing; but
the root of upright men will never be moved.

4 A woman of virtue is a crown to her husband; but she
whose behaviour 1s a cause of shame is like a wasting disease
in his bones.

5 The purposes of upright men are right, but the designs of
evil-doers are deceit.

6 The words of sinners are destruction for the upright; but
the mouth of upright men is their salvation.

7 Evil-doers are overturned and never seen again, but the
house of upright men will keep its place.

8 A man will be praised in the measure of his wisdom, but a
wrong-minded man will be looked down on.

9 He who is of low position and has a servant, is better than

one who has a high opinion of himself and is in need of bread.

10 An upright man has thought for the life of his beast, but
the hearts of evil-doers are cruel.

11 He who does work on his land will not be short of bread;
but he who goes after foolish men is without sense.

12 The resting-place of the sinner will come to destruction,
but the root of upright men is for ever.

13 In the sin of the lips is a net which takes the sinner, but
the upright man will come out of trouble.

14 From the fruit of his mouth will a man have good food
in full measure, and the work of a man's hands will be
rewarded.

15 The way of the foolish man seems right to him? but the
wise man gives ear to suggestions.

16 A foolish man lets his trouble be openly seen, but a sharp
man keeps shame secret.

17 The breathing out of true words gives knowledge of
righteousness; but a false witness gives out deceit.

18 There are some whose uncontrolled talk is like the
wounds of a sword, but the tongue of the wise makes one well
again.

19 True lips are certain for ever, but a false tongue is only
for a minute.

20 Deceit is in the heart of those whose designs are evil, but
for those purposing peace there is joy.

21 No trouble will come to upright men, but sinners will be
full of evil.

22 False lips are hated by the Lord, but those whose acts
are true are his delight.

23 A sharp man keeps back his knowledge; but the heart of
foolish men makes clear their foolish thoughts.

24 The hand of the ready worker will have authority, but
he who is slow in his work will be put to forced work.

25 Care in the heart of a man makes it weighted down, but
a good word makes it glad.

26 The upright man is a guide to his neighbour, but the
way of evil-doers is a cause of error to them.

27 He who is slow in his work does not go in search of food;
but the ready worker gets much wealth.

28 In the road of righteousness is life, but the way of the
evil-doer goes to death.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 13

1 A wise son is a lover of teaching, but the ears of the haters
of authority are shut to sharp words.

2 A man will get good from the fruit of his lips, but the
desire of the false is for violent acts.

3 He who keeps a watch on his mouth keeps his life; but he
whose lips are open wide will have destruction.

4 The hater of work does not get his desires, but the soul of
the hard workers will be made fat.

5 The upright man is a hater of false words: the evil-doer
gets a bad name and is put to shame.

6 Righteousness keeps safe him whose way is without error,
but evil-doers are overturned by sin.

7 A man may be acting as if he had wealth, but have
nothing; another may seem poor, but have great wealth.

8 A man will give his wealth in exchange for his life; but the
poor will not give ear to sharp words.

9 There is a glad dawn for the upright man, but the light of
the sinner will be put out.

10 The only effect of pride is fighting; but wisdom is with
the quiet in spirit.

11 Wealth quickly got will become less; but he who gets a
store by the work of his hands will have it increased.

12 Hope put off is a weariness to the heart; but when what
is desired comes, it is a tree of life.

13 He who makes sport of the word will come to
destruction, but the respecter of the law will be rewarded.

14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning
men away from the nets of death.

15 Wise behaviour gets approval, but the way of the false is
their destruction.

16 A sharp man does everything with knowledge, but a
foolish man makes clear his foolish thoughts.

17 A man taking false news is a cause of trouble, but he who
gives news rightly makes things well.

18 Need and shame will be the fate of him who is
uncontrolled by training; but he who takes note of teaching
will be honoured.

19 To get one's desire is sweet to the soul, but to give up
evil is disgusting to the foolish.

20 Go with wise men and be wise: but he who keeps
company with the foolish will be broken.

21 Evil will overtake sinners, but the upright will be
rewarded with good.

22 The heritage of the good man is handed down to his
children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is stored up
for the upright man.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 There is much food in the ploughed land of the poor;
but it is taken away by wrongdoing.

24 He who keeps back his rod is unkind to his son: the
loving father gives punishment with care.

25 The upright man has food to the full measure of his

desire, but there will be no food for the stomach of evil-doers.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 14

1 Wisdom is building her house, but the foolish woman is
pulling it down with her hands.

2 He who goes on his way in righteousness has before him
the fear of the Lord; but he whose ways are twisted gives him
no honour.

3 In the mouth of the foolish man is a rod for his back, but
the lips of the wise will keep them safe.

4 Where there are no oxen, their food-place is clean; but
much increase comes through the strength of the ox.

5 A true witness does not say what is false, but a false
witness is breathing out deceit.

6 The hater of authority, searching for wisdom, does not
get it; but knowledge comes readily to the open-minded man.

7 Go away from the foolish man, for you will not see the
lips of knowledge.

8 The wisdom of the man of good sense makes his way clear;
but the unwise behaviour of the foolish is deceit.

9 In the tents of those hating authority there is error, but in
the house of the upright man there is grace.

10 No one has knowledge of a man's grief but himself; and a
strange person has no part in his joy.

11 The house of the sinner will be overturned, but the tent
of the upright man will do well.

12 There is a way which seems straight before a man, but its
end is the ways of death.

13 Even while laughing the heart may be sad; and after joy
comes sorrow.

14 He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of
his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the
reward of his doings.

15 The simple man has faith in every word, but the man of
good sense gives thought to his footsteps.

16 The wise man, fearing, keeps himself from evil; but the
foolish man goes on in his pride, with no thought of danger.

17 He who is quickly angry will do what is foolish, but the
man of good sense will have quiet.

18 Foolish behaviour is the heritage of the simple, but men
of good sense are crowned with knowledge.

19 The knees of the evil are bent before the good; and
sinners go down in the dust at the doors of the upright.

20 The poor man is hated even by his neighbour, but the
man of wealth has numbers of friends.

21 He who has no respect for his neighbour is a sinner, but
he who has pity for the poor is happy.

22 Will not the designers of evil come into error? But mercy
and good faith are for the designers of good.

23 In all hard work there is profit, but talk only makes a
man poor.

24 Their wisdom is a crown to the wise, but their foolish
behaviour is round the head of the unwise.

25 A true witness is the saviour of lives; but he who says
false things is a cause of deceit.

26 For him in whose heart is the fear of the Lord there is
strong hope: and his children will have a safe place.

27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, by which one
may be turned from the nets of death.

28 A king's glory is in the number of his people: and for
need of people a ruler may come to destruction.

29 He who is slow to be angry has great good sense; but he
whose spirit is over-quick gives support to what is foolish.

30 A quiet mind is the life of the body, but envy is a disease
in the bones.

31 He who is hard on the poor puts shame on his Maker;
but he who has mercy on those who are in need gives him
honour.

32 The sinner is overturned in his evil-doing, but the
upright man has hope in his righteousness.

33 Wisdom has her resting-place in the mind of the wise,
but she is not seen among the foolish.

34 By righteousness a nation is lifted up, but sin is a cause
of shame to the peoples.

35 The king has pleasure in a servant who does wisely, but
his wrath is against him who is a cause of shame.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 15

1 By a soft answer wrath is turned away, but a bitter word
is a cause of angry feelings.

2 Knowledge is dropping from the tongue of the wise; but
from the mouth of the foolish comes a stream of foolish
words.

3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on
the evil and the good.

4 A comforting tongue is a tree of life, but a twisted tongue
is a crushing of the spirit.

5 A foolish man puts no value on his father's training; but
he who has respect for teaching has good sense.

6 In the house of the upright man there is a great store of
wealth; but in the profits of the sinner there is trouble.

7 The lips of the wise keep knowledge, but the heart of the
foolish man is not right.

8 The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord,
but the prayer of the upright man is his delight.

9 The way of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but he
who goes after righteousness is dear to him.

10 There is bitter punishment for him who is turned from
the way; and death will be the fate of the hater of teaching.

11 Before the Lord are the underworld and destruction:
how much more, then, the hearts of the children of men!

12 The hater of authority has no love for teaching: he will
not go to the wise.

13 A glad heart makes a shining face, but by the sorrow of
the heart the spirit is broken.

14 The heart of the man of good sense goes in search of
knowledge, but foolish things are the food of the unwise.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 All the days of the troubled are evil; but he whose heart
is glad has an unending feast.

16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great
wealth together with trouble.

17 Better is a simple meal where love is, than a fat ox and
hate with it.

18 An angry man makes men come to blows, but he who is
slow to get angry puts an end to fighting.

19 Thorns are round the way of the hater of work; but the
road of the hard worker becomes a highway.

20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man has no
respect for his mother.

21 Foolish behaviour is joy to the unwise; but a man of
good sense makes his way straight.

22 Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to
nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made
certain.

23 A man has joy in the answer of his mouth: and a word at
the right time, how good it is!

24 Acting wisely is the way of life, guiding a man away
from the underworld.

25 The house of the man of pride will be uprooted by the
Lord, but he will make safe the heritage of the widow.

26 Evil designs are disgusting to the Lord, but the words of
the clean-hearted are pleasing.

27 He whose desires are fixed on profit is a cause of trouble
to his family; but he who has no desire for offerings will have
life.

28 The heart of the upright gives thought to his answer;
but from the mouth of the evil-doer comes a stream of evil
things.

29 The Lord is far from sinners, but his ear is open to the
prayer of the upright.

30 The light of the eyes is a joy to the heart, and good news
makes the bones fat.

31 The man whose ear is open to the teaching of life will
have his place among the wise.

32 He who will not be controlled by training has no respect

for his soul, but he who gives ear to teaching will get wisdom.

33 The fear of the Lord is the teaching of wisdom; and a
low opinion of oneself goes before honour.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 16

1 The designs of the heart are man's, but the answer of the
tongue comes from the Lord.

2 All a man's ways are clean to himself; but the Lord puts
men's spirits into his scales.

3 Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your
purposes will be made certain.

4 The Lord has made everything for his purpose, even the
sinner for the day of evil.

5 Everyone who has pride in his heart is disgusting to the
Lord: he will certainly not go free from punishment.

6 By mercy and good faith evil-doing is taken away: and by
the fear of the Lord men are turned away from evil.

7 When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes
even his haters be at peace with him.

8 Better is a little with righteousness, than great wealth
with wrongdoing.

9 A man may make designs for his way, but the Lord is the
guide of his steps.

10 Decision is in the lips of the king: his mouth will not go
wrong in judging.

11 True measures and scales are the Lord's: all the weights
of the bag are his work.

12 Evil-doing is disgusting to kings: for the seat of the
ruler is based on righteousness.

13 Lips of righteousness are the delight of kings; and he
who says what is upright is dear to him.

14 The wrath of the king is like those who give news of
death, but a wise man will put peace in place of it.

15 In the light of the king's face there is life; and his
approval is like a cloud of spring rain.

16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! and to
get knowledge is more to be desired than silver.

17 The highway of the upright is to be turned away from
evil: he who takes care of his way will keep his soul.

18 Pride goes before destruction, and a stiff spirit before a
fall.

19 Better it is to have a gentle spirit with the poor, than to
take part in the rewards of war with men of pride.

20 He who gives attention to the law of right will get good;
and whoever puts his faith in the Lord is happy.

21 The wise-hearted will be named men of good sense: and
by pleasing words learning is increased.

22 Wisdom is a fountain of life to him who has it; but the
punishment of the foolish is their foolish behaviour.

23 The heart of the wise man is the teacher of his mouth,
and gives increased learning to his lips.

24 Pleasing words are like honey, sweet to the soul and new
life to the bones.

25 There is a way which seems straight before a man, but its
end is the ways of death.

26 The desire of the working man is working for him, for
his need of food is driving him on.

27 A good-for-nothing man is a designer of evil, and in his
lips there is a burning fire.

28 A man of twisted purposes is a cause of fighting
everywhere: and he who says evil secretly makes trouble
between friends.

29 A violent man puts desire of evil into his neighbour's
mind, and makes him go in a way which is not good.

30 He whose eyes are shut is a man of twisted purposes, and
he who keeps his lips shut tight makes evil come about.

31 The grey head is a crown of glory, if it is seen in the way
of righteousness.

32 He who is slow to be angry is better than a man of war,
and he who has control over his spirit than he who takes a
town.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

33 A thing may be put to the decision of chance, but it
comes about through the Lord.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 17

1 Better a bit of dry bread in peace, than a house full of
feasting and violent behaviour.

2 A servant who does wisely will have rule over a son
causing shame, and will have his part in the heritage among
brothers.

3 The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold,
but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

4 A wrongdoer gives attention to evil lips, and a man of
deceit gives ear to a damaging tongue.

5 Whoever makes sport of the poor puts shame on his
Maker; and he who is glad because of trouble will not go free
from punishment.

6 Children's children are the crown of old men, and the
glory of children 1s their fathers.

7 Fair words are not to be looked for from a foolish man,
much less are false lips in a ruler.

8 An offering of money is like a stone of great price in the
eyes of him who has it: wherever he goes, he does well.

9 He who keeps a sin covered is looking for love; but he
who keeps on talking of a thing makes division between
friends.

10 A word of protest goes deeper into one who has sense
than a hundred blows into a foolish man.

11 An uncontrolled man is only looking for trouble, so a
cruel servant will be sent against him.

12 It is better to come face to face with a bear whose young
ones have been taken away than with a foolish man acting
foolishly.

13 If anyone gives back evil for good, evil will never go
away from his house.

14 The start of fighting is like the letting out of water: so
give up before it comes to blows.

15 He who gives a decision for the evil-doer and he who
gives a decision against the upright, are equally disgusting to
the Lord.

16 How will money in the hand of the foolish get him
wisdom, seeing that he has no sense?

17 A friend is loving at all times, and becomes a brother in
times of trouble.

18 A man without sense gives his hand in an agreement, and
makes himself responsible before his neighbour.

19 The lover of fighting is a lover of sin: he who makes high
his doorway is looking for destruction.

20 Nothing good comes to him whose heart is fixed on evil
purposes: and he who has an evil tongue will come to trouble.

21 He who has an unwise son gets sorrow for himself, and
the father of a foolish son has no joy.

22 A glad heart makes a healthy body, but a crushed spirit
makes the bones dry.

23 A sinner takes an offering out of his robe, to get a
decision for himself in a cause.

24 Wisdom is before the face of him who has sense; but the
eyes of the foolish are on the ends of the earth.

25 A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitter pain to
her who gave him birth.

26 To give punishment to the upright is not good, or to
give blows to the noble for their righteousness.

27 He who has knowledge says little: and he who has a calm
spirit is a man of good sense.

28 Even the foolish man, when he keeps quiet, is taken to be
wise: when his lips are shut he is credited with good sense.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 18

1 He who keeps himself separate for his private purpose
goes against all good sense.

2 A foolish man has no pleasure in good sense, but only to
let what is in his heart come to light.

3 When the evil-doer comes, a low opinion comes with him,
and with the loss of honour comes shame.

4 The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters: the
fountain of wisdom is like a flowing stream.

5 To have respect for the person of the evil-doer is not good,
or to give a wrong decision against the upright.

6 A foolish man's lips are a cause of fighting, and his mouth
makes him open to blows.

7 The mouth of a foolish man is his destruction, and his lips
are a net for his soul.

8 The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly
are like sweet food, and go down into the inner parts of the
stomach.

9 He who does not give his mind to his work is brother to
him who makes destruction.

10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the upright man
running into it is safe.

11 The property of a man of wealth is his strong town, and
it is as a high wall in the thoughts of his heart.

12 Before destruction the heart of man is full of pride, and
before honour goes a gentle spirit.

13 To give an answer before hearing is a foolish thing and a
cause of shame.

14 The spirit of a man will be his support when he is ill; but
how may a broken spirit be lifted up?

15 The heart of the man of good sense gets knowledge; the
ear of the wise is searching for knowledge.

16 A man's offering makes room for him, letting him come
before great men.

17 The man who first puts his cause before the judge seems
to be in the right; but then his neighbour comes and puts his
cause in its true light.

18 The decision of chance puts an end to argument, parting
the strong.

19 A brother wounded is like a strong town, and violent
acts are like a locked tower.

20 With the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach will be full;
the produce of his lips will be his in full measure.

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and those
to whom it is dear will have its fruit for their food.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 Whoever gets a wife gets a good thing, and has the
approval of the Lord.

23 The poor man makes requests for grace, but the man of
wealth gives a rough answer.

24 There are friends who may be a man's destruction, but
there is a lover who keeps nearer than a brother.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 19

1 Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the
man of wealth whose ways are twisted.

2 Further, without knowledge desire is not good; and he
who is over-quick in acting goes out of the right way.

3 By his foolish behaviour a man's ways are turned upside
down, and his heart is bitter against the Lord.

4 Wealth makes a great number of friends; but the poor
man is parted from his friend.

5 A false witness will not go without punishment, and the
breather out of deceit will not go free.

6 Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of
a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has
something to give.

7 All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how
much more do his friends go far from him!

8 He who gets wisdom has love for his soul: he who keeps
good sense will get what is truly good.

9 A false witness will not go without punishment, and the
breather out of deceit will be cut off.

10 Material comfort is not good for the foolish; much less
for a servant to be put over rulers.

11 A man's good sense makes him slow to wrath, and the
overlooking of wrongdoing is his glory.

12 The king's wrath is like the loud cry of a lion, but his
approval is like dew on the grass.

13 A foolish son is the destruction of his father; and the
bitter arguments of a wife are like drops of rain falling
without end.

14 House and wealth are a heritage from fathers, but a wife
with good sense is from the Lord.

15 Hate of work sends deep sleep on a man: and he who has
no industry will go without food.

16 He who keeps the law keeps his soul; but death will be
the fate of him who takes no note of the word.

17 He who has pity on the poor gives to the Lord, and the
Lord will give him his reward.

18 Give your son training while there is hope; let not your
heart be purposing his death.

19 A man of great wrath will have to take his punishment:
for if you get him out of trouble you will have to do it again.

20 Let your ear be open to suggestion and take teaching, so
that at the end you may be wise.

21 A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of
the Lord is unchanging.

22 The ornament of a man is his mercy, and a poor man is
better than one who is false.

23 The fear of the Lord gives life: and he who has it will
have need of nothing; no evil will come his way.

24 The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin, and
will not even take it to his mouth again.

25 When blows overtake the man of pride, the simple will
get sense; say sharp words to the wise, and knowledge will be
made clear to him.

26 He who is violent to his father, driving away his mother,
is ason causing shame and a bad name.

27 A son who no longer gives attention to teaching is
turned away from the words of knowledge.

28 A good-for-nothing witness makes sport of the judge's
decision: and the mouth of evil-doers sends out evil like a
stream.

29 Rods are being made ready for the man of pride, and
blows for the back of the foolish.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 20

1 Wine makes men foolish, and strong drink makes men
come to blows; and whoever comes into error through these
is not wise.

2 The wrath of a king is like the loud cry of a lion: he who
makes him angry does wrong against himself.

3 It is an honour for a man to keep from fighting, but the
foolish are ever at war.

4 The hater of work will not do his ploughing because of
the winter; so at the time of grain-cutting he will be
requesting food and will get nothing.

5 The purpose in the heart ofa man is like deep water, but a
man of good sense will get it out.

6 Most men make no secret of their kind acts: but where is a
man of good faith to be seen?

7 An upright man goes on in his righteousness: happy are
his children after him!

8 A king on the seat of judging puts to flight all evil with
his eyes.

9 Who is able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am free
from my sin?

10 Unequal weights and unequal measures, they are all
disgusting to the Lord.

11 Even a child may be judged by his doings, if his work is
free from sin and if it is right.

12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye are equally the Lord's
work.

13 Do not be a lover of sleep, or you will become poor:
keep your eyes open, and you will have bread enough.

14 A poor thing, a poor thing, says he who is giving money
for goods: but when he has gone on his way, then he makes
clear his pride in what he has got.

15 There is gold and a store of corals: but the lips of
knowledge are a jewel of great price.

16 Take a man's clothing if he makes himself responsible for
a strange man, and get an undertaking from him who gives
his word for strange men.

17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but after, his mouth
will be full of sand.

18 Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise
guiding make war.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 He who goes about talking of the business of others
gives away secrets: so have nothing to do with him whose lips
are open wide.

20 If anyone puts a curse on his father or his mother, his
light will be put out in the blackest night.

21 A heritage may be got quickly at first, but the end of it
will not be a blessing.

22 Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on
waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour.

23 Unequal weights are disgusting to the Lord, and false
scales are not good.

24 A man's steps are of the Lord; how then may a man have
knowledge of his way?

25 It is a danger to a man to say without thought, It is holy,
and, after taking his oaths, to be questioning if it is necessary
to keep them.

26 A wise king puts evil-doers to flight, and makes their
evil-doing come back on them.

27 The Lord keeps watch over the spirit of man, searching
all the deepest parts of the body.

28 Mercy and good faith keep the king safe, and the seat of
his power is based on upright acts.

29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the
honour of old men is their grey hairs.

30 By the wounds of the rod evil is taken away, and blows
make clean the deepest parts of the body.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 21

| The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water
streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his
pleasure.

2 Every way of a man seems right to himself, but the Lord is
the tester of hearts.

3 To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord
than an offering.

4 A high look and a heart of pride, *** of the evil-doer is sin.

5 The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome
only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only
come to be in need.

6 He who gets stores of wealth by a false tongue, is going
after what is only breath, and searching for death.

7 By their violent acts the evil-doers will be pulled away,
because they have no desire to do what is right.

8 Twisted is the way of him who is full of crime; but as for
him whose heart is clean, his work is upright.

9 It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than
with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.

10 The desire of the evil-doer is fixed on evil: he has no kind
feeling for his neighbour.

11 When the man of pride undergoes punishment, the
simple man gets wisdom; and by watching the wise he gets
knowledge.

12 The Upright One, looking on the house of the evil-doer,
lets sinners be overturned to their destruction.

13 He whose ears are stopped at the cry of the poor, will
himself get no answer to his cry for help.

14 By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat
of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe.

15 It is a joy to the good man to do right, but it is
destruction to the workers of evil.

16 The wanderer from the way of knowledge will have his
resting-place among the shades.

17 The lover of pleasure will be a poor man: the lover of
wine and oil will not get wealth.

18 The evil-doer will be given as a price for the life of the
good man, and the worker of deceit in the place of the
upright.

19 It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a
bitter-tongued and angry woman.

20 There is a store of great value in the house of the wise,
but it is wasted by the foolish man.

21 He who goes after righteousness and mercy will get life,
righteousness, and honour.

22 A wise man goes up into the town of the strong ones,
and overcomes its strength in which they put their faith.

23 He who keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue
keeps his soul from troubles.

24 The man of pride, lifted up in soul, is named high-
hearted; he is acting in an outburst of pride.

25 The desire of the hater of work is death to him, for his
hands will do no work.

26 All the day the sinner goes after his desire: but the
upright man gives freely, keeping nothing back.

27 The offering of evil-doers is disgusting: how much more
when they give it with an evil purpose!

28 A false witness will be cut off, and a man who listens
speaks to eternity.

29 The evil-doer makes his face hard, but as for the upright,
he gives thought to his way.

30 Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no
use against the Lord.

31 The horse is made ready for the day of war, but power to
overcome is from the Lord.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 22

1 A good name is more to be desired than great wealth, and
to be respected is better than silver and gold.

2 The man of wealth and the poor man come face to face:
the Lord is the maker of them all.

3 The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple go
straight on and get into trouble.

4 The reward of a gentle spirit and the fear of the Lord is
wealth and honour and life.

5 Thorns and nets are in the way of the twisted: he who
keeps watch over his soul will be far from them.

6 If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is
old he will not be turned away from it.

7 The man of wealth has rule over the poor, and he who
gets into debt is a servant to his creditor.

8 By planting the seed of evil a man will get in the grain of
sorrow, and the rod of his wrath will be broken.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 He who is kind will have a blessing, for he gives of his
bread to the poor.

10 Send away the man of pride, and argument will go out;
truly fighting and shame will come to an end.

11 He whose heart is clean is dear to the Lord; for the grace
of his lips the king will be his friend.

12 The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge, but by him the
acts of the false man will be overturned.

13 The hater of work says, There is a lion outside: I will be
put to death in the streets.

14 The mouth of strange women is a deep hole: he with
whom the Lord is angry will go down into it.

15 Foolish ways are deep-seated in the heart of a child, but
the rod of punishment will send them far from him.

16 He who is cruel to the poor for the purpose of increasing
his profit, and he who gives to the man of wealth, will only
come to be in need.

17 Let your ear be bent down for hearing my words, and let
your heart give thought to knowledge.

18 For it is a delight to keep them in your heart, to have
them ready on your lips.

19 So that your faith may be in the Lord, I have made them
clear to you this day, even to you.

20 Have I not put in writing for you thirty sayings, with
wise suggestions and knowledge,

21 To make you see how certain are true words, so that you
may give a true answer to those who put questions to you?

22 Do not take away the property of the poor man because
he is poor, or be cruel to the crushed ones when they come
before the judge:

23 For the Lord will give support to their cause, and take
the life of those who take their goods.

24 Do not be friends with a man who is given to wrath; do
not go in the company of an angry man:

25 For fear of learning his ways and making a net ready for
your soul.

26 Be not one of those who give their hands in an
agreement, or of those who make themselves responsible for
debts:

27 If you have nothing with which to make payment, he
will take away your bed from under you.

28 Let not the old landmark be moved which your fathers
have put in place.

29 Have you seen a man who is expert in his business? he
will take his place before kings; his place will not be among
low persons.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 23

1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give
thought with care to what is before you;

2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire
for food.

3 Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of
deceit.

4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your
desire for money.

5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to
itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.

6 Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have
any desire for his delicate meat:

7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food
and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.

8 The food which you have taken will come up again, and
your pleasing words will be wasted.

9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will
put no value on the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do
not go into the fields of those who have no father;

11 For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their
cause against you.

12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words
of knowledge.

13 Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you
give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.

14 Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from
the underworld.

15 My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be
glad in heart;

16 And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips
say right things.

17 Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the
fear of the Lord all through the day;

18 For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will
not be cut off.

19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the
right way.

20 Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-
drinking, or among those who make themselves full with
meat:

21 For those who take delight in drink and feasting will
come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be
poorly clothed.

22 Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not
keep honour from your mother when she is old.

23 Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go
for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.

24 The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who
has a wise child will have joy because of him.

25 Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who
gave you birth have joy.

26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take
delight in my ways.

27 For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange
woman is a narrow water-hole.

28 Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and
deceit by her is increased among men.

29 Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments,
who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are
dark?

30 Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go
looking for mixed wine.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red,
when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly
down:

32 In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like
the wound of a poison-snake.

33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say
twisted things.

34 Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or
on the top of a sail-support.

35 They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain;
they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be
awake from my wine? I will go after it again.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 24

| Have no envy for evil men, or any desire to be with them:

2 For the purposes of their hearts are destruction, and their
lips are talking of trouble.

3 The building of a house is by wisdom, and by reason it is
made strong:

4 And by knowledge its rooms are full of all dear and
pleasing things.

5 A wise man is strong; and a man of knowledge makes
strength greater.

6 For by wise guiding you will overcome in war: and ina
number of wise guides there is salvation.

7 Wisdom is outside the power of the foolish: he keeps his
mouth shut in the public place.

8 He whose purposes are bad will be named a man of evil
designs.

9 The purpose of the foolish is sin: and the hater of
authority is disgusting to others.

10 If you give way in the day of trouble, your strength is
small.

11 Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and
do not keep back help from those who are slipping to
destruction.

12 If you say, See, we had no knowledge of this: does not
the tester of hearts give thought to it? and he who keeps your
soul, has he no knowledge of it? and will he not give to every
man the reward of his work?

13 My son, take honey, for it is good; and the flowing
honey, which is sweet to your taste:

14 So let your desire be for wisdom: if you have it, there
will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

15 Do not keep a secret watch, O evil-doer, against the
fields of the upright man, or send destruction on his resting-
place:

16 For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get
up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil.

17 Do not be glad at the fall of your hater, and let not your
heart have joy at his downfall:

18 For fear that the Lord may see it, and it may be evil in
his eyes, and his wrath may be turned away from him.

19 Do not be troubled because of evil-doers, or have envy of
sinners:

20 For there will be no future for the evil man; the light of
sinners will be put out.

21 My son, go in fear of the Lord and the king: have
nothing to do with those who are in high positions:

22 For their downfall will come suddenly; and who has
knowledge of the destruction of those in high positions?

23 These are more sayings of the wise: To have respect for a
person's position when judging is not good.

24 He who says to the evil-doer, You are upright, will be
cursed by peoples and hated by nations.

25 But those who say sharp words to him will have delight,
and a blessing of good will come on them.

26 He gives a kiss with his lips who gives a right answer.

27 Put your work in order outside, and make it ready in the
field; and after that, see to the building of your house.

28 Do not be a violent witness against your neighbour, or
let your lips say what is false.

29 Say not, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will give
the man the reward of his work.

30 I went by the field of the hater of work, and by the vine-
garden of the man without sense;

31 And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste
plants, and its stone wall was broken down.

32 Then looking at it, I gave thought: I saw, and I got
teaching from it.

33 A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in
sleep:

34 So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need
like an armed man.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 25

1 These are more wise sayings of Solomon, copied out by
the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

2 It is the glory of God to keep a thing secret: but the glory
of kings is to have it searched out.

3 The heaven is high and the earth is deep, and the hearts of
kings may not be searched out.

4 Take away the waste from silver, and a vessel will come
out for the silver-worker.

5 Take away evil-doers from before the king, and the seat of
his power will be made strong in righteousness.

6 Do not take glory for yourself before the king, and do not
put yourself'in the place of the great:

7 For it is better to have it said to you, Come up here; than
for you to be put down in a lower place before the ruler.

8 Do not be quick to go to law about what you have seen,
for what will you do in the end, when your neighbour has
put you to shame?

9 Have a talk with your neighbour himself about your
cause, but do not give away the secret of another:

10 Or your hearer may say evil of you, and your shame will
not be turned away.

11 A word at the right time is like apples of gold in a
network of silver.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Like a nose-ring of gold and an ornament of the best
gold, is a wise man who says sharp words to an ear ready to
give attention.

13 As the cold of snow in the time of grain-cutting, so is a
true servant to those who send him; for he gives new life to
the soul of his master.

14 As clouds and wind without rain, so is one who takes
credit for an offering he has not given.

15 A judge is moved by one who for a long time undergoes
wrongs without protest, and by a soft tongue even bone is
broken.

16 If you have honey, take only as much as is enough for
you; for fear that, being full of it, you may not be able to
keep it down.

17 Let not your foot be frequently in your neighbour's
house, or he may get tired of you, and his feeling be turned to
hate.

18 One who gives false witness against his neighbour is a
hammer and a sword and a sharp arrow.

19 Putting one's faith in a false man in time of trouble is
like a broken tooth and a shaking foot.

20 Like one who takes off clothing in cold weather and like
acid on a wound, is he who makes melody to a sad heart.

21 If your hater is in need of food, give him bread; and if he
is in need of drink, give him water:

22 For so you will put coals of fire on his head, and the
Lord will give you your reward.

23 As the north wind gives birth to rain, so is an angry face
caused by a tongue saying evil secretly.

24 It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than
with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.

25 As cold water to a tired soul, so is good news from a far
country.

26 Like a troubled fountain and a dirty spring, is an
upright man who has to give way before evil-doers.

27 It is not good to take much honey: so he who is not
looking for honour will be honoured.

28 He whose spirit is uncontrolled is like an unwalled town
which has been broken into.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 26

1 Like snow in summer and rain when the grain is being cut,
so honour is not natural for the foolish.

2 As the sparrow in her wandering and the swallow in her
flight, so the curse does not come without a cause.

3 A whip for the horse, a mouth-bit for the ass, and a rod
for the back of the foolish.

4 Do not give to the foolish man a foolish answer, or you
will be like him.

5 Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise
to himself.

6 He who sends news by the hand of a foolish man is cutting
off his feet and drinking in damage.

7 The legs of one who has no power of walking are hanging
loose; so is a wise saying in the mouth of the foolish.

8 Giving honour to a foolish man is like attempting to keep
astone fixed in a cord.

9 Like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a man
overcome by drink, so is a wise saying in the mouth of a
foolish man.

10 Like an archer wounding all who go by, is a foolish man
overcome by drink.

11 Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been
able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts
over again.

12 Have you seen a man who seems to himself to be wise?
There is more hope for the foolish than for him.

13 The hater of work says, There is a lion in the way; a lion
is in the streets.

14 A door is turned on its pillar, and the hater of work on
his bed.

15 The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin:
lifting it again to his mouth is a weariness to him.

16 The hater of work seems to himself wiser than seven men
who are able to give an answer with good sense.

17 He who gets mixed up in a fight which is not his business,
is like one who takes a dog by the ears while it is going by.

18 As one who is off his head sends about flaming sticks and
arrows of death,

19 So is the man who gets the better of his neighbour by
deceit, and says, Am I not doing so in sport?

20 Without wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no
secret talk, argument is ended.

21 Like breath on coals and wood on fire, so a man given to
argument gets a fight started.

22 The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly
are like sweet food, they go down into the inner parts of the
stomach.

23 Smooth lips and an evil heart are like a vessel of earth
plated with silver waste.

24 With his lips the hater makes things seem what they are
not, but deceit is stored up inside him;

25 When he says fair words, have no belief in him; for in his
heart are seven evils:

26 Though his hate is covered with deceit, his sin will be
seen openly before the meeting of the people.

27 He who makes a hole in the earth will himself go falling
into it: and on him by whom a stone is rolled the stone will
come back again.

28 A false tongue has hate for those who have clean hearts,
and a smooth mouth is a cause of falling.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 27

1 Do not make a noise about tomorrow, for you are not
certain what a day's outcome may be.

2 Let another man give you praise, and not your mouth;
one who is strange to you, and not your lips.

3 A stone has great weight, and sand is crushing; but the
wrath of the foolish is of greater weight than these.

4 Wrath is cruel, and angry feeling an overflowing stream;
but who does not give way before envy?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 Better is open protest than love kept secret.

6 The wounds of a friend are given in good faith, but the
kisses of a hater are false.

7 The full man has no use for honey, but to the man in need
of food every bitter thing is sweet.

8 Like a bird wandering from the place of her eggs is a man
wandering from his station.

9 Oil and perfume make glad the heart, and the wise
suggestion of a friend is sweet to the soul.

10 Do not give up your friend and your father's friend; and
do not go into your brother's house in the day of your
trouble: better is a neighbour who is near than a brother far
off.

11 My son, be wise and make my heart glad, so that I may
give back an answer to him who puts me to shame.

12 The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple
go straight on and get into trouble.

13 Take a man's clothing if he makes himself responsible for
a strange man, and get an undertaking from him who gives
his word for strange men.

14 He who gives a blessing to his friend with a loud voice,
getting up early in the morning, will have it put to his
account as a curse.

15 Like an unending dropping on a day of rain is a bitter-
tongued woman.

16 He who keeps secret the secret of his friend, will get
himself'a name for good faith.

17 Iron makes iron sharp; so a man makes sharp his friend.

18 Whoever keeps a fig-tree will have its fruit; and the
servant waiting on his master will be honoured.

19 Like face looking at face in water, so are the hearts of
men to one another.

20 The underworld and Abaddon are never full, and the
eyes of man have never enough.

21 The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold,
and a man is measured by what he is praised for.

22 Even if a foolish man is crushed with a hammer in a
vessel among crushed grain, still his foolish ways will not go
from him.

23 Take care to have knowledge about the condition of
your flocks, looking well after your herds;

24 For wealth is not for ever, and money does not go on for
all generations.

25 The grass comes up and the young grass is seen, and the
mountain plants are got in.

26 The lambs are for your clothing, and the he-goats make
the value of a field:

27 There will be goats' milk enough for your food, and for
the support of your servant-girls.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 28

1 The evil man goes running away when no man is after him,
but the upright are without fear, like the lion.

2 Because of the sin of the land, its troubles are increased;
but by a man of wisdom and knowledge they will be put out
like a fire.

3 A man of wealth who is cruel to the poor is like a violent
rain causing destruction of food.

4 Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the
evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him.

5 Evil men have no knowledge of what is right; but those
who go after the Lord have knowledge of all things.

6 Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the
man of wealth whose ways are not straight.

7 He who keeps the law is a wise son, but he who keeps
company with feasters puts shame on his father.

8 He who makes his wealth greater by taking interest, only
gets it together for him who has pity on the poor.

9 As for the man whose ear is turned away from hearing the
law, even his prayer is disgusting.

10 Anyone causing the upright to go wandering in an evil
way, will himself go down into the hole he has made; but the
upright will have good things for their heritage.

11 The man of wealth seems to himself to be wise, but the
poor man who has sense has a low opinion of him.

12 When the upright do well, there is great glory; but when
evil-doers are lifted up, men do not let themselves be seen.

13 He who keeps his sins secret will not do well; but one
who is open about them, and gives them up, will get mercy.

14 Happy is the man in whom is the fear of the Lord at all
times; but he whose heart is hard will come into trouble.

15 Like a loud-voiced lion and a wandering bear, is an evil
ruler over a poor people.

16 The prince who has no sense is a cruel ruler; but he who
has no desire to get profit for himself will have long life.

17 One who has been the cause of a man's death will go in
flight to the underworld: let no man give him help.

18 He whose ways are upright will be safe, but sudden will
be the fall of him whose ways are twisted.

19 By ploughing his land a man will have bread in full
measure; but he who goes after good-for-nothing persons
will be poor enough.

20 A man of good faith will have great blessing, but one
attempting to get wealth quickly will not go free from
punishment.

21 It is not good to have respect for a man's position: for a
man will do wrong for a bit of bread.

22 He who is ever desiring wealth goes running after money,
and does not see that need will come on him.

23 He who says words of protest to a man will later have
more approval than one who says smooth words with his
tongue.

24 He who takes from his father or his mother what is
theirs by right, and says, It is no sin; is the same as a taker of
life.

25 He who is ever desiring profit is a cause of fighting; but
he who puts his faith in the Lord will be made fat.

26 He whose faith is in himself is foolish; but everyone
walking wisely will be kept safe.

27 He who gives to the poor will never be in need, but great
curses will be on him who gives no attention to them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 When evil-doers are lifted up, men take cover; but when
destruction overtakes them, the upright are increased.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 29

1 A man hating sharp words and making his heart hard,
will suddenly be broken and will not be made well again.

2 When the upright have power, the people are glad; when
an evil man is ruler, grief comes on the people.

3 A man who is a lover of wisdom is a joy to his father: but
he who goes in the company of loose women is a waster of
wealth.

4 A king, by right rule, makes the land safe; but one full of
desires makes it a waste.

5 A man who says smooth things to his neighbour is
stretching out a net for his steps.

6 In the steps of an evil man there is a net for him, but the
upright man gets away quickly and is glad.

7 The upright man gives attention to the cause of the poor:
the evil-doer gives no thought to it.

8 Men of pride are the cause of violent acts in a town, but
by wise men wrath is turned away.

9 If a wise man goes to law with a foolish man, he may be
angry or laughing, but there will be no rest.

10 Men of blood are haters of the good man, and evil-doers
go after his soul.

11 A foolish man lets out all his wrath, but a wise man
keeps it back quietly.

12 Ifa ruler gives attention to false words, all his servants
are evil-doers.

13 The poor man and his creditor come face to face: the
Lord gives light to their eyes equally.

14 The king who is a true judge in the cause of the poor,
will be safe for ever on the seat of his power.

15 The rod and sharp words give wisdom: but a child who
is not guided is a cause of shame to his mother.

16 When evil men are in power, wrongdoing is increased;
but the upright will have pleasure when they see their
downfall.

17 Give your son training, and he will give you rest; he will
give delight to your soul.

18 Where there is no vision, the people are uncontrolled;
but he who keeps the law will be happy.

19 A servant will not be trained by words; for though the
sense of the words is clear to him, he will not give attention.

20 Have you seen a man who is quick with his tongue?
There is more hope for a foolish man than for him.

21 If a servant is gently cared for from his early years, he
will become a cause of sorrow in the end.

22 An angry man is the cause of fighting, and a man given
to wrath does much wrong.

23 A man's pride will be the cause of his fall, but he who has
a gentle spirit will get honour.

24 A man who takes part with a thief has hate for his soul;
he is put under oath, but says nothing.

25 The fear of man is a cause of danger: but whoever puts
his faith in the Lord will have a safe place on high.

26 The approval of a ruler is desired by great numbers: but
the decision in a man's cause comes from the Lord.

27 An evil man is disgusting to the upright, and he who is
upright is disgusting to evil-doers.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 30

1 The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, from Massa. The
man says: I am full of weariness, O God, I am full of
weariness; O God, I have come to an end:

2 For Iam more like a beast than any man, I have no power
of reasoning like a man:

3 I have not got wisdom by teaching, so that I might have
the knowledge of the Holy One.

4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? who has
taken the winds in his hands, prisoning the waters in his robe?
by whom have all the ends of the earth been fixed? what is his
name, and what is his son's name, if you are able to say?

5 Every word of God is tested: he is a breastplate to those
who put their faith in him.

6 Make no addition to his words, or he will make clear your
error, and you will be seen to be false.

7 T have made request to you for two things; do not keep
them from me before my death:

8 Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give
me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only
enough food:

9 For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say,
Who is the Lord? or if Iam poor, I may become a thief, using
the name of my God wrongly.

10 Do not say evil of a servant to his master, or he will put
acurse on you, and you will get into trouble.

11 There is a generation who put a curse on their father,
and do not give a blessing to their mother.

12 There is a generation who seem to themselves to be free
from sin, but are not washed from their unclean ways.

13 There is a generation, O how full of pride are their eyes!
O how their brows are lifted up!

14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, their
strong teeth like knives, for the destruction of the poor from
the earth, and of those who are in need from among men.

15 The night-spirit has two daughters, Give, give. There
are three things which are never full, even four which never
say, Enough:

16 The underworld, and the woman without a child; the
earth which never has enough water, and the fire which never
says, Enough.

17 The eye which makes sport of a father, and sees no value
in a mother when she is old will be rooted out by the ravens
of the valley, and be food for the young eagles.

18 There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes
me, even four things outside my knowledge:

19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a
rock; the way of a ship in the heart of the sea; and the way of
aman with a girl.

20 This is the way of a false wife; she takes food, and,
cleaning her mouth, says, I have done no wrong.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

21 For three things the earth is moved, and there are four
which it will not put up with:

22 A servant when he becomes a king; a man without sense
when his wealth is increased;

23 A hated woman when she is married; and a servant-girl
who takes the place of her master's wife.

24 There are four things which are little on the earth, but
they are very wise:

25 The ants are a people not strong, but they put by a store
of food in the summer;

26 The conies are only a feeble people, but they make their
houses in the rocks;

27 The locusts have no king, but they all go out in bands;

28 You may take the lizard in your hands, but it is in kings'
houses.

29 There are three things whose steps are good to see, even
four whose goings are fair:

30 The lion, which is strongest among beasts, not turning
from his way for any;

31 The war-horse, and the he-goat, and the king when his
army is with him.

32 If you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you
have had evil designs, put your hand over your mouth.

33 The shaking of milk makes butter, and the twisting of
the nose makes blood come: so the forcing of wrath is a cause
of fighting.

PROVERBS CHAPTER 31

1 The words of Lemuel, king of Massa: the teaching which
he had from his mother.

2 What am I to say to you, O Lemuel, my oldest son? and
what, O son of my body? and what, O son of my oaths?

3 Do not give your strength to women, or your ways to
that which is the destruction of kings.

4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to take
wine, or for rulers to say, Where is strong drink?

5 For fear that through drinking they may come to have no
respect for the law, wrongly judging the cause of those who
are in trouble.

6 Give strong drink to him who is near to destruction, and
wine to him whose soul is bitter:

7 Let him have drink, and his need will go from his mind,
and the memory of his trouble will be gone.

8 Let your mouth be open for those who have no voice, in
the cause of those who are ready for death.

9 Let your mouth be open, judging rightly, and give right
decisions in the cause of the poor and those in need.

10 Who may make discovery of a woman of virtue? For her
price is much higher than jewels.

11 The heart of her husband has faith in her, and he will
have profit in full measure.

12 She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

13 She gets wool and linen, working at the business of her
hands.

14 She is like the trading-ships, getting food from far away.

15 She gets up while it is still night, and gives meat to her
family, and their food to her servant-girls.

16 After looking at a field with care, she gets it for a price,
planting a vine-garden with the profit of her work.

17 She puts a band of strength round her, and makes her
arms strong.

18 She sees that her marketing is of profit to her: her light
does not go out by night.

19 She puts her hands to the cloth-working rod, and her
fingers take the wheel.

20 Her hands are stretched out to the poor; yes, she is open-
handed to those who are in need.

21 She has no fear of the snow for her family, for all those
in her house are clothed in red.

22 She makes for herself cushions of needlework; her
clothing is fair linen and purple.

23 Her husband is a man of note in the public place, when
he takes his seat among the responsible men of the land.

24 She makes linen robes and gets a price for them, and
traders take her cloth bands for a price.

25 Strength and self-respect are her clothing; she is facing
the future with a smile.

26 Her mouth is open to give out wisdom, and the law of
mercy is on her tongue.

27 She gives attention to the ways of her family, she does
not take her food without working for it.

28 Her children get up and give her honour, and her
husband gives her praise, saying,

29 Unnumbered women have done well, but you are better
than all of them.

30 Fair looks are a deceit, and a beautiful form is of no
value; but a woman who has the fear of the Lord is to be
praised.

31 Give her credit for what her hands have made: let her be
praised by her works in the public place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE SCROLL OF ECCLESIASTES
Hebrew title: Megilath Kohelet
Estimated Range of Dating: 400-200 B.C.

(Ecclesiastes (Hebrew: Kohelet) is one of 24 books of the
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), where it 1s classified as one of the
Ketuvim (Writings). The book takes its name from the Greek
ekklesiastes, a translation of the title by which the central
figure refers to himself: Kohelet, meaning something like
"one who convenes or addresses an assembly" or "one who
preaches." Originally written c. 400-200 BC, it is also
among the canonical Wisdom literature of the Old Testament
in most denominations of Christianity.

According to rabbinic tradition, Ecclesiastes was written
by Solomon in his old age (an alternative tradition that
"Hezekiah and his colleagues wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, the
Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes" probably means simply that
the book was edited under Hezekiah), but critical scholars
have long rejected the idea of a pre-exilic origin. The
presence of Persian loan-words and Aramaisms points to a
date no earlier than about 450 BC, while the latest possible
date for its composition 1s 180 BC, when the Jewish writer
Ben Sira quotes from it. The dispute as to whether
Ecclesiastes belongs to the Persian or the Hellenistic periods
(e., the earlier or later part of this period) revolves around
the degree of Hellenization (influence of Greek culture and
thought) present in the book. Scholars arguing for a Persian
date (c. 450-330 BC) hold that there is a complete lack of
Greek influence; those who argue for a Hellenistic date (c.
330-180 BC) argue that it shows internal evidence of Greek
thought and social setting.

Contents and Structure:

¢ Title (1:1)

¢ Initial poem (1:2-11)

¢ I: Kohelet's investigation of life (1:12—6:9)

¢ IT: Kohelet's conclusions (6:10—11:6)

¢ Introduction (6:10—12)

¢ A: Man cannot discover what 1s good for him to do (1-
8:17)

¢ B: Man does not know what will come after him (9:1—
11:6)

¢ Concluding poem (11:7—12:8)

+ Epilogue (12:9-14)

Ecclesiastes has taken its literary form from the Middle
Eastern tradition of the fictional autobiography, in which a
character, often a king, relates his experiences and draws
lessons from them, often self-critical: Kohelet likewise
identities himself as a king, speaks of his search for wisdom,
relates his conclusions, and recognises his limitations. It
belongs to the category of wisdom literature, the body of
biblical writings which give advice on life, together with

reflections on its problems and meanings—other examples
include the Book of Job, Proverbs, and some of the Psalms.

Ecclesiastes is presented as biography of "Kohelet".
Kohelet's story is framed by voice of the narrator, who refers
to Kohelet in the third person, praises his wisdom, but
reminds the reader that wisdom has its limitations and is not
man's main concern. Kohelet reports what he planned, did,
experienced and thought. His journey to knowledge is, in the
end, incomplete. The reader is not only to hear Kohelet's
wisdom, but to observe his journey towards understanding
and acceptance of life's frustrations and uncertainties: the
Journey itselfis important.)

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER |

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in
Jerusalem.

2 All is to no purpose, said the Preacher, all the ways of
man are to no purpose.

3 What is a man profited by all his work which he does
under the sun?

4 One generation goes and another comes; but the earth is
for ever.

5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, and goes
quickly back to the place where he came up.

6 The wind goes to the south, turning back again to the
north; circling round for ever.

7 All the rivers go down to the sea, but the sea is not full; to
the place where the rivers go, there they go again.

8 All things are full of weariness; man may not give their
story: the eye has never enough of its seeing, or the ear of its
hearing.

9 That which has been, is that which is to be, and that
which has been done, is that which will be done, and there is
no new thing under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which men say, See, this is new? It
has been in the old time which was before us.

11 There is no memory of those who have gone before, and
of those who come after there will be no memory for those
who are still to come after them.

12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 And I gave my heart to searching out in wisdom all
things which are done under heaven: it is a hard thing which
God has put on the sons of men to do.

14 I have seen all the works which are done under the sun;
all is to no purpose, and desire for wind.

15 That which is bent may not be made straight, and that
which is not there may not be numbered.

16 I said to my heart, See, I have become great and am
increased in wisdom more than any who were before me in
Jerusalem--yes, my heart has seen much wisdom and
knowledge.

17 And I gave my heart to getting knowledge of wisdom,
and of the ways of the foolish. And I saw that this again was
desire for wind.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 Because in much wisdom is much grief, and increase of
knowledge is increase of sorrow.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 2

1 I said in my heart, I will give you joy for a test; so take
your pleasure--but it was to no purpose.

2 Of laughing I said, It is foolish; and of joy--What use is it?

3 I made a search with my heart to give pleasure to my flesh
with wine, still guiding my heart with wisdom, and to go
after foolish things, so that I might see what was good for the
sons of men to do under the heavens all the days of their life.

4 I undertook great works, building myself houses and
planting vine-gardens.

5 I made myself gardens and fruit gardens, planting in them
fruit-trees of all sorts.

6 I made pools to give water for the woods with their young
trees.

7 I got men-servants and women-servants, and they gave
birth to sons and daughters in my house. I had great wealth
of herds and flocks, more than all who were in Jerusalem
before me.

8 I got together silver and gold and the wealth of kings and
of countries. I got makers of song, male and female; and the
delights of the sons of men--girls of all sorts to be my brides.

9 And I became great; increasing more than all who had
been before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom was still with
me.

10 And nothing which was desired by my eyes did I keep
from them; I did not keep any joy from my heart, because my
heart took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward.

11 Then I saw all the works which my hands had made, and
everything I had been working to do; and I saw that all was
to no purpose and desire for wind, and there was no profit
under the sun.

12 And I went again in search of wisdom and of foolish
ways. What may the man do who comes after the king? The
thing which he has done before.

13 Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways--as
the light is better than the dark.

14 The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the foolish man
goes walking in the dark; but still I saw that the same event
comes to them all.

15 Then said I in my heart: As it comes to the foolish man,
so will it come to me; so why have I been wise overmuch?
Then I said in my heart: This again is to no purpose.

16 Of the wise man, as of the foolish man, there is no
memory for ever, seeing that those who now are will have
gone from memory in the days to come. See how death comes
to the wise as to the foolish!

17 So I was hating life, because everything under the sun
was evil to me: all is to no purpose and desire for wind.

18 Hate had I for all my work which I had done, because
the man who comes after me will have its fruits.

19 And who is to say if that man will be wise or foolish?
But he will have power over all my work which I have done

and in which I have been wise under the sun. This again is to
no purpose.

20 So my mind was turned to grief for all the trouble I had
taken and all my wisdom under the sun.

21 Because there is a man whose work has been done with
wisdom, with knowledge, and with an expert hand; but one
who has done nothing for it will have it for his heritage. This
again is to no purpose and a great evil.

22 What does a man get for all his work, and for the weight
of care with which he has done his work under the sun?

23 All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief.
Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no
purpose.

24 There is nothing better for a man than taking meat and
drink, and having delight in his work. This again I saw was
from the hand of God.

25 Who may take food or have pleasure without him?

26 To the man with whom he is pleased, God gives wisdom
and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work
of getting goods together and storing up wealth, to give to
him in whom God has pleasure. This again is to no purpose
and desire for wind.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 3

| For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every
business under the sun.

2 A time for birth and a time for death; a time for planting
and a time for uprooting;

3 A time to put to death and a time to make well; a time for
pulling down and a time for building up;

4 A time for weeping and a time for laughing; a time for
sorrow and a time for dancing;

5 A time to take stones away and a time to get stones
together; a time for kissing and a time to keep from kissing;

6 A time for search and a time for loss; a time to keep and a
time to give away;

7 A time for undoing and a time for stitching; a time for
keeping quiet and a time for talk;

8 A time for love and a time for hate; a time for war and a
time for peace.

9 What profit has the worker in the work which he does?

10 I saw the work which God has put on the sons of man.

11 He has made everything right in its time; but he has
made their hearts without knowledge, so that man is unable
to see the works of God, from the first to the last.

12 I am certain that there is nothing better for a man than
to be glad, and to do good while life is in him.

13 And for every man to take food and drink, and have joy
in all his work, is a reward from God.

14] am certain that whatever God does will be for ever. No
addition may be made to it, nothing may be taken from it;
and God has done it so that man may be in fear before him.

15 Whatever is has been before, and what is to be is now;
because God makes search for the things which are past.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And again, I saw under the sun, in the place of the
judges, that evil was there; and in the place of righteousness,
that evil was there.

17 I said in my heart, God will be judge of the good and of
the bad; because a time for every purpose and for every work
has been fixed by him.

18 I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, so
that God may put them to the test and that they may see
themselves as beasts.

19 Because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the
beasts is the same. As is the death of one so is the death of the
other, and all have one spirit. Man is not higher than the
beasts; because all is to no purpose.

20 All go to one place, all are of the dust, and all will be
turned to dust again.

21 Who is certain that the spirit of the sons of men goes up
to heaven, or that the spirit of the beasts goes down to the
earth?

22 So I saw that there is nothing better than for a man to
have joy in his work--because that is his reward. Who will
make him see what will come after him?

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 4

1 And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under
the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to
them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the
evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

2 So my praise was for the dead who have gone to their
death, more than for the living who still have life.

3 Yes, happier than the dead or the living seemed he who
has not ever been, who has not seen the evil which is done
under the sun.

4 And I saw that the cause of all the work and of everything
which is done well was man's envy of his neighbour. This
again is to no purpose and a desire for wind.

5 The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his
body for food.

6 One hand full of rest is better than two hands full of
trouble and desire for wind.

7 Then I came back, and I saw an example of what is to no
purpose under the sun.

8 It is one who is by himself, without a second, and without
son or brother; but there is no end to all his work, and he has
never enough of wealth. For whom, then, am I working and
keeping myself from pleasure? This again is to no purpose,
and a bitter work.

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward
for their work.

10 And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but
unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no
helper.

11 So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm,
but how may one be warm by himself?

12 And two attacked by one would be safe, and three cords
twisted together are not quickly broken.

13 A young man who is poor and wise is better than a king
who is old and foolish and will not be guided by the wisdom
of others.

14 Because out of a prison the young man comes to be king,
though by birth he was only a poor man in the kingdom.

15 I saw all the living under the sun round the young man
who was to be ruler in place of the king.

16 There was no end of all the people, of all those whose
head he was, but they who come later will have no delight in
him. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 5

1 Put your feet down with care when you go to the house of
God, for it is better to give ear than to make the burned
offerings of the foolish, whose knowledge is only of doing
evil.

2 Be not unwise with your mouth, and let not your heart be
quick to say anything before God, because God 1s in heaven
and you are on the earth--so let not the number of your
words be great.

3 As a dream comes from much business, so the voice of a
foolish man comes with words in great number.

4 When you take an oath before God, put it quickly into
effect, because he has no pleasure in the foolish; keep the oath
you have taken.

5 It is better not to take an oath than to take an oath and
not keep it.

6 Let not your mouth make your flesh do evil. And say not
before the angel, It was an error. So that God may not be
angry with your words and put an end to the work of your
hands.

7 Because much talk comes from dreams and things of no
purpose. But let the fear of God be in you.

8 If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right
being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised,
because one authority is keeping watch on another and there
are higher than they.

9 It is good generally for a country where the land is
worked to have a king.

10 He who has a love for silver never has enough silver, or
he who has love for wealth, enough profit. This again is to
no purpose.

11 When goods are increased, the number of those who take
of them is increased; and what profit has the owner but to see
them?

12 The sleep of a working man is sweet, if he has little food
or much; but to him who is full, sleep will not come.

13 There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun--
wealth kept by the owner to be his downfall.

14 And I saw the destruction of his wealth by an evil chance;
and when he became the father of a son he had nothing in his
hand.

15 As he came from his mother at birth, so does he go again;
he gets from his work no reward which he may take away in
his hand.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And this again is a great evil, that in all points as he
came so will he go; and what profit has he in working for the
wind?

17 All his days are in the dark, and he has much sorrow,
pain, disease, and trouble.

18 This is what I have seen: it is good and fair for a man to
take meat and drink and to have joy in all his work under the
sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; that is
his reward.

19 Every man to whom God has given money and wealth
and the power to have pleasure in it and to do his part and
have joy in his work: this is given by God.

20 He will not give much thought to the days of his life;
because God lets him be taken up with the joy of his heart.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 6

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is
hard on men;

2 A man to whom God gives money, wealth, and honour so
that he has all his desires but God does not give him the
power to have joy of it, and a strange man takes it. This is to
no purpose and an evil disease.

3 If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so
that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul
takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his
death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he.

4 In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the
dark will its name be covered.

5 Yes, it saw not the sun, and it had no knowledge; it is
better with this than with the other.

6 And though he goes on living a thousand years twice over
and does not see good, are not the two going to the same
place?

7 All the work of man is for his mouth, and still he has a
desire for food.

8 What have the wise more than the foolish? and what has
the poor man by walking wisely before the living?

9 What the eyes see is better than the wandering of desire.
This is to no purpose and a desire for wind.

10 That which is, has been named before, and of what man
is there is knowledge. He has no power against one stronger
than he.

11 There are words without number for increasing what is
to no purpose, but what is man profited by them?

12 Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the
days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade?
who will say what is to be after him under the sun?

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 7

1 A good name is better than oil of great price, and the day
of death than the day of birth.

2 It is better to go to the house of weeping, than to go to
the house of feasting; because that is the end of every man,
and the living will take it to their hearts.

3 Sorrow is better than joy; when the face is sad the mind
gets better.

4 The hearts of the wise are in the house of weeping; but the
hearts of the foolish are in the house of joy.

5 It is better to take note of the protest of the wise, than for
aman to give ear to the song of the foolish.

6 Like the cracking of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh of
a foolish man; and this again is to no purpose.

7 The wise are troubled by the ways of the cruel, and the
giving of money is the destruction of the heart.

8 The end of a thing is better than its start, and a gentle
spirit is better than pride.

9 Be not quick to let your spirit be angry; because wrath is
in the heart of the foolish.

10 Say not, Why were the days which have gone by better
than these? Such a question comes not from wisdom.

11 Wisdom together with a heritage is good, and a profit
to those who see the sun.

12 Wisdom keeps a man from danger even as money does;
but the value of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to its
owner.

13 Give thought to the work of God. Who will make
straight what he has made bent?

14 In the day of wealth have joy, but in the day of evil take
thought: God has put the one against the other, so that man
may not be certain what will be after him.

15 These two have J seen in my life which is to no purpose: a
good man coming to his end in his righteousness, and an evil
man whose days are long in his evil-doing.

16 Be not given overmuch to righteousness and be not over-
wise. Why let destruction come on you?

17 Be not evil overmuch, and be not foolish. Why come to
your end before your time?

18 It is good to take this in your hand and not to keep your
hand from that; he who has the fear of God will be free of the
two.

19 Wisdom makes a wise man stronger than ten rulers in a
town.

20 There is no man on earth of such righteousness that he
does good and is free from sin all his days.

21 Do not give ear to all the words which men say, for fear
of hearing the curses of your servant.

22 Your heart has knowledge how frequently others have
been cursed by you.

23 All this I have put to the test by wisdom; I said, I will be
wise, but it was far from me.

24 Far off is true existence, and very deep; who may have
knowledge of it?

25 I gave my mind to knowledge and to searching for
wisdom and the reason of things, and to the discovery that
sin is foolish, and that to be foolish is to be without one's
senses.

26 And I saw a thing more bitter than death, even the
woman whose heart is full of tricks and nets, and whose
hands are as bands. He with whom God is pleased will get
free from her, but the sinner will be taken by her.

27 Look! this I have seen, said the Preacher, taking one
thing after another to get the true account,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 For which my soul is still searching, but I have it not;
one man among a thousand have I seen; but a woman among
all these I have not seen.

29 This only have I seen, that God made men upright, but
they have been searching out all sorts of inventions.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 8

1 Who is like the wise man? and to whom is the sense of
anything clear? A man's wisdom makes his face shining, and
his hard face will be changed.

2 I say to you, Keep the king's law, from respect for the
oath of God.

3 Be not quick to go from before him. Be not fixed in an
evil design, because he does whatever is pleasing to him.

4 The word of a king has authority; and who may say to
him, What is this you are doing?

5 Whoever keeps the law will come to no evil: and a wise
man's heart has knowledge of time and of decision.

6 For every purpose there is a time and a decision, because
the sorrow of man is great in him.

7 No one is certain what is to be, and who is able to say to
him when it will be?

8 No man has authority over the wind, to keep the wind; or
is ruler over the day of his death. In war no man's time is free,
and evil will not keep the sinner safe.

9 All this have I seen, and have given my heart to all the
work which is done under the sun: there is a time when man
has power over man for his destruction.

10 And then I saw evil men put to rest, taken even from the
holy place; and they went about and were praised in the town
because of what they had done. This again is to no purpose.

11 Because punishment for an evil work comes not quickly,
the minds of the sons of men are fully given to doing evil.

12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his life is
long, I am certain that it will be well for those who go in fear
of God and are in fear before him.

13 But it will not be well for the evil-doer; he will not make
his days long like a shade, because he has no fear before God.

14 There is a thing which is to no purpose done on the
earth: that there are good men to whom is given the same
punishment as those who are evil, and there are evil men who
get the reward of the good. I say that this again is to no
purpose.

15 So I gave praise to joy, because there is nothing better
for a man to do under the sun than to take meat and drink
and be happy; for that will be with him in his work all the
days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

16 When I gave my mind to the knowledge of wisdom and
to seeing the business which is done on the earth (and there
are those whose eyes see not sleep by day or by night),

17 Then I saw all the work of God, and that man may not
get knowledge of the work which is done under the sun;
because, if a man gives hard work to the search he will not
get knowledge, and even if the wise man seems to be coming
to the end of his search, still he will be without knowledge.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 9

1 All this I took to heart, and my heart saw it all: that the
upright and the wise and their works are in the hand of God;
and men may not be certain if it will be love or hate; all is to
no purpose before them.

2 Because to all there is one event, to the upright man and
to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him who makes
an offering and to him who makes no offering; as is the good
so is the sinner; he who takes an oath is as he who has fear of
it.

3 This is evil in all things which are done under the sun:
that there is one fate for all, and the hearts of the sons of men
are full of evil; while they have life their hearts are foolish,
and after that--to the dead.

4 For him who is joined to all the living there is hope; a
living dog is better than a dead lion.

5 The living are conscious that death will come to them,
but the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no
longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them.

6 Their love and their hate and their envy are now ended;
and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is
done under the sun.

7 Come, take your bread with joy, and your wine with a
glad heart. God has taken pleasure in your works.

8 Let your clothing be white at all times, and let not your
head be without oil.

9 Have joy with the woman of your love all the days of your
foolish life which he gives you under the sun. Because that is
your part in life and in your work which you do under the
sun.

10 Whatever comes to your hand to do with all your power,
do it because there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or
wisdom in the place of the dead to which you are going.

11 And again I saw under the sun that the reward goes not
to him who is quick, or the fruits of war to the strong; and
there is no bread for the wise, or wealth for men of learning,
or respect for those who have knowledge; but time and
chance come to all.

12 Even man has no knowledge of his time; like fishes taken
in an evil net, or like birds taken by deceit, are the sons of
men taken in an evil time when it comes suddenly on them.

13 This again I have seen under the sun as wisdom and it
seemed great to me.

14 There was a little town and the number of its men was
small, and there came a great king against it and made an
attack on it, building works of war round about it.

15 Now there was in the town a poor, wise man, and he, by
his wisdom, kept the town safe. But no one had any memory
of that same poor man.

16 Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength, but the
poor man's wisdom is not respected, and his words are not
given a hearing.

17 The words of the wise which come quietly to the ear are
noted more than the cry of a ruler among the foolish.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 Wisdom is better than instruments of war, but one
sinner is the destruction of much good.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 10

1 Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give out an evil
smell; more valued is a little wisdom than the great glory of
the foolish.

2 The heart of the wise man goes in the right direction; but
the heart of a foolish man in the wrong.

3 And when the foolish man is walking in the way, he has
no sense and lets everyone see that he is foolish.

4 If the wrath of the ruler is against you, keep in your place;
in him who keeps quiet even great sins may be overlooked.

5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, like an
error which comes by chance from a ruler:

6 The foolish are placed in high positions, but men of
wealth are kept low.

7 I have seen servants on horses, and rulers walking on the
earth as servants.

8 He who makes a hole for others will himself go into it,
and for him who makes a hole through a wall the bite of a
snake will be a punishment.

9 He who gets out stones from the earth will be damaged by
them, and in the cutting of wood there is danger.

10 If the iron has no edge, and he does not make it sharp,
then he has to put out more strength; but wisdom makes
things go well.

11 If a snake gives a bite before the word of power is said,
then there is no longer any use in the word of power.

12 The words of a wise man's mouth are sweet to all, but
the lips of a foolish man are his destruction.

13 The first words of his mouth are foolish, and the end of
his talk is evil crime.

14 The foolish are full of words; man has no knowledge of
what will be; and who 1s able to say what will be after him?

15 The work of the foolish will be a weariness to him,
because he has no knowledge of the way to the town.

16 Unhappy is the land whose king is a boy, and whose
rulers are feasting in the morning.

17 Happy is the land whose ruler is of noble birth, and
whose chiefs take food at the right time, for strength and not
for feasting.

18 When no work is done the roof goes in, and when the
hands do nothing water comes into the house.

19 A feast is for laughing, and wine makes glad the heart;
but by the one and the other money is wasted.

20 Say not a curse against the king, even in your thoughts;
and even secretly say not a curse against the man of wealth;
because a bird of the air will take the voice, and that which
has wings will give news of it.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 11

1 Put out your bread on the face of the waters; for after a
long time it will come back to you again.

2 Give a part to seven or even to eight, because you have no
knowledge of the evil which will be on the earth.

3 If the clouds are full of rain, they send it down on the
earth; and if a tree comes down to the south, or the north, in
whatever place it comes down, there it will be.

4 He who is watching the wind will not get the seed planted,
and he who is looking at the clouds will not get in the grain.

5 As you have no knowledge of the way of the wind, or of
the growth of the bones in the body of her who is with child,
even so you have no knowledge of the works of God who has
made all.

6 In the morning put your seed into the earth, and till the
evening let not your hand be at rest; because you are not
certain which will do well, this or that--or if the two will be
equally good.

7 Truly the light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see
the sun.

8 But even if a man's life is long and he has joy in all his
years, let him keep in mind the dark days, because they will
be great in number. Whatever may come is to no purpose.

9 Have joy, O young man, while you are young; and let
your heart be glad in the days of your strength, and go in the
ways of your heart, and in the desire of your eyes; but be
certain that for all these things God will be your judge.

10 So put away trouble from your heart, and sorrow from
your flesh; because the early years and the best years are to no
purpose.

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 12

1 Let your mind be turned to your Maker in the days of
your strength, while the evil days come not, and the years are
far away when you will say, I have no pleasure in them;

2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are
not dark, and the clouds come not back after the rain;

3 In the day when the keepers of the house are shaking for
fear, and the strong men are bent down, and the women who
were crushing the grain are at rest because their number is
small, and those looking out of the windows are unable to see;

4 When the doors are shut in the street, and the sound of
the crushing is low, and the voice of the bird is soft, and the
daughters of music will be made low;

5 And he is in fear of that which is high, and danger is in
the road, and the tree is white with flower, and the least
thing is a weight, and desire is at an end, because man goes to
his last resting-place, and those who are sorrowing are in the
streets;

6 Before ever the silver cord is cut, or the vessel of gold is
broken, or the pot is broken at the fountain, or the wheel
broken at the water-hole;

7 And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the
spirit goes back to God who gave it.

8 All things are to no purpose, says the Preacher, all is to
no purpose.

9 And because the Preacher was wise he still gave the people
knowledge; searching out, testing, and putting in order a
great number of wise sayings.

10 The Preacher made search for words which were
pleasing, but his writing was in words upright and true.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 The words of the wise are pointed, and sayings grouped
together are like nails fixed with a hammer; they are given by
one guide.

12 And further, my son, take note of this: of the making of
books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the
flesh.

13 This is the last word. All has been said. Have fear of God
and keep his laws; because this is right for every man.

14 God will be judge of every work, with every secret thing,
good or evil.

ETD

THE SCROLL
OF THE SONG OF SOLOMON
Song of Songs or Song for Solomon
Hebrew title: Megilath Shir Hashirim
Estimated Range of Dating: 4th to 3rd centuries B.C.

aoe

(The Song of Songs, also Song of Solomon or Canticles
(Hebrew: Shir Hashirim, Greek and Ancient Greek: Asma
Asmaton; Latin: Canticum Canticorum), is one of the
megillot (scrolls) found in the last section of the Tanakh,
known as the Ketuvim (or "Writings"), and a book of the
Old Testament. The Song of Songs is unique within the
Hebrew Bible: it shows no interest in Law or Covenant or
the God of Israel, nor does it teach or explore wisdom like
Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (although it does have some
affinities to wisdom Iiterature, as the ascription to Solomon
indicates); instead, it celebrates sexual love, giving "the
voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each
other, proffering invitations to enjoy". The two are in
harmony, each desiring the other and rejoicing in sexual
intimacy; the women of Jerusalem form a chorus to the lovers,
functioning as an audience whose participation in the lovers'
erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader.

The Song offers no clue to its author or to the date, place,
or circumstances of its composition. The superscription
states that it 1s "Solomon's", but even if this 1s meant to
identify the author, it cannot be read as strictly as a similar
modern statement. The most reliable evidence for its date is
its language: Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew after the
end of the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century BC, and
the evidence of vocabulary, morphology, idiom and syntax
clearly points to a late date, centuries after King Solomon to
whom it 1s traditionally attributed.

It has parallels with Mesopotamian and Egyptian love
poetry from the first half of the Ist millennium, and with the
pastoral idylls of Theocritus, a Greek poet who wrote in the
first half of the 3rd century BC; as a result of these
conflicting signs, speculation ranges from the 10th to the
2nd centuries BC, with the language supporting a date
around the 3rd century.

There 1s widespread consensus that, although the book has
no plot, it does have what can be called a framework, as
indicated by the links between its beginning and end. Beyond
this, however, there appears to be little agreement and
attempts to find a structure can only be indicative:

¢ Introduction (1: 1-6)

¢ Dialogue between the lovers (1:7—2:7)

¢ The woman recalls a visit from her lover (2:8—17)

¢ The woman addresses the daughters of Zion (3:1—5)

¢ Sighting a royal wedding procession (3:6—11)

¢ The man describes his lover's beauty (4:1—5:1)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

¢ The woman addresses the daughters of Jerusalem (5:2—6:4)

¢ The man describes his lover, who visits him (6:5—12)

¢ Observers describe the woman's beauty (6:13—8:4)

+ Appendix (8:5—14)

In modern Judaism the Song 1s read on the Sabbath during
the Passover, which marks the beginning of the grain harvest
as well as commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Jewish
tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between
God and Israel, Christianity as an allegory of Christ and his
"bride", the Church.)

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 1

1 The song of Songs, which is Solomon's.

2 Let him give me the kisses of his mouth: for his love is
better than wine.

3 Sweet is the smell of your perfumes; your name is as
perfume running out; so the young girls give you their love.

4 Take me to you, and we will go after you: the king has
taken me into his house. We will be glad and full of joy in
you, we will give more thought to your love than to wine:
rightly are they your lovers.

5 I am dark, but fair of form, O daughters of Jerusalem, as
the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

6 Let not your eyes be turned on me, because I am dark,
because I was looked on by the sun; my mother's children
were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vine-
gardens; but my vine-garden I have not kept.

7 Say, O love of my soul, where you give food to your flock,
and where you make them take their rest in the heat of the
day; why have I to be as one wandering by the flocks of your
friends?

8 If you have not knowledge, O most beautiful among
women, go on your way in the footsteps of the flock, and give
your young goats food by the tents of the keepers.

9 [have made a comparison of you, O my love, to a horse in
Pharaoh's carriages.

10 Your face is a delight with rings of hair, your neck with
chains of jewels.

11 We will make you chains of gold with ornaments of
silver.

12 While the king is seated at his table, my spices send out
their perfume.

13 As a bag of myrrh is my well-loved one to me, when he is
at rest all night between my breasts.

14 My love is to me as a branch of the cypress-tree in the
vine-gardens of En-gedi.

15 See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes
of a dove.

16 See, you are fair, my loved one, and a pleasure; our bed
is green.

17 Cedar-trees are the pillars of our house; and our boards
are made of fir-trees.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 2
1 Tam arose of Sharon, a flower of the valleys.

2 As the lily-flower among the thorns of the waste, so is my
love among the daughters.

3 As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
loved one among the sons. I took my rest under his shade
with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 He took me to the house of wine, and his flag over me was
love.

5 Make me strong with wine-cakes, let me be comforted
with apples; I am overcome with love.

6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand is
round about me.

7 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the
field, do not let love be moved till it is ready.

8 The voice of my loved one! See, he comes dancing on the
mountains, stepping quickly on the hills.

9 My loved one is like a roe; see, he is on the other side of
our wall, he is looking in at the windows, letting himself be
seen through the spaces.

10 My loved one said to me, Get up, my love, my fair one,
and come away.

11 For, see, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers are come on the earth; the time of cutting
the vines is come, and the voice of the dove is sounding in our
land;

13 The fig-tree puts out her green fruit and the vines with
their young fruit give a good smell. Get up from your bed,
my beautiful one, and come away.

140 my dove, you are in the holes of the mountain sides, in
the cracks of the high hills; let me see your face, let your voice
come to my ears; for sweet is your voice, and your face is fair.

15 Take for us the foxes, the little foxes, which do damage
to the vines; our vines have young grapes.

16 My loved one is mine, and I am his: he takes his food
among the flowers.

17 Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark,
come, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of
Bether.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 3

1 By night on my bed I was looking for him who is the love
of my soul: I was looking for him, but I did not see him.

2 I will get up now and go about the town, in the streets
and in the wide ways I will go after him who is the love of my
soul: I went after him, but I did not see him.

3 The watchmen who go about the town came by me; to
them I said, Have you seen him who is my heart's desire?

4] was but a little way from them, when I came face to face
with him who is the love of my soul. I took him by the hands,
and did not let him go, till I had taken him into my mother's
house, and into the room of her who gave me birth.

5 Tsay to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the
field, let not love be moved till it is ready.

6 Who is this coming out of the waste places like pillars of
smoke, perfumed with sweet spices, with all the spices of the
trader?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 See, it is the bed of Solomon; sixty men of war are about
it, of the army of Israel,

8 All of them armed with swords, trained in war; every man
has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night.

9 King Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of
Lebanon.

10 He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of
purple, the middle of it of ebony.

11 Go out, O daughters of Jerusalem, and see King
Solomon, with the crown which his mother put on his head
on the day when he was married, and on the day of the joy of
his heart.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 4

1 See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes
of a dove; your hair is as a flock of goats, which take their
rest on the side of Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep whose wool is newly
cut, which come up from the washing; every one has two
lambs, and there is not one without young.

3 Your red lips are like a bright thread, and your mouth is
fair of form; the sides of your head are like pomegranate fruit
under your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David made for a store-
house of arms, in which a thousand breastplates are hanging,
breastplates for fighting-men.

5 Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same
birth, which take their food among the lilies.

6 Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, I
will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of
frankincense.

7 You are all fair, my love; there is no mark on you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from
Lebanon; see from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir
and Hermon, from the places of the lions, from the
mountains of the leopards.

9 You have taken away my heart, my sister, my bride; you
have taken away my heart, with one look you have taken it,
with one chain of your neck!

10 How fair is your love, my sister! How much better is
your love than wine, and the smell of your oils than any
perfume!

11 Your lips are dropping honey; honey and milk are under
your tongue; and the smell of your clothing is like the smell
of Lebanon.

12 A garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut
up, a spring of water stopped.

13 The produce of the garden is pomegranates; with all the
best fruits, henna and spikenard,

14 Spikenard and safron; calamus and cinnamon, with all
trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief
spices.

15 You are a fountain of gardens, a spring of living waters,
and flowing waters from Lebanon.

16 Be awake, O north wind; and come, O south, blowing
on my garden, so that its spices may come out. Let my loved
one come into his garden, and take of his good fruits.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 5

1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; to take
my myrrh with my spice; my wax with my honey; my wine
with my milk. Take meat, O friends; take wine, yes, be
overcome with love.

21am sleeping, but my heart is awake; it is the sound of my
loved one at the door, saying, Be open to me, my sister, my
love, my dove, my very beautiful one; my head is wet with
dew, and my hair with the drops of the night.

3 I have put off my coat; how may I put it on? My feet are
washed; how may I make them unclean?

4 My loved one put his hand on the door, and my heart was
moved for him.

5 I got up to let my loved one in; and my hands were
dropping with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, on
the lock of the door.

6 I made the door open to my loved one; but my loved one
had taken himself away, and was gone, my soul was feeble
when his back was turned on me; I went after him, but I did
not come near him; I said his name, but he gave me no answer.

7 The keepers who go about the town overtook me; they
gave me blows and wounds; the keepers of the walls took
away my veil from me.

8 Isay to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved
one, what will you say to him? That I am overcome with love.

9 What is your loved one more than another, O fairest
among women? What is your loved one more than another,
that you say this to us?

10 My loved one is white and red, the chief among ten
thousand.

11 His head is as the most delicate gold; his hair is thick,
and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water streams,
washed with milk, and rightly placed.

13 His face is as beds of spices, giving out perfumes of every
sort; his lips like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

14 His hands are as rings of gold ornamented with beryl-
stones; his body is as a smooth plate of ivory covered with
sapphires.

15 His legs are as pillars of stone on a base of delicate gold;
his looks are as Lebanon, beautiful as the cedar-tree.

16 His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is all beautiful. This is
my loved one, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 6

1 Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women?
Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go
looking for him with you?

2 My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of
spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies.

3 I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he
takes food among the lilies.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as
Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags.

5 Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have
overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their
rest on the side of Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from
the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one
without young.

7 Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under
your veil.

8 There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and
young girls without number.

9 My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only
one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her
birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes,
the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises.

10 Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as
the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army
with flags?

11 I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green
plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the
pomegranate-trees were in flower.

12 Before I was conscious of it, my desire set me with my
royal people's chariots. Friends

13 Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come
back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the
Shulammite? A sword-dance.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 7

1 How beautiful are your feet in their shoes, O king's
daughter! The curves of your legs are like jewels, the work of
the hands of a good workman:

2 Your stomach is a store of grain with lilies round it, and
in the middle a round cup full of wine.

3 Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same
birth.

4 Your neck is as a tower of ivory; your eyes like the waters
in Heshbon, by the doorway of Bath-rabbim; your nose is as
the tower on Lebanon looking over Damascus:

5 Your head is like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like
purple, in whose net the king is prisoner.

6 How beautiful and how sweet you are, O love, for delight.

7 You are tall like a palm-tree, and your breasts are like the
fruit of the vine.

8 I said, Let me go up the palm-tree, and let me take its
branches in my hands: your breasts will be as the fruit of the
vine, and the smell of your breath like apples;

9 And the roof of your mouth like good wine flowing down
smoothly for my loved one, moving gently over my lips and
my teeth.

10 I am for my loved one, and his desire is for me.

11 Come, my loved one, let us go out into the field; let us
take rest among the cypress-trees.

12 Let us go out early to the vine-gardens; let us see if the
vine is in bud, if it has put out its young fruit, and the
pomegranate is in flower. There I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes give out a sweet smell, and at our doors
are all sorts of good fruits, new and old, which I have kept
for my loved one.

SONG OF SOLOMON (CANTICLES) CHAPTER 8

1 Oh that you were my brother, who took milk from my
mother's breasts! When I came to you in the street, I would
give you kisses; yes, I would not be looked down on.

2 T would take you by the hand into my mother's house, and
she would be my teacher. I would give you drink of spiced
wine, drink of the pomegranate.

3 His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand
about me.

4] say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not let love be
moved till it is ready.

5 Who is this, who comes up from the waste places, resting
on her loved one? It was I who made you awake under the
apple-tree, where your mother gave you birth; there she was
in pain at your birth.

6 Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm;
love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld:
its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames.

7 Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters
overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his
house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough.

8 We have a young sister, and she has no breasts; what are
we to do for our sister in the day when she is given to a man?

9 If she is a wall, we will make on her a strong base of silver;
and if she is a door, we will let her be shut up with cedar-
wood.

10 Tam a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in
his eyes as one to whom good chance had come.

11 Solomon had a vine-garden at Baal-hamon; he let out
the vine-garden to keepers; every one had to give a thousand
bits of silver for its fruit.

12 My vine-garden, which is mine, is before me: you, O
Solomon, will have the thousand, and those who keep the
fruit of them two hundred.

13 You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the
friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it.

14 Come quickly, my loved one, and be like a roe on the
mountains of spice.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

MAJOR PROPHETS

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Yeshayahu
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 8th and Sth centuries B.C.

(The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in
the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets or
Teachers in the Christian Old Testament. It 1s identified by a
superscription as the words of the Sth-century BC teacher
Isaiah ben Amoz, but there is extensive evidence that much of
it was composed during the Babylonian captivity and later.
Isaiah, the son of Amoz lived in the Kingdom of Judah
during the time of four kings trom the mid to late 8th-
century BC. During this time, Assyria was growing to the
west from Mesopotamia (Iraq) towards the Mediterranean,
destroying first Aram [modern Syria] in 734—732 BC, then
the Kingdom of Israel in 722—721, and Judah in 701.

The Book of Isatah ts one of the major prophetical writings
of the Old Testament. The superscription identifies Isaiah as
the son of Amoz and his book as “the vision of Isaiah. . .
concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” According to
6:1, Isaiah received his call “in the year that King Uzziah
died” (742 BO), and his latest recorded activity is dated in
701 BC.

The work 1s a compilation of 3 distinct parts: Chapters 1—
39 can be assigned to Isatahs lifetime. Chapters 40-55 are
much later in origin and therefore known as Deutero-lsaiah
(Second Isaiah). And even more distant in time are the
chapters 56—66 and Trito-Isaiah (Third Isaiah).

Chapters 1-39 consist of numerous sayings and reports of
Isatah along with several narratives about the prophet that
are attributed to his disciples. The growth of the book (1-39)
was a gradual process, its final form dating from perhaps as
late as the Sth century BC, a date suggested by the
arrangement of the materials and the late additions. In spite
of the lengthy and complicated literary lustory of the book,
however, Isaiah's message 1s clearly discernible. He was much
influenced by the cult in Jerusalem, and the exalted view of
Yahweh in the Zion traditions is reflected in his message. He
was convinced that only an unshakable trust in Yahweh,
rather than in political or military alliances, could protect
Judah and Jerusalem trom the advances of their enemies—
specifically, in this period, the Assyrians. He called for a
recognition of the sovereignty of Yahweh and passionately
denounced anything that worked against or obscured
Yahweh's purposes—trom social injustices to meaningless
cultic observances. Although Isaiah pronounced Yahweh's
Judgement upon Judah and Jerusalem for their unfaithfulness,

he also announced a new future for those who relied on
Yahweh.

Deutero-Isaiah (40-55), consisting of a collection of
oracles, songs, and discourses, dates from the Babylonian
Exile (6th century BC). The anonymous prophet is in exile
and looks forward to the deliverance of his people. The
destruction of Babylon is prophesied and the return of the
exiles to their homeland ts promised. The servant-of- Yahweh
songs in Deutero-Isaiah (42:1—-4; 49:16; 50:49; 52:13—
53:12) have generated animated discussions among scholars,
but the ideas reflected in the songs suggest that they were
written under the influence of the ideology of the king—the
anointed one who, through hus righteous rule, had the power
to effect his people's deliverance.

Trito-Isaiah (56-66), coming from a still later period,
reflects a Palestinian point of view, with the latter chapters
in particular addressed to the cultic concerns of the restored
community. The diversity of materials in these chapters
suggests multiple authorship. How the three “Isaiahs” came
together is not known.

The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QlIsaa and also known as the
Great Isaiah Scroll, ts one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that
were first discovered in 1947 from Qumran Cave I. The
scroll is written in Hebrew and contains the entire Book of
Isaiah from beginning to end, apart from a few small
damaged portions. It is the oldest complete copy of the Book
of Isaiah, being approximately 1,000 years older than the
oldest Hebrew manuscripts known before the scrolls'
discovery. [QlIsaa 1s also notable in being the only scroll
from the Qumran Caves to be preserved almost in its entirety.

The scroll is written on 17 sheets of parchment. It 1s
particularly large, being about 734 cm (24 feet) long and
ranges from 25.3 to 27 cm high (10 to 10.6 inches) with 54
columns of text. The exact authors of 1QIsa are unknown, as
is the exact date of writing. Pieces of the scroll have been
dated using both radiocarbon dating and
palaeographic/scribal dating. These methods resulted in
calibrated date ranges between 356 and 103 BC. The text of
the Great Isaiah Scroll is generally consistent with the
Masoretic version and preserves all sixty-six chapters of the
Hebrew version in the same sequence.

It seems likely that Isaiah was the teacher of Hezekiah. King
Hezekiah [reigned c. 715 and 686 BC.] was, according to the
Bible, the son of Ahaz and the 13th king of Judah. He is
considered a very righteous king in the Books of Kings.
Hezekiah 1s most important to Jewish history because it was
him who enacted sweeping religious reforms, including a
strict mandate for the sole worship of Yahweh and a
prohibition on venerating other deities within the Temple of
Jerusalem. So, the is no surprise that Isatah 44:6 contains the
first clear statement of monotheism: "I am the first and I am
the last; beside me there is no God". In Isaiah 44:09—20, this
is developed into a satire [a genre of literture which we also
find in the gospels] on the making and worship of idols,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

mocking the foolishness of the carpenter who worships the
idol that he himself has carved. While Yahweh had shown his
superiority to other gods before, in Second Isaiah, he
becomes the sole God of the world. This model of
monotheism became later the basis for Christianity and Islam.

The defeat of Jerusalem by Babylon and the exile of its
ruling elite in 586 BC followed. Chapters 40 to 55 are given
to the Jews in exile, telling them about the hope of return.
This was the time of king Kurush IT (Cyrus the Great). In
559 BC he became ruler of a small kingdom in what is today
Iran. By 540 he ruled a big empire from the Mediterranean
to Central Asia, and in 539 he conquered Babylon. Isaiah's
"predictions"” of the fall of Babylon and his talk about the
glory of Cyrus as one who would help Israel mean these
prophecies are about the period of 550-539 BC. [* It 1s
better called ‘report' because this passage was most likely
written after the fall of Babylon. This 1s a literary tool which
was used in the gospels too. There it talks about the
"predictions" of Jerusalem's encirclement and fall.]

The Persians ended the exile of Jewish teachers and leaders,
and by 515 BC some of the exiles had returned to Jerusalem
and rebuilt the Temple. This is what the final chapters of
Isaiah are about. The Cyrus Cylinder, a Cuner script
document, states that Cyrus was responsible for sending all
captives home from Babylonia although it does not mention
the Jews by name. Cyrus was a master of religious
propaganda and presented himself as liberator rather than
conqueror. It appears to have been effective with Jews as well.
In the lengthy prophetic book attributed to the prophet
Isaiah, the author explicitly states that Cyrus is God’s
anointed: “Thus says the Lord to his Anointed [Messiah], to
Cyrus whom I took by his right hand” (Isa 45:1). The
overwhelming majority of scholars believe that the Chapters
40—55 of Isaiah were written around the time of the return
from exile and the years that followed.

Speculations florish as to the reasoning for Cyrus' release of
the Jews from Babylon. The strongest argument 1s that Cyrus
was a follower of Zoroaster [Zarathustra] the monothetstic
prophet. His Zoroastrianism played a dominant religious
role in Persia throughout its history until the Islamic
conquest. As such, Cyrus would have felt a kindred spirit
with the monotheistic Jews.)

ISAIAH CHAPTER 1

1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw about
Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which
the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they
became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.

3 Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the
place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no
knowledge, my people give no thought to me.

40 nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a
generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have

gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy
One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.

5 Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep
on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is
feeble.

6 The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of
open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of
blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the
wounds.

7 Your country has become waste; your towns are burned
with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes,
made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.

8 And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-
garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a
town shut in by armies.

9 If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe,
we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah
would have been ours.

10 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom;
let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people
of Gomorrah.

11 What use to me is the number of the offerings which you
give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and
the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no
pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

12 At whose request do you come before me, making my
house unclean with your feet?

13 Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning
flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and
Sabbaths and your holy meetings.

14 Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to
my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under
them.

15 And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes
will be turned away from you: even though you go on
making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of
blood.

16 Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of
your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of
sinning;

17 Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright,
keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who
has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

18 Come now, and let us have an argument together, says
the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be
white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

19 If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good
things of the land will be yours;

20 But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send
destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.

21 The upright town has become untrue; there was a time
when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness
had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who
take men's lives.

22 Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed
with water.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have
become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for
profit and going after rewards; they do not give right
decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let
the cause of the widow come before them.

24 For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong
One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and
send punishment on those who are against me;

25 And my hand will again be on you, washing away what
is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal;

26 And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise
guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of
Righteousness, the true town.

27 Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and
by righteousness will men be living there.

28 But a common destruction will overtake sinners and
evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the
Lord will be cut off.

29 For you will be put to shame because of the trees of your
desire, and because of the gardens of your pleasure.

30 For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry,
and like a garden without water.

31 And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work
as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to
put out the fire.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 2

1 The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw about
Judah and Jerusalem.

2 And it will come about in the last days, that the mountain
of the Lord will be placed on the top of the mountains, and
be lifted up over the hills; and all nations will come to it.

3 And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and
he will give us knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided
by his word; for out of Zion the law will go out, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 And he will be the judge between the nations, and the
peoples will be ruled by his decisions: and their swords will
be turned into plough-blades, and their spears into vine-
knives: no longer will the nations be turning their swords
against one another, and the knowledge of war will be gone
for ever.

5 O family of Jacob, come, and let us go in the light of the
Lord.

6 For you, O Lord, have given up your people, the family of
Jacob, because they are full of the evil ways of the east, and
make use of secret arts like the Philistines, and are friends
with the children of strange countries.

7 And their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no
end to their stores; their land is full of horses, and there is no
end to their carriages.

8 Their land is full of images; they give worship to the work
of their hands, even to that which their fingers have made.

9 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes
down on his face: for this cause there will be no forgiveness
for their sin.

10 Go into a hole in the rock, covering yourselves with dust,
in fear of the Lord, before the glory of his power.

11 The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the
pride of men will be made low, and only the Lord will be
lifted up in that day.

12 For the day of the Lord of armies is coming on all the
pride of men, and on all who are high and lifted up;

13 And on all the high trees of Lebanon, and on all the
strong trees of Bashan;

14 And on all the high mountains, and on all the hills
which are lifted up;

15 And on every high tower, and on every strong wall;

16 And on all the ships of Tarshish, and on all the fair boats.

17 And the high looks of man will be put to shame, and the
pride of men will be made low: and only the Lord will be
lifted up in that day.

18 And the images will never be seen again.

19 And men will go into cracks of the rocks, and into holes
of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his
power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth
with his strength.

20 In that day men will put their images of silver and of
gold, which they made for worship, in the keeping of the
beasts of the dark places;

21 To take cover in the cracks of the rocks, and in the holes
of the hills, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his
power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth
with his strength.

22 Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a
breath, for he is of no value.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 3

1 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away
from Jerusalem and from Judah all their support; their store
of bread and of water;

2 The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the
prophet; the man who has knowledge of secret arts, and the
man who is wise because of his years;

3 The captain of fifty, and the man of high position, and the
wise guide, and the wonder-worker, and he who makes use of
secret powers.

4 And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones
will have rule over them.

5 And the people will be crushed, every one by his
neighbour; the young will be full of pride against the old,
and those of low position will be lifted up against the noble.

6 When one man puts his hand on another in his father's
house, and says, You have clothing, be our ruler and be
responsible for us in our sad condition:

7 Then he will say with an oath, I will not be a helper, for
in my house there is no bread or clothing: I will not let you
make me a ruler of the people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has
come on Judah, because their words and their acts are
against the Lord, moving the eyes of his glory to wrath.

9 Their respect for a man's position is a witness against
them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of
Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the
measure of their sin is full.

10 Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the
fruit of his ways.

11 Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings
will come on him.

12 As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and
those who have authority over them are women. O my people,
your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your
footsteps out of the right way.

13 The Lord is ready to take up his cause against his people,
and is about to come forward as their judge.

14 The Lord comes to be the judge of their responsible men
and of their rulers: it is you who have made waste the vine-
garden, and in your houses is the property of the poor which
you have taken by force.

15 By what right are you crushing my people, and putting
a bitter yoke on the necks of the poor? This is the word of the
Lord, the Lord of armies.

16 Again, the Lord has said, Because the daughters of Zion
are full of pride, and go with outstretched necks and
wandering eyes, with their foot-chains sounding when they
go:
17 The Lord will send disease on the heads of the daughters
of Zion, and the Lord will let their secret parts be seen.

18 In that day the Lord will take away the glory of their
foot-rings, and their sun-jewels, and their moon-ornaments,

19 The ear-rings, and the chains, and the delicate clothing,

20 The head-bands, and the arm-chains, and the worked
bands, and the perfume-boxes, and the jewels with secret
powers,

21 The rings, and the nose-jewels,

22 The feast-day dresses, and the robes, and the wide skirts,
and the handbags,

23 The looking-glasses, and the fair linen, and the high
head-dresses, and the veils.

24 And in the place of sweet spices will be an evil smell, and
for a fair band a thick cord; for a well-dressed head there will
be the cutting-off of the hair, and for a beautiful robe there
will be the clothing of sorrow; the mark of the prisoner in
place of the ornaments of the free.

25 Your men will be put to the sword, and your men of war
will come to destruction in the fight.

26 And in the public places of her towns will be sorrow and
weeping; and she will be seated on the earth, waste and
uncovered.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 4
1 And in that day seven women will put their hands on one
man, saying, There will be no need for you to give us food or

clothing, only let us go under your name, so that our shame
may be taken away.

2 In that day will the young growth of the Lord be
beautiful in glory, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride
of those who are still living in Israel.

3 And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion,
and of those who have been kept from destruction in
Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been
recorded for life in Jerusalem:

4 When Zion has been washed from her sin by the Lord, and
Jerusalem made clean from her blood by a judging and a
burning wind.

5 And over every living-place on Mount Zion, all over all
her meetings, the Lord will make a cloud and smoke by day,
and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all, the
glory of the Lord will be a cover and a tent;

6 And a shade in the daytime from the heat, and a safe cover
from storm and from rain.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 5

1 Let me make a song about my loved one, a song of love
for his vine-garden. My loved one had a vine-garden on a
fertile hill:

2 And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took
away its stones, and put in it a very special vine; and he put
up a watchtower in the middle of it, hollowing out in the
rock a place for the grape-crushing; and he was hoping that
it would give the best grapes, but it gave common grapes.

3 And now, you people of Jerusalem and you men of Judah,
be the judges between me and my vine-garden.

4 Is there anything which might have been done for my
vine-garden which I have not done? why then, when I was
hoping for the best grapes did it give me common grapes?

5 And now, this is what I will do to my vine-garden: I will
take away the circle of thorns round it, and it will be burned
up; its wall will be broken down and the beasts of the field
will go through it;

6 And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched
with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but
blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give
orders to the clouds not to send rain on it.

7 For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people of
Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of his delight: and
he was looking for upright judging, and there was blood; for
righteousness, and there was a cry for help.

8 Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and
putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for
any but themselves in all the land!

9 The Lord of armies has said to me secretly, Truly,
numbers of great and fair houses will be waste, with no one
living in them.

10 For ten fields of vines will only give one measure of wine,
and a great amount of seed will only give a small measure of
grain.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Cursed are those who get up early in the morning to give
themselves up to strong drink; who keep on drinking far into
the night till they are heated with wine!

12 And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine
are in their feasts: but they give no thought to the work of
the Lord, and they are not interested in what his hands are
doing.

13 For this cause my people are taken away as prisoners
into strange countries for need of knowledge: and their
rulers are wasted for need of food, and their loud-voiced
feasters are dry for need of water.

14 For this cause the underworld has made wide its throat,
opening its mouth without limit: and her glory, and the
noise of her masses, and her loud-voiced feasters, will go
down into it.

15 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes
down on his face, and the eyes of pride are put to shame:

16 But the Lord of armies is lifted up as judge, and the
Holy God is seen to be holy in righteousness.

17 Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands, and
the fat cattle will be feasting in the waste places.

18 Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling
the evil thing, and the bands ofa young ox for their sin!

19 Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it
sudden, so that we may see it: let the design of the Holy One
of Israel come near, so that it may be clear to us.

20 Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and
of evil to what is good: who make light dark, and dark light:
who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter!

21 Cursed are those who seem wise to themselves, and who
take pride in their knowledge!

22 Cursed are those who are strong to take wine, and great
in making mixed drinks!

23 Who for a reward give support to the cause of the sinner,
and who take away the righteousness of the upright from him.

24 For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by
tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the
flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and
their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone
against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no
honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 For this reason the wrath of the Lord has been burning
against his people, and his hand has been stretched out
against them in punishment, and the hills were shaking, and
their dead bodies were like waste in the open places of the
town.

26 And he will let a flag be lifted up as a sign to a far-off
nation, whistling to them from the ends of the earth: and
they will come quickly and suddenly.

27 There is no weariness among them, and no man is feeble-
footed: they come without resting or sleeping, and the cord
of their shoes is not broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp, and every bow is bent: the feet
of their horses are like rock, and their wheels are like a
rushing storm.

29 The sound of their armies will be like the voice of a lion,
and their war-cry like the noise of young lions: with loud
cries they will come down on their food and will take it away
safely, and there will be no one to take it out of their hands.

30 And his voice will be loud over him in that day like the
sounding of the sea: and if a man's eyes are turned to the
earth, it is all dark and full of trouble; and the light is made
dark by thick clouds.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 6

1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated
in his place, high and lifted up, and the Temple was full of
the wide skirts of his robe.

2 Over him were the winged ones: every one had six wings;
two for covering his face, two for covering his feed, and two
for flight.

3 And one said in a loud voice to another, Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord of armies: all the earth is full of his glory.

4 And the bases of the door-pillars were shaking at the
sound of his cry, and the house was full of smoke.

5 Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction;
for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
armies.

6 Then a winged one came to me with a burning coal in his
hand, which he had taken from off the altar with the fire-
spoon.

7 And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your
lips have been touched with this; and your evil is taken away,
and you are made clean from sin.

8 And the voice of the Lord came to my ears, saying, Whom
am I to send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I,
send me.

9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You will go on
hearing, but learning nothing; you will go on seeing, but
without getting wiser.

10 Make the hearts of this people fat, and let their ears be
stopped, and their eyes shut; for fear that they may see with
their eyes, and be hearing with their ears, and their heart
may become wise, and they may be turned to me and made
well.

11 Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer, Till
the towns are waste and unpeopled, and the houses have no
men, and the land becomes completely waste,

12 And the Lord has taken men far away, and there are
wide waste places in the land.

13 And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will again
be burned, like a tree of the woods whose broken end is still
in the earth after the tree has been cut down (the holy seed is
the broken end).

ISAIAH CHAPTER 7

1 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham,
the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of
Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but were not
able to overcome it.

2 And word came to the family of David that Aram had put
up its tents in Ephraim. And the king's heart, and the hearts
of his people, were moved, like the trees of the wood shaking
in the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now, you and Shear-
jashub, your son, and you will come across Ahaz at the end of
the stream flowing from the higher pool, in the highway of
the washerman's field;

4 And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and
do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of
smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and
Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.

5 Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying,

6 Let us go up against Judah, troubling her, and forcing
our way into her, and let us put up a king in her, even the son
of Tabeel:

7 This is the word of the Lord God: This design will not
come about or be effected.

8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of
Damascus is Rezin (and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim
will be broken, and will no longer be a people):

9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of
Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not have faith, your
kingdom will be broken.

10 And Isaiah said again to Ahaz,

11 Make a request to the Lord your God for a sign, a sign
in the deep places of the underworld, or in the high heavens.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not put the Lord to the test by
making such a request.

13 And he said, Give ear now, O family of David: is it not
enough that you are driving men to disgust? will you do the
same to my God?

14 For this cause the Lord himself will give you a sign; a
young woman is now with child, and she will give birth to a
son, and she will give him the name Immanuel.

15 Butter and honey will be his food, when he is old enough
to make a decision between evil and good.

16 For before the child is old enough to make a decision
between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are
now fearing will have become waste.

17 The Lord is about to send on you, and on your people,
and on your father's house, such a time of trouble as there has
not been from the days of the separating of Ephraim from
Judah; even the coming of the king of Assyria.

18 And it will be in that day that the Lord will make a
piping sound for the fly which is in the end of the rivers of
Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria.

19 And they will come, covering all the waste valleys, and
the holes of the rocks, and the thorns, and all the watering-
places.

20 In that day will the Lord take away the hair of the head
and of the feet, as well as the hair of the face, with a blade got
for a price from the other side of the River; even with the
king of Assyria.

21 And it will be in that day that a man will give food to a
young cow and two sheep;

22 And they will give so much milk that he will be able to
have butter for his food: for butter and honey will be the
food of all who are still living in the land.

23 And it will be in that day that in every place where
before there were a thousand vines valued at a thousand
shekels of silver, there will be nothing but blackberries and
thorns.

24 Men will come there with bows and arrows, because all
the land will be full of blackberries and thorns.

25 All the hills that were cultivated with the mattock, you
shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall
be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 8

1 And the Lord said to me, Take a great writing-board,
and on it put down in common letters, Maher-shalal-hash-
baz;

2 And take true witnesses to the writing, Uriah the priest,
and Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah.

3 And I went in to my wife, and she became with child, and
gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, Give him the
name Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

4 For before the child is able to say, Father, or, Mother,
the wealth of Damascus and the goods of Samaria will be
taken away by the king of Assyria.

5 And the Lord said again to me,

6 Because this people will have nothing to do with the
softly-flowing waters of Shiloah, and have fear of Rezin and
Remaliah's son;

7 For this cause the Lord is sending on them the waters of
the River, deep and strong, even the king of Assyria and all
his glory: and it will come up through all its streams,
overflowing all its edges:

8 And it will come on into Judah; rushing on and
overflowing, till the waters are up to the neck; *** and his
outstretched wings will be covering the land from side to side:
for God is with us.

9 Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all
you far-off parts of the earth:

10 Let your designs be formed, and they will come to
nothing; give your orders, and they will not be effected: for
God is with us.

11 For the Lord, controlling me with a strong hand, gave
me orders not to go in the way of this people, saying,

12 Do not say, It is holy, about everything of which this
people says, It is holy; and do not be in fear of what they go
in fear of.

13 But let the Lord of armies be holy to you, and go in fear
of him, giving honour to him.

14 And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of falling
and a rock of trouble to the two houses of Israel, and to the
men of Jerusalem, for a net in which they may be taken.

15 And numbers of them, falling on the stone, will be
broken, and will be taken in the net.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given
to my disciples only.

17 And I will be waiting for the Lord, whose face is veiled
from the house of Jacob, and I will be looking for him.

18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me, are
for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies,
whose resting-place is in Mount Zion.

19 And when they say to you, Make request for us to those
who have control of spirits, and to those wise in secret arts,
who make hollow bird-like sounds; is it not right for a
people to make request to their gods, to make request for the
living to the dead?

20 Then say to them, Put your faith in the teaching and the
witness. If they don't speak according to this word, surely
there is no morning for them.

21 And he will go through the land in bitter trouble and in
need of food; and when he is unable to get food, he will
become angry, cursing his king and his God, and his eyes will
be turned to heaven on high;

22 And he will be looking down on the earth, and there
will be trouble and dark clouds, black night where there is
no seeing.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 9

1 In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali of small value, but after that he gave it glory, by
the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the
nations.

2 The people who went in the dark have seen a great light,
and for those who were living in the land of the deepest night,
the light is shining.

3 You have made them very glad, increasing their joy. They
are glad before you as men are glad in the time of getting in
the grain, or when they make division of the goods taken in
war.

4 For by your hand the yoke on his neck and the rod on his
back, even the rod of his cruel master, have been broken, as
in the day of Midian.

5 For every boot of the man of war with his sounding step,
and the clothing rolled in blood, will be for burning, food
for the fire.

6 For to us a child has come, to us a son is given; and the
government has been placed in his hands; and he has been
named Wise Guide, Strong God, Father for ever, Prince of
Peace.

7 Of the increase of his rule and of peace there will be no
end, on the seat of David, and in his kingdom; to make it
strong, supporting it with wise decision and righteousness,
now and for ever. By the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies
this will be done.

8 The Lord has sent a word to Jacob, and it has come on
Israel;

9 And all the people will have experience of it, even
Ephraim and the men of Samaria, who say in the pride of
their uplifted hearts,

10 The bricks have come down, but we will put up
buildings of cut stone in their place: the sycamores are cut
down, but they will be changed to cedars.

11 For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of
Israel, driving them on to make war against him;

12 Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who
have come against Israel with open mouths. For all this his
wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

13 But the heart of the people was not turned to him who
sent punishment on them, and they made no prayer to the
Lord of armies.

14 For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and
tail, high and low, in one day.

15 The man who is honoured and responsible is the head,
and the prophet who gives false teaching is the tail.

16 For the guides of this people are the cause of their
wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by
them come to destruction.

17 For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their
young men, and no pity on their widows and the children
without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers,
and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his
wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

18 For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and
thorns were burned up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up
in dark clouds of smoke.

19 The land was dark with the wrath of the Lord of armies:
the people were like those who take men's flesh for food.

20 On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still in
need; on the left a man took a meal but had not enough; no
man had pity on his brother; every man was making a meal of
the flesh of his neighbour.

21 Manasseh was making a meal of Ephraim, and Ephraim
of Manasseh; and together they were attacking Judah. For
all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 10

1 Cursed are those who make evil decisions, and the writers
who make the records of their cruel acts:

2 Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away
the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may
have the property of widows, and get under their power
those who have no father.

3 And what will you do in the day of punishment, and in
the destruction which is coming from far? to whom will you
go for help, and what will become of your glory?

4 They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will
fall under the slain. For all this his wrath is not turned away,
but his hand is stretched out still.

5 Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my
punishment!

6 I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and
against the people of my wrath I will give him orders, to take
their wealth in war, crushing them down like the dust in the
streets.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not his
design; but his purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of
more and more nations.

8 For he says, Are not all my captains kings?

9 Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is
not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

10 As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images,
whose pictured images were more in number than those of
Jerusalem and Samaria;

11 So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do
to Jerusalem and her images.

12 For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of the
Lord against Mount Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will
send punishment on the pride of the heart of the king of
Assyria, and on the glory of his uplifted eyes.

13 For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done
it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken
away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their
wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the
dust, sending destruction on those living in them;

14 And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as
on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may
take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all
the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a
mouth gave out a sound.

15 Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who
is using it, or the blade be full of pride against him who is
cutting with it? As if a rod had the power of shaking him
who is using it, or as if a stick might take up him who is not
wood.

16 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make
his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be
lighted like a burning flame.

17 And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy
One for a flame: wasting and burning up his thorns in one
day.

18 And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of
his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as
when a man is wasted by disease.

19 And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in
number, so that a child may put them down in writing.

20 And it will be in that day that the rest of Israel, and
those of Jacob who have come safely through these troubles,
will no longer go for help to him whose rod was on their
back, but their faith will be in the Lord, the Holy One of
Israel.

21 The rest, even the rest of Jacob, will come back to the
Strong God.

22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the
sea, only a small number will come back: for the destruction
is fixed, overflowing in righteousness.

23 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to make
destruction complete in all the land.

24 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, says, O my
people living in Zion, have no fear of the Assyrian, even if his
rod comes on your back, and his stick is lifted up as in Egypt.

25 For in a very short time my passion will be over, and my
wrath will be turned to their destruction.

26 And the Lord of armies will be shaking a whip against
him, as when he overcame Midian at the rock of Oreb: and
his rod will be lifted up against them as it was against the
Egyptians.

27 And in that day the weight which he put on your back
will be taken away, and his yoke broken from off your neck.

28 He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon, he has come to
Aiath; he has gone past Migron, at Michmash he puts his
forces in order.

29 They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our
resting-place tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear;
Gibeah of Saul has gone in flight.

30 Give a loud cry, daughter of Gallim; let Laishah give ear;
let Anathoth give answer to her.

31 Madmenah has gone; the men of Gebim are putting their
goods in a safe place.

32 This very day he is stopping at Nob; he is shaking his
hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill
of Jerusalem.

33 See, the Lord, the Lord of armies, is cutting off his
branches with a great noise, and his strong ones are falling
and his high ones are coming down.

34 And he is cutting down the thick places of the wood
with an axe, and Lebanon with its tall trees is coming down.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 11

1 And there will come a rod out of the broken tree of Jesse,
and a branch out of his roots will give fruit.

2 And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the
spirit of wisdom and good sense, the spirit of wise guiding
and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
Lord;

3 And he will not be guided in his judging by what he sees,
or give decisions by the hearing of his ears:

4 But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give
wise decisions for those in the land who are in need; and the
rod of his mouth will come down on the cruel, and with the
breath of his lips he will put an end to the evil-doer.

5 And righteousness will be the cord of his robe, and good
faith the band round his breast.

6 And the wolf will be living with the lamb, and the
leopard will take his rest with the young goat; and the lion
will take grass for food like the ox; and the young lion will
go with the young ones of the herd; and a little child will be
their guide.

7 And the cow and the bear will be friends while their
young ones are sleeping together.

8 And the child at the breast will be playing by the hole of
the snake, and the older child will put his hand on the bright
eye of the poison-snake.

9 There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my
holy mountain: for the earth will be full of the knowledge of
the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be turned to
the root of Jesse which will be lifted up as the flag of the
peoples; and his resting-place will be glory.

11 And in that day the hand of the Lord will be stretched
out the second time to get back the rest of his people, from
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and
from the sea-lands.

12 And he will put up a flag as a sign to the nations, and he
will get together those of Israel who had been sent away, and
the wandering ones of Judah, from the four ends of the earth.

13 And the envy of Ephraim will be gone, and those who
make trouble for Judah will come to an end: Ephraim will
have no more envy of Judah, and there will be an end of
Judah's hate for Ephraim.

14 And they will be united in attacking the Philistines on
the west, and together they will take the goods of the
children of the east: their hand will be on Edom and Moab;
and the children of Ammon will be under their rule.

15 And the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea
completely dry; and with his burning wind his hand will be
stretched out over the River, and it will be parted into seven
streams, so that men may go over it with dry feet.

16 And there will be a highway for the rest of his people
from Assyria; as there was for Israel in the day when he came
up out of the land of Egypt.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 12

1 And in that day you will say I will give praise to you, O
Lord; for though you were angry with me, your wrath is
turned away, and I am comforted.

2 See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the Lord,
without fear: for the Lord Jah is my strength and song; and
he has become my salvation.

3 So with joy will you get water out of the springs of
salvation.

4 And in that day you will say, Give praise to the Lord, let
his name be honoured, give word of his doings among the
peoples, say that his name is lifted up.

5 Make a song to the Lord; for he has done noble things:
give news of them through all the earth.

6 Let your voice be sounding in a cry of joy, O daughter of
Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 13

1 The word of the Lord about Babylon which Isaiah, the
son of Amoz, saw.

2 Put up a flag on a clear mountain-top, make a loud
outcry to them, give directions with the hand, so that they
may go into the doors of the great ones.

3 I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my
men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to
give effect to my wrath.

4 The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the
noise of a strong people! The noise of the kingdoms of the

nations meeting together! The Lord of armies is numbering
his forces for war.

5 They come from a far country, from the farthest part of
heaven, even the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, with
destruction for all the land.

6 Send out a cry of grief; for the day of the Lord is near; it
comes as destruction from the Most High.

7 For this cause all hands will be feeble, and every heart of
man be turned to water;

8 Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will
overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in
childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces
will be like flames.

9 See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath and
burning passion: to make the land a waste, driving the
sinners in it to destruction.

10 For the stars of heaven and its bright armies will not
give their light: the sun will be made dark in his journey
through the heaven, and the moon will keep back her light.

11 And I will send punishment on the world for its evil, and
on the sinners for their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to
all pride, and will make low the power of the cruel.

12 I will make men so small in number, that a man will be
harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir.

13 For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the earth
will be moved out of its place, in the wrath of the Lord of
armies, and in the day of his burning passion.

14 And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like
wandering sheep, they will go every man to his people and to
his land.

15 Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put
through him, and everyone who goes in flight will be put to
the sword.

16 Their young children will be broken up before their eyes;
their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the
property of others.

17 See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no
value on silver and have no pleasure in gold.

18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel,
violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the
young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy
for the fruit of the body.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town
which is the pride of the Chaldaeans, will be like God's
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 People will never be living in it again, and it will have
no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will
not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not
make it a resting-place for their flocks.

21 But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes
there; and the houses will be full of crying jackals, and
ostriches will have their place there, and evil spirits will be
dancing there.

22 And wolves will be answering one another in their
towers, and jackals in their houses of pleasure: her time is
near, and her days of power will quickly be ended.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ISAIAH CHAPTER 14

1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will again
make Israel his special people, and will put them in their land;
and the man from a strange country will take his place
among them and be joined to the family of Jacob.

2 And the people will take them with them to their place:
and the children of Israel will give them a heritage in the
Lord's land as men-servants and women-servants, making
them prisoners whose prisoners they were; and they will be
rulers over their masters.

3 And it will be, in the day when the Lord gives you rest
from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard
yoke which they had put on you,

4 That you will take up this bitter song against the king of
Babylon, and say, How has the cruel overseer come to an end!
He who was lifted up in pride is cut off;

5 The stick of the evil-doers, the rod of the rulers, is broken
by the Lord;

6 He whose rod was on the peoples with an unending wrath,
ruling the nations in passion, with an uncontrolled rule.

7 All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are bursting into
song.

8 Even the trees of the wood are glad over you, the trees of
Lebanon, saying, From the time of your fall no wood-cutter
has come up against us with an axe.

9 The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of
the dead are awake before you, even the strong ones of the
earth; all the kings of the world have got up from their seats.

10 They all make answer and say to you, Have you become
feeble like us? have you been made even as we are?

11 Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the
noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you,
and your body is covered with them.

12 How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son
of the morning! How are you cut down to the earth, low
among the dead bodies!

13 For you said in your heart, I will go up to heaven, I will
make my seat higher than the stars of God; I will take my
place on the mountain of the meeting-place of the gods, in
the inmost parts of the north.

14 I will go higher than the clouds; I will be like the Most
High.

15 But you will come down to the underworld, even to its
inmost parts.

16 Those who see you will be looking on you with care,
they will be in deep thought, saying, Is this the troubler of
the earth, the shaker of kingdoms?

17 Who made the world a waste, overturning its towns;
who did not let his prisoners loose from the prison-house.

18 All the kings of the earth are at rest in glory, every man
in his house,

19 But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out
with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of
the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to
the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed
under foot.

20 As for your fathers, you will not be united with them in
their resting-place, because you have been the cause of
destruction to your land, and of death to your people; the
seed of the evil-doer will have no place in the memory of man.

21 Make ready a place of death for his children, because of
the evil-doing of their father; so that they may not come up
and take the earth for their heritage, covering the face of the
world with waste places.

22 For I will come up against them, says the Lord of armies,
cutting off from Babylon name and offspring, son and son's
son, says the Lord.

23 And I will make you a heritage for the hedgehog, and
pools of water: and I will go through it with the brush of
destruction, says the Lord of armies.

24 The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will
certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected:

25 To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed
under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken
away from them, and his rule over them come to an end.

26 This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand
stretched out over all nations.

27 For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will
make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom
may it be turned back?

28 In the year of the death of King Ahaz this word came to
the prophet:

29 Be not glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod
which was on you is broken: for out of the snake's root will
come a poison-snake, and its fruit will be a winged poison-
snake.

30 And the poorest of the land will have food, and those in
need will be given a safe resting-place: but your seed will
come to an end for need of food, and the rest of you will be
put to the sword.

31 Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town!
All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there
comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place
in the line.

32 What answer, then, will my people give to the
representatives of the nation? That the Lord is the builder of
Zion, and she will be a safe place for the poor of his people.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 15

1 The word about Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab has
become waste, and is seen no longer; for in a night Kir of
Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer.

2 The daughter of Dibon has gone up to the high places,
weeping: Moab is sounding her cry of sorrow over Nebo, and
over Medeba: everywhere the hair of the head and of the face
is cut off.

3 In their streets they are covering themselves with
haircloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their public
places, there is crying and bitter weeping.

4 Heshbon is crying out, and Elealeh; their voice is
sounding even to Jahaz: for this cause the heart of Moab is
shaking; his soul is shaking with fear.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 My heart is crying out for Moab; her people go in flight
to Zoar, and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for they go up with
weeping by the slope of Luhith; on the way to Horonaim
they send up a cry of destruction.

6 The waters of Nimrim will become dry: for the grass is
burned up, the young grass is coming to an end, every green
thing is dead.

7 For this cause they will take away their wealth, and the
stores they have got together, over the stream of the water-
plants.

8 For the cry has gone round the limits of Moab; as far as
to Eglaim and Beer-elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: and I'm
sending even more on Moab, a lion on those of Moab who go
in flight, and on the rest of the land.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 16

1 And they will send the lambs for the ruler of the land
from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the
daughter of Zion.

2 For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds,
like a place from which the young birds have gone in flight,
at the ways across the Arnon.

3 Give wise directions, make a decision; let your shade be as
night in full day: keep safe those who are in flight; do not
give up the wandering ones.

4 Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a
resting-place with you; be a cover to them from him who is
making waste their land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and
wasting has come to an end, and those who take pleasure in
crushing the poor are gone from the land.

5 Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will be
seated on it in the tent of David for ever; judging uprightly,
and quick to do righteousness.

6 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is;
how he is lifted up in pride and passion: his high words about
himself are false.

7 For this cause everyone in Moab will give cries of grief for
Moab: crushed to the earth, they will be weeping for the men
of Kir-hareseth.

8 For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah is
dead; the lords of nations were overcome by the produce of
her vines; her vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even
to the waste land; her branches were stretched out to the sea.

9 For this cause my sorrow for the vine of Sibmah will be
like the weeping for Jazer: my eyes are dropping water on
you, O Heshbon and Elealeh! For they are sounding the war-
cry over your summer fruits and the getting in of your grain;

10 And all joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the
fertile field; and in the vine-gardens there are no songs or
sounds of joy: the crushing of grapes has come to an end, and
its glad cry has been stopped.

11 For this cause the cords of my heart are sounding for
Moab, and I am full of sorrow for Kir-heres.

12 And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes
prayer in the house of his god, it will have no effect.

13 This is the word which the Lord said about Moab in the
past.

14 But now the Lord has said, In three years, the years of a
servant working for payment, the glory of Moab, all that
great people, will be turned to shame, and the rest of Moab
will be very small and without honour.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 17

1 The word about Damascus. See, they have made
Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.

2 Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take
their rest in peace, without fear.

3 The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the
kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to
destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of
Israel, says the Lord of armies.

4 And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be
made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble.

5 And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain,
pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as
when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.

6 But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something
will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the
highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a
fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and
his eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

8 He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands,
or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers
have made.

9 In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the
Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took
for a heritage, and they will come to destruction.

10 For you have not given honour to the God of your
salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your
strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and
put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god;

11 In the day of your planting you were watching its
growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its
fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.

12 Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the
seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the
bursting out of waters!

13 But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in
flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on
the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the
circling dust before the storm.

14 In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are
gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the
reward of those who violently take our property for
themselves.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 18
1 Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of
the rivers of Ethiopia:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 Which sends its representatives by the sea, even in ships of
papyrus on the waters. Go back quickly, O representatives,
to a nation tall and smooth, to a people causing fear through
all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters,
whose land is cut through by rivers.

3 All you peoples of the world, and you who are living on
the earth, when a flag is lifted up on the mountains, give
attention; and when the horn is sounded, give ear.

4 For this is what the Lord has said to me: I will be quiet,
watching from my place; like the clear heat when the sun is
shining, like a mist of dew in the heat of summer.

5 For before the time of getting in the grapes, after the
opening of the bud, when the flower has become a grape
ready for crushing, he will take away the small branches with
knives, cutting down and taking away the wide-stretching
branches.

6 They will be for the birds of the mountains, and for the
beasts of the earth: the birds will come down on them in the
summer, and the beasts of the earth in the winter.

7 In that time an offering will be made to the Lord of
armies from a people tall and smooth, causing fear through
all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters,
whose land is cut through by rivers, an offering taken to the
place of the name of the Lord of armies, even Mount Zion.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 19

1 The word about Egypt. See, the Lord is seated on a
quick-moving cloud, and is coming to Egypt: and the false
gods of Egypt will be troubled at his coming, and the heart
of Egypt will be turned to water.

2 And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and
they will be fighting every one against his brother, and every
one against his neighbour; town against town, and kingdom
against kingdom.

3 And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will
make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to
the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to
those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise
in secret arts.

4 And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord;
and a hard king will be their ruler, says the Lord, the Lord
of armies.

5 And the waters of the sea will be cut off, and the river will
become dry and waste:

6 And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt
will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to
nothing.

7 The grass-lands by the Nile, and everything planted by
the Nile, will become dry, or taken away by the wind, and
will come to an end.

8 The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put fishing-
lines into the Nile will be full of grief, and those whose nets
are stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in their
hearts.

9 And all the workers in linen thread, and those who make
cotton cloth, will be put to shame.

10 And the makers of twisted thread will be crushed, and
those who who work for hire will be sad in heart.

11 The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest
guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say
to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early
kings?

12 Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to
you, let them give you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord
of armies for Egypt.

13 The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of
Noph are tricked, the heads of her tribes are the cause of
Egypt's wandering out of the way.

14 The Lord has sent among them a spirit of error: and by
them Egypt is turned out of the right way in all her doings,
as a man overcome by wine is uncertain in his steps.

15 And in Egypt there will be no work for any man, head
or tail, high or low, to do.

16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women: and the
land will be shaking with fear because of the waving of the
Lord's hand stretched out over it.

17 And the land of Judah will become a cause of great fear
to Egypt; whenever its name comes to mind, Egypt will be in
fear before the Lord of armies because of his purpose against
it.

18 In that day there will be five towns in the land of Egypt
using the language of Canaan, and making oaths to the Lord
of armies; and one of them will be named, The Town of the
Sun.

19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the
middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at the
edge of the land.

20 And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies
in the land of Egypt: when they are crying out to the Lord
because of their cruel masters, then he will send them a
saviour and a strong one to make them free.

21 And the Lord will give the knowledge of himself to
Egypt, and the Egyptians will give honour to the Lord in
that day; they will give him worship with offerings and meal
offerings, and will take an oath to the Lord and give effect to
it.

22 And the Lord will send punishment on Egypt, and will
make them well again; and when they come back to the Lord
he will give ear to their prayer and take away their disease.

23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt will
come into Assyria; and the Egyptians will give worship to
the Lord together with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be the third together with Egypt
and Assyria, a blessing in the earth:

25 Because of the blessing of the Lord of armies which he
has given them, saying, A blessing on Egypt my people, and
on Assyria the work of my hands, and on Israel my heritage.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 20
1 In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by
Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son
of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes
from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and
without shoes on his feet.

3 And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone
unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a
wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia,

4 So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of
Egypt and those forced out of Ethiopia, young and old,
unclothed and without shoes, and with backs uncovered, to
the shame of Egypt.

5 And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith
in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was
their glory.

6 And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the
fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation
from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of
salvation?

ISAIAH CHAPTER 21

1 The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the
South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land,
from the land greatly to be feared.

2 A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit

goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste.

Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her
sorrow.

3 For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains
of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down
with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what
Isee.

4 My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening
of my desire has been turned into shaking for me.

5 They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they
take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your
breastplates.

6 For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be
placed; let him give word of what he sees:

7 And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-
carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give
special attention.

8 And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on
the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every
night:

9 See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos:

and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and
all her images are broken on the earth.

10 O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given
you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the
God of Israel.

11 The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir,
Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the
night?

12 The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is
still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and
come back again.

13 The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia
will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of
Dedanites!

14 Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O
men of the land of Tema, to those in flight.

15 For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent
bow, and from the trouble of war.

16 For so has the Lord said to me, Ina year, by the years of
a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will
come to an end:

17 And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the
children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the
God of Israel, has said it.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 22

1 The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your
people gone up to the house-tops?

2 You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given
up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or
come to their death in war.

3 All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by
the archers. All who were found by you were bound together.
They fled far away.

4 For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away
from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the
wasting of the daughter of my people.

5 For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of
destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley
of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the
mountains."

6 And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on
horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered.

7 And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages,
and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the
town.

8 He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you
were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of
the woods.

9 And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town
of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool.

10 And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling
down the houses to make the wall stronger.

11 And you made a place between the two walls for storing
the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him
who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it
had been purposed long before.

12 And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was
looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the
hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:

13 But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and
sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and
drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for
tomorrow death comes.

14 And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this
sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord,
the Lord of armies.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in
authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made
himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for
himself in the rock, and say,

16 Who are you, and by what right have you made for
yourself a resting-place here?

17 See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently
away, gripping you with force,

18 Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send
you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end,
and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your
lord's house!

19 And I will have you forced out of your place of authority,
and pulled down from your position.

20 And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the
son of Hilkiah:

21 And I will put your robe on him, and put your band
about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and
he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family
of Judah.

22 And I will give the key of the family of David into his
care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and
what he keeps shut no one will make open.

23 And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will
be for a seat of glory to his father's family.

24 And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging
on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups
and the basins.

25 In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in
a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall
the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said
it.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 23

1 The word about Tyre. Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships
of Tarshish, because your strong place is made waste; on the
way back from the land of Kittim the news is given to them.

2 Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land, traders of
Zidon, who go over the sea, whose representatives are on
great waters;

3 Who get in the seed of Shihor, whose wealth is the trade
of the nations.

4 Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the
sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have
not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth
of virgins.

5 When the news comes to Egypt they will be bitterly
pained at the fate of Tyre.

6 Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the
sea-land.

7 Is this the town which was full of joy, whose start goes
back to times long past, whose wanderings took her into far-
off countries?

8 By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning
town, whose traders are chiefs, whose business men are
honoured in the land?

9 It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride to
shame, to make sport of the glory of those who are honoured
in the earth.

10 Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of
Tarshish; there is no longer any harbour.

11 His hand is stretched out over the sea, the kingdoms are
shaking: the Lord has given orders about Canaan, to make
waste its strong places.

12 And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed
virgin daughter of Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there
you will have no rest.

13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not.
The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the
wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its
palaces. They made it a ruin.

14 Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish: because
your strong place is made waste.

15 And it will be in that day that Tyre will go out of mind
for seventy years, that is, the days of one king: after the end
of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the loose
woman.

16 Take an instrument of music, go about the town, O
loose woman who has gone out from the memory of man;
make sweet melody with songs, so that you may come back to
men's minds.

17 And it will be after the end of seventy years, that the
Lord will have mercy on Tyre, and she will go back to her
trade, acting as a loose woman with all the kingdoms of the
world on the face of the earth.

18 And her goods and her trade will be holy to the Lord:
they will not be kept back or stored up; for her produce will
be for those living in the Lord's land, to give them food for
their needs, and fair clothing.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 24

1 See, the Lord is making the earth waste and unpeopled,
he is turning it upside down, and sending the people in all
directions.

2 And it will be the same for the people as for the priest; for
the servant as for his master; and for the woman-servant as
for her owner; the same for the one offering goods for a price
as for him who takes them; the same for him who gives
money at interest and for him who takes it; the same for him
who lets others have the use of his property as for those who
make use of it.

3 The earth will be completely waste and without men; for
this is the word of the Lord.

4 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away, the world is
full of grief and wasting away, the high ones of the earth
come to nothing.

5 The earth has been made unclean by those living in it;
because the laws have not been kept by them, the orders have
been changed, and the eternal agreement has been broken.

6 For this cause the earth is given up to the curse, and those
in it are judged as sinners: for this cause those living on the
earth are burned up, and the rest are small in number.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 The new wine is thin, the vine is feeble, and all the glad-
hearted make sounds of grief.

8 The pleasing sound of all instruments of music has come
to an end, and the voices of those who are glad.

9 There is no more drinking of wine with a song; strong
drink will be bitter to those who take it.

10 The town is waste and broken down: every house is shut
up, so that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; there
is an end of all delight, the joy of the land is gone.

12 In the town all is waste, and in the public place is
destruction.

13 For it will be in the heart of the earth among the peoples,
like the shaking of an olive-tree, as the last of the grapes after
the getting-in is done.

14 But those will be making sounds of joy; they will be
crying loudly from the sea for the glory of the Lord.

15 Give praise to the Lord in the east, to the name of the
Lord, the God of Israel, in the sea-lands.

16 From the farthest part of the earth comes the sound of
songs, glory to the upright. But I said, I am wasting away,
wasting away, the curse is on me! The false ones go on in
their false way, yes, they go on acting falsely.

17 Fear, and death, and the net, are come on you, O people
of the earth.

18 And it will be that he who goes in flight from the sound
of fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from
death will be taken in the net: for the windows on high are
open, and the bases of the earth are shaking.

19 The earth is completely broken, it is parted in two, it is
violently moved.

20 The earth will be moving uncertainly, like a man
overcome by drink; it will be shaking like a tent; and the
weight of its sin will be on it, crushing it down so that it will
not get up again.

21 And in that day the Lord will send punishment on the
army of the high ones on high, and on the kings of the earth
on the earth.

22 And they will be got together, like prisoners in the
prison-house; and after a long time they will have their
punishment.

23 Then the moon will be veiled, and the sun put to shame;
for the Lord of armies will be ruling in Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem, and before his judges he will let his glory be seen.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 25

1 O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I will
give honour to your name; for you have done great acts of
power; your purposes in the past have been made true and
certain in effect.

2 For you have made a town a waste place: a strong town a
mass of broken walls; the tower of the men of pride has come
to an end; it will never be put up again.

3 For this cause will the strong people give glory to you,
the town of the cruel ones will be in fear of you.

4 For you have been a strong place for the poor and the
crushed in their trouble, a safe place from the storm, a shade
from the heat, when the wrath of the cruel ones is like a
winter storm.

5 As heat by the shade of a cloud, the noise of the men of
pride has been made quiet by you; as heat by the shade of a
cloud, the song of the cruel ones has been stopped.

6 And in this mountain will the Lord of armies make for all
peoples a feast of good things, a feast of wines long stored, of
good things sweet to the taste, of wines long kept and tested.

7 And in this mountain he will put an end to the shade
covering the face of all peoples, and the veil which is
stretched over all nations.

8 He has put an end to death for ever; and the Lord God
will take away all weeping; and he will put an end to the
shame of his people in all the earth: for the Lord has said it.

9 And in that day it will be said, See, this is our God; we
have been waiting for him, and he will be our saviour: this is
the Lord in whom is our hope; we will be glad and have
delight in his salvation.

10 For in this mountain will the hand of the Lord come to
rest, and Moab will be crushed down in his place, even as the
dry stems of the grain are crushed under foot in the waste
place.

11 And if he puts out his hands, like a man stretching out
his hands in swimming, the Lord will make low his pride,
however expert his designs.

12 And the strong tower of your walls has been broken by
him, made low, and crushed even to the dust.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 26

1 In that day will this song be made in the land of Judah:
We have a strong town; he will make salvation our walls and
towers.

2 Let the doors be open, so that the upright nation which
keeps faith may come in.

3 The man whose heart is unmoved you will keep in peace,
because his hope is in you.

4 Let your hope be in the Lord for ever: for the Lord Jah is
an unchanging Rock.

5 For he has made low those who are lifted up, all the
people of the town of pride: he makes it low, crushing it
down to the earth; he makes it low in the dust.

6 It will be crushed under the feet of the poor and the steps
of those who are in need.

7 The way of the good man is straight; the road of the
upright is made smooth by you.

8 We have been waiting for you, O Lord; the desire of our
soul is for the memory of your name.

9 In the night the desire of my soul has been for you; early
will my spirit be searching for you; for when your
punishments come on the earth, the people of the world will
get the knowledge of righteousness.

10 Even if you are kind to the evil-doer, he will not go after
righteousness; even in the land of the upright he will still go
on in his wrongdoing, and will not see the glory of the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see: but
they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed.
Yes, your haters will be burned up in the fire.

12 Lord, you will give us peace: for all our works are the
outcome of your purpose.

13 O Lord, our God, other lords than you have had rule
over us; but in you only is our salvation, and no other name
will we take on our lips.

14 The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not
come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction
on them, so that the memory of them is dead.

15 You have made the nation great, O Lord, you have made
it great; glory is yours: you have made wide the limits of the
land.

16 Lord, in trouble our eyes have been turned to you, we
sent up a prayer when your punishment was on us.

17 As a woman with child, whose time is near, is troubled,
crying out in her pain; so have we been before you, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have
given birth to wind; no salvation has come to the earth
through us, and no children have come into the world.

19 Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come
to life again. Those in the dust, awaking from their sleep,
will send out a song; for your dew is a dew of light, and the
earth will give birth to the shades.

20 Come, my people, into your secret places, and let your
doors be shut: keep yourself safe for a short time, till his
wrath is over.

21 For the Lord is coming out of his place to send
punishment on the people of the earth for their evil-doing:
the earth will let the blood drained out on her be seen, and
will keep her dead covered no longer.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 27

1 In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel
sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-
moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he
will put to death the dragon which is in the sea.

2 In that day it will be said, A vine-garden of delight, make
asong about it.

3 I, the Lord, am watching it; I will give it water at all
times: I will keep it night and day, for fear that any damage
comes to it.

4 My passion is over: if the thorns were fighting against me,
I would make an attack on them, and they would be burned
up together.

5 Or let him put himself under my power, and make peace
with me.

6 In days to come Jacob will take root: Israel will put out
buds and flowers; and the face of the world will be full of
fruit.

7 Is his punishment like the punishment of those who
overcame him? or are his dead as great in number as those he
put to the sword?

8 Your anger against her has been made clear by driving
her away; he has taken her away with his storm-wind in the
day of his east wind.

9 So by this will the sin of Jacob be covered, and this is all
the fruit of taking away his punishment; when all the stones
of the altar are crushed together, so that the wood pillars
and the sun-images will not be put up again.

10 For the strong town is without men, an unpeopled
living-place; and she has become a waste land: there the
young ox will take his rest, and its branches will be food for
him.

11 When its branches are dry they will be broken off; the
women will come and put fire to them: for it is a foolish
people; for this cause he who made them will have no mercy
on them, and he whose work they are will not have pity on
them.

12 And it will be in that day that the Lord will get together
his grain, from the River to the stream of Egypt, and you
will be got together with care, O children of Israel.

13 And it will be in that day that a great horn will be
sounded; and those who were wandering in the land of
Assyria, and those who had been sent away into the land of
Egypt, will come; and they will give worship to the Lord in
the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 28

1 Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in
Ephraim, and the dead flower of his glory which is on the
head of those who are overcome by strong drink!

2 See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice,
a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river,
he will violently overcome them.

3 The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in
Ephraim will be crushed under foot;

4 And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head of
the fertile valley, will be like the first early fruit before the
summer; which a man takes and puts in his mouth the minute
he sees it.

5 In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of glory,
and a fair ornament, to the rest of his people;

6 And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to those
who keep back the attackers at the door of the town.

7 And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have
gone out of the right way through strong drink: the priest
and the prophet are uncertain through strong drink, they are
overcome by wine, they have gone out of the way through
strong drink; their vision is false, they go wrong in their
decisions.

8 For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so
that there is not a clean place.

9 To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he
make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly
given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the
breast?

10 For it is one rule after another; one line after another;
here a little, there a little.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he
will give his word to this people:

12 To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is
tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would
not give ear.

13 For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule
after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that
they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken,
and taken in the net.

14 Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride,
the rulers of this people in Jerusalem:

15 Because you have said, We have made death our friend,
and with the underworld we have made an agreement; when
the overflowing waters come through they will not come
near us; for we are looking to false words for help, taking
cover in what is untrue:

16 For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in
Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is
certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give
way.

17 And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and
righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away
the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be
covered by the flowing waters.

18 And the help you were looking for from death will come
to nothing, and your agreement with the underworld will be
broken; when the overflowing waters come through, then
you will be overcome by them.

19 Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for
they will come through morning after morning, by day and
by night: and the news will be nothing but fear.

20 For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched
out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be
covered with.

21 For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will
be moved to wrath as in the valley of Gibeon; so that he may
do his work--strange is his work; and give effect to his act--
unnatural is his act.

22 And now, take care that you do not make sport of him,
or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from
the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end,
which is to come on all the land.

23 Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to
what I say.

24 Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get
the earth ready and broken up for the seed?

25 When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not
put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and
the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge?

26 For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of
these things.

27 For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument,
and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain
of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the
cummin with a rod.

28 Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on
crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses
go over it without crushing it.

29 This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders,
and wise in all his acts.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 29

1 Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made war;
put year to year, let the feasts come round:

2 And I will send trouble on Ariel, and there will be
weeping and cries of grief; and she will be to me as Ariel.

3 And I will make war on you like David, and you will be
shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you.

4 And you will be made low, and your voice will come out
of the earth, and your words will be low out of the dust; and
your voice will come out of the earth like that of a spirit,
making bird-like noises out of the dust.

5 And the army of your attackers will be like small dust,
and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind;
suddenly it will come about.

6 The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and earth-
shaking and great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and
the flame of burning fire.

7 And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those
who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their
towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night.

8 And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming
that he is feasting; but when he is awake there is nothing in
his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he
is drinking; but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is
full of desire: so will all the nations be which make war on
Mount Zion.

9 Be surprised and full of wonder; let your eyes be covered
and be blind: be overcome, but not with wine; go with
uncertain steps, but not because of strong drink.

10 For the Lord has sent on you a spirit of deep sleep; and
by him your eyes, the prophets, are shut, and your heads, the
seers, are covered.

11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the
words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who
has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in
the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut:

12 And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make
clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no
knowledge of writing.

13 And the Lord said, because this people come near to me
with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule
given them by the teaching of men;

14 For this cause I will again do a strange thing among this
people, a thing to be wondered at: and the wisdom of their
wise men will come to nothing, and the sense of their guides
will no longer be seen.

15 Cursed are those who go deep to keep their designs
secret from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and
who say, Who sees us? and who has knowledge of our acts?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth the
same to you as the one who is forming it? will the thing made
say of him who made it, He made me not: or the thing formed
say of him who gave it form, He has no knowledge?

17 Ina very short time Lebanon will become a fertile field,
and the fertile field will seem like a wood.

18 And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be
hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will
see through the mist and the dark.

19 And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased,
and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the cruel one has come to nothing; and those who
make sport of the Lord are gone; and those who are
watching to do evil are cut off:

21 Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a
net for the feet of him who gives decisions in the public place,
taking away a man's right without cause.

22 For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says
about the family of Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to
shame, or his face be clouded with fear.

23 But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of my
hands among them, they will give honour to my name; yes,
they will give honour to the Holy One of Jacob, and go in
fear of the God of Israel.

24 Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get
knowledge, and those who made an outcry against him will
give attention to his teaching.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 30

1 Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect
to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement,
but not by my spirit, increasing their sin:

2 Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without
authority from me; who are looking to the strength of
Pharaoh for help, and whose hope is in the shade of Egypt.

3 And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and
your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing.

4 For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives have
come to Hanes.

5 For they have all come with offerings to a people of no
use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame
and a bad name.

6 The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the
land of trouble and grief, the land of the she-lion and the
voice of the lion, of the snake and the burning winged snake,
they take their wealth on the backs of young asses, and their
stores on camels, to a people in whom is no profit.

7 For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so I
have said about her, She is Rahab, who has come to an end.

8 Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and
make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future,
a witness for all time to come.

9 For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who
will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:

10 Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do
not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give
us pleasure:

11 Get out of the good way, turning from the right road;
do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds.

12 For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you
will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in
ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:

13 This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall,
causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.

14 And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken:
it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will
not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or
water from the spring.

15 For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and
rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but
you would not have it so.

16 Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you
will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of
quick-running beasts; so those who go after you will be
quick-footed.

17 A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five
you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the
top of a mountain, and like a flag ona hill.

18 For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may
be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have
mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is
a blessing on all whose hope is in him.

19 O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping
will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the
sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you
an answer.

20 And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble
and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher
on one side, but you will see your teacher:

21 And at your back, when you are turning to the right
hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears,
saying, This is the way in which you are to go.

22 And you will make unclean what is covering your
pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of
gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying,
Be gone!

23 And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put
it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of
the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that
day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.

24 And the oxen and the young asses which are used for
ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free
from the waste with fork and basket.

25 And there will be rivers and streams of water on every
tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great
numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down.

26 And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the
light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows
they have undergone.

27 See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning
with his wrath, with thick smoke going up: his lips are full of
passion, and his tongue is like a burning fire:

28 And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up
even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction,
like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in
the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way.

29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is
kept; and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with
music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of
Israel.

30 And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice,
and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his
wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst,
and storm, and a rain of ice.

31 For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be
broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.

32 And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the
Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and
with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against
him.

33 For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has been
made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: it is
massed with fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like
astream of fire, puts a light to it.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 31

1 Cursed are those who go down to Egypt for help, and
who put their faith in horses; looking to war-carriages for
salvation, because of their numbers; and to horsemen,
because they are very strong; but they are not looking to the
Holy One of Israel, or turning their hearts to the Lord;

2 Though he is wise, and able to send evil, and his purpose
will not be changed; but he will go against the house of the
evil-doers, and against those to whom they are looking for
help.

3 For the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses
are flesh, and not spirit: and when the Lord's hand is
stretched out, the helper and he who is helped will come
down together.

4 For the Lord has said to me, As a lion, or a young lion,
makes an angry noise over his food, and if a band of
herdsmen come out against him, he will not be in fear of their
voices, or give up his food for their noise: so the Lord of
armies will come down to make war against Mount Zion and
its hill.

5 Like birds with outstretched wings, so will the Lord of
armies be a cover to Jerusalem; he will be a cover and
salvation for it, going over it he will keep it from danger.

6 Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against
by the children of Israel.

7 For in that day they will all give up their images of silver
and of gold, the sin which they made for themselves.

8 Then the Assyrian will come down by the sword, but not
of man; the sword, not of men, will be the cause of his
destruction: and he will go in flight from the sword, and his
young men will be put to forced work.

9 And his rock will come to nothing because of fear, and his
chiefs will go in flight from the flag, says the Lord, whose
fire is in Zion, and his altar in Jerusalem.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 32

1 See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs will
give right decisions.

2 And a man will be as a safe place from the wind, and a
cover from the storm; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shade of a great rock in a waste land.

3 And the eyes of those who see will not be shut, and those
who have hearing will give ear to the word.

4 The man of sudden impulses will become wise in heart,
and he whose tongue is slow will get the power of talking
clearly.

5 The foolish man will no longer be named noble, and they
will not say of the false man that he is a man of honour.

6 For the foolish man will say foolish things, having evil
thoughts in his heart, working what is unclean, and talking
falsely about the Lord, to keep food from him who is in need
of it, and water from him whose soul is desiring it.

7 The designs of the false are evil, purposing the destruction
of the poor man by false words, even when he is in the right.

8 But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by
these he will be guided.

9 Give ear to my voice, you women who are living in
comfort; give attention to my words, you daughters who
have no fear of danger.

10 In not much more than a year, you, who are not looking
for evil, will be troubled: for the produce of the vine-gardens
will be cut off, and there will be no getting in of the grapes.

11 Be shaking with fear, you women who are living in
comfort; be troubled, you who have no fear of danger: take
off your robes and put on clothing of grief.

12 Have sorrow for the fields, the pleasing fields, the fertile
vine;

13 And for the land of my people, where thorns will come
up; even for all the houses of joy in the glad town.

14 For the fair houses will have no man living in them; the
town which was full of noise will become a waste; the hill and
the watchtower will be unpeopled for ever, a joy for the asses
of the woods, a place of food for the flocks;

15 Till the spirit comes on us from on high, and the waste
land becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is changed
into a wood.

16 Then in the waste land there will be an upright rule, and
righteousness will have its place in the fertile field.

17 And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the
effect of an upright rule will be to take away fear for ever.

18 And my people will be living in peace, in houses where
there is no fear, and in quiet resting-places.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 But the tall trees will come down with a great fall, and
the town will be low in a low place.

20 Happy are you who are planting seed by all the waters,
and sending out the ox and the ass.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 33

1 Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you
waste; acting falsely to those who were not false to you.
When you have come to an end of wasting, you will be made
waste, and after your false acts, they will do the same to you.

2 O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for
your help: be our strength every morning, our salvation in
time of trouble.

3 At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your
coming up the nations have gone in all directions.

4 And the goods taken in war will be got together like the
massing of young locusts; men will be rushing on them like
the rushing of locusts.

5 The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has made
Zion full of righteousness and true religion.

6 And she will have no more fear of change, being full of
salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her
wealth.

7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those
who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.

8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the
agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has
no thought for man.

9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put
to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah;
and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.

10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be
lifted up; now will my power be seen.

11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will
be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.

12 And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as
thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.

13 Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see
my power, you who are near.

14 The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are
shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place
before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal
burnings?

15 He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright;
he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose
hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in
putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil;

16 He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by
the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will
be certain.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be
looking on a far-stretching land.

18 Your heart will give thought to the cause of your fear:
where is the scribe, where is he who made a record of the
payments, where is he by whom the towers were numbered?

19 Never again will you see the cruel people, a people
whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language 1s strange
to you.

20 Let your eyes be resting on Zion, the town of our holy
feasts: you will see Jerusalem, a quiet resting-place, a tent
which will not be moved, whose tent-pins will never be
pulled up, and whose cords will never be broken.

21 But there the Lord will be with us in his glory, a place of
wide rivers and streams; where no boat will go with blades,
and no fair ship will be sailing.

22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the
Lord is our king; he will be our saviour.

23 Your cords have become loose; they were not able to
make strong the support of their sails, the sail was not
stretched out: then the blind will take much property, the
feeble-footed will make division of the goods of war.

24 And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its people
will have forgiveness for their sin.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 34

1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you
peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world
and all those living in it.

2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath
is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the
curse, he has given them to destruction.

3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth,
and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be
flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to
nothing.

4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a
book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from
the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.

5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming
down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse.

6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the
best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the
best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah,
and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.

7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with
the smaller cattle.

8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives
payment for the wrongs done to Zion.

9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its
dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire.

10 It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up
for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no
one will go through it for ever.

11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place
there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and
it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land.

12 The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone;
they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her
chiefs will have come to an end.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste
plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes
there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.

14 And the beasts of the waste places will come together
with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one
another, even the night-spirit will come and make her
resting-place there.

15 The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs
there, and get her young together under her shade: there the
hawks will come together by twos.

16 See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these
will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the
Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come
together.

17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it
has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever,
their resting-place from generation to generation.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 35

1 The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the
lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.

2 It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of delight
and songs; the glory of Lebanon will be given to it; the pride
of Carmel and Sharon: they will see the glory of the Lord,
the power of our God.

3 Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking
knees.

4 Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart:
see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will
come; he himself will come to be your saviour.

5 Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which are
stopped will be open.

6 Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the
voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste
land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry
places.

7 And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry
earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their
food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the
place of grass.

8 And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy
Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and
those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the
foolish.

9 No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be
seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price,

10 Even those whom he has made free, will come back again;
they will come with songs to Zion; on their heads will be
eternal joy; delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and
sounds of grief will be gone for ever.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 36

1 And it came about in the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against
all the walled towns of Judah and took them.

2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from
Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a strong force,
and he took up his position by the stream of the higher pool,
by the highway of the washerman's

3 And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah,
who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the
son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah,
These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In
what are you placing your hope?

5 You say you have a design and strength for war, but these
are only words: now to whom are you looking for support,
that you have gone against my authority?

6 See, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of
Egypt, which will go into a man's hand if he makes use of it
for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who
put their faith in him.

7 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God; is
it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken
away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only
be given before this altar?

8 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of
Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are
able to put horsemen on them.

9 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's
servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-
carriages and horsemen:

10 And have I now come to send destruction on this land
without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who
said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste.

11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-
shakeh, Please make use of the Aramaean language in talking
to your servants, for we are used to it, and do not make use of
the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall.

12 But the Rab-shakeh said, Is it to your master or to you
that my master has sent me to say these words? has he not
sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the people
who will be short of food with you when the town is shut in.

13 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice
in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king,
the king of Assyria:

14 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by
Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him.

15 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the
Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this
town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

16 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of
Assyria says, Make peace with me, and come out to me; and
everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his
fig-tree, and the water of his spring;

17 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a
land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens.

18 Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The
Lord will keep us safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations
kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of
Assyria?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are
the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria? and
have they kept Samaria out of my hand?

20 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept
their country from falling into my hand, to give cause for the
thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into
my hand?

21 But they kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the
king's order was, Give him no answer.

22 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothing parted as a
sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-
shakeh had said.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 37

1 And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on
haircloth and went into the house of the Lord.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna
the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of
trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are
ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth
to them.

4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the
words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his
master, has sent to say evil things against the living God, and
will make his words come to nothing: so make your prayer
for the rest of the people.

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to
your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words
which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me
in your hearing.

7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come
to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will
have him put to death.

8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the
king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had
come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from
Lachish.

9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of
Ethiopia, "Has come out to fight against you." When he
heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:
Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false
hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of
the king of Assyria.

11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the
kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the
curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate?

12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my
fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and
the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad,
and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva?

14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those
who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up
to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the
Lord,

15 And he made prayer to the Lord, saying,

16 O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the
winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the
earth; you have made heaven and earth.

17 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be
open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of
Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living
God.

18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all
the nations and their lands,

19 And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no
gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they
have given them to destruction.

20 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his
hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth
that you, and you only, are the Lord.

21 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,
The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer you have made
to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my
ears.

22 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In
the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and
laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

23 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and
against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted
up? even against the Holy One of Israel.

24 You have sent your servants with evil words against the
Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come
up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of
Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best
trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into
his thick woods.

25 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and
with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

26 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before,
purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to
my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into
masses of broken walls.

27 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were
broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field,
or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a
cold wind makes waste.

28 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your
resting, of your going out and your coming in.

29 Because your wrath against me and your pride have
come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my
cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way
you came.

30 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food
this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will
put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens,
and take of their fruit.

31 And those of Judah who are still living will again take
root in the earth, and give fruit.

32 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will
go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount
Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be
done.

33 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria,
He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it;
he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork
against it.

34 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get
into this town.

35 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for
the honour of my servant David.

36 And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in
the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand
men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there
was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

37 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at
Nineveh.

38 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the
house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer put him to death with the sword, and they went in
flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon, his son,
became king in his place.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 38

1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah
the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him,
The Lord says, Put your house in order; for your death is
near.

2 And Hezekiah, turning his face to the wall, made his
prayer to the Lord, saying,

3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all
my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And
Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,

5 Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David,
your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I
have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years
of life.

6 And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of
the king of Assyria: and I will keep watch over this town.

7 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you,
that he will do what he has said:

8 See, I will make the shade which has gone down on the
steps of Ahaz with the sun, go back ten steps. So the shade
went back the ten steps by which it had gone down.

9 The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been
ill, and had got better from his disease.

10 I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the
underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from
me.

11 I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land
of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the
world.

12 My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me
like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-
worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame:
from day even to night you give me up to pain.

13 I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a
lion was crushing all my bones.

14 I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a
dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am
crushed, take up my cause.

15 What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done it: all
my time of sleeping I am turning from side to side without
rest.

16 O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest to
my spirit: make me well again, and let me come back to life.

17 See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you
have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have
put all my sins out of your memory.

18 For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death
gives you no honour: for those who go down into the
underworld there is no hope in your mercy.

19 The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I
do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his
children.

20 O Lord, quickly be my saviour; so we will make my
songs to corded instruments all the days of our lives in the
house of the Lord.

21 And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs, and put it
on the diseased place, and he will get well.

22 And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up to
the house of the Lord?

ISAIAH CHAPTER 39

1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king
of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because
he had news that Hezekiah had been ill, and was well again.

2 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming, and let them see
all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices
and the oil, and all the house of his arms, and everything
there was in his stores: there was nothing in all his house or
his kingdom which he did not let them see.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said
to him, What did these men say, and where did they come
from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country,
even from Babylon.

4 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And
Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house:
there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.

5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the
Lord of armies:

6 Truly, the days are coming when everything in your house,
and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will
be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 And your sons, even your offspring, will they take away
to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of Babylon.

8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the
Lord which you have said. And he said in his heart, There
will be peace and quiet in my days.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 40

1 Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your God.

2 Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to
her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is
complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand
twice over for all her sins.

3 A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the
way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our
God.

4 Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill
be made low, and let the rough places become level, and the
hilltops become a valley,

5 And the glory of the Lord will be made clear, and all flesh
will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has said it.

6 A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is my
cry to be? All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower
of the field.

7 The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the
breath of the Lord goes over it: truly the people is grass.

8 The grass is dry, the flower is dead; but the word of our
God is eternal.

9 You who give good news to Zion, get up into the high
mountain; you who give good news to Jerusalem, let your
voice be strong; let it be sounding without fear; say to the
towns of Judah, See, your God!

10 See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in
power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those
whom he has made safe go before him.

11 He will give food to his flock like a keeper of sheep; with
his arm he will get it together, and will take up the lambs on
his breast, gently guiding those which are with young.

12 In the hollow of whose hand have the waters been
measured? and who is able to take the heavens in his
stretched-out fingers? who has got together the dust of the
earth in a measure? who has taken the weight of the
mountains, or put the hills into the scales?

13 By whom has the spirit of the Lord been guided, or who
has been his teacher?

14 Who gave him suggestions, and made clear to him the
right way? who gave him knowledge, guiding him in the way
of wisdom?

15 See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a
bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the
islands like small dust.

16 And Lebanon is not enough to make a fire with, or all
its cattle enough for a burned offering.

17 All the nations are as nothing before him; even less than
nothing, a thing of no value.

18 Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will
you put forward as a comparison with him?

19 The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker
puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it.

20 The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree
of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that
the image may be fixed to it and not be moved.

21 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your
ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has
it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was
placed on its base?

22 It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the
people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are
stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a
living-place.

23 He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth
are of no value.

24 They have only now been planted, and their seed put
into the earth, and they have only now taken root, when he
sends out his breath over them and they become dry, and the
storm-wind takes them away like dry grass.

25 Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy
One.

26 Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has
made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has
knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength,
because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O Israel,
The Lord's eyes are not on my way, and my God gives no
attention to my cause?

28 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your
ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the
earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his
wisdom.

29 He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength of
him who has no force.

30 Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and
the best of them will come to the end of his strength;

31 But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new
strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will
not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 41

1 Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the peoples
get together their strength: let them come near; then let them
say what they have to say: let us put forward our cause
against one another.

2 Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he
goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him
ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as
dry stems before the wind to his bow.

3 He goes after them safely, not touching the road with his
feet.

4 Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the
generations from the start. I the Lord, the first, and with the
last, lam he.

5 The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the
earth were shaking: they came near.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone
said to his brother, Take heart!

7 So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and
he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to
the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it
together with nails, so that there might be no slipping.

8 But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom
Ihave taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend:

9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and
sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my
servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not
given up:

10 Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking
about in trouble, for Iam your God; I will give you strength,
yes, I will be your helper; yes, my true right hand will be
your support.

11 Truly, all those who are angry with you will be made
low and put to shame: those desiring to do you wrong will
come to nothing and never again be seen.

12 You will make search for your haters but they will not
be there; those who make war against you will be as nothing
and will come to destruction.

13 For I, the Lord your God, have taken your right hand in
mine, saying to you, Have no fear; I will be your helper.

14 Have no fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; |
will be your helper, says the Lord, even he who takes up your
cause, the Holy One of Israel.

15 See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing
instrument with teeth, crushing the mountains small, and
making the hills like dry stems.

16 You will send the wind over them, and it will take them
away; they will go in all directions before the storm-wind:
you will have joy in the Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of
Israel.

17 The poor and crushed are looking for water where no
water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will
give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them
up.

18 I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and
fountains in the valleys: I will make the waste land a pool of
water, and the dry land springs of water.

19 I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the
myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted
the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together:

20 So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to
it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the
Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made
it.

21 Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong
argument come out, says the King of Jacob.

22 Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of the
past things, so that we may give thought to them; or of the
things to come, so that we may see if they are true.

23 Give us word of what will be after this, so that we may
be certain that you are gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that
we may all see it and be surprised.

24 But you are nothing, and your work is of no value:
foolish is he who takes you for his gods.

25 I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn he
has come; in my name he will get rulers together and go
against them; they will be like dust, even as the wet earth is
stamped on by the feet of the potter.

26 Who has given knowledge of it from the first, so that we
may be certain of it? and from the start, so that we may say,
His word is true? There is no one who gives news, or says
anything, or who gives ear to your words.

27 I was the first to give word of it to Zion, and I gave the
good news to Jerusalem.

28 And I saw that there was no man, even no wise man
among them, who might give an answer to my questions.

29 Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing and
of no value: their metal images are of no more use than wind.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 42

1 See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in
whom I take delight: I have put my spirit on him; he will give
the knowledge of the true God to the nations.

2 He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his words
will not come to men's ears in the streets.

3 He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he will
not let a feebly burning light be put out: he will go on
sending out the true word to the peoples.

4 His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed,
till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth,
and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching.

5 God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring
them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its
produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to
those who go about on it, says:

6 I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I have
taken you by the hand, and kept you safe, and I have given
you to be an agreement to the people, and a light to the
nations:

7 To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from
the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark.

8 I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory
to another, or my praise to pictured images.

9 See, the things said before have come about, and now I
give word of new things: before they come I give you news of
them.

10 Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be
sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the
sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people.

11 Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles
of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the
top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy.

12 Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise in
the sea-lands.

13 The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved
to wrath like a fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will
give a loud cry; he will go against his attackers like a man of
war.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done
nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in
childbirth, breathing hard and quickly.

15 I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all
their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land.

16 And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no
knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will
make the dark places light before them, and the rough places
level. These things will I do and will not give them up.

17 They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put
their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You
are our gods.

18 Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be
open, you blind, so that you may see.

19 Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped,
but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has
his ears shut like the Lord's servant?

20 Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are
open, but there is no hearing.

21 It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness,
to make the teaching great and give it honour.

22 But this is a people whose property has been taken away
from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in
prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free;
they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back.

23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who
will give attention to it for the time to come?

24 Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods,
and Israel to his attackers? Did not the Lord? he against
whom they did wrong, and in whose ways they would not go,
turning away from his teaching.

25 For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath,
and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about
him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it
to heart.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 43

1 But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your
life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your
cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine.

2 When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and
through the rivers, they will not go over you: when you go
through the fire, you will not be burned; and the flame will
have no power over you.

3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your
saviour; I have given Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and
Seba for you.

4 Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured,
and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for
your life.

5 Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed
from the east, and get you together from the west;

6 I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the south,
Do not keep them back; send back my sons from far, and my
daughters from the end of the earth;

7 Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have
made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me.

8 Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who
have ears, but they are shut.

9 Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples be
present: who among them is able to make this clear, and give
us word of earlier things? let their witnesses come forward,
so that they may be seen to be true, and that they may give
ear, and say, It is true.

10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant
whom I have taken for myself: so that you may see and have
faith in me, and that it may be clear to you that I am he;
before me there was no God formed, and there will not be
after me.

11 I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but me.

12 I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no
strange god among you: for this reason you are my witnesses,
says the Lord.

13 From time long past I am God, and from this day I am
he: there is no one who is able to take you out of my hand:
when I undertake a thing, by whom will my purpose be
changed?

14 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of
Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made
all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in
the ships.

15 Tam the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your
King.

16 This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea,
and a road through the deep waters;

17 Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the
army with all its force; they have come down, they will not
get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out.

18 Give no thought to the things which are past; let the
early times go out of your minds.

19 See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you
not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land,
and rivers in the dry country.

20 The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals
and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land,
and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people
whom I have taken for myself:

21 Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my
praise.

22 But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you
have given no thought to me, O Israel.

23 You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or
given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not
make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make
you tired with requests for perfumes.

24 You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your
money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings:
but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have
made me tired with your evil doings.

25 I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no
longer keep your evil doings in mind.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between
us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in
the right.

27 Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have
gone against my word.

28 Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have
made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 44

1 And now, give ear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom
Ihave taken for myself:

2 The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's
body, the Lord, your helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my
servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have taken for myself.

3 For I will send water on the land needing it, and streams
on the dry earth: I will let my spirit come down on your seed,
and my blessing on your offspring.

4 And they will come up like grass in a well-watered field,
like water-plants by the streams.

5 One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will give
himself the name, Jacob; another will put a mark on his hand,
I am the Lord's, and another will take the name of Israel for
himself.

6 The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies who
has taken up his cause, says, I am the first and the last, and
there is no God but me.

7 If there is one like me, let him come forward and say it, let
him make it clear and put it in order before me: who has
made clear in the past the things to come? let him make clear
the future to me.

8 Have no fear, be strong in heart; have I not made it clear
to you in the past, and let you see it? and you are my
witnesses. Is there any God but me, or a Rock of whom I have
no knowledge?

9 Those who make a pictured image are all of them as
nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to
them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so
they will be put to shame.

10 Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image
in which there is no profit.

11 Truly, all those who make use of secret arts will be put
to shame, and their words of power are only words of men:
let them all come forward together; they will all be in fear
and be put to shame.

12 The iron-worker is heating the metal in the fire, giving
it form with his hammers, and working on it with his strong
arm: then for need of food his strength gives way, and for
need of water he becomes feeble.

13 The woodworker is measuring out the wood with his
line, marking it out with his pencil: after smoothing it with
his plane, and making circles on it with his instrument, he
gives it the form and glory of a man, so that it may be placed
in the house.

14 He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak and
lets it get strong among the trees of the wood; he has an ash-
tree planted, and the rain gives it growth.

15 Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may
get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he
makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a
pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it.

16 With part of it he makes a fire, and on the fire he gets
meat cooked and takes a full meal: he makes himself warm,
and says, Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire:

17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his pictured
image: he goes down on his face before it, giving worship to
it, and making prayer to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you
are my god.

18 They have no knowledge or wisdom; for he has put a veil
over their eyes, so that they may not see; and on their hearts,
so that they may not give attention.

19 And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or
wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made
bread on it; Ihave had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and
am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go
down on my face before a bit of wood?

20 As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he has
been turned from the way by a twisted mind, so that he is
unable to keep himself safe by saying, What I have here in my
hand is false.

21 Keep these things in mind, O Jacob; and you Israel, for
you are my servant: I have made you; you are my servant; O
Israel, I will not let you go out of my memory.

22 [have put your evil doings out of my mind like a thick
cloud, and your sins like a mist: come back to me; for I have
taken up your cause.

23 Make a song, O heavens, for the Lord has done it: give a
loud cry, you deep parts of the earth: let your voices be loud
in song, you mountains, and you woods with all your trees:
for the Lord has taken up the cause of Jacob, and will let his
glory be seen in Israel.

24 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave
you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who
makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and
giving the earth its limits; who was with me?

25 Who makes the signs of those who give word of the
future come to nothing, so that those who have knowledge of
secret arts go off their heads; turning the wise men back, and
making their knowledge foolish:

26 Who makes the word of his servants certain, and gives
effect to the purposes of his representatives; who says of
Jerusalem, Her people will come back to her; and of the
towns of Judah, I will give orders for their building, and will
make her waste places fertile again:

27 Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your
rivers dry:

28 Who says of Cyrus, He will take care of my sheep, and
will do all my pleasure: who says of Jerusalem, I will give the
word for your building; and of the Temple, Your bases will
be put in place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ISAIAH CHAPTER 45

1 The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus, whom
I have taken by the right hand, putting down nations before
him, and taking away the arms of kings; making the doors
open before him, so that the ways into the towns may not be
shut;

21 will go before you, and make the rough places level: the
doors of brass will be broken, and the iron rods cut in two:

3 And I will give you the stores of the dark, and the wealth
of secret places, so that you may be certain that I am the Lord,
who gave you your name, even the God of Israel.

4 Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have
taken for myself, I have sent for you by name, giving you a
name of honour, though you had no knowledge of me.

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but
me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no
knowledge of me:

6 So that they may see from the east and from the west that
there is no God but me: I am the Lord, and there is no other.

71am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing
blessing, and sending troubles; I am the Lord, who does all
these things.

8 Let righteousness come down, O heavens, from on high,
and let the sky send it down like rain: let the earth be open to
give the fruit of salvation, causing righteousness to come up
with it; I the Lord have made it come about.

9 Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot
which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth
say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that
your work has nothing by which it may be gripped?

10 Cursed is he who says to a father, To what are you
giving life? or to a woman, What are you in birth-pains with?

11 The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, says,
Will you put a question to me about the things which are to
come, or will you give me orders about my sons, and the
work of my hands?

12 I have made the earth, forming man on it: by my hands
the heavens have been stretched out, and all the stars put in
their ordered places.

13 Ihave sent him out to overcome the nations, and I will
make all his ways straight: I will give him the work of
building my town, and he will let my prisoners go free,
without price or reward, says the Lord of armies.

14 The Lord says, The workmen of Egypt, and the traders
of Ethiopia, and the tall Sabaeans, will come over the sea to
you, and they will be yours; they will go after you; in chains
they will come over: and they will go down on their faces
before you, and will make prayer to you, saying, Truly, God
is among you; and there is no other God.

15 Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a
Saviour!

16 All those who have gone against him will be put to
shame; the makers of images will be made low.

17 But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal
salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever
and ever.

18 For this is the word of the Lord who made the heavens;
he is God; the maker and designer of the earth; who made it
not to be a waste, but as a living-place for man: I am the
Lord, and there is no other.

19 I have not given my word in secret, in a place in the
underworld; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Go into a
waste land to make request of me: I the Lord say what is true,
my word is righteousness.

20 Come together, even come near, you nations who are
still living: they have no knowledge who take up their image
of wood, and make prayer to a god in whom is no salvation.

21 Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a
discussion together: who has given news of this in the past?
who made it clear in early times? did not I, the Lord? and
there is no God but me; a true God and a saviour; there is no
other.

22 Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have
salvation, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
no other.

23 By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone
from my mouth, and will not be changed, that to me every
knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honour.

24 Only in the Lord will Jacob overcome and be strong:
together all those who were angry with him will be put to
shame and come to destruction.

25 In the Lord will all the seed of Israel get their rights,
and they will give glory to him.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 46

1 Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on the
beasts and on the cattle: the things which you took about
have become a weight to the tired beast.

2 They are bent down, they are falling together: they were
not able to keep their images safe, but they themselves have
been taken prisoner.

3 Give ear to me, O family of Jacob, and all the rest of the
people of Israel, who have been supported by me from their
birth, and have been my care from their earliest days:

4 Even when you are old I will be the same, and when you
are grey-haired I will take care of you: I will still be
responsible for what I made; yes, I will take you and keep you
safe.

5 Who in your eyes is my equal? or what comparison will
you make with me?

6 As for those who take gold out of a bag, and put silver in
the scales, they give payment to a gold-worker, to make it
into a god; they go down on their faces and give it worship.

7 They put him on their backs, and take him up, and put
him in his fixed place, from which he may not be moved; if a
man gives a cry for help to him, he is unable to give an
answer, or get him out of his trouble.

8 Keep this in mind and be shamed; let it come back to your
memory, you sinners.

9 Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I
am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one
like me;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Making clear from the first what is to come, and from
past times the things which have not so far come about;
saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure;

11 Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the
man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I
will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly
be done.

12 Give ear to me, you feeble-hearted, who have no faith in
my righteousness:

13 My righteousness is near, it is not far off; salvation will
come quickly; and I will make Zion free, and give Israel my

glory.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 47

1 Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your
place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you
will never again seem soft and delicate.

2 Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take
off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered,
go through the rivers.

3 The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all:
I will give punishment without mercy,

4 Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies
is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

5 Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the
Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of
Kingdoms.

6 I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage,
and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them;
you put a cruel yoke on those who were old;

7 And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give
attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what
would come after.

8 So now take note of this, you who are given up to
pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I
am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or
have my children taken from me.

9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one
day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they
will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your
wonders.

10 For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one
sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been
turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am,
and there is no other.

11 Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be
turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you,
from which no money will give salvation: destruction will
come on you suddenly, without your knowledge.

12 Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-
working, to which you have given yourself up from your
earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or
by them you may put fear into your attackers.

13 But your mind 1s troubled by the number of your guides:
let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers

of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are
able to say from month to month what things are coming on
you.

14 Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been
burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe
from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming
them, or a fire by which a man may be seated.

15 Small profit have you had from those who, from your
earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in
flight, every one straight before him, and you have no
saviour.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 48

1 Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by
the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah;
who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the
name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith.

2 For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their
faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name.

3 I gave word in the past of the things which came about;
they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I
did them, and they came about.

4 Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your
neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass;

5 For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it
came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My
god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made
them come about.

6 All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will
you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things,
even secret things, of which you had no knowledge.

7 They have only now been effected, and not in the past:
and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear
that you might say, I had knowledge of them.

8 Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them;
no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I
saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was
turned against me from your earliest days.

9 Because of my name | will put away my wrath, and for my
praise I will keep myself from cutting you off.

10 See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have
put you through the fire of trouble.

11 For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I
will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give
to another.

12 Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he,
Tam the first and I am the last.

13 Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by
my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word
they take up their places.

14 Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you
has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do
his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the
Chaldaeans.

15, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have
made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I
did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into
existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and
given me his spirit.

17 The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of
Israel, says, 1 am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for
your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go.

18 If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace
would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the
waves of the sea:

19 Your seed would have been like the sand, and your
offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or
come to an end before me.

20 Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans;
with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the
word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has
taken up the cause of his servant Jacob.

21 They had no need of water when he was guiding them
through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock
for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing
out.

22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.

ISAIAH CHAPTER49

1 Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples
from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first;
when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in
mind:

2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the
shade of his hand he has kept me; and he has made me like a
polished arrow, keeping me in his secret place;

3 And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom
my glory will be seen;

4 And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I
have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the
Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my
reward.

5 And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I
was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob
come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to
him: and I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God
became my strength.

6 It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the
tribes of Jacob again in their place, and to get back those of
Israel who have been sent away: my purpose is to give you as
a light to the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the
end of the earth.

7 The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One,
says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the
nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from
their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord
who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken
you for himself.

8 This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you at a
good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation:
and I will keep you safe, and will make you a glory for the

people, putting the land in order, and giving them the
heritages which now are waste;

9 Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those who
are in the dark, Come out into the light. They will get food
by the way wherever they go, and have grass-lands on all the
dry mountain-tops.

10 They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled
by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be
their guide, taking them by the springs of water.

11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my
highways will be lifted up.

12 See, these are coming from far; and these from the north
and the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

13 Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad,
O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has
given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his
crushed ones.

14 But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone
from his memory.

15 Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be
without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I
will not let you go out of my memory.

16 See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are
ever before me.

17 Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those
who made you waste will go out of you.

18 Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are
all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly
you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed
with them like a bride.

19 For though the waste places of your land have been
given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for
your people, and those who made you waste will be far away.

20 The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will
say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make
room for me to have a resting-place.

21 Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all
these children? when my children had been taken from me,
and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of
these? when I was by myself, where then were these?

22 This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign
with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the
peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and
your daughters on their backs.

23 And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you
their milk: they will go down on their faces before you,
kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that Iam
the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be
shamed.

24 Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or
the prisoners of the cruel one be let go?

25 But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will
be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods:
for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will
keep your children safe.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by
themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink,
as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am
your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong
One of Jacob.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 50

1 This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement
which I gave your mother when I put her away? or to which
of my creditors have I given you for money? It was for your
sins that you were given into the hands of others, and for
your evil-doing was your mother put away.

2 Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to
give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that
it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to
make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make
the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water,
and make an evil smell.

3 By me the heavens are clothed with black, and I make
haircloth their robe.

4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are
experienced, so that I may be able to give the word a special
sense for the feeble: every morning my ear is open to his
teaching, like those who are experienced:

5 And I have not put myself against him, or let my heart be
turned back from him.

6 I was offering my back to those who gave me blows, and
my face to those who were pulling out my hair: I did not keep
my face covered from marks of shame.

7 For the Lord God is my helper; I will not be put to shame:

so I have made my face like a rock, and I am certain that he
will give me my right.

8 He who takes up my cause is near; who will go to law
with me? let us come together before the judge: who is
against me? let him come near to me.

9 See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a decision
against me? truly, all of them will become old like a robe;
they will be food for the worm.

10 Who among you has the fear of the Lord, giving ear to
the voice of his servant who has been walking in the dark and
has no light? Let him put his faith in the name of the Lord,
looking to his God for support.

11 See, all you who make a fire, arming yourselves with
burning branches: go in the flame of your fire, and among
the branches you have put a light to. This will you have from
my hand, you will make your bed in sorrow.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 51

| Give ear to me, you who are searching for righteousness,
who are looking for the Lord: see the rock from which you
were cut out, and the hole out of which you were taken.

2 Let your thoughts be turned to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who gave you birth: for when he was but one,
my voice came to him, and I gave him my blessing, and made
him a great people.

3 For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made glad
all her broken walls; making her waste places like Eden, and
changing her dry land into the garden of the Lord; joy and
delight will be there, praise and the sound of melody.

4 Give attention to me, O my people; and give ear to me, O
my nation; for teaching will go out from me, and the
knowledge of the true God will be a light to the peoples.

5 Suddenly will my righteousness come near, and my
salvation will be shining out like the light; the sea-lands will
be waiting for me, and they will put their hope in my strong
arm.

6 Let your eyes be lifted up to the heavens, and turned to
the earth which is under them: for the heavens will go in
flight like smoke, and the earth will become old like a coat,
and its people will come to destruction like insects: but my
salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not
come to an end.

7 Give ear to me, you who have knowledge of righteousness,
in whose heart is my law; have no fear of the evil words of
men, and give no thought to their curses.

8 For like a coat they will be food for the insect, the worm
will make a meal of them like wool: but my righteousness
will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations.

9 Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord,
awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was
it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon
Wounded?

10 Did you not make the sea dry, the waters of the great
deep? did you not make the deep waters of the sea a way for
the Lord's people to go through?

11 Those whom the Lord has made free will come back with
songs to Zion; and on their heads will be eternal joy: delight
and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be
gone for ever.

12 I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart as
to be in fear of man who will come to an end, and of the son
of man who will be like grass?

13 And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker,
by whom the heavens were stretched out, and the earth
placed on its base; and you went all day in fear of the wrath
of the cruel one, when he was making ready for your
destruction. And where is the wrath of the cruel one?

14 The prisoner, bent under his chain, will quickly be made
free, and will not go down into the underworld, and his
bread will not come to an end.

15 For I am the Lord your God, who makes the sea calm
when its waves are thundering: the Lord of armies is his name.

16 And I have put my words in your mouth, covering you
with the shade of my hand, stretching out the heavens, and
placing the earth on its base, and saying to Zion, You are my
people.

17 Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken
from the Lord's hand the cup of his wrath; tasting in full
measure the wine which overcomes.

18 She has no one among all her children to be her guide;
not one of the sons she has taken care of takes her by the hand.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 These two things have come on you; who will be
weeping for you? wasting and destruction; death from need
of food, and from the sword; how may you be comforted?

20 Your sons are overcome, like a roe in a net; they are full
of the wrath of the Lord, the punishment of your God.

21 So now give ear to this, you who are troubled and
overcome, but not with wine:

22 This is the word of the Lord your master, even your God
who takes up the cause of his people: See, I have taken out of
your hand the cup which overcomes, even the cup of my
wrath; it will not again be given to you:

23 And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters, and
of those whose yoke has been hard on you; who have said to
your soul, Down on your face! so that we may go over you:
and you have given your backs like the earth, even like the
street, for them to go over.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 52

1 Awake! awake! put on your strength, O Zion; put on your
beautiful robes, O Jerusalem, the holy town: for from now
there will never again come into you the unclean and those
without circumcision.

2 Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the seat
of your power, O Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose,
O prisoned daughter of Zion.

3 For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you
will be made free without price.

4 For the Lord God says, My people went down at first into
Egypt, to get a place for themselves there: and the Assyrian
put a cruel yoke on them without cause.

5 Now then, what have I here? says the Lord, for my people
are taken away without cause; they are made waste and give
cries of sorrow, says the Lord, and all the day the nations put
shame on my name.

6 For this cause I will make my name clear to my people; in
that day they will be certain that it is my word which comes
to them; see, here am I.

7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who
comes with good news, who gives word of peace, saying that
salvation is near; who says to Zion, Your God is ruling!

8 The voice of your watchmen! their voices are loud in song
together; for they will see him, eye to eye, when the Lord
comes back to Zion.

9 Give sounds of joy, make melody together, waste places of
Jerusalem: for the Lord has given comfort to his people, he
has taken up the cause of Jerusalem.

10 The Lord has let his holy arm be seen by the eyes of all
nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of
our God.

11 Away! away! go out from there, touching no unclean
thing; go out from among her; be clean, you who take up the
vessels of the Lord.

12 For you will not go out suddenly, and you will not go in
flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel
will come after you to keep you.

13 See, my servant will do well in his undertakings, he will
be honoured, and lifted up, and be very high.

14 As peoples were surprised at him, And his face was not
beautiful, so as to be desired: his face was so changed by
disease as to be unlike that of a man, and his form was no
longer that of the sons of men.

15 So will nations give him honour; kings will keep quiet
because of him: for what had not been made clear to them
they will see; and they will give their minds to what had not
come to their ears.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 53

1 Who would have had faith in the word which has come to
our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled?

2 For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before
him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of
form, to give us pleasure;

3 Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a
man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom
men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we
put no value on him.

4 But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on
him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's
punishment had come.

5 But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil
doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we
have peace, and by his wounds we are made well.

6 We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us
after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of
us all.

7 Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as a
lamb taken to its death, and as a sheep before those who take
her wool makes no sound, so he said not a word.

8 They took away from him help and right, and who gave a
thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the
living: he came to his death for the sin of my people.

9 And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and his
last resting-place was with the evil-doers, though he had
done no wrong, and no deceit was in his mouth.

10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him. He has caused
him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be
satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the
knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.

12 For this cause he will have a heritage with the great, and
he will have a part in the goods of war with the strong,
because he gave up his life, and was numbered with the evil-
doers; taking on himself the sins of the people, and making
prayer for the wrongdoers.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 54
1 Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without
children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are
more than those of the married wife, says the Lord.

2 Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains of
your house be stretched out without limit: make your cords
long, and your tent-pins strong.

3 For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and on
the left; and your seed will take the nations for a heritage,
and make the waste towns full of people.

4 Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without hope:
you will not be put to shame, for the shame of your earlier
days will go out of your memory, and you will no longer
keep in mind the sorrows of your widowed years.

5 For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his
name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your
cause; he will be named the God of all the earth.

6 For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife
who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not
give up the wife of one's early days.

7 For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I
will take you back again.

8 In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a
minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord
who takes up your cause.

9 For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an
oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the
earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry
with you, or say bitter words to you.

10 For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be
moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from
you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who
has had mercy on you.

11 O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your
stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be
sapphires.

12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of
carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of
beautiful stones.

13 And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and
great will be the peace of your children.

14 All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear
of evil, and destruction will not come near you.

15 See, they may be moved to war, but not by my authority:
all those who come together to make an attack on you, will
be broken against you.

16 See, I have made the iron-worker, blowing on the
burning coals, and making the instrument of war by his work;
and I have made the waster for destruction.

17 No instrument of war which is formed against you will
be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you
will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the
Lord, and their righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 55

1 Ho! everyone in need, come to the waters, and he who has
no strength, let him get food: come, get bread without
money; wine and milk without price.

2 Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and
the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure?
Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may
have the best in full measure.

3 Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that
your souls may have life: and I will make an eternal
agreement with you, even the certain mercies of David.

4 See, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a ruler
and a guide to the nations.

5 See, you will send for a nation of which you had no
knowledge, and those who had no knowledge of you will
come running to you, because of the Lord your God, and
because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you glory.

6 Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer
to him while he is near:

7 Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his
purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have
mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness
with him.

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my
ways, says the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts.

10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
and does not go back again, but gives water to the earth, and
makes it fertile, giving seed to the planter, and bread for
food;

11 So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will
not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give
effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it.

12 For you will go out with joy, and be guided in peace:
the mountains and the hills will make melody before you,
and all the trees of the fields will make sounds of joy.

13 In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and in
place of the blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord
for a name, for an eternal sign which will not be cut off.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 56

1 The Lord says, Let your way of life be upright, and let
your behaviour be rightly ordered: for my salvation is near,
and my righteousness will quickly be seen.

2 Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man
whose behaviour is so ordered; who keeps the Sabbath holy,
and his hand from doing any evil.

3 And let not the man from a strange country, who has been
joined to the Lord, say, The Lord will certainly put a
division between me and his people: and let not the unsexed
man say, See, I ama dry tree.

4 For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my
Sabbaths, and give their hearts to pleasing me, and keep
their agreement with me:

5 I will give to them in my house, and inside my walls, a
place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I
will give them an eternal name which will not be cut off.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 And as for those from a strange country, who are joined
to the Lord, to give worship to him and honour to his name,
to be his servants, even everyone who keeps the Sabbath holy,
and keeps his agreement with me:

7 1 will make them come to my holy mountain, and will
give them joy in my house of prayer; I will take pleasure in
the burned offerings which they make on my altar: for my
house will be named a house of prayer for all peoples.

8 The Lord God, who gets together the wandering ones of
Israel, says, I will get together others in addition to those of
Israel who have come back.

9 All you beasts of the field, come together for your meat,
even all you beasts of the wood.

10 His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge;
they are all dogs without tongues, unable to make a sound;
stretched out dreaming, loving sleep.

11 Yes, the dogs are for ever looking for food; while these,
the keepers of the sheep, are without wisdom: they have all
gone after their pleasure, every one looking for profit; they
are all the same.

12 Come, they say, I will get wine, and we will take strong
drink in full measure; and tomorrow will be like today, full
of pleasure.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 57

1 The upright man goes to his death, and no one gives a
thought to it; and god-fearing men are taken away, and no
one is troubled by it; for the upright man is taken away
because of evil-doing, and goes into peace.

2 They are at rest in their last resting-places, every one
going straight before him.

3 But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret arts,
the seed of her who is false to her husband, and of the loose
woman.

4 Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your
mouth open wide and your tongue put out? are you not
uncontrolled children, a false seed,

5 You who are burning with evil desire among the oaks,
under every green tree; putting children to death in the
valleys, under the cracks of the rocks?

6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your heritage;
they, even they, are your part: even to them have you made a
drink offering and a meal offering. Is it possible for such
things to be overlooked by me?

7 You have put your bed on a high mountain: there you
went up to make your offering.

8 And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you have
put your sign: for you have been false to me with another;
you have made your bed wide, and made an agreement with
them; you had a desire for their bed where you saw it

9 And you went to Melech with oil and much perfume, and
you sent your representatives far off, and went as low as the
underworld.

10 You were tired with your long journeys; but you did not
say, There is no hope: you got new strength, and so you were
not feeble.

11 And of whom were you in fear, so that you were false,
and did not keep me in mind, or give thought to it? Have I
not been quiet, keeping myself secret, and so you were not in
fear of me?

12 I will make clear what your righteousness is like and
your works; you will have no profit in them.

13 Your false gods will not keep you safe in answer to your
cry; but the wind will take them, they will be gone like a
breath: but he who puts his hope in me will take the land,
and will have my holy mountain as his heritage.

14 And I will say, Make it high, make it high, get ready the
way, take the stones out of the way of my people.

15 For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up,
whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my
resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who
is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the
poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.

16 For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry
without end: for from me breath goes out; and I it was who
made the souls.

17 I was quickly angry with his evil ways, and sent
punishment on him, veiling my face in wrath: and he went on,
turning his heart from me.

18 I have seen his ways, and I will make him well: I will give
him rest, comforting him and his people who are sad.

19 I will give the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who
is near and to him who is far off, says the Lord; and I will
make him well.

20 But the evil-doers are like the troubled sea, for which
there is no rest, and its waters send up earth and waste.

21 There is no peace, says my God, for the evil-doers.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 58

1 Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be
sounding like a horn, and make clear to my people their evil
doings, and to the family of Jacob their sins.

2 Though they make prayer to me every day, and take
pleasure in the knowledge of my ways: like a nation which
has done righteousness, and has not given up the rules of
their God, they make requests to me for the right orders, it is
their delight to come near to God.

3 They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you
do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and
you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from
food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in
your debts;

4 If keeping from food makes you quickly angry, ready for
fighting and giving blows with evil hands; your holy days are
not such as to make your voice come to my ears on high.

5 Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for
keeping yourselves from pleasure? is it only a question of the
bent head, of putting on haircloth, and being seated in the
dust? is this what seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to
the Lord?

6 Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to
let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free,
and every yoke be broken?

7 Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the
poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put
a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to
keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh?

8 Then will light be shining on you like the morning, and
your wounds will quickly be well: and your righteousness
will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will come after
you.

9 Then at the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an
answer; at your cry he will say, Here am I. If you take away
from among you the yoke, the putting out of the finger of
shame, and the evil word;

10 And if you give your bread to those in need of it, so that
the troubled one may have his desire; then you will have light
in the dark, and your night will be as the full light of the sun:

11 And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry
places he will give you water in full measure, and will make
strong your bones; and you will be like a watered garden,
and like an ever-flowing spring.

12 And your sons will be building again the old waste
places: you will make strong the bases of old generations:
and you will be named, He who puts up the broken walls,
and, He who makes ready the ways for use.

13 If you keep the Sabbath with care, not doing your
business on my holy day; and if the Sabbath seems to you a
delight, and the new moon of the Lord a thing to be
honoured; and if you give respect to him by not doing your
business, or going after your pleasure, or saying unholy
words;

14 Then the Lord will be your delight; and I will put you
on the high places of the earth; and I will give you the
heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the Lord has
said it.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 59

1 Truly, the Lord's hand has not become short, so that he is
unable to give salvation; and his ear is not shut from hearing:

2 But your sins have come between you and your God, and
by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that
he will give you no answer.

3 For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers
with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue
gives out deceit.

4 No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true
decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false;
they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil.

5 They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's threads:

whoever takes their eggs for food comes to his death, and the
egg which is crushed becomes a poison-snake.

6 Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their
works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their
works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands.

7 Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the
death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin;
wasting and destruction are in their ways.

8 They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is
no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made
for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in
them has no knowledge of peace.

9 For this cause our right is far from us, and righteousness
does not overtake us: we are looking for light, but there is
only the dark; for the shining of the sun, but our way is in
the night.

10 We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall,
even like those who have no eyes: we are running against
things in daylight as ifit was evening; our place is in the dark
like dead men.

11 We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds like
doves: we are looking for our right, but it is not there; for
salvation, but it is far from us.

12 For our evil doings are increased before you, and our
sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us,
and we have knowledge of our sins:

13 We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him,
turning away from our God, our words have been
uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit.

14 And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far
away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places,
and upright behaviour may not come into the town.

15 Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil
comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and
he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.

16 And he saw that there was no man, and was surprised
that there was no one to take up their cause: so his arm gave
salvation, and he made righteousness his support.

17 Yes, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and
salvation as a head-dress; and he put on punishment as
clothing, and wrath as a robe.

18 He will give them the right reward of their doings,
wrath to his attackers, punishment to his haters, and even on
the sea-lands he will send punishment.

19 So they will see the name of the Lord from the west, and
his glory from the east: for he will come like a rushing stream,
forced on by a wind of the Lord.

20 And as a saviour he will come to Zion, turning away sin
from Jacob, says the Lord.

21 And as for me, this is my agreement with them, says the
Lord: my spirit which is on you, and my words which I have
put in your mouth, will not go away from your mouth, or
from the mouth of your seed, or from the mouth of your
seed's seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 60

1 Up! let your face be bright, for your light has come, and
the glory of the Lord is shining on you.

2 For truly, the earth will be dark, and the peoples veiled in
blackest night; but the Lord will be shining on you, and his
glory will be seen among you.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And nations will come to your light, and kings to your
bright dawn.

4 Let your eyes be lifted up, and see: they are all coming
together to you: your sons will come from far, and your
daughters taken with loving care.

5 Then you will see, and be bright with joy, and your heart
will be shaking with increase of delight: for the produce of
the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will
come to you.

6 You will be full of camel-trains, even the young camels of
Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba will come, with gold and
spices, giving word of the great acts of the Lord.

7 All the flocks of Kedar will come together to you, the
sheep of Nebaioth will be ready for your need; they will be
pleasing offerings on my altar, and my house of prayer will
be beautiful.

8 Who are these coming like a cloud, like a flight of doves
to their windows?

9 Vessels of the sea-lands are waiting for me, and the ships
of Tarshish first, so that your sons may come from far, and
their silver and gold with them, to the place of the name of
the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he
has made you beautiful.

10 And men from strange countries will be building up
your walls, and their kings will be your servants: for in my
wrath I sent punishment on you, but in my grace I have had
mercy on you.

11 Your doors will be open at all times; they will not be
shut day or night; so that men may come into you with the
wealth of the nations, with their kings at their head.

12 For the nation or kingdom which will not be your
servant will come to destruction; such nations will be
completely waste.

13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the
plane, and the sherbin-tree together, to make my holy place

beautiful; and the resting-place of my feet will be full of glory.

14 And the sons of those who were cruel to you will come
before you with bent heads; and those who made sport of you
will go down on their faces at your feet; and you will be
named, The Town of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of
Israel.

15 And though you were turned away from, and hated, and
had no helper, I will make you a pride for ever, a joy from
generation to generation.

16 And you will take the milk of the nations, flowing from
the breast of kings; and you will see that I, the Lord, am your
saviour, and he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of
Jacob.

17 In place of brass, I will give gold, and for iron silver,
and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make
Peace your judge, and Righteousness your overseer.

18 Violent acts will no longer be seen in your land, wasting
or destruction in your limits; but your walls will be named,
Salvation, and your doors Praise.

19 The sun will not be your light by day, and the moon will
no longer be bright for you by night: but the Lord will be to
you an eternal light, and your God your glory.

20 Your sun will never again go down, or your moon keep
back her light: for the Lord will be your eternal light, and
the days of your sorrow will be ended.

21 Your people will all be upright, the land will be their
heritage for ever; the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands, to be for my glory.

22 The smallest of their families will become a thousand,
and a small one a strong nation: I, the Lord, will make it
come quickly in its time.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 61

| The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out
by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make
the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be
made free, and that those in chains will see the light again;

2 To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good
pleasure has come, and the day of punishment from our God;
to give comfort to all who are sad;

3 To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the oil of
joy in place of the clothing of grief, praise in place of sorrow;
so that they may be named trees of righteousness, the
planting of the Lord, and so that he may have glory.

4 And they will be building again the old broken walls, and
will make new the old waste places, and will put up again the
towns which have been waste for long generations.

5 And men from strange countries will be your herdsmen,
and those who are not Israelites will be your ploughmen and
vine-keepers.

6 But you will be named the priests of the Lord, the
servants of our God: you will have the wealth of the nations
for your food, and you will be clothed with their glory.

7 As they had twice as much grief, and marks of shame were
their heritage, so in their land they will be rewarded twice
over, and will have eternal joy.

8 For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I will
not put up with the violent taking away of right; and I will
certainly give them their reward, and I will make an eternal
agreement with them.

9 And their seed will be noted among the nations, and their
offspring among the peoples: it will be clear to all who see
them that they are the seed to which the Lord has given his
blessing.

10 I will be full of joy in the Lord, my soul will be glad in
my God; for he has put on me the clothing of salvation,
covering me with the robe of righteousness, as the husband
puts on a fair head-dress, and the bride makes herself
beautiful with jewels.

11 For as the earth puts out buds, and as the garden gives
growth to the seeds which are planted in it, so the Lord will
make righteousness and praise to be flowering before all the
nations.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ISAIAH CHAPTER 62

1 Because of Zion I will not keep quiet, and because of
Jerusalem I will take no rest, till her righteousness goes out
like the shining of the sun, and her salvation like a burning
light.

2 And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings
your glory: and you will have a new name, given by the
mouth of the Lord.

3 And you will be a fair crown in the hand of the Lord, and
a king's head-dress in the hand of your God.

4 You will not now be named, She who is given up; and
your land will no longer be named, The waste land: but you
will have the name, My pleasure is in her, and your land will
be named, Married: for the Lord has pleasure in you, and
your land will be married.

5 For as a young man takes a virgin for his wife, so will
your maker be married to you: and as a husband has joy in
his bride, so will the Lord your God be glad over you.

6 I have put watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they
will not keep quiet day or night: you who are the Lord's
recorders, take no rest,

7 And give him no rest, till he puts Jerusalem in her place to
be praised in the earth.

8 The Lord has taken an oath by his right hand, and by the
arm of his strength, Truly, I will no longer give your grain
to be food for your haters; and men of strange countries will
not take the wine for which your work has been done:

9 But those who have got in the grain will have it for their
food, and will give praise to the Lord; and those who have
got in the grapes will take the wine of them in the open
places of my holy house.

10 Go through, go through the doors; make ready the way
of the people; let the highway be lifted up; let the stones be
taken away; let a flag be lifted up over the peoples.

11 The Lord has sent out word to the end of the earth, Say
to the daughter of Zion, See, your saviour comes; those
whom he has made free are with him, and those to whom he
has given salvation go before him.

12 And they will be named, The holy people, Those whose
cause has been taken up by the Lord: and you will be named,
Desired, A town not given up.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 63

1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with blood-red robes
from Bozrah? he whose clothing 1s fair, stepping with pride
in his great strength? I whose glory is in the right, strong for
salvation.

2 Why is your clothing red, and why are your robes like
those of one who is crushing the grapes?

3 I have been crushing the grapes by myself, and of the
peoples there was no man with me: in my wrath and in my
passion, they were crushed under my feet; and my robes are
marked with their life-blood, and all my clothing is red.

4 For the day of punishment is in my heart, and the year for
the payment of the price for my people has come.

5 And I saw that there was no helper, and I was wondering
that no one gave them support: so my arm did the work of
salvation, and my wrath was my support.

6 And in my passion the peoples were crushed under my feet,
and broken in my wrath, and I put down their strength to
the earth.

71 will give news of the mercies of the Lord, and his great
acts, even all the things the Lord has done for us, in his great
grace to the house of Israel; even all he has done for us in his
unnumbered mercies.

8 For he said, Truly they are my people, children who will
not be false: so he was their saviour out of all their trouble.

9 It was no sent one or angel, but he himself who was their
saviour: in his love and in his pity he took up their cause, and
he took them in his arms, caring for them all through the
years.

10 But they went against him, causing grief to his holy
spirit: so he was turned against them, and made war on them.

11 Then the early days came to their minds, the days of
Moses his servant: and they said, Where is he who made the
keeper of his flock come up from the sea? where is he who put
his holy spirit among them,

12 He who made the arm of his glory go at the right hand
of Moses, by whom the waters were parted before them, to
make himself an eternal name;

13 He who made them go through the deep waters, like a
horse in the waste land?

14 Like the cattle which go down into the valley, they went
without falling, the spirit of the Lord guiding them: so you
went before your people, to make yourself a great name.

15 Let your eyes be looking down from heaven, from your
holy and beautiful house: where is your deep feeling, the
working of your power? do not keep back the moving of
your pity and your mercies:

16 For you are our father, though Abraham has no
knowledge of us, and Israel gives no thought to us: you, O
Lord, are our father; from the earliest days you have taken
up our cause.

17 O Lord, why do you send us wandering from your ways,
making our hearts hard, so that we have no fear of you?
Come back, because of your servants, the tribes of your
heritage.

18 Why have evil men gone over your holy place, so that it
has been crushed under the feet of our haters?

19 We have become as those who were never ruled by you,
on whom your name was not named.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 64

1 O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that
the mountains may be shaking before you,

2 As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when
water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name
feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking
before you;

3 While you do acts of power for which we are not looking,
and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen any God but
you, working for the man who is waiting for him.

5 Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in
doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your
ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and
sinning against you in the past.

6 For we have all become like an unclean person, and all
our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become
old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.

7 And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or
who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from
us, and you have given us into the power of our sins.

8 But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth,
and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.

9 Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in
mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your
people.

10 Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become
a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.

11 Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave
praise to you, is burned with fire; and all the things of our
desire have come to destruction.

12 In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord?
will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment?

ISAIAH CHAPTER 65

1 I have been ready to give an answer to those who did not
make prayer to me; I have been offering myself to those who
were not searching for me; I said, Here am I, here am I, to a
nation which gave no respect to my name.

2 All day my hands have been stretched out to an
uncontrolled people, who go in an evil way, after the
purposes of their hearts;

3 A people who make me angry every day, making offerings
in gardens, and burning perfumes on bricks.

4 Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and by
night are in the secret places; who take pig's flesh for food,
and have the liquid of disgusting things in their vessels.

5 Who say, Keep away, do not come near me, for fear that I
make you holy: these are a smoke in my nose, a fire burning
all day.

6 See, it is recorded before me, says the Lord: I will not
keep back my hand, till I have sent punishment,

7 For their sins and the sins of their fathers, who were
burning perfumes on the mountains, and saying evil things
against me on the hills: so I will take the measure of their sins,
and will send the punishment for them into their breast.

8 This is the word of the Lord: As the new wine is seen in
the grapes, and they say, Do not send destruction on it, for a
blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants, in order that I
may not put an end to them all.

9 And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one
who will have my mountains for a heritage: and the people I
have taken to be mine will have it for themselves, and my
servants will have their resting-place there.

10 And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and the
valley of Achor a resting-place for the herds: for my people
whose hearts have been turned back to me.

11 But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no
care for my holy mountain, who get ready a table for Chance,
and make offerings of mixed wine to Fate;

12 Your fate will be the sword, and you will all go down to
death: because when my voice came to you, you made no
answer; you did not give ear to my word; but you did what
was evil in my eyes, desiring what was not pleasing to me.

13 For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will have
food, but you will be in need of food: my servants will have
drink, but you will be dry: my servants will have joy, but you
will be shamed:

14 My servants will make songs in the joy of their hearts,
but you will be crying for sorrow, and making sounds of
grief from a broken spirit.

15 And your name will become a curse to my people, and
the Lord God will put you to death, and give his servants
another name:

16 So that he who is requesting a blessing will make use of
the name of the true God, and he who takes an oath will do
so by the true God; because the past troubles are gone out of
mind, and because they are covered from my eyes.

17 For see, | am making a new heaven and a new earth: and
the past things will be gone completely out of mind.

18 But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am
making; for Iam making Jerusalem a delight, and her people
a joy.

19 And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my
people: and the voice of weeping will no longer be sounding
in her, or the voice of grief.

20 No longer will there be there a child whose days are cut
short, or an old man whose days have not come to their full
measure: for the young man at his death will be a hundred
years old, and he whose life is shorter than a hundred years
will seem as one cursed.

21 And they will be building houses and living in them;
planting vine-gardens and getting the fruit of them.

22 They will no longer be building for the use of others, or
planting for others to have the fruit: for the days of my
people will be like the days of a tree, and my loved ones will
have joy in full measure in the work of their hands.

23 Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not
give birth to children for destruction; for they are a seed to
whom the Lord has given his blessing, and their offspring
will be with them.

24 And before they make their request I will give an answer,
and while they are still making prayer to me, I will give ear.

25 The wolf and the lamb will take their food together, and
the lion will make a meal of grass like the ox: but dust will be
the snake's food. There will be no cause of pain or
destruction in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ISAIAH CHAPTER 66

1 The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth
is the resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you
make for me, and what place will be my resting-place?

2 For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine,
says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to
him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word.

3 He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who
makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who
makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he
who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship
to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their
soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things;

4So I will go after trouble for them, and will send on them
what they are fearing: because no one made answer to my
voice, or gave ear to my word; but they did what was evil in
my eyes, going after that in which I took no pleasure.

5 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you who are in fear at
his word: your countrymen, hating you, and driving you out
because of my name, have said, Let the Lord's glory be made
clear, so that we may see your joy; but they will be put to
shame.

6 There is a noise of war from the town, a sound from the
Temple, the voice of the Lord giving punishment to his
haters.

7 Before her pains came, she gave birth; before her pains,
she gave birth to a man-child.

8 When has such a story come to men's ears? who has seen
such things? will a land come to birth in one day? will a
nation be given birth in a minute? For when Zion's pains
came on her, she gave birth to her children straight away.

9 Will I by whom the birth was started, not make it
complete? says the Lord. Will I who make children come to
birth, let them be kept back? says your God.

10 Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you
her lovers: take part in her joy, all you who are sorrowing
for her:

11 So that you may take of the comfort flowing from her
breasts, and be delighted with the full measure of her glory.

12 For the Lord says, See, I will make her peace like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and
she will take her children in her arms, gently caring for them
on her knees.

13 As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I give
you comfort: and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.

14 And you will see it and your heart will be glad, and your
bones will get new strength, like young grass: and the hand
of the Lord will be seen at work for his servants, and his
wrath against his haters.

15 For the Lord is coming with fire, and his war-carriages
will be like the storm-wind; to give punishment in the heat of
his wrath, and his passion is like flames of fire.

16 For with fire and sword will the Lord come, judging all
the earth, and his sword will be on all flesh: and great
numbers will be put to death by him.

17 As for those who keep themselves separate, and make
themselves clean in the gardens, going after one in the middle,
taking pig's flesh for food, and other disgusting things, such
as the mouse: their works and their thoughts will come to an
end together, says the Lord.

18 And Iam coming to get together all nations and tongues:
and they will come and will see my glory.

19 And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those
who are still living to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud,
Meshech and Rosh, Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far
away, who have not had word of me, or seen my glory; and
they will give the knowledge of my glory to the nations.

20 And they will take your countrymen out of all the
nations for an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in
carriages, and in carts, and on asses, and on camels, to my
holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of
Israel take their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the
Lord.

21 And some of them will I take for priests and Levites, says
the Lord.

22 For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will
make will be for ever before me, says the Lord, so will your
seed and your name be for ever.

23 And it will be, that from new moon to new moon, and
from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to give worship
before me, says the Lord.

24 And they will go out to see the dead bodies of the men
who have done evil against me: for their worm will ever be
living, and their fire will never be put out, and they will be a
thing of fear to all flesh.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH

Hebrew title: Sefer Yirmeyahu
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 7th—6th century B.C.

(The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah (Hebrew: Sefer
Yirmayahu), 1s part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism's Tanakh,
and later became a part of Christianity’s Old Testament.
Jeremiah Chapter 1, verses 1 to 3 says that the book is "the
words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah". Jeremiah is seen as a real
person, talking to his scribe Baruch about hus role as a
servant of God who had bad news for the people. His book is
a message to the Jews in exile in Babylon, saying that the
disaster of exile 1s God's response to Israel's pagan worship.

Jeremiah began began his work in the thirteenth year of
king Jostah (about 627 BC) and finished in the eleventh year
of king Zedekiah (586 BC), when Jerusalem went into exile.
During this period, Josiah reformed their religion, Babylon
destroyed Assyria and Egypt briefly made Judah their subject.
Then Babylon defeated Egypt and made Judah their subject
(605 BC). Judah revolted several times and after the final
time, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple and took
away Its king and many of the leading people in 586 BC.

It is generally agreed that the three types of material
interspersed through the book — poetic, narrative, and
biographical — come from different sources or circles.
Authentic oracles of Jeremiah are probably to be found in the
poetic sections of chapters 1—25, but the book as a whole has
been heavily edited and added to by followers (including
perhaps the prophet's companion, the scribe Baruch) and
later generations of Deuteronomists. The date of the final
versions of the book (Greek and Hebrew) can be suggested by
the fact that the Greek shows concerns typical of the early
Persian period, while the Masoretic (i.e., Hebrew) shows
perspectives which, although known in the Persian period,
did not reach thetr realisation until the 2nd century BC.

Jeremiah exists in two versions, a Greek translation, called
the Septuagint, dating from the last few centuries before
Christ and found in the earliest Christian manuscripts, and
the Masoretic Hebrew text of traditional Jewish bibles — the
Greek version is shorter than the Hebrew by about one
eighth, and arranges the material differently. Equivalents of
both versions were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, so
that 1s clear that the differences mark important stages in the
transnussion of the text. Most scholars hold that the Hebrew
text underlying the Septuagint version is older than the
Masoretic text, and that the Masoretic evolved either from
this or from a closely related version. The shorter version
ultimately became canonical in Greek Orthodox churches,
while the longer was adopted in Judaism and in Western
Christian churches.)

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 1

1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests
who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

2 To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah,
the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his
rule.

3 And it came again in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of
Josiah, king of Judah, up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah,
the son of Josiah, king of Judah; till Jerusalem was taken
away in the fifth month.

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5 Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had
knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I
have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations.

6 Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words,
for lama child.

7 But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for
wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you
orders to say, you are to say.

8 Have no fear because of them: for I am with you, to keep
you safe, says the Lord.

9 Then the Lord put out his hand, touching my mouth; and
the Lord said to me, See, I have put my words in your mouth:

10 See, this day I have put you over the nations and over
the kingdoms, for uprooting and smashing down, for
destruction and overturning, for building up and planting.

11 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an
almond-tree.

12 Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep
watch over my word to give effect to it.

13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time,
saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and
its face is from the north.

14 Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north evil will
come, bursting out on all the people of the land.

15 For see, I will send for all the families of the kingdoms of
the north, says the Lord; and they will come, everyone
placing his high seat at the way into Jerusalem, and against
its walls on every side, and against all the towns of Judah.

16 And I will give my decision against them on account of
all their evil-doing; because they have given me up, burning
perfumes to other gods and worshipping the works of their
hands.

17 So make yourself ready, and go and say to them
everything I give you orders to say: do not be overcome by
fear of them, or I will send fear on you before them.

18 For see, this day have I made you a walled town, and an
iron pillar, and walls of brass, against all the land, against
the kings of Judah, against its captains, against its priests,
and against the people of the land.

19 They will be fighting against you, but they will not
overcome you: for I am with you, says the Lord, to give you
salvation.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 2

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, J still
keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young,
and your love when you became my bride; how you went
after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land.

3 Israel was holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase:
all who made attacks on him were judged as wrongdoers, evil
came on them, says the Lord.

4 Give ear to the words of the Lord, O sons of Jacob and all
the families of Israel:

5 These are the words of the Lord: What evil have your
fathers seen in me that they have gone far from me, and,
walking after what is false, have become false?

6 And they never said, Where is the Lord, who took us up
out of the land of Egypt; who was our guide through the
waste of sand, through an unplanted land full of deep holes,
through a dry land of deep shade, which no one went
through and where no man was living?

7 And I took you into a fertile land, where you were living
on its fruit and its wealth; but when you came in, you made
my land unclean, and made my heritage a disgusting thing.

8 The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who
were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the
rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets
of the Baal, going after things without value.

9 For this reason, I will again put forward my cause against
you, says the Lord, even against you and against your
children's children.

10 For go over to the sea-lands of Kittim and see; send to
Kedar and give deep thought to it; and see if there has ever
been such a thing.

11 Has any nation ever made a change in their gods, though
they are no gods? but my people have given up their glory in
exchange for what is of no profit.

12 Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with
fear, be completely waste, says the Lord.

13 For my people have done two evils; they have given up
me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for
themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-
holes, of no use for storing water.

14 Is Israel a servant? has he been a house-servant from
birth? why has he been made waste?

15 The young lions have made an outcry against him with a
loud voice: they have made his land waste; his towns are
burned up, with no one living in them.

16 Even the children of Noph and Tahpanhes have put
shame on you.

17 Has not this come on you because you have given up the
Lord your God, who was your guide by the way?

18 And now, what have you to do on the way to Egypt, to
get your drink from the waters of the Nile? or what have you
to do on the way to Assyria, to get your drink from the
waters of the River?

19 The evil you yourselves have done will be your
punishment, your errors will be your judge: be certain then,

and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing to give up the
Lord your God, and no longer to be moved by fear of me,
says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

20 For in the past, your yoke was broken by your hands
and your cords parted; and you said, I will not be your
servant; for on every high hill and under every branching
tree, your behaviour was like that of a loose woman

21 But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine,
in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed
into the branching plant of a strange vine?

22 For even if you are washed with soda and take much
soap, still your evil-doing is marked before me, says the Lord
God.

23 How are you able to say, I am not unclean, I have not
gone after the Baals? see your way in the valley, be clear
about what you have done: you are a quick-footed camel
twisting her way in and out;

24 An untrained ass, used to the waste land, breathing up
the wind in her desire; at her time, who is able to send her
away? all those who are looking for her will have no need to
make themselves tired; in her month they will get her.

25 Do not let your foot be without shoes, or your throat
dry from need of water: but you said, There is no hope: no,
for I have been a lover of strange gods, and after them I will
go.
26 As the thief is shamed when he is taken, so is Israel
shamed; they, their kings and their rulers, their priests and
their prophets;

27 Who say to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone,
You have given me life: for their backs have been turned to
me, not their faces: but in the time of their trouble they will
say, Up! and be our saviour.

28 But where are the gods you have made for yourselves? let
them come, if they are able to give you salvation in the time
of your trouble: for the number of your gods is as the number
of your towns, O Judah.

29 Why will you put forward your cause against me? You
have all done evil against me, says the Lord.

30 I gave your children blows to no purpose; they got no
good from training: your sword has been the destruction of
your prophets, like a death-giving lion.

31 O generation, see the word of the Lord. Have I been a
waste land to Israel? or a land of dark night? why do my
people say, We have got loose, we will not come to you again?

32 Is it possible for a virgin to put out of her memory her
ornaments, or a bride her robes? but my people have put me
out of their memories for unnumbered days.

33 With what care are your ways ordered when you are
looking for love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked
women your ways.

34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found
in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is
because of all these things.

35 And still you said, I have done no wrong; truly, his
wrath is turned away from me. See, I will take up the cause
against you, because you say, I have done no wrong.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

36 Why do you go about so much for the purpose of
changing your way? you will be shamed on account of Egypt,
as you were shamed on account of Assyria.

37 Truly, you will go out from him with your hands on
your head: for the Lord has given up those in whom you have
put your faith, and they will be of no help to you.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 3

1 They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from
him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again?
will not that land have been made unclean? but though you
have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers,
will you now come back to me? says the Lord.

2 Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see;
where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have
been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian
in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your
loose ways and your evil-doing.

3 So the showers have been kept back, and there has been
no spring rain; still your brow is the brow ofa loose woman,
you will not let yourself be shamed.

4 Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me,
crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years?

5 Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the
end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have
had your way.

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king,
Have you seen what Israel, turning away from me, has done?
She has gone up on every high mountain and under every
branching tree, acting like a loose woman there.

7 And I said, After she has done all these things she will
come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah
saw it.

8 And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away
from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and
given her a statement in writing ending the relation between
us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did
the same.

9 So that through all her loose behaviour the land became
unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and
trees.

10 But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back
to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord.

11 And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is
seen to be more upright than false Judah.

12 Go, and give out these words to the north, and say,
Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away
from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in
wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be
angry for ever.

13 Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done
against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men
under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice,
says the Lord.

14 Come back, O children who are turned away, says the
Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one

from a town and two from a family, and will make you come
to Zion;

15 And I will give you keepers, pleasing to my heart, who
will give you your food with knowledge and wisdom.

16 And it will come about, when your numbers are
increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, that they
will no longer say, The ark of the agreement of the Lord: it
will not come into their minds, they will not have any
memory of it, or be conscious of the loss of it, and it will not
be made again.

17 At that time Jerusalem will be named the seat of the
Lord's kingdom; and all the nations will come together to it,
to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: and no longer will
their steps be guided by the purposes of their evil hearts.

18 In those days the family of Judah will go with the family
of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the
north into the land which I gave for a heritage to your
fathers.

19 But I said, How am I to put you among the children, and
give you a desired land, a heritage of glory among the armies
of the nations? and I said, You are to say to me, My father;
and not be turned away from me.

20 Truly, as a wife is false to her husband, so have you been
false to me, O Israel, says the Lord.

21 A voice is sounding on the open hilltops, the weeping
and the prayers of the children of Israel; because their way is
twisted, they have not kept the Lord their God in mind.

22 Come back, you children who have been turned away,
and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have
come to you, for you are the Lord our God.

23 Truly, the hills, and the noise of an army on the
mountains, are a false hope: truly, in the Lord our God is the
salvation of Israel.

24 But the Baal has taken all the work of our fathers from
our earliest days; their flocks and their herds, their sons and
their daughters.

25 Let us be stretched on the earth in our downfall,
covering ourselves with our shame: for we have been sinners
against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our
earliest years even till this day: and we have not given ear to
the voice of the Lord our God.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 4

1 If you will come back, O Israel, says the Lord, you will
come back to me: and if you will put away your disgusting
ways, you will not be sent away from before me.

2 And you will take your oath, By the living Lord, in good
faith and wisdom and righteousness; and the nations will
make use of you as a blessing, and in you will they take a
pride.

3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to
Jerusalem: Get your unworked land ploughed up, do not put
in your seeds among thorns.

4 Undergo a circumcision of the heart, you men of Judah
and people of Jerusalem: or my wrath may come out like fire,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

burning so that no one is able to put it out, because of the
evil of your doings.

5 Say openly in Judah, give it out in Jerusalem, and say, Let
the horn be sounded in the land: crying out in a loud voice,
Come together, and let us go into the walled towns.

6 Put up a flag for a sign to Zion: go in flight so that you
may be safe, waiting no longer: for I will send evil from the
north, and a great destruction.

7 A lion has gone up from his secret place in the woods, and
one who makes waste the nations is on his way; he has gone
out from his place, to make your land unpeopled, so that
your towns will be made waste, with no man living in them.

8 For this put on haircloth, with weeping and loud crying:

for the burning wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us.

9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that
the heart of the king will be dead in him, and the hearts of
the rulers; and the priests will be overcome with fear, and the
prophets with wonder.

10 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! your words were not true
when you said to this people and to Jerusalem, You will have
peace; when the sword has come even to the soul.

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to
Jerusalem, A burning wind from the open hilltops in the
waste land is blowing on the daughter of my people, not for
separating or cleaning the grain;

12 A full wind will come for me: and now I will give my
decision against them.

13 See, he will come up like the clouds, and his war-
carriages like the storm-wind: his horses are quicker than
eagles. Sorrow is ours, for destruction has come on us.

14 O Jerusalem, make your heart clean from evil, so that
you may have salvation. How long are evil purposes to have a
resting-place in you?

15 For a voice is sounding from Dan, giving out evil from
the hills of Ephraim:

16 Make this come to the minds of the nations, make a
statement openly against Jerusalem, that attackers are
coming from a far country and their voices will be loud
against the towns of Judah.

17 Like keepers of a field they are against her on every side;
because she has been fighting against me, says the Lord.

18 Your ways and your doings have made these things come
on you; this is your sin; truly it is bitter, going deep into
your heart.

19 My soul, my soul! I am pained to my inmost heart; my
heart is troubled in me; I am not able to be quiet, because the
sound of the horn, the note of war, has come to my ears.

20 News is given of destruction on destruction; all the land
is made waste: suddenly my tents, straight away my curtains,
are made waste.

21 How long will I go on seeing the flag and hearing the
sound of the war-horn?

22 For my people are foolish, they have no knowledge of
me; they are evil-minded children, without sense, all of them:
they are wise in evil-doing, but have no knowledge of doing
good.

23 Looking at the earth, I saw that it was waste and
without form; and to the heavens, that they had no light.

24 Looking at the mountains, I saw them shaking, and all
the hills were moved about.

25 Looking, I saw that there was no man, and all the birds
of heaven had gone in flight.

26 Looking, I saw that the fertile field was a waste, and all
its towns were broken down before the Lord and before his
burning wrath.

27 For this is what the Lord has said: All the land will
become a waste; I will make destruction complete.

28 The earth will be weeping for this, and the heavens on
high will be black: because I have said it, and I will not go
back from it; it is my purpose, and it will not be changed.

29 All the land is in flight because of the noise of the
horsemen and the bowmen; they have taken cover in the
woodland and up on the rocks: every town has been given up,
not a man is living in them.

30 And you, when you are made waste, what will you do?
Though you are clothed in red, though you make yourself
beautiful with ornaments of gold, though you make your
eyes wide with paint, it is for nothing that you make yourself
fair; your lovers have no more desire for you, they have
designs on your life.

31 A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in
birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child,
the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath,
stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my
strength is gone from me before the takers of life.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 5

1 Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now,
and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if
there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who
keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness.

2 And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their
oaths are false.

3 O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given
them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent
destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to
heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they
would not come back.

4 Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for
they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the
behaviour desired by their God.

5 I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for
they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the
behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one
purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands.

6 And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a
wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will
keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from
them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number
of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.

7 How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this?
your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure,
they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the
houses of loose women.

8 They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain:
everyone went after his neighbour's wife.

9 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the
Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as
this?

10 Go up against her vines and make waste; let the
destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are
not the Lord's.

11 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have
been very false to me, says the Lord.

12 They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying,
He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not
see the sword or be short of food:

13 And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not
in them; so it will be done to them.

14 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said:
Because you have said this, I will make my words in your
mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they will be burned
up by it.

15 See, I will send you a nation from far away, O people of
Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old nation, a
nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not
get the sense of their words.

16 Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war.

17 They will take all the produce of your fields, which
would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they
will take your flocks and your herds: they will take all your
vines and your fig-trees: and with the sword they will make
waste your walled towns in which you put your faith.

18 But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your
destruction be complete.

19 And it will come about, when you say, Why has the Lord
our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them,
As you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange
gods in your land, so will you be servants to strange men in a
land which is not yours.

20 Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying,

21 Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense;
who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of
hearing:

22 Have you no fear of me? says the Lord; will you not be
shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as a limit
for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it?
and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way;
though the sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go
past it.

23 But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned
away from me; they are broken loose and gone.

24 And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us give
worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the
spring rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered
weeks of the grain-cutting.

25 Through your evil-doing these things have been turned
away, and your sins have kept back good from you.

26 For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch,
like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.

27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full
of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got
wealth.

28 They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in
works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child
without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see
that the poor man gets his rights.

29 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the
Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as
this?

30 A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;

31 The prophets give false words and the priests give
decisions by their direction; and my people are glad to have
it so: and what will you do in the end?

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 6

1 Go in flight out of Jerusalem, so that you may be safe, you
children of Benjamin, and let the horn be sounded in Tekoa,
and the flag be lifted up on Beth-haccherem: for evil is
looking out from the north, and a great destruction.

2 The fair and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will be
cut off by my hand.

3 Keepers of sheep with their flocks will come to her; they
will put up their tents round her; everyone will get food in
his place.

4 Make war ready against her; up! let us go up when the sun
is high. Sorrow is ours! for the day is turned and the shades
of evening are stretched out.

5 Up! let us go up by night, and send destruction on her
great houses.

6 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: Let trees be
cut down and an earthwork be placed against Jerusalem:
sorrow on the false town! inside her there is nothing but
cruel ways.

7 As the spring keeps its waters cold, so she keeps her evil in
her: the sound of cruel and violent behaviour is in her; before
me at all times are disease and wounds.

8 Undergo teaching, O Jerusalem, or my soul will be turned
away from you, and I will make you a waste, an unpeopled
land.

9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Everything will
be taken from the rest of Israel as the last grapes are taken
from the vine; let your hand be turned to the small branches,
like one pulling off grapes.

10 To whom am I to give word, witnessing so that they may
take note? see, their ears are stopped, and they are not able to
give attention: see, the word of the Lord has been a cause of
shame to them, they have no delight in it.

11 For this reason I am full of the wrath of the Lord, I am
tired of keeping it in: may it be let loose on the children in
the street, and on the band of the young men together: for

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

even the husband with his wife will be taken, the old man
with him who is full of days.

12 And their houses will be handed over to others, their
fields and their wives together: for my hand will be stretched
out against the people of the land, says the Lord.

13 For from the least of them even to the greatest, everyone
is given up to getting money; from the prophet even to the
priest, everyone is working deceit.

14 And they have made little of the wounds of my people,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

15 Let them be put to shame because they have done
disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to
become red with shame: so they will come down with those
who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they
will be made low, says the Lord.

16 This is what the Lord has said: Take your place looking
out on the ways; make search for the old roads, saying,
Where is the good way? and go in it that you may have rest
for your souls. But they said, We will not go in it.

17 And I put watchmen over you, saying, Give attention to
the sound of the horn; but they said, We will not give
attention.

18 So then, give ear, you nations, and know, congregation,
what is among them.

19 Give ear, O earth: see, I will make evil come on this
people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have
not given attention to my words, and they would have
nothing to do with my law.

20 To what purpose does sweet perfume come to me from
Sheba, and spices from a far country? your burned offerings
give me no pleasure, your offerings of beasts are not pleasing
to me.

21 For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will put stones
in the way of this people: and the fathers and the sons
together will go falling over them; the neighbour and his
friend will come to destruction.

22 The Lord has said, See, a people is coming from the
north country, a great nation will be put in motion from the
inmost parts of the earth.

23 Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and
have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and
they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the
fight, against you, O daughter of Zion.

24 The news of it has come to our ears; our hands have
become feeble: trouble has come on us and pain, like the pain
of a woman in childbirth.

25 Go not out into the field or by the way; for there is the
sword of the attacker, and fear on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, put on haircloth, rolling
yourself in the dust: give yourself to sorrow, as for an only
son, with most bitter cries of grief; for he who makes waste
will come on us suddenly.

27 [have made you a tester among my people, so that you
may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test.

28 All of them are turned away, going about with false
stories; they are brass and iron: they are all workers of deceit.

29 The blower is blowing strongly, the lead is burned away
in the fire: they go on heating the metal to no purpose, for
the evil-doers are not taken away.

30 They will be named waste silver, because the Lord has
given them up.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 7

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Take your place in the doorway of the Lord's house, and
give out this word there, and say, Give ear to the word of the
Lord, all you of Judah who come inside these doors to give
worship to the Lord.

3 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says, Let your ways
and your doings be changed for the better and I will let you
go on living in this place.

4 Put no faith in false words, saying, The Temple of the
Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are
these.

5 For if your ways and your doings are truly changed for
the better; if you truly give right decisions between a man
and his neighbour;

6 If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country,
and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do
not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other
gods, causing damage to yourselves:

7 Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land
which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever.

8 See, you put your faith in false words which are of no
profit.

9 Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and
be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have
perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which
are strange to you;

10 And come and take your place before me in this house,
which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe;
so that you may do all these disgusting things?

11 Has this house, which is named by my name, become a
hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the
Lord.

12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I
put my name at first, and see what I did to it because of the
evil-doing of my people Israel.

13 And now, because you have done all these works, says
the Lord, and I sent my word to you, getting up early and
sending, but you did not give ear; and my voice came to you,
but you gave no answer:

14 For this reason I will do to the house which is named by
my name, and in which you have put your faith, and to the
place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done
to Shiloh.

15 And I will send you away from before my face, as I have
sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim.

16 And as for you (Jeremiah), make no prayers for this
people, send up no cry or prayer for them, make no request
for them to me: for I will not give ear.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children go for wood, the fathers get the fire
burning, the women are working the paste to make cakes for
the queen of heaven, and drink offerings are drained out to
other gods, moving me to wrath.

19 Are they moving me to wrath? says the Lord; are they
not moving themselves to their shame?

20 So this is what the Lord God has said: See, my wrath
and my passion will be let loose on this place, on man and
beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the produce of the
earth; it will be burning and will not be put out.

21 These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of
Israel: Put your burned offerings with your offerings of
beasts, and take flesh for your food.

22 For I said nothing to your fathers, and gave them no
orders, on the day when I took them out of Egypt, about
burned offerings or offerings of beasts:

23 But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to
my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people:
go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for
you.

24 But they took no note and did not give ear, but were
guided by the thoughts and the pride of their evil hearts,
going back and not forward.

25 From the day when your fathers came out of Egypt till
this day, I have sent my servants the prophets to you, getting
up early every day and sending them:

26 But still they took no note and would not give ear, but
they made their necks stiff, doing worse than their fathers.

27 And you are to say all these words to them, but they will
not give ear to you: you will send out your voice to them, but
they will give no answer.

28 And you are to say to them, This is the nation which has
not given ear to the voice of their God, or taken his teaching
to heart: good faith is dead and is cut off from their mouths.

29 Let your hair be cut off, O Jerusalem, and let it go, and
let a song of grief go up on the open hilltops; for the Lord is
turned away from the generation of his wrath and has given
them up.

30 For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my
eyes, says the Lord: they have put their disgusting images in
the house which is named by my name, making it unclean.

31 And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their
daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by
me and never came into my mind.

32 For this cause, the days are coming, says the Lord, when
it will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son
of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death: for they will put the
dead into the earth in Topheth till there is no more room.

33 And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds
of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no
one to send them away.

34 And in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem,
I will put an end to the laughing voices, the voice of joy and

the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride:
for the land will become a waste.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 8

1 At that time, says the Lord, they will take the bones of the
kings of Judah, and the bones of his rulers, and the bones of
the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of
the people of Jerusalem out of their resting-places:

2 And they will put them out before the sun and the moon
and all the stars of heaven, whose lovers and servants they
have been, after whom they have gone, to whom they have
made prayers, and to whom they have given worship: they
will not be put together or placed in the earth; they will be
waste on the face of the earth.

3 And death will be desired more than life by the rest of this
evil family who are still living in all the places where I have
sent them away, says the Lord of armies.

4 Further, you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has
said: Will those who are falling not be lifted up again? will
he who has gone away not come back?

5 Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever
turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will
not come back.

6] took note and gave ear, but no one said what is right: no
man had regret for his evil-doing, saying, What have I done?
everyone goes off on his way like a horse rushing to the fight.

7 Truly, the stork in the heavens is conscious of her fixed
times; the dove and the swallow and the crane keep to the
times of their coming; but my people have no knowledge of
the law of the Lord.

8 How is it that you say, We are wise and the law of the
Lord is with us? But see, the false pen of the scribes has made
it false.

9 The wise men are shamed, they are overcome with fear
and taken: see, they have given up the word of the Lord; and
what use is their wisdom to them?

10 So I will give their wives to others, and their fields to
those who will take them for themselves: for everyone, from
the least to the greatest, is given up to getting money; from
the priest even to the prophet, everyone is false.

11 And they have made little of the wounds of the daughter
of Zion, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Let them be put to shame because they have done
disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to
become red with shame: so they will come down with those
who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be
made low, says the Lord.

13 I will put an end to them completely, says the Lord:
there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig-tree,
and the leaf is dry.

14 Why are we seated doing nothing? come together, and
let us go to the walled towns, and let destruction overtake us
there, for the Lord our God has sent destruction on us, and
given us bitter water for our drink, because we have done evil
against the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 We were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a
time of well-being, but there is only a great fear.

16 The loud breathing of the horses comes to our ears from
Dan: at the sound of the outcry of his war-horses, all the land
is shaking with fear; for they have come, and have made a
meal of the land and everything in it; the town and the
people living in it.

17 See, I will send snakes and poison-snakes among you,
against which the wonder-worker has no power; and they
will give you wounds which may not be made well, says the
Lord.

18 Sorrow has come on me! my heart in me is feeble.

19 The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people comes
from a far land: Is the Lord not in Zion? is not her King in
her? Why have they made me angry with their images and
their strange gods which are no gods?

20 The grain-cutting is past, the summer is ended, and no
salvation has come to us.

21 For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am
broken: I am dressed in the clothing of grief; fear has taken
me in its grip.

22 Is there no life-giving oil in Gilead? is there no expert in
medical arts? why then have my people not been made well?

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 9

1 If only my head was a stream of waters and my eyes
fountains of weeping, so that I might go on weeping day and
night for the dead of the daughter of my people!

2 If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for
travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for
they are all untrue, a band of false men.

3 Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words:
they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith:
they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of
me, says the Lord.

4 Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no
faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be
tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about
saying evil.

5 Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit,
not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to
say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back.

6 There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have
given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord.

7 So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft
in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of
their evil-doing.

8 His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his
mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour,
but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him.

9 Am IJ not to send punishment for these things? says the
Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as
this?

10 Give yourselves to weeping, crying out in sorrow for the
mountains; and for the fields of the waste land send up a song
of grief, because they are burned up, so that no one goes

through; there is no sound of cattle; the bird of the heavens
and the beast are in flight and are gone.

11 And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the
living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a
waste, with no man living there.

12 Who is the wise man able to see this? who is he to whom
the word of the Lord has come, so that he may make it clear?
why is the land given to destruction and burned up like a
waste place, so that no one goes through?

13 And the Lord said, Because they have given up my law
which I put before them, giving no attention to my voice and
not being guided by it;

14 But they have been walking in the pride of their hearts,
going after the Baals, as their fathers gave them teaching.

15 So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, I will
give them, even this people, bitter plants for food and bitter
water for drink.

16 And I will send them wandering among the nations,
among people strange to them and to their fathers: and I will
send the sword after them till I have put an end to them.

17 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Take thought
and send for the weeping women, so that they may come; and
send for the wise women, so that they may come:

18 Let them quickly make cries of sorrow for us, so that
drops may be flowing from our eyes till they are streaming
with water.

19 For a sound of weeping goes up from Zion, a cry, How
has destruction come on us? we are overcome with shame
because we have gone away from our land; he has sent us out
from our house.

20 But even now, give ear to the word of the Lord, O you
women; let your ears be open to the word of his mouth,
training your daughters to give cries of sorrow, everyone
teaching her neighbour a song of grief.

21 For death has come up into our windows, forcing its
way into our great houses; cutting off the children in the
streets and the young men in the wide places.

22 The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open
fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one
will take them up.

23 This is the word of the Lord: Let not the wise man take
pride in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the
man of wealth in his wealth:

24 But if any man has pride, let it be in this, that he has the
wisdom to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord,
working mercy, giving true decisions, and doing
righteousness in the earth: for in these things I have delight,
says the Lord.

25 See, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will send
punishment on all those who have circumcision in the flesh;

26 On Egypt and on Judah and on Edom and on the
children of Ammon and on Moab and on all who have the
ends of their hair cut, who are living in the waste land: for all
these nations and all the people of Israel are without
circumcision in their hearts.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 10

1 Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O
people of Israel:

2 This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of
the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the
nations go in fear of them.

3 For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the
work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by
him out of the woods with his axe.

4 They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it
strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved.

5 It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it
has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear
of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do
any good.

6 There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your
name is great in power.

7 Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations?
for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

8 But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching
of false gods is wood.

9 Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and
gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the
hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing,
all the work of expert men.

10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an
eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear,
and the nations give way before his wrath.

11 This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have
not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the
earth and from under the heavens.

12 He has made the earth by his power, he has made the
world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise
design the heavens have been stretched out.

13 At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in
the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of
the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and
sends out the wind from his store-houses.

14 Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge;
every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made:
for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their
punishment, destruction will overtake them.

16 The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of
all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.

17 Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you
who are shut up in the walled town.

18 For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight
like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that
they will be conscious of it.

19 Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be
made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free
from it.

20 My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my
children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is

there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and
hanging up my curtains.

21 For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not
looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done
wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight.

22 News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is
coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah
may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.

23 O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself:
man has no power of guiding his steps.

24 O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in
your wrath, or you will make me small.

25 Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no
knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship
to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they
have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his
fields a waste.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 11

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Give ear to the words of this agreement, and say to the
men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem,

3 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Let that man be
cursed who does not give ear to the words of this agreement,

4 To the order which I gave your fathers on the day when I
took them out of the land of Egypt, out of the oven of iron,
saying, Give ear to my voice, and do all the orders I have
given you: so you will be my people, and I will be your God:

5 So that I may give effect to the oath which I made to your
fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as
at this day. And I said in answer, So be it, O Lord.

6 And the Lord said to me, Give out these words in the
towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Give
ear to the words of this agreement and do them.

7 For I gave certain witness to your fathers on the day when
I took them up out of the land of Egypt, and even to this day,
getting up early and witnessing and saying, Give ear to my
voice.

8 But they gave no attention and did not give ear, but they
went on, every man in the pride of his evil heart: so I sent on
them all the curses in this agreement, which I gave them
orders to keep, but they did not.

9 And the Lord said to me, There is an evil design at work
among the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem.

10 They are turned back to the sins of their fathers, who
would not give ear to my words; they have gone after other
gods and become their servants: the people of Israel and the
people of Judah have not kept the agreement which I made
with their fathers.

11 So the Lord has said, I will send evil on them, which
they will not be able to get away from; and they will send up
acry for help to me, but I will not give ear to them.

12 Then the towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem
will go crying for help to the gods to whom they have been
burning perfumes: but they will give them no salvation in the
time of their trouble.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 For the number of your gods is as the number of your
towns, O Judah; and for every street in Jerusalem you have
put up altars to the Baal for burning perfumes to the Baal.

14 And as for you, make no prayers for this people, send up
no cry or prayer for them: for I will not give ear to their cry
in the time of their trouble.

15 About Judah. What have you to do in my house? is it
your thought that oaths and holy flesh will get you out of
your trouble? will you make yourself safe in this way?

16 You had been named by the Lord, A branching olive-
tree, fair with beautiful fruit: with the noise of a great
rushing he has put it on fire and its branches are broken.

17 For the Lord of armies, by whom you were planted, has
given his decision for evil against you, because of the evil
which the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done,
In moving me to wrath by offering perfumes to the Baal.

18 And the Lord gave me knowledge of it and I saw it: then
you made clear to me their doings.

19 But I was like a gentle lamb taken to be put to death; I
had no thought that they were designing evil against me,
saying, Come and let us make trouble his food, cutting him
off from the land of the living, so that there may be no more
memory of his name.

20 But, O Lord of armies, judging in righteousness, testing
the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come
on them: for I have put my cause before you.

21 So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the
men of Anathoth who have made designs against your life,
saying, You are not to be a prophet in the name of the Lord,
or death will overtake you by our hands:

22 So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will send
punishment on them: the young men will be put to the sword;
their sons and their daughters will come to death through
need of food:

23 Not one of them will keep his life, for I will send evil on
the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 12

1 You are in the right, O Lord, when I put my cause before
you: still let me take up with you the question of your
decisions: why does the evil-doer do well? why are the
workers of deceit living in comfort?

2 They have been planted by you, they have taken root; they
go on and give fruit: you are near in their mouths but far
from their thoughts.

3 But you, O Lord, have knowledge of me; you see me,
searching and testing how my heart is with you: let them be
pulled out like sheep to be put to death, make them ready for
the day of death.

4 How long will the land have grief, and the plants of all
the land be dry? because of the sins of the people living in it,
destruction has overtaken the beasts and the birds; because
they said, God does not see our ways.

5 If running with the fighting-men has made you tired, how
will you be able to keep up with horses? and if in a land of

peace you go in flight, what will become of you in the thick
growth of Jordan?

6 For even your brothers, your father's family, even they
have been untrue to you, crying loudly after you: have no
faith in them, though they say fair words to you.

7 [have given up my house, I have let my heritage go; I have
given the loved one of my soul into the hands of her haters.

8 My heritage has become like a lion in the woodland to me;
her voice has been loud against me; so I have hate for her.

9 My heritage is like a brightly coloured bird to me; the
cruel birds are attacking her on every side: go, get together
all the beasts of the field, make them come for destruction.

10 The keepers of sheep have been the destruction of my
vine-garden, crushing my heritage under their feet; they have
made my fair heritage an unplanted waste;

11 They have made it waste; it is weeping to me, being
wasted; all the land is made waste, because no man takes it to
heart.

12 Those who make waste have come on all the open
hilltops in the waste land; for the sword of the Lord sends
destruction from one end of the land to the other end of the
land: no flesh has peace.

13 Though good grain was planted, they have got in thorns:
they have given themselves pain without profit: they will be
shamed on account of their produce, because of the burning
wrath of the Lord.

14 This is what the Lord has said against all my evil
neighbours, who put their hands on the heritage which I
gave my people Israel: See, I will have them uprooted from
their land, uprooting the people of Judah from among them.

15 And it will come about that, after they have been
uprooted, I will again have pity on them; and I will take
them back, every man to his heritage and every man to his
land.

16 And it will be that, if they give their minds to learning
the ways of my people, using my name in their oaths, By the
living Lord; as they have been teaching my people to take
oaths by the Baal; then their place will be made certain
among my people.

17 But if they will not give ear, then I will have that nation
uprooted, and given to destruction, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 13

1 This is what the Lord said to me: Go and get yourself a
linen band and put it round you and do not put it in water.

2 So, as the Lord said, I got a band for a price and put it
round my body.

3 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time,
saying,

4 Take the band which you got for a price, which is round
your body, and go to Parah and put it in a secret place there
in a hole of the rock.

5 So I went and put it in a secret place by Parah, as the
Lord had said to me.

6 Then after a long time, the Lord said to me, Up! go to
Parah and get the band which I gave you orders to put there.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 So I went to Parah and, uncovering the hole, took the
band from the place where I had put it away: and the band
was damaged and of no use for anything.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

9 The Lord has said, In this way I will do damage to the
pride of Judah and to the great pride of Jerusalem.

10 These evil people who say they will not give ear to my
words, who go on in the pride of their hearts and have
become servants and worshippers of other gods, will become
like this band which is of no use for anything.

11 For as a band goes tightly round a man's body, so |
made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah
tightly united to me; so that they might be a people for me
and a name and a praise and a glory: but they would not give
ear.

12 So you are to say this word to them: This is the word of
the Lord, the God of Israel: Every skin bottle will be full of
wine; and they will say to you, Is it not quite clear to us that
every skin bottle will be full of wine?

13 Then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, I will
make all the people of this land, even the kings seated on
David's seat, and the priests and the prophets and all the
people of Jerusalem, overcome with strong drink.

14 I will have them smashed against one another, fathers
and sons together, says the Lord: I will have no pity or mercy,
I will have no feeling for them to keep me from giving them
to destruction.

15 Give ear and let your ears be open; be not lifted up: for
these are the words of the Lord.

16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he makes it
dark, and before your feet are slipping on the dark
mountains, and, while you are looking for a light, he makes
it into deep dark, into black night.

17 But if you do not give ear to it, my soul will be weeping
in secret for your pride; my eye will be weeping bitterly,
streaming with water, because the Lord's flock has been
taken away as prisoners.

18 Say to the king and to the queen-mother, Make
yourselves low, be seated on the earth: for the crown of your
glory has come down from your heads.

19 The towns of the south are shut up, and there is no one
to make them open: Judah is taken away as prisoners; all
Judah is taken away as prisoners.

20 Let your eyes be lifted up (O Jerusalem), and see those
who are coming from the north. Where is the flock which
was given to you, your beautiful flock?

21 What will you say when he puts over you those whom
you yourself have made your friends? will not pains take you
like a woman in childbirth?

22 And if you say in your heart, Why have these things
come on me? because of the number of your sins, your skirts
have been uncovered and violent punishment overtakes you.

23 Is it possible for the skin of the Ethiopian to be changed,
or the markings on the leopard? Then it might be possible
for you to do good, who have been trained to do evil.

24 So I will send them in all directions, as dry grass is taken
away by the wind of the waste land.

25 This is your fate, the part measured out to you by me,
says the Lord, because you have put me out of your memory
and put your faith in what is false.

26 So I will have your skirts uncovered before your face, in
order that your shame may be seen.

27 I have seen your disgusting acts, even your false
behaviour and your cries of desire and your loose ways on the
hills in the field. Unhappy are you, O Jerusalem, you have no
desire to be made clean; how long will you be in turning back
to me?

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 14

1 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when there was
no water.

2 Judah is weeping and its doors are dark with sorrow, and
people are seated on the earth clothed in black; and the cry of
Jerusalem has gone up.

3 Their great men have sent their servants for water: they
come to the holes and there is no water to be seen; they come
back with nothing in their vessels; they are overcome with
shame and fear, covering their heads.

4 Those who do work on the land are in fear, for there has
been no rain on the land, and the farmers are shamed,
covering their heads.

5 And the roe, giving birth in the field, lets her young one
be uncared for, because there is no grass.

6 And the asses of the field on the open hilltops are opening
their mouths wide like jackals to get air; their eyes are
hollow because there is no grass.

7 Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O
Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we
have been turned away from you, we have done evil against
you.

8 O you hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why
are you like one who is strange in the land, and like a
traveller putting up his tent for a night?

9 Why are you like a man surprised, like a man of war who
is not able to give help? but you, O Lord, are with us, and we
are named by your name; do not go away from us.

10 This is what the Lord has said about this people: Even so
they have been glad to go from the right way; they have not
kept their feet from wandering, so the Lord has no pleasure
in them; now he will keep their wrongdoing in mind and
send punishment for their sins.

11 And the Lord said to me, Make no prayer for this people
for their good.

12 When they go without food, I will not give ear to their
cry; when they give burned offerings and meal offerings, I
will not take pleasure in them: but I will put an end to them
by the sword and by need of food and by disease.

13 Then I said, Ah, Lord God! see, the prophets say to them,
You will not see the sword or be short of food; but I will give
you certain peace in this place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 Then the Lord said to me, The prophets say false words
in my name, and I gave them no orders, and I said nothing to
them: what they say to you 1s a false vision and wonder-
working words without substance, the deceit of their hearts.

15 So this is what the Lord has said about the prophets who
make use of my name, though I sent them not, and say, The
sword and need of food will not be in this land: the sword
and need of food will put an end to those prophets.

16 And the people to whom they are prophets will be
pushed out dead into the streets of Jerusalem, because there is
no food, and because of the sword; and they will have no one
to put their bodies into the earth, them or their wives or
their sons or their daughters: for I will let loose their evil-
doing on them.

17 And you are to say this word to them, Let my eyes be
streaming with water night and day, and let it not be
stopped; for the virgin daughter of my people is wounded
with a great wound, with a very bitter blow.

18 If I go out into the open country, there are those put to
death by the sword! and if I go into the town, there are those
who are diseased from need of food! for the prophet and the
priest go about in the land and have no knowledge.

19 Have you completely given up Judah? is your soul
turned in disgust from Zion? why have you given us blows
from which there is no one to make us well? we were looking
for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being,
but there was only a great fear.

20 We are conscious, O Lord, of our sin and of the
wrongdoing of our fathers: we have done evil against you.

21 Do not be turned from us in disgust, because of your
name; do not put shame on the seat of your glory: keep us in
mind, let not your agreement with us be broken.

22 Are any of the false gods of the nations able to make rain
come? are the heavens able to give showers? are you not he, O
Lord our God? so we will go on waiting for you, for you
have done all these things.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 15

1 Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel came
before me, I would have no desire for this people: send them
away from before me, and let them go.

2 And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go?
then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are
for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the
sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food;
and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away.

3 And I will put over them four divisions, says the Lord: the
sword causing death, dogs pulling the dead bodies about,
and the birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth to take
their bodies for food and put an end to them.

4 And I will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms
of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king
of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem.

5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? and who
will have sorrow for you? or who will go out of his way to see
how you are?

6 You have given me up, says the Lord, you have gone back:
so my hand is stretched out against you for your destruction;
Tam tired of changing my purpose.

7 And I have sent a cleaning wind on them in the public
places of the land; I have taken their children from them; I
have given my people to destruction; they have not been
turned from their ways.

8 I have let their widows be increased in number more than
the sand of the seas: I have sent against them, against the
mother and the young men, one who makes waste in the heat
of the day, causing pain and fears to come on her suddenly.

9 The mother of seven is without strength; her spirit is gone
from her, her sun has gone down while it is still day: she has
been shamed and overcome: and the rest of them I will give
up to the sword before their haters, says the Lord.

10 Sorrow is mine, my mother, because you have given
birth to me, a cause of fighting and argument in all the earth!
Ihave not made men my creditors and I am not in debt to any,
but every one of them is cursing me.

11 The Lord said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for
good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make
supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of
affliction.

12 Is it possible for iron to be broken; even iron from the
north, and brass?

13 I will give your wealth and your stores to your attackers,
without a price, because of all your sins, even in every part of
your land.

14 They will go away with your haters into a land which is
strange to you: for my wrath is on fire with a flame which
will be burning on you.

15 O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come
to my help, and give their right reward to those who are
attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry:
see how I have undergone shame because of you from all
those who make little of your word;

16 But to me your word is a joy, making my heart glad; for
Tam named by your name, O Lord God of armies.

17 I did not take my seat among the band of those who are
glad, and I had no joy; I kept by myself because of your hand;
for you have made me full of wrath.

18 Why is my pain unending and my wound without hope
of being made well? Sorrow is mine, for you are to me as a
stream offering false hope and as waters which are not
certain.

19 For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back,
then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you
give out what is of value and not that which has no value,
you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do
not go back to them.

20 And I will make you a strong wall of brass to this people;
they will be fighting against you, but they will not overcome
you: for I am with you to keep you safe, says the Lord.

21 I will keep you safe from the hands of the evil-doers, and
I will give you salvation from the hands of the cruel ones.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 16

1 Then again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 You are not to take a wife for yourself or have sons or
daughters in this place.

3 For this is what the Lord has said about the sons and
daughters who come to birth in this place, and about their
mothers who have given them birth, and about their fathers
who have given life to them in this land:

4 Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be
no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest;
they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and
need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will
be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For this is what the Lord has said: Do not go into the
house of sorrow, do not go to make weeping or songs of grief
for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people,
says the Lord, even mercy and pity.

6 Death will overtake great as well as small in the land:
their bodies will not be put in a resting-place, and no one
will be weeping for them or wounding themselves or cutting
off their hair for them:

7 No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them
comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort
on account of their father or their mother.

8 And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be
seated with them to take food or drink.

9 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See,
before your eyes and in your days I will put an end in this
place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice
of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride.

10 And it will be, that when you say all these words to the
people, then they will say to you, Why has the Lord done all
this evil against us? what is our wrongdoing and what is our
sin which we have done against the Lord our God?

11 Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have
given me up, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods
and become their servants and their worshippers, and have
given me up and have not kept my law;

12 And you have done worse evil than your fathers; for see,
every one of you is guided by the pride of his evil heart, so as
not to give ear to me:

13 For this reason I will send you away out of this land into
a land which is strange to you, to you and to your fathers;
there you will be the servants of other gods day and night,
and you will have no mercy from me.

14 For this cause, see, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when it will no longer be said, By the living Lord, who took
the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.

15 But, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel
up out of the land of the north, and from all the countries
where he had sent them: and I will take them back again to
their land which I gave to their fathers.

16 See, I will send for great numbers of fishermen, says the
Lord, and they will take them like fish in a net; and after that,
I will send for numbers of bowmen, and they will go after

them, driving them from every mountain and from every hill,
and out of the holes of the rocks.

17 For my eyes are on all their ways: there is no cover for
them from my face, and their evil-doing is not kept secret
from my eyes.

18 And I will give them the reward of their evil-doing and
their sin twice over; because they have made my land unclean,
and have made my heritage full of the bodies of their unholy
and disgusting things.

19 O Lord, my strength and my strong tower, my safe place
in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the
ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is
nothing but deceit, even false things in which there is no
profit.

20 Will a man make for himself gods which are no gods?

21 For this reason, truly, I will make them see, this once I
will give them knowledge of my hand and my power; and
they will be certain that my name is the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 17

1 The sin of Judah is recorded with a pen of iron, and with
the sharp point of a jewel it is cut on their hearts of stone,
and on the horns of their altars for a sign to them:

2 Their altars and their wood pillars under every branching
tree, on the high hills and the mountains in the field.

3 I will give your wealth and all your stores to be taken
away in war without a price, because of your sins in every
part of your land.

4 And your hand will have to let go your heritage which I
gave you; and I will make you a servant to your haters in a
land which is strange to you: for you have put my wrath on
fire with a flame which will go on burning for ever.

5 This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who
puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose
heart is turned away from the Lord.

6 For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will
not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the
dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land.

7 A blessing is on the man who puts his faith in the Lord,
and whose hope the Lord is.

8 For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, pushing
out its roots by the stream; he will have no fear when the heat
comes, but his leaf will be green; in a dry year he will have no
care, and will go on giving fruit.

9 The heart is a twisted thing, not to be searched out by
man: who is able to have knowledge of it?

10 I the Lord am the searcher of the heart, the tester of the
thoughts, so that I may give to every man the reward of his
ways, in keeping with the fruit of his doings.

11 Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not
producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right;
before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his
end he will be foolish.

12 A seat of glory, placed on high from the first, is our holy
place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who give you up will be
put to shame; those who go away from you will be cut off
from the earth, because they have given up the Lord, the
fountain of living waters.

14 Make me well, O Lord, and I will be well; be my saviour,
and I will be safe: for you are my hope.

15 See, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it
come now.

16 As for me, I have not said; Let the day of trouble come
to them quickly; and I have not been hoping for the death-
giving day; you have knowledge of what came from my lips;
it was open before you.

17 Be not a cause of fear to me: you are my safe place in the
day of evil.

18 Let them be put to shame who are attacking me, but let
me not be shamed; let them be overcome with fear, but let me
not be overcome: send on them the day of evil, and put them
to destruction twice over.

19 This is what the Lord has said to me: Go and take your
place in the doorway of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah
come in and by which they go out, and in all the doorways of
Jerusalem;

20 And say to them, Give ear to the word of the Lord, you
kings of Judah, and all the people of Jerusalem who come in
by these doors:

21 This is what the Lord has said: See to yourselves, that
you take up no weight on the Sabbath day, or take it in
through the doors of Jerusalem;

22 And take no weight out of your houses on the Sabbath
day, or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I
gave orders to your fathers;

23 But they gave no attention and would not give ear, but
they made their necks stiff so that they might not give ear
and might not get teaching.

24 And it will be, that if with all care you give ear to me,
says the Lord, and take no weight through the doorways of
this town on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy
and do no work in it;

25 Then through the doors of this town there will come
kings and princes, seated on the seat of David, going in
carriages and on horseback, they and their princes, and the
men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem: and this town will
keep its place for ever.

26 And they will come from the towns of Judah, and from
the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of
Benjamin, and from the lowlands, and from the mountains,
and from the South, with burned offerings and offerings of
beasts and meal offerings and perfume and offerings of praise,
to the house of the Lord.

27 But if you do not give ear to me, to keep the Sabbath
day holy, and to let no weight be lifted and taken through
the doors of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: then I will put a
fire in its doorways, burning up the great houses of
Jerusalem, and it will never be put out.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 18

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Up! go down to the potter's house, and there I will let my
words come to your ears.

3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and he was doing
his work on the stones.

4 And when the vessel, which he was forming out of earth,
got damaged in the hand of the potter, he made it again into
another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

6 0 Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does?
says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in
my hands, O Israel.

7 Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a
kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it;

8 If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking
is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them
will be changed.

9 And whenever I say anything about building up a nation
or akingdom, and planting it;

10 If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going
against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I
would do for them, will be changed.

11 Now, then, say to the men of Judah and to the people of
Jerusalem, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am forming
an evil thing against you, and designing a design against you:
let every man come back now from his evil way, and let your
ways and your doings be changed for the better.

12 But they will say, There is no hope: we will go on in our
designs, and every one of us will do what he is moved by the
pride of his evil heart to do.

13 So this is what the Lord has said: Make search among
the nations and see who has had word of such things; the
virgin of Israel has done a very shocking thing.

14 Will the white snow go away from the top of Sirion?
will the cold waters flowing from the mountains become dry?

15 For my people have put me out of their memory,
burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of
this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old
roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not
lifted up;

16 Making their land a thing of wonder, causing sounds of
surprise for ever; everyone who goes by will be overcome
with wonder, shaking his head.

17 I will send them in flight, as from an east wind, before
the attacker; I will let them see my back and not my face on
the day of their downfall.

18 Then they said, Come, let us make a design against
Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest,
or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet.
Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and
let us give attention with care to what he says.

19 Give thought to me, O Lord, and give ear to the voice of
those who put forward a cause against me.

20 Is evil to be the reward of good? for they have made a
deep hole for my soul. Keep in mind how I took my place

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

before you, to say a good word for them so that your wrath
might be turned away from them.

21 For this cause, let their children be without food, and
give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives
be without children and become widows; let their men be
overtaken by death, and their young men be put to the sword
in the fight.

22 Let a cry for help go up from their houses, when you
send an armed band on them suddenly: for they have made a
hole in which to take me, and have put nets for my feet
secretly.

23 But you, Lord, have knowledge of all the designs which
they have made against my life; let not their evil-doing be
covered or their sin be washed away from before your eyes:
but let it be a cause of falling before you: so do to them in the
time of your wrath.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 19

| This is what the Lord has said: Go and get for money a
potter's bottle made of earth, and take with you some of the
responsible men of the people and of the priests;

2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, by the way
into the door of broken pots, and there say in a loud voice
the words which I will give you;

3 Say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah
and people of Jerusalem; the Lord of armies, the God of
Israel, has said, See, I will send evil on this place which will
be bitter to the ears of anyone hearing of it.

4 Because they have given me up, and made this place a
strange place, burning perfumes in it to other gods, of whom
they and their fathers and the kings of Judah had no
knowledge; and they have made this place full of the blood of
those who have done no wrong;

5 And they have put up the high places of the Baal, burning
their sons in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me,
and it was never in my mind:

6 For this cause, see, a time is coming, says the Lord, when
this place will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of
the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death.

7 I will make the purpose of Judah and Jerusalem come to
nothing in this place; I will have them put to the sword by
their haters, and by the hands of those who have designs on
their life; and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the
birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this town a thing of wonder and a cause
of surprise; everyone who goes by will be overcome with
wonder and make sounds of surprise, because of all its
troubles.

9 I will make them take the flesh of their sons and the flesh
of their daughters for food, they will be making a meal of one
another, because of their bitter need and the cruel grip of
their haters and those who have made designs against their
life.

10 Then let the potter's bottle be broken before the eyes of
the men who have gone with you,

11 And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies has
said: Even so will this people and this town be broken by me,
as a potter's bottle is broken and may not be put together
again: and the bodies of the dead will be put in the earth in
Topheth, till there is no more room.

12 This is what I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to
its people, making this town like Topheth:

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings
of Judah, which they have made unclean, will be like the
place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs
perfumes have been burned to all the army of heaven, and
drink offerings drained out to other gods.

14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had
sent him to give the prophet's word; and he took his place in
the open square of the Lord's house, and said to all the
people,

15 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I
will send on this town and on all her towns all the evil which
I have said; because they made their necks stiff, so that they
might not give ear to my words.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 20

1 Now it came to the ears of Pashhur, the son of Immer the
priest, who was chief in authority in the house of the Lord,
that Jeremiah was saying these things;

2 And Pashhur gave blows to Jeremiah and had his feet
chained in a framework of wood in the higher doorway of
Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord.

3 Then on the day after, Pashhur let Jeremiah loose. Then
Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has given you the name of
Magor-missabib (Cause-of-fear-on-every-side), not Pashhur.

4 For the Lord has said, See, I will make you a cause of fear
to yourself and to all your friends: they will come to their
death by the sword of their haters, and your eyes will see it:
and I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of
Babylon, and he will take them away prisoners into Babylon
and put them to the sword.

5 And more than this, I will give all the wealth of this town
and all its profits and all its things of value, even all the
stores of the kings of Judah will I give into the hands of their
haters, who will put violent hands on them and take them
away to Babylon.

6 And you, Pashhur, and all who are in your house, will go
away prisoners: you will come to Babylon, and there your
body will be put to rest, you and all your friends, to whom
you said false words.

70 Lord, you have been false to me, and I was tricked; you
are stronger than I, and have overcome me: I have become a
thing to be laughed at all the day, everyone makes sport of
me.

8 For every word I say is a cry for help; I say with a loud
voice, Violent behaviour and wasting: because the word of
the Lord is made a shame to me and a cause of laughing all
the day.

9 And if I say, I will not keep him in mind, I will not say
another word in his name; then it is in my heart like a

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

burning fire shut up in my bones, and J am tired of keeping
myself in, I am not able to do it.

10 For numbers of them say evil secretly in my hearing
(there is fear on every side): they say, Come, let us give
witness against him; all my nearest friends, who are watching
for my fall, say, It may be that he will be taken by deceit, and
we will get the better of him and give him punishment.

11 But the Lord is with me as a great one, greatly to be
feared: so my attackers will have a fall, and they will not
overcome me: they will be greatly shamed, because they have
not done wisely, even with an unending shame, kept in
memory for ever.

12 But, O Lord of armies, testing the upright and seeing
the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come
on them; for I have put my cause before you.

13 Make melody to the Lord, give praise to the Lord: for he
has made the soul of the poor man free from the hands of the
evil-doers.

14 A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing
on the day when my mother had me.

15 A curse on the man who gave the news to my father,
saying, You have a male child; making him very glad.

16 May that man be like the towns overturned by the Lord
without mercy: let a cry for help come to his ears in the
morning, and the sound of war in the middle of the day;

17 Because he did not put me to death before my birth took
place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-
place, and she would have been with child for ever.

18 Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and
sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 21

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when
King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Malchiah,
and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

2 Will you get directions from the Lord for us; for
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, is making war against us;
it may be that the Lord will do something for us like all the
wonders he has done, and make him go away from us.

3 Then Jeremiah said to them, This is what you are to say to
Zedekiah:

4 The Lord God of Israel has said, See, I am turning back
the instruments of war in your hands, with which you are
fighting against the king of Babylon and the Chaldaeans,
who are outside the walls and shutting you in; and I will get
them together inside this town.

5 And I myself will be fighting against you with an
outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even with angry
feeling and passion and in great wrath.

6 And I will send a great disease on the people living in this
town, on man and on beast, causing their death.

7 And after that, says the Lord, I will give up Zedekiah,
king of Judah, and his servants and his people, even those in
the town who have not come to their end from the disease
and the sword and from need of food, into the hands of
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of

their haters, and into the hands of those desiring their death:
he will put them to the sword; he will not let anyone get
away, he will have no pity or mercy.

8 And to this people you are to say, The Lord has said, See,
I put before you the way of life and the way of death.

9 He who keeps in this town will come to his death by the
sword and through need of food and through disease; but he
who goes out and gives himself up to the Chaldaeans who are
shutting you in, will go on living, and will keep his life safe.

10 For my face is turned to this town for evil and not for
good, says the Lord: it will be given into the hands of the
king of Babylon, and he will have it burned with fire.

11 About the family of the king of Judah. Give ear to the
word of the Lord;

12 O family of David, this is what the Lord has said: Do
what is right in the morning, and make free from the hands
of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken
away, or my wrath will go out like fire, burning so that no
one may put it out, because of the evil of your doings.

13 See, I am against you, you who are living on the rock of
the valley, says the Lord; you who say, Who will come down
against us? or who will get into our houses?

14 I will send punishment on you in keeping with the fruit
of your doings, says the Lord: and I will put a fire in her
woodlands, burning up everything round about her.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 22

| This is what the Lord has said: Go down to the house of
the king of Judah and there give him this word,

2 And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of
Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants
and your people who come in by these doors.

3 This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging
uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him
whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong
and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the
child without a father and the widow, and let not those who
have done no wrong be put to death in this place.

4 For if you truly do this, then there will come in through
the doors of this house kings seated on the seat of David,
going in carriages and on horseback, he and his servants and
his people

5 But if you do not give ear to these words, I give you my
oath by myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a
waste.

6 For this is what the Lord has said about the family of the
king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the top of Lebanon:
but, truly, I will make you waste, with towns unpeopled.

7 And I will make ready those who will send destruction on
you, everyone armed for war: by them your best cedar-trees
will be cut down and put in the fire.

8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and
every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done
such things to this great town?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of
the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of
other gods.

10 Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs
of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has
gone away, for he will never come back or see again the
country of his birth.

11 For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the
son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of
Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never
come back there again:

12 But death will come to him in the place where they have
taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land
again.

13 A curse is on him who is building his house by
wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who
makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him
nothing for his work;

14 Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and
rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it
roofed with cedar and painted with bright red.

15 Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar
than your father? did not your father take food and drink
and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well
for him?

16 He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need;
then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says
the Lord.

17 But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for
yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong,
and on violent and cruel acts.

18 So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the
son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for
him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no
weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

19 They will do to him what they do to the dead body of an
ass; his body will be pulled out and placed on the earth
outside the doors of Jerusalem.

20 Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud
in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have
come to destruction

21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but
you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from
your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice.

22 All the keepers of your sheep will be food for the wind,
and your lovers will be taken away prisoners: truly, then you
will be shamed and unhonoured because of all your evil-
doing.

23 O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-
place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when
pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!

24 By my life, says the Lord, even if Coniah, the son of
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was the ring on my right hand,
even from there I would have you pulled off;

25 And I will give you into the hands of those desiring your
death, and into the hands of those whom you are fearing,

even into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and
into the hands of the Chaldaeans.

26 I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth,
into another country not the land of your birth; and there
death will come to you.

27 But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they
will never come back.

28 Is this man Coniah a broken vessel of no value? is he a
vessel in which there is no pleasure? why are they violently
sent out, he and his seed, into a land which is strange to them?

29 O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord!

30 The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having
no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no
man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the
kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 23

1 A curse is on the keepers who are causing the destruction
and loss of the sheep of my field, says the Lord.

2 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said
against the keepers who have the care of my people: You have
let my flock be broken up, driving them away and not caring
for them; see, I will send on you the punishment for the evil
of your doings, says the Lord.

3 And I will get the rest of my flock together from all the
countries where I have sent them, and will make them come
back again to their resting-place; and they will have
offspring and be increased.

4 And I will put over them keepers who will take care of
them: never again will they be overcome with fear or be
troubled, and there will not be the loss of one of them, says
the Lord.

5 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give
to David a true Branch, and he will be ruling as king, acting
wisely, doing what is right, and judging uprightly in the
land.

6 In his days Judah will have salvation and Israel will be
living without fear: and this is the name by which he will be
named, The Lord is our righteousness.

7 And so, truly, the days are coming when they will say no
longer, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel
up out of the land of Egypt;

8 But, By the living Lord, who took up the seed of Israel,
and made them come out of the north country, and from all
the countries where I had sent them; and they will be living
in the land which is theirs.

9 About the prophets. My heart is broken in me, all my
bones are shaking; I am like a man full of strong drink, like a
man overcome by wine; because of the Lord, and because of
his holy words.

10 For the land is full of men who are untrue to their wives;
because of the curse the land is full of grief; the green fields of
the waste land have become dry; and they are quick to do evil,
their strength is for what is not right.

11 For the prophet as well as the priest is unclean; even in
my house I have seen their evil-doing, says the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way:
they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for
I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says
the Lord.

13 And I have seen ways without sense in the prophets of
Samaria; they became prophets of the Baal, causing my
people Israel to go wrong.

14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking
thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and
they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may
not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become
like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah.

15 So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the
prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food,
and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of
Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land.

16 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Do not give ear
to the words which the prophets say to you: they give you
teaching of no value: it is from themselves that their vision
comes, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

17 They keep on saying to those who have no respect for the
word of the Lord, You will have peace; and to everyone who
goes on his way in the pride of his heart, they say, No evil
will come to you.

18 For which of them has knowledge of the secret of the
Lord, and has seen him, and given ear to his word? which of
them has taken note of his word and given attention to it?

19 See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his
wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads
of the evil-doers.

20 The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has
done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in
days to come you will have full knowledge of this.

21 I did not send these prophets, but they went running: I
said nothing to them, but they gave out the prophet's word.

22 But if they had been in my secret, then they would have
made my people give ear to my words, turning them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

23 Am I only a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a
God at a distance?

24 In what secret place may a man take cover without my
seeing him? says the Lord. Is there any place in heaven or
earth where I am not? says the Lord.

25 My ears have been open to what the prophets have said,
who say false words in my name, saying, I have had a dream,
Ihave had a dream, I have had a dream,

26 Is (my word) in the hearts of the prophets who give out
false words, even the prophets of the deceit of their hearts?

27 Whose purpose is to take away the memory of my name
from my people by their dreams, of which every man is
talking to his neighbour, as their fathers gave up the memory
of my name for the Baal.

28 Ifa prophet has a dream, let him give out his dream; and
he who has my word, let him give out my word in good faith.
What has the dry stem to do with the grain? says the Lord.

29 Is not my word like fire? says the Lord; and like a
hammer, smashing the rock to bits?

30 For this cause I am against the prophets, says the Lord,
who take my words, every one from his neighbour.

31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who let
their tongues say, He has said.

32 See, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the
Lord, who give them out and make my people go out of the
way by their deceit and their uncontrolled words: but I did
not send them or give them orders; and they will be of no
profit to this people, says the Lord.

33 And if this people, or the prophet, or a priest,
questioning you, says, What word of weight is there from the
Lord? then you are to say to them, You are the word, for I
will not be troubled with you any more, says the Lord.

34 And as for the prophet and the priest and the people
who say, A word of weight from the Lord! I will send
punishment on that man and on his house.

35 But this is what you are to say, every man to his
neighbour and every man to his brother, What answer has
the Lord given? and, What has the Lord said?

36 And you will no longer put people in mind of the word
of weight of the Lord: for every man's word will be a weight
on himself; for the words of the living God, of the Lord of
armies, our God, have been twisted by you.

37 This is what you are to say to the prophet, What answer
has the Lord given to you? and, What has the Lord said?

38 But if you say, The word of weight of the Lord; this is
what the Lord has said: Because you say, The weight of the
Lord, and I have sent to you, saying, You are not to say, The
weight of the Lord;

39 For this reason, truly, I will put you completely out of
my memory, and I will put you, and the town which I gave to
you and to your fathers, away from before my face:

40 And I will give you a name without honour for ever, and
unending shame which will never go from the memory of men.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 24

1 The Lord gave me a vision, and I saw two baskets full of
figs put in front of the Temple of the Lord, after
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, had taken prisoner
Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the chiefs
of Judah, and the expert workmen and metal-workers from
Jerusalem, and had taken them to Babylon.

2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs which first
come to growth: and the other basket had very bad figs, so
bad that they were of no use for food.

3 Then the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah?
And I said, Figs; the good figs are very good, and the bad
very bad, and of no use for food, they are so bad.

4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Like
these good figs, so in my eyes will be the prisoners of Judah,
whom I have sent from this place into the land of the
Chaldaeans for their good.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 For I will keep my eyes on them for good, and I will take
them back again to this land, building them up and not
pulling them down, planting them and not uprooting them.

7 And I will give them a heart to have knowledge of me,
that Iam the Lord: and they will be my people, and I will be
their God: for they will come back to me with all their heart.

8 And like the bad figs which are so bad that they are of no
use for food, so I will give up Zedekiah, king of Judah, and
his chiefs and the rest of Jerusalem who are still in this land,
and those who are in the land of Egypt:

9 I will give them up to be a cause of fear and of trouble
among all the kingdoms of the earth; to be a name of shame
and common talk and a cutting word and a curse in all the
places wherever I will send them wandering.

10 And I will send the sword, and need of food, and disease,
among them till they are all cut off from the land which I
gave to them and to their fathers.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 25

1 The word which came to Jeremiah about all the people of
Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king
of Judah; this was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of
Babylon.

2 This word Jeremiah gave out to all the people of Judah
and to those living in Jerusalem, saying,

3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king
of Judah, even till this day, for twenty-three years, the word
of the Lord has been coming to me, and I have given it to you,
getting up early and talking to you; but you have not given
ear.

4 And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets,
getting up early and sending them; but you have not given
attention and your ear has not been open to give hearing;

5 Saying, Come back now, everyone from his evil way and
from the evil of your doings, and keep your place in the land
which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from
times long past even for ever:

6 Do not go after other gods to be their servants and to
give them worship, and do not make me angry with the work
of your hands, causing evil to yourselves.

7 But you have not given ear to me, says the Lord; so that
you have made me angry with the work of your hands,
causing evil to yourselves.

8 So this is what the Lord of armies has said: Because you
have not given ear to my words,

9 See, I will send and take all the families of the north, says
the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, my servant,
and make them come against this land, and against its people,
and against all these nations on every side; and I will give
them up to complete destruction, and make them a cause of
fear and surprise and a waste place for ever.

10 And more than this, I will take from them the sound of
laughing voices, the voice of joy, the voice of the newly-
married man, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the
stones crushing the grain, and the shining of lights.

11 All this land will be a waste and a cause of wonder; and
these nations will be the servants of the king of Babylon for
seventy years.

12 And it will come about, after seventy years are ended,
that I will send punishment on the king of Babylon, and on
that nation, says the Lord, for their evil-doing, and on the
land of the Chaldaeans; and I will make it a waste for ever.

13 And I will make that land undergo everything I have
said against it, even everything recorded in this book, which
Jeremiah the prophet has said against all the nations.

14 For a number of nations and great kings will make
servants of them, even of them: and I will give them the
reward of their acts, even the reward of the work of their
hands.

15 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said to
me: Take the cup of the wine of this wrath from my hand,
and make all the nations to whom I send you take of it.

16 And after drinking it, they will go rolling from side to
side, and be off their heads, because of the sword which I will
send among them.

17 Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and gave a
drink from it to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me;

18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah and their kings and
their princes, to make them a waste place, a cause of fear and
surprise and a curse, as it is this day;

19 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants and his princes
and all his people;

20 And all the mixed people and all the kings of the land of
Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and
Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the rest of Ashdod;

21 Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon,

22 And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon,
and the kings of the lands across the sea;

23 Dedan and Tema and Buz, and all who have the ends of
their hair cut;

24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the
mixed people living in the waste land;

25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam,
and all the kings of the Medes;

26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with
another; and all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the
earth.

27 And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of
armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take of this cup and be
overcome, and let it come out again from your lips, and from
your fall you will never be lifted up again, because of the
sword which I will send among you.

28 And it will be, if they will not take of the cup in your
hand, then you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of
armies has said: You will certainly take of it.

29 For see, I am starting to send evil on the town which is
named by my name, and are you to be without any
punishment? You will not be without punishment: for I will
send a sword on all people living on the earth, says the Lord
of armies.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 So, as a prophet, give out these words among them, and
say to them, The voice of the Lord will be sounding like a
lion from on high; he will send out his voice from his holy
place, like the loud voice of a lion, against his flock; he will
give acry, like those who are crushing the grapes, against all
the people of the earth.

31 A noise will come, even to the end of the earth; for the
Lord has a cause against the nations, he will give his decision
against all flesh; as for the evil-doers, he will give them to the
sword, says the Lord.

32 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, evil is
going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will
come up from the inmost parts of the earth.

33 And at that day, the bodies of those whom the Lord has
put to death will be seen from one end of the earth even to
the other end of the earth: there will be no weeping for them,
their bodies will not be taken up or put to rest in the earth;
they will be like waste on the face of the land.

34 Give cries of grief, you keepers of sheep; give cries for
help, rolling yourselves in the dust, you chiefs of the flock:
for the days of your destruction have fully come, and I will
send you in all directions, and your fall will be like that of
the males of the flock.

35 There will be no way of flight for the keepers of sheep,
no road for the chiefs of the flock to get away safely.

36 A sound of the cry of the keepers of sheep, and the bitter
crying of the chiefs of the flock! for the Lord has made waste
their green fields.

37 And there is no sound in the fields of peace, because of
the burning wrath of the Lord.

38 The lion has come out of his secret place, for the land has
become a waste because of the cruel sword, and because of the
heat of his wrath.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 26

1 When Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, first
became king, this word came from the Lord, saying,

2 This is what the Lord has said: Take your place in the
open square of the Lord's house and say to all the towns of
Judah, who come into the Lord's house for worship,
everything I give you orders to say to them: keep back not a
word;

3 It may be that they will give ear, and that every man will
be turned from his evil way, so that my purpose of sending
evil on them because of the evil of their doings may be
changed.

4 And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has
said: If you do not give ear to me and go in the way of my law
which I have put before you,

5 And give ear to the words of my servants the prophets
whom I send to you, getting up early and sending them,
though you gave no attention;

6 Then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make
this town a curse to all the nations of the earth.

7 And in the hearing of the priests and the prophets and all
the people, Jeremiah said these words in the house of the
Lord.

8 Now, when Jeremiah had come to the end of saying
everything the Lord had given him orders to say to all the
people, the priests and the prophets and all the people took
him by force, saying, Death will certainly be your fate.

9 Why have you said in the name of the Lord, This house
will be like Shiloh, and this land a waste with no one living
in it? And all the people had come together to Jeremiah in
the house of the Lord.

10 And the rulers of Judah, hearing of these things, came
up from the king's house to the house of the Lord, and took
their seats by the new door of the Lord's house.

11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the rulers and
to all the people, The right fate for this man is death; for he
has said words against this town in your hearing.

12 Then Jeremiah said to all the rulers and to all the people,
The Lord has sent me as his prophet to say against this house
and against this town all the words which have come to your
ears.

13 So now, make a change for the better in your ways and
your doings, and give ear to the voice of the Lord your God;
then the Lord will let himself be turned from the decision he
has made against you for evil.

14 As for me, here I am in your hands: do with me whatever
seems good and right in your opinion.

15 Only be certain that, if you put me to death, you will
make yourselves and your town and its people responsible for
the blood of one who has done no wrong: for truly, the Lord
has sent me to you to say all these words in your ears.

16 Then the rulers and all the people said to the priests and
the prophets, It is not right for this man to be put to death:
for he has said words to us in the name of the Lord our God.

17 Then some of the responsible men of the land got up and
said to all the meeting of the people,

18 Micah the Morashtite, who was a prophet in the days of
Hezekiah, king of Judah, said to all the people of Judah, This
is what the Lord of armies has said: Zion will become like a
ploughed field, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken
walls, and the mountain of the house like the high places of
the woodland.

19 Did Hezekiah and all Judah put him to death? did he not
in the fear of the Lord make prayer for the grace of the Lord,
and the Lord let himself be turned from the decision he had
made against them for evil? By this act we might do great
evil against ourselves.

20 And there was another man who was a prophet of the
Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; he said
against this town and against this land all the words which
Jeremiah had said:

21 And when his words came to the ears of Jehoiakim the
king and all his men of war and his captains, the king would
have put him to death; but Uriah, hearing of it, was full of
fear and went in flight into Egypt:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 And Jehoiakim the king sent Elnathan, the son of
Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt.

23 And they took Uriah out of Egypt and came back with
him to Jehoiakim the king; who put him to death with the
sword, and had his dead body put into the resting-place of
the bodies of the common people.

24 But Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, gave Jeremiah his help,
so that he was not given into the hands of the people to be
put to death.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 27

1 When Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, first
became king this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying,

2 This is what the Lord has said to me: Make for yourself
bands and yokes and put them on your neck;

3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the
king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by their servants who
come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah;

4 And give them orders to say to their masters, This is what
the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Say to your
masters,

5 I have made the earth, and man and beast on the face of
the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm;
and I will give it to anyone at my pleasure.

6 And now I have given all these lands into the hands of
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have
given the beasts of the field to him for his use.

7 And all the nations will be servants to him and to his son
and to his son's son, till the time comes for his land to be
overcome: and then a number of nations and great kings will
take it for their use.

8 And it will come about, that if any nation does not
become a servant to this same Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king
of Babylon, then I will send punishment on that nation, says
the Lord, by the sword and need of food and by disease, till I
have given them into his hands.

9 And you are not to give attention to your prophets or
your readers of signs or your dreamers or those who see into
the future or those who make use of secret arts, who say to
you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon:

10 For they say false words to you, so that you may be sent
away far from your land, and so that you may be forced out
by me and come to destruction.

11 But as for that nation which puts its neck under the yoke
of the king of Babylon and becomes his servant, I will let that
nation keep on in its land, farming it and living in it, says the
Lord.

12 And I said all this to Zedekiah, king of Judah, saying,
Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and
become his servants and his people, so that you may keep
your lives.

13 Why are you desiring death, you and your people, by the
sword, and because food is gone, and by disease, as the Lord

has said of the nation which does not become the servant of
the king of Babylon?

14 And you are not to give ear to the prophets who say to
you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon:
for what they say is not true.

15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are
saying what is false in my name, so that I might send you out
by force, causing destruction to come on you and on your
prophets.

16 And I said to the priests and to all the people, This is
what the Lord has said: Give no attention to the words of
your prophets who say to you, See, in a very little time now
the vessels of the Lord's house will come back again from
Babylon: for what they say to you is false.

17 Give no attention to them; become servants of the king
of Babylon and keep yourselves from death: why let this town
become a waste?

18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is
with them, let them now make request to the Lord of armies
that the vessels which are still in the house of the Lord and in
the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem, may not go
to Babylon.

19 For this is what the Lord has said about the rest of the
vessels which are still in this town,

20 Which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take
away, when he took Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the
great men of Judah and Jerusalem;

21 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel,
has said about the rest of the vessels in the house of the Lord
and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem:

22 They will be taken away to Babylon, and there they will
be till the day when I send their punishment on them, says the
Lord. Then I will take them up and put them back in their
place.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 28

1 And it came about in that year, when Zedekiah first
became king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month,
that Hananiah, the son of Azzur the prophet, who came from
Gibeon, said to Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, before the
priests and all the people,

2 These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of
Israel: By me the yoke of the king of Babylon has been
broken.

3 In the space of two years I will send back into this place
all the vessels of the Lord's house which Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon:

4 And I will let Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, come back to this place, with all the prisoners of
Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord: for I will have
the yoke of the king of Babylon broken.

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah,
before the priests and all the people who had come into the
house of the Lord,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 The prophet Jeremiah said, So be it: may the Lord do so:
may the Lord give effect to the words which you have said,
and let the vessels of the Lord's house, and all the people who
have been taken away, come back from Babylon to this place.

7 But still, give ear to this word which I am saying to you
and to all the people:

8 The prophets, who were before me and before you, from
early times gave word to a number of countries and great
kingdoms about war and destruction and disease.

9 The prophet whose words are of peace, when his words
come true, will be seen to be a prophet whom the Lord has
sent.

10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck
of the prophet Jeremiah and it was broken by his hands.

11 And before all the people Hananiah said, The Lord has
said, Even so will I let the yoke of the king of Babylon be
broken off the necks of all the nations in the space of two
years. Then the prophet Jeremiah went away.

12 Then after the yoke had been broken off the neck of the
prophet Jeremiah by Hananiah the prophet, the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

13 Go and say to Hananiah, This is what the Lord has said:
Yokes of wood have been broken by you, but in their place I
will make yokes of iron.

14 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: I
have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations,
making them servants to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon;
and they are to be his servants: and in addition I have given
him the beasts of the field.

15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the
prophet, Give ear, now, Hananiah; the Lord has not sent you;
but you are making this people put their faith in what is false.

16 For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will send you
away from off the face of the earth: this year death will
overtake you, because you have said words against the Lord.

17 So death came to Hananiah the prophet the same year,
in the seventh month.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 29

1 Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the
prophet sent from Jerusalem to the responsible men among
those who had been taken away, and to the priests and the
prophets and to all the rest of the people whom
Nebuchadnezzar had taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to
Babylon;

2 (After Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the
unsexed servants and the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem and
the expert workmen and the metal-workers had gone away
from Jerusalem;)

3 By the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah,
the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to
Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.) saying,

4 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said to all those whom I have taken away prisoners from
Jerusalem to Babylon:

5 Go on building houses and living in them, and planting
gardens and using the fruit of them;

6 Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives
for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that
they may have sons and daughters; and be increased in
number there and do not become less.

7 And be working for the peace of the land to which I have
had you taken away prisoners, and make prayer to the Lord
for it: for in its peace you will have peace.

8 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: Do not let yourselves be tricked by the prophets who
are among you, and the readers of signs, and give no
attention to their dreams which they may have;

9 For they are saying to you what is false in my name: I
have not sent them, says the Lord.

10 For this is what the Lord has said: When seventy years
are ended for Babylon, I will have pity on you and give effect
to my good purpose for you, causing you to come back to
this place.

11 For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at
the end.

12 And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to
me, and I will give ear to you.

13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there,
when you have gone after me with all your heart.

14 I will be near you again, says the Lord, and your fate
will be changed, and I will get you together from all the
nations and from all the places where I had sent you away,
says the Lord; and I will take you back again to the place
from which I sent you away prisoners.

15 For you have said, The Lord has given us prophets in
Babylon.

16 For this is what the Lord has said about the king who is
seated on the seat of David's kingdom, and about all the
people living in this town, your countrymen who have not
gone out with you as prisoners;

17 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will send
on them the sword and need of food and disease, and will
make them like bad figs, which are of no use for food, they
are so bad.

18 I will go after them, attacking them with the sword and
with need of food and with disease, and will make them a
cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse
and a wonder and a surprise and a name of shame among all
the nations where I have sent them:

19 Because they have not given ear to my words, says the
Lord, when I sent to them my servants the prophets, getting
up early and sending them; but you did not give ear, says the
Lord.

20 And now, give ear to the word of the Lord, all you
whom I have sent away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah,
the son of Maaseiah, who are saying to you what is false in
my name: See, I will give them up into the hands of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to
death before your eyes.

22 And their fate will be used as a curse by all the prisoners
of Judah who are in Babylon, who will say, May the Lord
make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, who were burned in
the fire by the king of Babylon;

23 Because they have done shame in Israel, and have taken
their neighbours' wives, and in my name have said false
words, which I did not give them orders to say; and I myself
am the witness, says the Lord.

24 About Shemaiah the Nehelamite.

25 Shemaiah the Nehelamite sent a letter in his name to
Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

26 The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the
priest, to be an overseer in the house of the Lord for every
man who is off his head and is acting as a prophet, to put
such men in prison and in chains.

27 So why have you made no protest against Jeremiah of
Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet to you?

28 For he has sent to us in Babylon saying, The time will be
long: go on building houses and living in them, and planting
gardens and using the fruit of them.

29 And Zephaniah the priest made clear to Jeremiah the
prophet what was said in the letter, reading it to him.

30 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet,
saying,

31 Send to all those who have been taken away, saying,
This is what the Lord has said about Shemaiah the
Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has been acting as a prophet
to you, and I did not send him, and has made you put your
faith in what is false;

32 For this cause the Lord has said, Truly I will send
punishment on Shemaiah and on his seed; not a man of his
family will have a place among this people, and he will not
see the good which I am going to do to my people, says the
Lord: because he has said words against the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 30

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Put down in a book
all the words which I have said to you.

3 For see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
let the fate of my people Israel and Judah be changed, says the
Lord: and I will make them come back to the land which I
gave to their fathers, so that they may take it for their
heritage.

4 And these are the words which the Lord said about Israel
and about Judah.

5 This is what the Lord has said: A voice of shaking fear has
come to our ears, of fear and not of peace.

6 Put the question and see if it is possible for a man to have
birth-pains: why do I see every man with his hands gripping
his sides, as a woman does when the pains of birth are on her,
and all faces are turned green?

7 Ha! for that day is so great that there is no day like it: it is
the time of Jacob's trouble: but he will get salvation from it.

8 For it will come about on that day, says the Lord of
armies, that his yoke will be broken off his neck, and his
bands will be burst; and men of strange lands will no longer
make use of him as their servant:

9 But they will be servants to the Lord their God and to
David their king, whom I will give back to them.

10 So have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; and
do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come
back from far away, and your seed from the land where they
are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet
and at peace, and no one will give him cause for fear.

11 For I am with you, says the Lord, to be your saviour: for
I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you
wandering, but I will not put an end to you completely:
though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and
will not let you go quite without punishment.

12 For the Lord has said, Your disease may not be made
well and your wound is bitter.

13 There is no help for your wound, there is nothing to
make you well.

14 Your lovers have no more thought for you, they go after
you no longer; for I have given you the wound of a hater,
even cruel punishment;

15 Why are you crying for help because of your wound? for
your pain may never be taken away: because your evil-doing
was so great and because your sins were increased, I have
done these things to you.

16 For this cause, all those who take you for their food will
themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every
one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send
destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those
who take away your goods by force will undergo the same
themselves.

17 For I will make you healthy again and I will make you
well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have
given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for
by no man.

18 The Lord has said, See, I am changing the fate of the
tents of Jacob, and I will have pity on his houses; the town
will be put up on its hill, and the great houses will be living-
places again.

19 And from them will go out praise and the sound of
laughing: and I will make them great in number, and they
will not become less; and I will give them glory, and they will
not be small.

20 And their children will be as they were in the old days,
and the meeting of the people will have its place before me,
and J will send punishment on all who are cruel to them.

21 And their chief will be of their number; their ruler will
come from among themselves; and I will let him be present
before me, so that he may come near to me: for who may have
strength of heart to come near me? says the Lord.

22 And you will be my people, and I will be your God.

23 See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his
wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads
of the evil-doers.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has
done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in
days to come you will have full knowledge of this.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 31

1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they will be my people.

2 The Lord has said, Grace came in the waste land to a
people kept safe from the sword, even to Israel on the way to
his resting-place.

3 From far away he saw the Lord: my love for you is an
eternal love: so with mercy I have made you come with me.

4] will again make new your buildings, O virgin of Israel,
and you will take up your place: again you will take up your
instruments of music, and go out in the dances of those who
are glad.

5 Again will your vine-gardens be planted on the hill of
Samaria: the planters will be planting and using the fruit.

6 For there will be a day when those who get in the grapes
on the hills of Ephraim will be crying, Up! let us go up to
Zion to the Lord our God.

7 For the Lord has said, Make a glad song for Jacob and
give a cry on the top of the mountains: give the news, give
praise, and say, The Lord has given salvation to his people,
even to the rest of Israel.

8 See, I will take them from the north country, and get
them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the
blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her
who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will
come back here.

9 They will come with weeping, and going before them I
will be their guide: guiding them by streams of water in a
straight way where there is no falling: for I am a father to
Israel, and Ephraim is the first of my sons.

10 Give ear to the word of the Lord, O you nations, and
give news of it in the sea-lands far away, and say, He who has
sent Israel wandering will get him together and will keep him
as a keeper does his flock.

11 For the Lord has given a price for Jacob, and made him
free from the hands of him who was stronger than he.

12 So they will come with songs on the high places, flowing
together to the good things of the Lord, to the grain and the
wine and the oil, to the young ones of the flock and of the
herd: their souls will be like a watered garden, and they will
have no more sorrow.

13 Then the virgin will have joy in the dance, and the
young men and the old will be glad: for I will have their
weeping turned into joy, I will give them comfort and make
them glad after their sorrow.

14 I will give the priests their desired fat things, and my
people will have a full measure of my good things, says the
Lord.

15 So has the Lord said: In Ramah there is a sound of
crying, weeping and bitter sorrow; Rachel weeping for her
children; she will not be comforted for their loss.

16 The Lord has said this: Keep your voice from sorrow
and your eyes from weeping: for your work will be rewarded,
says the Lord; and they will come back from the land of their
hater.

17 And there is hope for the future, says the Lord; and your
children will come back to the land which is theirs.

18 Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears,
You have given me training and I have undergone it like a
young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come
back, for you are the Lord my God.

19 Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways;
and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was
put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had
to undergo the shame of my early years.

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight?
for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my
memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly
have mercy on him, says the Lord.

21 Put up guiding pillars, make road signs for yourself:
give attention to the highway, even the way in which you
went: be turned again, O virgin of Israel, be turned to these
your towns.

22 How long will you go on turning this way and that, O
wandering daughter? for the Lord has made a new thing on
the earth, a woman changed into a man.

23 So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Again
will these words be used in the land of Judah and in its towns,
when I have let their fate be changed: May the blessing of the
Lord be on you, O resting-place of righteousness, O holy
mountain.

24 And Judah and all its towns will be living there together;
the farmers and those who go about with flocks.

25 For I have given new strength to the tired soul and to
every sorrowing soul in full measure.

26 At this, awaking from my sleep, I saw; and my sleep was
sweet to me.

27 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will have
Israel and Judah planted with the seed of man and with the
seed of beast.

28 And it will come about that, as I have been watching
over them for the purpose of uprooting and smashing down
and overturning and sending destruction and causing
trouble; so I will be watching over them for the purpose of
building up and planting, says the Lord.

29 In those days they will no longer say, The fathers have
been tasting bitter grapes and the children's teeth are put on
edge.

30 But everyone will be put to death for the evil which he
himself has done: whoever has taken bitter grapes will
himself have his teeth put on edge.

31 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the
people of Judah:

32 Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers,
on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

out of the land of Egypt; which agreement was broken by
them, and I gave them up, says the Lord.

33 But this is the agreement which I will make with the
people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my
law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will
be their God, and they will be my people.

34 And no longer will they be teaching every man his
neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge
of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they
will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin
will go from my memory for ever.

35 These are the words of the Lord, who has given the sun
for a light by day, ordering the moon and stars for a light by
night, who puts the sea in motion, causing the thunder of its
waves; the Lord of armies is his name.

36 If the order of these things before me is ever broken, says
the Lord, then will the seed of Israel come to an end as a
nation before me for ever.

37 This is what the Lord has said: If the heavens on high
may be measured, and the bases of the earth searched out,
then I will give up the seed of Israel, because of all they have
done, says the Lord.

38 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, for the building
of the Lord's town, from the tower of Hananel to the
doorway of the angle.

39 And the measuring-line will go out in front of it as far as
the hill Gareb, going round to Goah.

40 And all the valley of the dead bodies, and all the field of
death as far as the stream Kidron, up to the angle of the
horses’ doorway to the east, will be holy to the Lord; it will
not again be uprooted or overturned for ever.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 32

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the
tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the
eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

2 Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was round
Jerusalem, shutting it in: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut
up in the place of the armed watchmen, in the house of the
king of Judah.

3 For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had had him shut up, saying,
Why have you, as a prophet, been saying, The Lord has said,
See, I will give this town into the hands of the king of
Babylon, and he will take it;

4 And Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not get away from the
hands of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly be given up into
the hands of the king of Babylon, and will have talk with him,
mouth to mouth, and see him, eye to eye.

5 And he will take Zedekiah away to Babylon, where he will
be till I have pity on him, says the Lord: though you are
fighting with the Chaldaeans, things will not go well for you?

6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me,
saying,

7 See, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your father's brother,
will come to you and say, Give the price and get for yourself

my property in Anathoth: for you have the right of the
nearest relation.

8 So Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, came to me,
as the Lord had said, to the place of the armed watchmen,
and said to me, Give the price and get my property which is
in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for you have the nearest
relation's right to the heritage; so get it for yourself. Then it
was clear to me that this was the word of the Lord.

9 So I got for a price the property in Anathoth from
Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and gave him the
money, seventeen shekels of silver;

10 And I put it in writing, stamping it with my stamp, and
I took witnesses and put the money into the scales.

11 So I took the paper witnessing the business, one copy
rolled up and stamped, and one copy open:

12 And I gave the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the
son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel, the son of my
father's brother, and of the witnesses who had put their
names to the paper, and before all the Jews who were seated
in the place of the armed watchmen.

13 And I gave orders to Baruch in front of them, saying,

14 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: Take these papers, the witness of this business, the one
which is rolled up and stamped, and the one which is open;
and put them in a vessel of earth so that they may be kept for
along time.

15 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said,
There will again be trading in houses and fields and vine-
gardens in this land.

16 Now after I had given the paper to Baruch, the son of
Neriah, I made my prayer to the Lord, saying,

17 Ah Lord God! see, you have made the heaven and the
earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm,
and there is nothing you are not able to do:

18 You have mercy on thousands, and send punishment for
the evil-doing of the fathers on their children after them: the
great, the strong God, the Lord of armies is his name:

19 Great in wisdom and strong in act: whose eyes are open
on all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone the
reward of his ways and the fruit of his doings:

20 You have done signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
and even to this day, in Israel and among other men; and
have made a name for yourself as at this day;

21 And have taken your people Israel out of the land of
Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand
and an outstretched arm, causing great fear;

22 And have given them this land, which you gave your
word to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk
and honey;

23 And they came in and took it for their heritage, but they
did not give ear to your voice, and were not ruled by your
law; they have done nothing of all you gave them orders to
do: so you have made all this evil come on them:

24 See, they have made earthworks against the town to take
it; and the town is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans
who are fighting against it, because of the sword and need of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

food and disease: and what you have said has taken place,
and truly you see it.

25 And you have said to me, Give the money to get yourself
a property, and have the business witnessed; though the town
is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans.

26 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

27 See, Iam the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything
so hard that I am unable to do it?

28 So this is what the Lord has said: See, I am giving this
town into the hands of the Chaldaeans and into the hands of
Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will take it:

29 And the Chaldaeans, who are fighting against this town,
will come and put the town on fire, burning it together with
the houses, on the roofs of which perfumes have been burned
to the Baal, and drink offerings have been drained out to
other gods, moving me to wrath.

30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have
done nothing but evil in my eyes from their earliest years: the
children of Israel have only made me angry with the work of
their hands, says the Lord.

31 For this town has been to me a cause of wrath and of
burning passion from the day of its building till this day, so
that I put it away from before my face:

32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the
children of Judah, which they have done to make me angry,
they and their kings, their princes, their priests, and their
prophets, and the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem.

33 And they have been turning their backs and not their
faces to me: and though I was their teacher, getting up early
and teaching them, their ears were not open to teaching.

34 But they put their disgusting images into the house
which is named by my name, making it unclean.

35 And they put up the high places of the Baal in the valley
of the son of Hinnom, making their sons and their daughters
go through the fire to Molech; which I did not give them
orders to do, and it never came into my mind that they would
do this disgusting thing, causing Judah to be turned out of
the way.

36 And now the Lord, the God of Israel, has said of this
town, about which you say, It is given into the hands of the
king of Babylon by the sword and by need of food and by
disease:

37 See, I will get them together from all the countries
where I have sent them in my wrath and in the heat of my
passion and in my bitter feeling; and I will let them come
back into this place where they may take their rest safely.

38 And they will be my people, and I will be their God:

39 And I will give them one heart and one way, so that they
may go on in the worship of me for ever, for their good and
the good of their children after them:

40 And I will make an eternal agreement with them, that I
will never give them up, but ever do them good; and I will
put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not go
away from me.

41 And truly, I will take pleasure in doing them good, and
all my heart and soul will be given to planting them in this
land in good faith.

42 For the Lord has said: As I have made all this great evil
come on this people, so I will send on them all the good
which I said about them.

43 And there will be trading in fields in this land of which
you say, It is a waste, without man or beast; it is given into
the hands of the Chaldaeans.

44 Men will get fields for money, and put the business in
writing, stamping the papers and having them witnessed, in
the land of Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and
in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill-country
and in the towns of the lowland and in the towns of the
South: for I will let their fate be changed, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 33

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second
time, while he was still shut up in the place of the armed
watchmen, saying,

2 These are the words of the Lord, who is doing it, the
Lord who is forming it, to make it certain; the Lord is his
name;

3 Let your cry come to me, and I will give you an answer,
and let you see great things and secret things of which you
had no knowledge.

4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said
about the houses of this town and the houses of the kings of
Judah, which have been broken down to make earthworks
and mounds and against the sword;

4 For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the
houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of
Judah, which are broken down [to make a defence] against
the mounds and against the sword;

5 Men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to make them
full of the dead bodies of men whom I have put to death in
my wrath and in my passion, and because of whose evil-doing
Thave kept my face covered from this town.

6 See, I will make it healthy and well again, I will even
make them well; I will let them see peace and good faith in
full measure.

7 And I will let the fate of Judah and of Israel be changed,
building them up as at first.

8 And I will make them clean from all their sin, with which
they have been sinning against me; I will have forgiveness for
all their sins, with which they have been sinning against me,
and with which they have done evil against me.

9 And this town will be to me for a name of joy, for a praise
and a glory before all the nations of the earth, who, hearing
of all the good which I am doing for them, will be shaking
with fear because of all the good and the peace which I am
doing for it.

10 This is what the Lord has said: There will again be
sounding in this place, of which you say, It is a waste,
without man and without beast; even in the towns of Judah

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and in the streets of Jerusalem which are waste and
unpeopled, without man and without beast,

11 Happy sounds, the voice of joy, the voice of the newly-
married man and the voice of the bride, the voices of those
who say, Give praise to the Lord of armies, for the Lord is
good, for his mercy is unchanging for ever: the voices of
those who go with praise into the house of the Lord. For I
will let the land come back to its first condition, says the
Lord.

12 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Again there
will be in this place, which is a waste, without man and
without beast, and in all its towns, a resting-place where the
keepers of sheep will make their flocks take rest.

13 In the towns of the hill-country, in the towns of the
lowland, and in the towns of the South and in the land of
Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and in the
towns of Judah, the flocks will again go under the hand of
him who is numbering them, says the Lord.

14 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give
effect to the good word which I have said about the people of
Israel and the people of Judah.

15 In those days and at that time, I will let a Branch of
righteousness come up for David; and he will be a judge in
righteousness in the land.

16 In those days, Judah will have salvation and Jerusalem
will be safe: and this is the name which will be given to her:
The Lord is our righteousness.

17 For the Lord has said, David will never be without a
man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel;

18 And the priests and the Levites will never be without a
man to come before me, offering burned offerings and
perfumes and meal offerings and offerings of beasts at all
times.

19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

20 The Lord has said: If it is possible for my agreement of
the day and the night to be broken, so that day and night no
longer come at their fixed times,

21 Then my agreement with my servant David may be
broken, so that he no longer has a son to take his place on
the seat of the kingdom; and my agreement with the Levites,
the priests, my servants.

22 As it is not possible for the army of heaven to be
numbered, or the sand of the sea measured, so will I make the
seed of my servant David, and the Levites my servants.

23 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

24 Have you taken note of what these people have said, The
two families, which the Lord took for himself, he has given
up? This they say, looking down on my people as being, in
their eyes, no longer a nation.

25 The Lord has said, If I have not made day and night, and
if the limits of heaven and earth have not been fixed by me,

26 Then I will give up caring for the seed of Jacob and of
David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be
rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will
let their fate be changed and will have mercy on them.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 34

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army, and all
the kingdoms of the earth which were under his rule, and all
the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and all its towns,
saying,

2 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Go and say to
Zedekiah, king of Judah, This is what the Lord has said: See,
I will give this town into the hands of the king of Babylon,
and he will have it burned with fire:

3 And you will not get away from him, but will certainly be
taken and given up into his hands; and you will see the king
of Babylon, eye to eye, and he will have talk with you, mouth
to mouth, and you will go to Babylon.

4 But give ear to the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah, king of
Judah; this is what the Lord has said about you: Death will
not come to you by the sword:

5 You will come to your end in peace; and such burnings as
they made for your fathers, the earlier kings before you, will
be made for you; and they will be weeping for you and saying,
Ah lord! for I have said the word, says the Lord.

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet said all these things to
Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem,

7 When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting
against Jerusalem and against all the towns of Judah which
had not been taken, against Lachish and against Azekah; for
these were the last of the walled towns of Judah.

8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after
King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in
Jerusalem, to give news in public that servants were to be
made free;

9 That every man was to let his Hebrew man-servant and
his Hebrew servant-girl go free; so that no one might make
use of a Jew, his countryman, as a servant:

10 And this was done by all the rulers and the people who
had taken part in the agreement, and every one let his man-
servant and his servant-girl go free, not to be used as servants
any longer; they did so, and let them go.

11 But later, they took back again the servants and the
servant-girls whom they had let go free, and put them again
under the yoke as servants and servant-girls.

12 For this reason the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying,

13 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I made an
agreement with your fathers on the day when I took them out
of Egypt, out of the prison-house, saying,

14 At the end of seven years every man is to let go his
countryman who is a Hebrew, who has become yours for a
price and has been your servant for six years; you are to let
him go free: but your fathers gave no attention and did not
give ear.

15 And now, turning away from evil, you had done what is
right in my eyes, giving a public undertaking for every man
to make his neighbour free; and you had made an agreement
before me in the house which is named by my name:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 But again you have put shame on my name, and you
have taken back, every one his man-servant and his servant-
girl, whom you had sent away free, and you have put them
under the yoke again to be your servants and servant-girls.

17 And so the Lord has said, You have not given ear to me
and undertaken publicly, every man to let loose his
countryman and his neighbour: see, I undertake to let loose
against you the sword and disease and need of food; and I
will send you wandering among all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will give the men who have gone against my
agreement and have not given effect to the words of the
agreement which they made before me, when the ox was cut
in two and they went between the parts of it,

19 The rulers of Judah and the rulers of Jerusalem, the
unsexed servants and the priests and all the people of the land
who went between the parts of the ox,

20 Even these I will give up into the hands of their haters
and into the hands of those who have designs against their
lives: and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of
heaven and the beasts of the earth.

21 And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his rulers I will give
into the hands of their haters and into the hands of those who
have designs against their lives, and into the hands of the
king of Babylon's army which has gone away from you.

22 See, I will give orders, says the Lord, and make them
come back to this town; and they will make war on it and
take it and have it burned with fire: and I will make the
towns of Judah waste and unpeopled.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 35

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in the
days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

2 Go into the house of the Rechabites, and have talk with
them, and take them into the house of the Lord, into one of
the rooms, and give them wine.

3 Then I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of
Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and all the
Rechabites;

4 And I took them into the house of the Lord, into the
room of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, the man of
God, which was near the rulers' room, which was over the
room of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door;

5 And I put before the sons of the Rechabites basins full of
wine and cups, and I said to them, Take some wine.

6 But they said, We will take no wine: for Jonadab, the son
of Rechab our father, gave us orders, saying, You are to take
no wine, you or your sons, for ever:

7 And you are to make no houses, or put in seed, or get
vine-gardens planted, or have any: but all your days you are
to go on living in tents, so that you may have a long life in
the land where you are living as in a strange country.

8 And we have kept the rules of Jonadab, the son of Rechab
our father, in everything which he gave us orders to do,
drinking no wine all our days, we and our wives and our sons
and our daughters;

9 Building no houses for ourselves, having no vine-gardens
or fields or seed:

10 But we have been living in tents, and have done
everything which Jonadab our father gave us orders to do.

11 But when Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up
into the land, we said, Come, let us go to Jerusalem, away
from the army of the Chaldaeans and from the army of the
Aramaeans: and so we are living in Jerusalem.

12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

13 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: Go and say to the men of Judah and the people of
Jerusalem, Is there no hope of teaching you to give ear to my
words? says the Lord.

14 The orders which Jonadab, the son of Rechab, gave to
his sons to take no wine, are done, and to this day they take
no wine, for they do the orders of their father: but I have sent
my words to you, getting up early and sending them, and you
have not given ear to me.

15 And I have sent you all my servants the prophets, getting
up early and sending them, saying, Come back, now, every
man from his evil way, and do better, and go not after other
gods to become their servants, and you will go on living in
the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but
your ears have not been open, and you have not given
attention to me.

16 Though the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have
done the orders of their father which he gave them, this
people has not given ear to me:

17 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, the God of
Israel, has said, See, I will send on Judah and on all the
people of Jerusalem all the evil which I said I would do to
them: because I sent my words to them, but they did not give
ear; crying out to them, but they gave no answer.

18 But to the Rechabites Jeremiah said, This is what the
Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have
done the orders of Jonadab your father, and have kept his
rules, and done everything as he gave you orders to do it;

19 For this reason the Lord of armies, the God of Israel,
has said, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, will never be without a
man to take his place before me.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 36

1 Now it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the
son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying,

2 Take a book and put down in it all the words I have said
to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the
nations, from the day when my word came to you in the days
of Josiah till this day.

3 It may be that the people of Judah, hearing of all the evil
which it is my purpose to do to them, will be turned, every
man from his evil ways; so that they may have my forgiveness
for their evil-doing and their sin.

4 Then Jeremiah sent for Baruch, the son of Neriah; and
Baruch took down from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words
of the Lord which he had said to him, writing them in a book.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 And Jeremiah gave orders to Baruch, saying, I am shut up,
and am not able to go into the house of the Lord:

6 So you are to go, reading there from the book, which you
have taken down from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in
the hearing of the people in the Lord's house, on a day when
they go without food, and in the hearing of all the men of
Judah who have come out from their towns.

7 It may be that their prayer for grace will go up to the
Lord, and that every man will be turned from his evil ways:
for great is the wrath and the passion made clear by the Lord
against this people.

8 And Baruch, the son of Neriah, did as Jeremiah the
prophet gave him orders to do, reading from the book the
words of the Lord in the Lord's house.

9 Now it came about in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son
of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that it was
given out publicly that all the people in Jerusalem, and all
the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem,
were to keep from food before the Lord.

10 Then Baruch gave a public reading of the words of
Jeremiah from the book, in the house of the Lord, in the
room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the
higher square, as one goes in by the new doorway of the
Lord's house, in the hearing of all the people.

11 And Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan,
after hearing all the words of the Lord from the book,

12 Went down to the king's house, to the scribe's room: and
all the rulers were seated there, Elishama the scribe and
Delaiah, the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan, the son of
Achbor, and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah,
the son of Hananiah, and all the rulers.

13 Then Micaiah gave them an account of all the words
which had come to his ears when Baruch was reading the
book to the people.

14 So all the rulers sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the
son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take
in your hand the book from which you have been reading to
the people and come. So Baruch, the son of Neriah, took the
book in his hand and came down to them.

15 Then they said to him, Be seated now, and give us a
reading from it. So Baruch did so, reading it to them.

16 Now it came about that, after hearing all the words,
they said to one another in fear, We will certainly give the
king an account of all these words.

17 And questioning Baruch, they said, Say now, how did
you put all these words down in writing from his mouth?

18 Then Baruch, answering, said, He said all these things to
me by word of mouth, and I put them down with ink in the
book.

19 Then the rulers said to Baruch, Go and put yourself in a
safe place, you and Jeremiah, and let no man have knowledge
of where you are.

20 Then they went into the open square to the king; but the
book they put away in the room of Elishama the scribe; and
they gave the king an account of all the words.

21 So the king sent Jehudi to get the book, and he took it
from the room of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi gave a
reading of it in the hearing of the king and all the rulers who
were by the king's side.

22 Now the king was seated in the winter house, and a fire
was burning in the fireplace in front of him.

23 And it came about that whenever Jehudi, in his reading,
had got through three or four divisions, the king, cutting
them with his penknife, put them into the fire, till all the
book was burned up in the fire which was burning in the
fireplace.

24 But they had no fear and gave no signs of grief, not the
king or any of his servants, after hearing all these words.

25 And Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made a
strong request to the king not to let the book be burned, but
he would not give ear to them.

26 And the king gave orders to Jerahmeel, the king's son,
and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of
Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet:
but the Lord kept them safe.

27 Then after the book, in which Baruch had put down the
words of Jeremiah, had been burned by the king, the word of
the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

28 Take another book and put down in it all the words
which were in the first book, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
put into the fire.

29 And about Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say,
This is what the Lord has said: You have put this book into
the fire, saying, Why have you put in it that the king of
Babylon will certainly come, causing the destruction of this
land and putting an end to every man and beast in it?

30 For this reason the Lord has said of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, He will have no son to take his place on the seat of
David: his dead body will be put out to undergo the heat of
the day and the cold of the night.

31 And I will send punishment on him and on his seed and
on his servants for their evil-doing; I will send on them and
on the people of Jerusalem and the men of Judah, all the evil
which I said against them, but they did not give ear.

32 Then Jeremiah took another book, and gave it to
Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who put down in it,
from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which
had been burned in the fire by Jehoiakim, king of Judah: and
in addition a number of other words of the same sort.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 37

1 And Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, became king in place of
Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar, king
of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah.

2 But he and his servants and the people of the land did not
give ear to the words of the Lord which he said by Jeremiah
the prophet.

3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah,
and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, to the
prophet Jeremiah, saying, Make prayer now to the Lord our
God for us.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 (Now Jeremiah was going about among the people, for
they had not put him in prison.

5 And Pharaoh's army had come out from Egypt: and the
Chaldaeans, who were attacking Jerusalem, hearing news of
them, went away from Jerusalem.)

6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah,
saying,

7 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said: This is what you are
to say to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions
from me: See, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to your
help, will go back to Egypt, to their land.

8 And the Chaldaeans will come back again and make war
against this town and they will take it and put it on fire.

9 The Lord has said, Have no false hopes, saying to
yourselves, The Chaldaeans will go away from us: for they
will not go away.

10 For even if you had overcome all the army of the
Chaldaeans fighting against you, and there were only
wounded men among them, still they would get up, every
man in his tent, and put this town on fire.

11 And it came about that when the Chaldaean army
outside Jerusalem had gone away for fear of Pharaoh's army,

12 Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of
Benjamin, with the purpose of taking up his heritage there
among the people.

13 But when he was at the Benjamin door, a captain of the
watch named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of
Hananiah, who was stationed there, put his hand on
Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are going to give yourself
up to the Chaldaeans.

14 Then Jeremiah said, That is not true; I am not going to
the Chaldaeans. But he would not give ear to him: so Irijah
made him prisoner and took him to the rulers.

15 And the rulers were angry with Jeremiah, and gave him
blows and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the
scribe: for they had made that the prison.

16 So Jeremiah came into the hole of the prison, under the
arches, and was there for a long time.

17 Then King Zedekiah sent and got him out: and the king,
questioning him secretly in his house, said, Is there any word
from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. Then he said,
You will be given up into the hands of the king of Babylon.

18 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, What has been my
sin against you or against your servants or against this
people, that you have put me in prison?

19 Where now are your prophets who said to you, The king
of Babylon will not come against you and against this land?

20 And now be pleased to give ear, O my lord the king; let
my prayer for help come before you, and do not make me go
back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, for fear that I may
come to my death there.

21 Then by the order of Zedekiah the king, Jeremiah was
put into the place of the armed watchmen, and they gave him
every day a cake of bread from the street of the bread-makers,
till all the bread in the town was used up. So Jeremiah was
kept in the place of the armed watchmen.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 38

1 Now it came to the ears of Shephatiah, the son of Mattan,
and Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, and Jucal, the son of
Shelemiah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, that Jeremiah
had said to all the people,

2 These are the words of the Lord: Whoever goes on living
in this town will come to his death by the sword or through
need of food or by disease: but whoever goes out to the
Chaldaeans will keep his life out of the power of the attackers
and be safe.

3 The Lord has said, This town will certainly be given into
the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will
take it.

4 Then the rulers said to the king, Let this man be put to
death, because he is putting fear into the hearts of the men of
war who are still in the town, and into the hearts of the
people, by saying such things to them: this man is not
working for the well-being of the people, but for their
damage.

5 Then Zedekiah the king said, See, he is in your hands: for
the king was not able to do anything against them.

6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the water-hole of
Malchiah, the king's son, in the place of the armed watchmen:
and they let Jeremiah down with cords. And in the hole there
was no water, but wet earth: and Jeremiah went down into
the wet earth.

7 Now it came to the ears of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an
unsexed servant in the king's house, that they had put
Jeremiah into the water-hole; the king at that time being
seated in the doorway of Benjamin:

8 And Ebed-melech went out from the king's house and said
to the king,

9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all they
have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have put into
the water-hole; and he will come to his death in the place
where he is through need of food: for there is no more bread
in the town.

10 Then the king gave orders to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,
saying, Take with you three men from here and get Jeremiah
out of the water-hole before death overtakes him.

11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into
the house of the king, to the place where the clothing was
kept, and got from there old clothing and bits of old cloth,
and let them down by cords into the water-hole where
Jeremiah was.

12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, Put
these bits of old cloth under your arms under the cords. And
Jeremiah did so.

13 So pulling Jeremiah up with the cords they got him out
of the water-hole: and Jeremiah was kept in the place of the
armed watchmen.

14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and
took him into the rulers' doorway in the house of the Lord:
and the king said to Jeremiah, I have a question to put to you;
keep nothing back from me.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I give you the answer
to your question, will you not certainly put me to death? and
if I make a suggestion to you, you will not give it a hearing.

16 So King Zedekiah gave his oath to Jeremiah secretly,
saying, By the living Lord, who gave us our life, I will not
put you to death, or give you up to these men who are
desiring to take your life.

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, These are the words of
the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel: If you go out
to the king of Babylon's captains, then you will have life, and
the town will not be burned with fire, and you and your
family will be kept from death:

18 But if you do not go out to the king of Babylon's
captains, then this town will be given into the hands of the
Chaldaeans and they will put it on fire, and you will not get
away from them.

19 And King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, I am troubled on
account of the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldaeans,
for fear that they may give me up to them and they will put
me to shame.

20 But Jeremiah said, They will not give you up: be guided
now by the word of the Lord as I have given it to you, and it
will be well for you, and you will keep your life.

21 But if you do not go out, this is what the Lord has made
clear to me:

22 See, all the rest of the women in the house of the king of
Judah will be taken out to the king of Babylon's captains,
and these women will say, Your nearest friends have been
false to you and have got the better of you: they have made
your feet go deep into the wet earth, and they are turned
away back from you.

23 And they will take all your wives and your children out
to the Chaldaeans: and you will not get away out of their
hands, but will be taken by the hands of the king of Babylon:
and this town will be burned with fire.

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no man have
knowledge of these words, and you will not be put to death.

25 But if it comes to the ears of the rulers that I have been
talking with you, and they come and say to you, Give us
word now of what you have said to the king and what the
king said to you, keeping nothing back and we will not put
you to death;

26 Then you are to say to them, I made my request to the
king, that he would not send me back to my death in
Jonathan's house.

27 Then all the rulers came to Jeremiah, questioning him:
and he gave them an answer in the words the king had given
him orders to say. So they said nothing more to him; for the
thing was not made public.

28 So Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed
watchmen till the day when Jerusalem was taken.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 39
1 And it came about, that when Jerusalem was taken, (in
the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month,

Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, with all his army, came
against Jerusalem, shutting it in on every side;

2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on
the ninth day of the month, the town was broken into:)

3 All the captains of the king of Babylon came in and took
their places in the middle doorway of the town, Nergal-shar-
ezer, ruler of Sin-magir, the Rabmag, and Nebushazban, the
Rab-saris, and all the captains of the king of Babylon.

4 And when Zedekiah, king of Judah, and all the men of
war saw it, they went in flight from the town by night, by the
way of the king's garden, through the doorway between the
two walls: and they went out by the Arabah.

5 But the Chaldaean army went after them and overtook
Zedekiah in the lowlands of Jericho: and they made him a
prisoner and took him up to Nebuchadrezzar, king of
Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, to be judged by
him.

6 Then the king of Babylon put the sons of Zedekiah to
death before his eyes in Riblah: and the king of Babylon put
to death all the great men of Judah.

7 And more than this, he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and had
him put in chains to take him away to Babylon.

8 And the Chaldaeans put the king's house on fire, as well
as the houses of the people, and had the walls of Jerusalem
broken down.

9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took
away to Babylon as prisoners, all the rest of the workmen
who were still in the town, as well as those who had given
themselves up to him, and all the rest of the people.

10 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, let the
poorest of the people, who had nothing whatever, go on
living in the land of Judah, and gave them vine-gardens and
fields at the same time.

11 Now Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, gave orders
about Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed
men, saying,

12 Take him and keep an eye on him and see that no evil
comes to him; but do with him whatever he says to you.

13 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, sent
Nebushazban, the Rab-saris, and Nergal-shar-ezer, the
Rabmag, and all the chief captains of the king of Babylon,

14 And they sent and took Jeremiah out of the place of the
watchmen, and gave him into the care of Gedaliah, the son of
Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him to his house: so he
was living among the people.

15 Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he
was shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, saying,

16 Go and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, This is what
the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, my words
will come true for this town, for evil and not for good: they
will come about before your eyes on that day.

17 But I will keep you safe on that day, says the Lord: you
will not be given into the hands of the men you are fearing.

18 For I will certainly let you go free, and you will not be
put to the sword, but your life will be given to you out of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

hands of your attackers: because you have put your faith in
me, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 40

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, had let him go
from Ramah, when he had taken him; for he had been put in
chains, among all the prisoners of Jerusalem and Judah who
were taken away prisoners to Babylon.

2 And the captain of the armed men took Jeremiah and said
to him, The Lord your God gave word of the evil which was
to come on this place:

3 *** and the Lord has made it come, and has done as he
said; because of your sin against the Lord in not giving ear to
his voice; and that is why this thing has come on you.

4 Now see, this day I am freeing you from the chains which
are on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me
to Babylon, then come, and I will keep an eye on you; but if
it does not seem good to you to come with me to Babylon,
then do not come: see, all the land is before you; if it seems
good and right to you to go on living in the land,

5 Then go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of
Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made ruler over the
towns of Judah, and make your living-place with him among
the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go. So the
captain of the armed men gave him food and some money and
let him go.

6 So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, in
Mizpah, and was living with him among the people who were
still in the land.

7 Now when it came to the ears of all the captains of the
forces who were in the field, and their men, that the king of
Babylon had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, ruler in the
land, and had put under his care the men and women and
children, all the poorest of the land, those who had not been
taken away to Babylon;

8 Then they came to Gedaliah in Mizpah, even Ishmael, the
son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and
Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the
Netophathite, and Jezaniah, the son of the Maacathite, they
and their men.

9 And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,
took an oath to them and their men, saying, Have no fear of
the servants of the Chaldaeans: go on living in the land, and
become the servants of the king of Babylon, and all will be
well.

10 As for me, I will be living in Mizpah as your
representative before the Chaldaeans who come to us: but
you are to get in your wine and summer fruits and oil and
put them in your vessels, and make living-places for
yourselves in the towns which you have taken.

11 In the same way, when all the Jews who were in Moab
and among the children of Ammon and in Edom and in all
the countries, had news that the king of Babylon had let
Judah keep some of its people and that he had put over them
Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan;

12 Then all the Jews came back from all the places to which
they had gone in flight, and came to the land of Judah, to
Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and got in a great store of wine and
summer fruit.

13 Now Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of
the forces which were in the field, came to Gedaliah in
Mizpah,

14 And said to him, Has it come to your knowledge that
Baalis, the king of the children of Ammon, has sent Ishmael,
the son of Nethaniah, to take your life? But Gedaliah, the
son of Ahikam, put no faith in what they said.

15 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, said to Gedaliah in
Mizpah secretly, Let me now go and put Ishmael, the son of
Nethaniah, to death without anyone's knowledge: why let
him take your life so that all the Jews who have come
together to you may be sent in flight, and the rest of the men
of Judah come to an end?

16 But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, the
son of Kareah, You are not to do this: for what you say
about Ishmael is false.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 41

1 Now it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael, the
son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king's seed,
having with him ten men, came to Gedaliah, the son of
Ahikam, in Mizpah; and they had a meal together in Mizpah.

2 Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who
were with him, got up, and attacking Gedaliah, the son of
Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, put to death
him whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land.

3 And Ishmael put to death all the Jews who were with him,
even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldaean men of
war.

4 Now on the second day after he had put Gedaliah to death,
when no one had knowledge of it,

5 Some people came from Shechem, from Shiloh and
Samaria, eighty men, with the hair of their faces cut off and
their clothing out of order, and with cuts on their bodies,
and in their hands meal offerings and perfumes which they
were taking to the house of the Lord.

6 And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, went out from
Mizpah with the purpose of meeting them, weeping on his
way: and it came about that when he was face to face with
them he said, Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam.

7 And when they came inside the town, Ishmael, the son of
Nethaniah, and the men who were with him, put them to
death and put their bodies into a deep hole.

8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael,
Do not put us to death, for we have secret stores, in the
country, of grain and oil and honey. So he did not put them
to death with their countrymen.

9 Now the hole into which Ishmael had put the dead bodies
of the men whom he had put to death, was the great hole
which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha, king of
Israel: and Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, made it full of the
bodies of those who had been put to death.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 Then Ishmael took away as prisoners all the rest of the
people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the
people still in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of
the armed men, had put under the care of Gedaliah, the son
of Ahikam: Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, took them away
prisoners with the purpose of going over to the children of
Ammon.

11 But when Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the
captains of the armed forces who were with him, had news of
all the evil which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done,

12 They took their men and went out to make war on
Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and they came face to face
with him by the great waters in Gibeon.

13 Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw
Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces
with him, then they were glad.

14 And all the people whom Ishmael had taken away
prisoners from Mizpah, turning round, came back and went
to Johanan, the son of Kareah.

15 But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, got away from
Johanan, with eight men, and went to the children of
Ammon.

16 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of
the forces who were with him, took all the rest of the people
whom Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had made prisoners,
after he had put to death Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the
people from Mizpah, that is, the men of war and the women
and the children and the unsexed servants, whom he had
taken back with him from Gibeon:

17 And they went and were living in the resting-place of
Chimham, which is near Beth-lehem on the way into Egypt,

18 Because of the Chaldaeans: for they were in fear of them
because Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had put to death
Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had
made ruler over the land.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 42

1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan, the son
of Kareah, and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the
people from the least to the greatest, came near,

2 And said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our request come
before you, and make prayer for us to the Lord your God,
even for this small band of us; for we are only a small band
out of what was a great number, as your eyes may see:

3 That the Lord your God may make clear to us the way in
which we are to go and what we are to do.

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have given ear
to you; see, I will make prayer to the Lord your God, as you
have said; and it will be that, whatever the Lord may say in
answer to you, I will give you word of it, keeping nothing
back.

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, May the Lord be a true
witness against us in good faith, if we do not do everything
which the Lord your God sends you to say to us.

6 If it is good or if it is evil, we will be guided by the voice
of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you; so that it

may be well for us when we give ear to the voice of the Lord
our God.

7 And it came about that after ten days the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah.

8 And he sent for Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the
captains of the forces who were still with him, and all the
people, from the least to the greatest,

9 And said to them, These are the words of the Lord, the
God of Israel, to whom you sent me to put your request
before him:

10 If you still go on living in the land, then I will go on
building you up and not pulling you down, planting you and
not uprooting you: for my purpose of doing evil to you has
been changed.

11 Have no fear of the king of Babylon, of whom you are
now in fear; have no fear of him, says the Lord: for I am with
you to keep you safe and to give you salvation from his hands.

12 And I will have mercy on you, so that he may have mercy
on you and let you go back to your land.

13 But if you say, We have no desire to go on living in this
land; and do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God,

14 Saying, No, but we will go into the land of Egypt,
where we will not see war, or be hearing the sound of the
horn, or be in need of food; there we will make our living-
place;

15 Then give ear now to the word of the Lord, O you last of
Judah: the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, If your
minds are fixed on going into Egypt and stopping there;

16 Then it will come about that the sword, which is the
cause of your fear, will overtake you there in the land of
Egypt, and need of food, which you are fearing, will go after
you there in Egypt; and there death will come to you.

17 Such will be the fate of all the men whose minds are fixed
on going into Egypt and stopping there; they will come to
their end by the sword, by being short of food, and by disease:
not one of them will keep his life or get away from the evil
which I will send on them.

18 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel,
has said: As my wrath and passion have been let loose on the
people of Jerusalem, so will my passion be let loose on you
when you go into Egypt: and you will become an oath and a
cause of wonder and a curse and a name of shame; and you
will never see this place again.

19 The Lord has said about you, O last of Judah, Go not
into Egypt: be certain that I have given witness to you this
day.

20 For you have been acting with deceit in your hearts; for
you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, Make prayer for
us to the Lord our God, and give us word of everything he
may say, and we will do it.

21 And this day I have made it clear to you, and you have
not given ear to the voice of the Lord your God in anything
for which he has sent me to you.

22 And now be certain that you will come to your end by
the sword and by being short of food and by disease, in the
place to which you are pleased to go for a living-place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 43

1 And it came about that when Jeremiah had come to the
end of giving all the people the words of the Lord their God,
which the Lord their God had sent him to say to them, even
all these words,

2 Then Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son
of Kareah, and all the men of pride, said to Jeremiah, You
have said what is false: the Lord our God has not sent you to
say, You are not to go into the land of Egypt and make your
living-place there:

3 But Baruch, the son of Neriah, is moving you against us,
to give us up into the hands of the Chaldaeans so that they
may put us to death, and take us away prisoners into
Babylon.

4 So Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the
forces, and all the people, did not give ear to the order of the
Lord that they were to go on living in the land of Judah.

5 But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of
the forces took all the rest of Judah who had come back into
the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been
forced to go;

6 The men and the women and the children and the king's
daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan, the captain
of the armed men, had put under the care of Gedaliah, the
son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the
prophet and Baruch, the son of Neriah;

7 And they came into the land of Egypt; for they did not
give ear to the voice of the Lord: and they came to
Tahpanhes.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in
Tahpanhes, saying,

9 Take in your hand some great stones, and put them in a
safe place in the paste in the brickwork which is at the way
into Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, before the eyes of the
men of Judah;

10 And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the
God of Israel, has said: See, I will send and take
Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and he
will put the seat of his kingdom on these stones which have
been put in a safe place here by you; and his tent will be
stretched over them.

11 And he will come and overcome the land of Egypt; those
who are for death will be put to death, those who are to be
prisoners will be made prisoners, and those who are for the
sword will be given to the sword.

12 And he will put a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt;
and they will be burned by him: and he will make Egypt
clean as a keeper of sheep makes clean his clothing; and he
will go out from there in peace.

13 And the stone pillars of Beth-shemesh in the land of
Egypt will be broken by him, and the houses of the gods of
Egypt burned with fire.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 44

1 The word which came to Jeremiah about all the Jews who
were living in the land of Egypt, in Migdol and at Tahpanhes
and at Noph and in the country of Pathros, saying,

2 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: You have
seen all the evil which I have sent on Jerusalem and on all the
towns of Judah; and now, this day they are waste and
unpeopled;

3 Because of the evil which they have done, moving me to
wrath by burning perfumes in worship to other gods, who
were not their gods or yours or the gods of their fathers.

4 And I sent all my servants the prophets to you, getting up
early and sending them, saying, Do not do this disgusting
thing which is hated by me.

5 But they gave no attention, and their ears were not open
so that they might be turned from their evil-doing and from
burning perfume to other gods.

6 Because of this, my passion and my wrath were let loose,
burning in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;
and they are waste and unpeopled as at this day.

7 So now, the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel,
has said, Why are you doing this great evil against yourselves,
causing every man and woman, little child and baby at the
breast among you in Judah to be cut off till not one is still
living;

8 Moving me to wrath with the work of your hands,
burning perfumes to other gods in the land of Egypt, where
you have gone to make a place for yourselves, so that you
may become a curse and a name of shame among all the
nations of the earth?

9 Have you no memory of the evil-doing of your fathers,
and the evil-doing of the kings of Judah, and the evil-doing
of their wives, and the evil which you yourselves have done,
and the evil which your wives have done, in the land of Judah
and in the streets of Jerusalem?

10 Even to this day their hearts are not broken, and they
have no fear, and have not gone in the way of my law or of
my rules which I gave to you and to your fathers.

11 So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: See, my face will be turned against you for evil, for the
cutting off of all Judah;

12 And I will take the last of Judah, whose minds are fixed
on going into the land of Egypt and stopping there, and they
will all come to their end, falling in the land of Egypt by the
sword and by being short of food and by disease; death will
overtake them, from the least to the greatest, death by the
sword and by need of food: they will become an oath and a
cause of wonder and a curse and a name of shame.

13 For I will send punishment on those who are living in
the land of Egypt, as I have sent punishment on Jerusalem, by
the sword and by need of food and by disease:

14 So that not one of the rest of Judah, who have gone into
the land of Egypt and are living there, will get away or keep
his life, to come back to the land of Judah where they are
hoping to come back and be living again: for not one will
come back, but only those who are able to get away.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Then all the men who had knowledge that their wives
were burning perfumes to other gods, and all the women who
were present, a great meeting, answering Jeremiah, said,

16 As for the word which you have said to us in the name of
the Lord, we will not give ear to you.

17 But we will certainly do every word which has gone out
of our mouths, burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and
draining out drink offerings to her as we did, we and our
fathers and our kings and our rulers, in the towns of Judah
and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had food enough
and did well and saw no evil.

18 But from the time when we gave up burning perfumes to
the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her,
we have been in need of all things, and have been wasted by
the sword and by need of food.

19 And the women said, When we were burning perfumes
to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to
her, did we make cakes in her image and give her our drink
offerings without the knowledge of our husbands?

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and
women and all the people who had given him that answer,

21 The perfumes which you have been burning in the towns
of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers
and your kings and your rulers and the people of the land,
had the Lord no memory of them, and did he not keep them
in mind?

22 And the Lord was no longer able to put up with the evil
of your doings and the disgusting things you did; and
because of this your land has become a waste and a cause of
wonder and a curse, with no one living in it, as at this day.

23 Because you have been burning perfumes, and sinning
against the Lord, and have not given ear to the voice of the
Lord, or gone in the way of his law or his rules or his orders;
for this reason this evil has come on you, as it is today.

24 Further, Jeremiah said to all the people and all the
women, Give ear to the word of the Lord, all those of Judah
who are living in Egypt:

25 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: You women have said with your mouths, and with your
hands you have done what you said, We will certainly give
effect to the oaths we have made, to have perfumes burned to
the queen of heaven and drink offerings drained out to her:
then give effect to your oaths and do them.

26 And now give ear to the word of the Lord, all you of
Judah who are living in the land of Egypt: Truly, I have
taken an oath by my great name, says the Lord, that my
name is no longer to be named in the mouth of any man of
Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, By the life of the Lord
God.

27 See, I am watching over them for evil and not for good:
all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be
wasted by the sword and by need of food till there is an end
of them.

28 And those who get away safe from the sword will come
back from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, a very
small number; and all the rest of Judah, who have gone into

the land of Egypt and are living there, will see whose word
has effect, mine or theirs.

29 And this will be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I
will give you punishment in this place, so that you may see
that my words will certainly have effect against you for evil:

30 The Lord has said, See, I will give up Pharaoh Hophra,
king of Egypt, into the hands of those who are fighting
against him and desiring to take his life, as I gave Zedekiah,
king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of
Babylon, his hater, who had designs against his life.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 45

1 The words which Jeremiah the prophet said to Baruch,
the son of Neriah, when he put these words down in a book
from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,
the son of Josiah, king of Judah; he said,

2 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said of you,
O Baruch:

3 You said, Sorrow is mine! for the Lord has given me
sorrow in addition to my pain; I am tired with the sound of
my sorrow, and I get no rest.

4 This is what you are to say to him: The Lord has said,
Truly, the building which I put up will be broken down, and
that which was planted by me will be uprooted, and this
through all the land;

5 And as for you, are you looking for great things for
yourself? Have no desire for them: for truly I will send evil on
all flesh, says the Lord: but your life I will keep safe from
attack wherever you go.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 46

1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the
prophet about the nations.

2 Of Egypt: about the army of Pharaoh-neco, king of
Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish,
which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

3 Get out the breastplate and body-cover, and come
together to the fight.

4 Make the horses ready, and get up, you horsemen, and
take your places with your head-dresses; make the spears
sharp and put on the breastplates.

5 What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned
back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight,
not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord.

6 Let not the quick-footed go in flight, or the man of war
get away; on the north, by the river Euphrates, they are
slipping and falling.

7 Who is this coming up like the Nile, whose waters are
lifting their heads like the rivers?

8 Egypt is coming up like the Nile, and his waters are
lifting their heads like the rivers, and he says, I will go up,
covering the earth; I will send destruction on the town and
its people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 Go up, you horses; go rushing on, you carriages of war;
go out, you men of war: Cush and Put, gripping the body-
cover, and the Ludim, with bent bows.

10 But that day is the day of the Lord, the Lord of armies, a

day of punishment when he will take payment from his haters:

and the sword will have all its desire, drinking their blood in
full measure: for there is an offering to the Lord, the Lord of
armies, in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up to Gilead and take sweet oil, O virgin daughter of
Egypt: there is no help in all your medical arts; nothing will
make you well.

12 Your shame has come to the ears of the nations, and the
earth is full of your cry: for the strong man is falling against
the strong, they have come down together.

13 The word which the Lord said to Jeremiah the prophet,
of how Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, would come and
make war on the land of Egypt.

14 Give the news in Migdol, make it public in Noph: say,
Take up your positions and make yourselves ready; for on
every side of you the sword has made destruction.

15 Why has Apis, your strong one, gone in flight? he was
not able to keep his place, because the Lord was forcing him
down with strength.

16 He made many to stumble, yes, they are falling: and they
say one to another, Let us get up and go back to our people,
to the land of our birth, away from the cruel sword.

17 Give a name to Pharaoh, king of Egypt: A noise who has
let the time go by.

18 By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of
armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like
Carmel by the sea, so will he come.

19 O daughter living in Egypt, make ready the vessels of a
prisoner: for Noph will become a waste, it will be burned up
and become unpeopled.

20 Egypt is a fair young cow; but a biting insect has come
on her out of the north.

21 And those who were her fighters for payment are like fat
oxen; for they are turned back, they have gone in flight
together, they do not keep their place: for the day of their
fate has come on them, the time of their punishment.

22 She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they
come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like
wood-cutters.

23 They will be cutting down her woods, for they may not
be searched out; because they are like locusts, more than may
be numbered.

24 The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame; she will be
given up into the hands of the people of the north.

25 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I
will send punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh and on
those who put their faith in him;

26 And I will give them up into the hands of those who will
take their lives, and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king
of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants: and later, it
will be peopled as in the past, says the Lord.

27 But have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, and do not be
troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from
far away, and your seed from the land where they are
prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and in
peace, and no one will give him cause for fear.

28 Have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; for I
am with you: for I will put an end to all the nations where I
have sent you, but I will not put an end to you completely:
though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and
will not let you go quite without punishment.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 47

1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the
prophet about the Philistines, before Pharaoh's attack on
Gaza.

2 This is what the Lord has said: See, waters are coming up
out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream,
overflowing the land and everything in it, the town and
those who are living in it; and men will give a cry, and all the
people of the land will be crying out in pain.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the feet of his war-horses,
at the rushing of his carriages and the thunder of his wheels,
fathers will give no thought to their children, because their
hands are feeble;

4 Because of the day which is coming with destruction on
all the Philistines, cutting off from Tyre and Zidon the last of
their helpers: for the Lord will send destruction on the
Philistines, the rest of the sea-land of Caphtor.

5 The hair is cut off from the head of Gaza; Ashkelon has
come to nothing; the last of the Anakim are deeply wounding
themselves.

6 O sword of the Lord, how long will you have no rest? put
yourself back into your cover; be at peace, be quiet.

7 How is it possible for it to be quiet, seeing that the Lord
has given it orders? against Ashkelon and against the sea-
land he has given it directions.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 48

1 Of Moab. The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said:
Sorrow on Nebo, for it has been made waste; Kiriathaim has
been put to shame and is taken: the strong place is put to
shame and broken down.

2 The praise of Moab has come to an end; as for Heshbon,
evil has been designed against her; come, let us put an end to
her as a nation. But your mouth will be shut, O Madmen; the
sword will go after you.

3 There is the sound of crying from Horonaim, wasting and
great destruction;

4 Moab is broken; her cry has gone out to Zoar.

5 For by the slope of Luhith they will go up, weeping all
the way; for on the way down to Horonaim the cry of
destruction has come to their ears.

6 Go in flight, get away with your lives, and let your faces
be turned to Aroer in the Arabah.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 For because you have put your faith in your strong places,
you, even you, will be taken: and Chemosh will go out as a
prisoner, his priests and his rulers together.

8 And the attacker will come against every town, not one
will be safe; and the valley will be made waste, and
destruction will come to the lowland, as the Lord has said.

9 Put up a pillar for Moab, for she will come to a complete
end: and her towns will become a waste, without anyone
living in them.

10 Let him be cursed who does the Lord's work half-
heartedly; let him be cursed who keeps back his sword from
blood.

11 From his earliest days, Moab has been living in comfort;
like wine long stored he has not been drained from vessel to
vessel, he has never gone away as a prisoner: so his taste is
still in him, his smell is unchanged.

12 So truly, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
send to him men who will have him turned over till there is
no more wine in his vessels, and his wine-skins will be
completely broken.

13 And Moab will be shamed on account of Chemosh, as the
children of Israel were shamed on account of Beth-el their
hope.

14 How say you, We are men of war and strong fighters?

15 He who makes Moab waste has gone up against her; and
the best of her young men have gone down to their death,
says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies.

16 The fate of Moab is near, and trouble is coming on him
very quickly.

17 All you who are round about him, give signs of grief for
him, and all you who have knowledge of his name, say, How
is the strong rod broken, even the beautiful branch!

18 Come down from your glory, O people of Dibon, and
take your seat in the place of the waste; for the attacker of
Moab has gone up against you, sending destruction on your
strong places.

19 O daughter of Aroer, take your station by the way, on
the watch: questioning him who is in flight, and her who has
got away safe, say, What has been done?

20 Moab has been put to shame, she is broken: make loud
sounds of grief, crying out for help; give the news in Arnon,
that Moab has been made waste.

21 And punishment has come on the lowlands; on Holon
and Jahzah, and on Mephaath,

22 And on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth-diblathaim,

23 And on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Beth-
meon,

24 And on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of
the land of Moab, far and near.

25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says
the Lord.

26 Make him full of wine, for his heart has been lifted up
against the Lord: and Moab will be rolling in the food he
was not able to keep down, and everyone will be making
sport of him.

27 For did you not make sport of Israel? was he taken
among thieves? for whenever you were talking about him,
you were shaking your head over him.

28 O people of Moab, go away from the towns and take
cover in the rock; be like the dove of the Arabah, which
makes her living-place in holes.

29 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is;
how he is lifted up in pride; and his great opinion of himself,
and that his heart is lifted up.

30 I have knowledge of his wrath, says the Lord, that it is
nothing; his high-sounding words have done nothing.

31 For this cause I will give cries of grief for Moab, crying
out for Moab, even for all of it; I will be sorrowing for the
men of Kir-heres.

32 My weeping for you, O vine of Sibmah, will be more
than the weeping of Jazer: your branches have gone over the
sea, stretching even to Jazer: destruction has come down on
your summer fruits and your cut grapes.

33 All joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile
field and for the land of Moab; I have made the wine come to
an end from the crushing vessels: no longer will the grapes be
crushed with the sound of glad voices.

34 The cry of Heshbon comes even to Elealeh; to Jahaz their
voice is sounding; from Zoar even to Horonaim and to
Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim will become dry.

35 And I will put an end in Moab, says the Lord, to him
who is making offerings in the high place and burning
perfumes to his gods.

36 So my heart is sounding for Moab like the sound of pipes,
and my heart is sounding like pipes for the men of Kir-heres:
for the wealth he has got for himself has come to an end.

37 For everywhere the hair of the head and the hair of the
face is cut off: on every hand there are wounds, and haircloth
on every body.

38 On all the house-tops of Moab and in its streets there is
weeping everywhere; for Moab has been broken like a vessel
in which there is no pleasure, says the Lord.

39 How is it broken down! how is Moab's back turned in
shame! so Moab will be a cause of sport and of fear to
everyone round about him.

40 For the Lord has said, See, he will come like an eagle in
flight, stretching out his wings against Moab.

41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong places have been forced,
and the hearts of Moab's men of war in that day will be like
the heart of a woman in birth-pains.

42 And Moab will come to an end as a people, because he
has been lifting himself up against the Lord.

43 Fear and death and the net have come on you, O people
of Moab, says the Lord.

44 He who goes in flight from the fear will be overtaken by
death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the
net: for I will make this come on Moab, even the year of their
punishment, says the Lord.

45 Those who went in flight from the fear are waiting
under the shade of Heshbon: for a fire has gone out from
Heshbon and a flame from the house of Sihon, burning up

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the pride of Moab and the crown of the head of the violent
ones.

46 Sorrow is yours, O Moab! the people of Chemosh are
overcome: for your sons have been taken away as prisoners,
and your daughters made servants.

47 But still, I will let the fate of Moab be changed in the
last days, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 49

1 About the children of Ammon. These are the words of the
Lord: Has Israel no sons? has he no one to take the heritage?
why then has Milcom taken Gad for himself, putting his
people in its towns?

2 Because of this, see, the days are coming when I will have
a cry of war sounded against Rabbah, the town of the
children of Ammon; it will become a waste of broken walls,
and her daughter-towns will be burned with fire: then Israel
will take the heritage of those who took his heritage, says the
Lord.

3 Make sounds of grief, O Heshbon, for Ai is wasted; give
loud cries, O daughters of Rabbah, and put haircloth round
you: give yourselves to weeping, running here and there and
wounding yourselves; for Milcom will be taken prisoner
together with his rulers and his priests.

4 Why are you lifted up in pride on account of your valleys,
your flowing valley, O daughter ever turning away? who
puts her faith in her wealth, saying, Who will come against
me?

5 See, I will send fear on you, says the Lord, the Lord of
armies, from those who are round you on every side; you will
be forced out, every man straight before him, and there will
be no one to get together the wanderers.

6 But after these things, I will let the fate of the children of
Ammon be changed, says the Lord.

7 About Edom. This is what the Lord of armies has said. Is
there no more wisdom in Teman? have wise suggestions come
to an end among men of good sense? has their wisdom
completely gone?

8 Go in flight, go back, take cover in deep places, you who
are living in Dedan; for I will send the fate of Edom on him,
even the time of his punishment.

9 If men came to get your grapes, would they not let some
be uncut on the vines? if thieves came by night, would they
not make waste till they had enough?

10 I have had Esau searched out, uncovering his secret
places, so that he may not keep himself covered: his seed is
wasted and has come to an end, and there is no help from his
neighbours.

11 Put in my care your children who have no father, and I

will keep them safe; and let your widows put their faith in me.

12 For the Lord has said, Those for whom the cup was not
made ready will certainly be forced to take of it; and are you
to go without punishment? you will not be without

punishment, but will certainly be forced to take from the cup.

13 For I have taken an oath by myself, says the Lord, that
Bozrah will become a cause of wonder, a name of shame, a

waste and a curse; and all its towns will be waste places for
ever.

14 Word has come to me from the Lord, and a
representative has been sent to the nations, to say, Come
together and go up against her, and take your places for the
fight.

15 For see, I have made you small among the nations,
looked down on by men.

16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has been a
false hope, O you who are living in the cracks of the rock,
keeping your place on the top of the hill: even if you made
your living-place as high as the eagle, I would make you
come down, says the Lord.

17 And Edom will become a cause of wonder: everyone who
goes by will be overcome with wonder, and make sounds of
fear at all her punishments.

18 As at the downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah and their
neighbouring towns, says the Lord, no man will be living in
it, no son of man will have a resting-place there.

19 See, he will come up like a lion from the thick growth of
Jordan against the resting-place of Teman: but I will
suddenly make him go in flight from her; and I will put over
her the man of my selection: for who is like me? and who will
put forward his cause against me? and what keeper of sheep
will be able to keep his place before me?

20 For this cause give ear to the decision of the Lord which
he has made against Edom, and to his purposes designed
against the people of Teman: Truly, they will be pulled away
by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their
fields with them.

21 The earth is shaking with the noise of their fall; their cry
is sounding in the Red Sea.

22 See, he will come up like an eagle in flight, stretching
out his wings against Bozrah: and the hearts of Edom's men
of war on that day will be like the heart of a woman in birth-
pains.

23 About Damascus. Hamath is put to shame, and Arpad;
for the word of evil has come to their ears, their heart in its
fear is turned to water, it will not be quiet.

24 Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear
has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her,
as on a woman in birth-pains.

25 How has the town of praise been wasted, the place of joy!

26 So her young men will be falling in her streets, and all
the men of war will be cut off in that day, says the Lord of
armies.

27 And I will have a fire lighted on the wall of Damascus,
burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad.

28 About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame. This is what
the Lord has said: Up! go against Kedar, and make an attack
on the children of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks they will take; they will take
away for themselves their curtains and all their vessels and
their camels: they will give a cry to them, Fear on every side.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 Go in flight, go wandering far off, take cover in deep
places, O people of Hazor, says the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar,
king of Babylon, has made a design against you, he has a
purpose against you in mind.

31 Up! go against a nation which is living in comfort and
without fear of danger, says the Lord, without doors or locks,
living by themselves.

32 And their camels will be taken from them by force, and
their great herds will come into the hands of their attackers:
those who have the ends of their hair cut I will send in flight
to all the winds; and I will send their fate on them from every
side, says the Lord.

33 And Hazor will be a hole for jackals, a waste for ever: no
one will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-
place there.

34 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the
prophet about Elam, when Zedekiah first became king of
Judah, saying,

35 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will have
the bow of Elam, their chief strength, broken.

36 And I will send on Elam four winds from the four
quarters of heaven, driving them out to all those winds; there
will be no nation into which the wanderers from Elam do not
come.

37 And I will let Elam be broken before their haters, and
before those who are making designs against their lives: I
will send evil on them, even my burning wrath, says the Lord;
and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to
them:

38 I will put the seat of my power in Elam, and in Elam I
will put an end to kings and rulers, says the Lord.

39 But it will come about that, in the last days, I will let the
fate of Elam be changed, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 50

1 The word which the Lord said about Babylon, about the
land of the Chaldaeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Give it out among the nations, make it public, and let the
flag be lifted up; give the word and keep nothing back; say,
Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is broken,
her images are put to shame, her gods are broken.

3 For out of the north a nation is coming up against her,
which will make her land waste and unpeopled: they are in
flight, man and beast are gone.

4 In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the children
of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together;
they will go on their way weeping and making prayer to the
Lord their God.

5 They will be questioning about the way to Zion, with
their faces turned in its direction, saying, Come, and be
united to the Lord in an eternal agreement which will be
kept in mind for ever.

6 My people have been wandering sheep: their keepers have
made them go out of the right way, turning them loose on
the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, having
no memory of their resting-place.

7 They have been attacked by all those who came across
them: and their attackers said, We are doing no wrong,
because they have done evil against the Lord in whom is
righteousness, against the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

8 Go in flight out of Babylon, go out of the land of the
Chaldaeans, and be like he-goats before the flocks.

9 For see, I am moving and sending up against Babylon a
band of great nations from the north country: and they will
put their armies in position against her; and from there she
will be taken: their arrows will be like those of an expert man
of war; not one will come back without getting its mark.

10 And the wealth of Chaldaea will come into the hands of
her attackers: all those who take her wealth will have enough,
says the Lord.

11 Because you are glad, because you are lifted up with
pride, you wasters of my heritage, because you are playing
like a young cow put out to grass, and you make a noise like
strong horses;

12 Your mother will be put to shame; she who gave you
birth will be looked down on: see, she will be the last of the
nations, a waste place, a dry and unwatered land.

13 Because of the wrath of the Lord no one will be living in
it, and it will be quite unpeopled: everyone who goes by
Babylon will be overcome with wonder, and make sounds of
fear at all her punishments.

14 Put your armies in position against Babylon on every
side, all you bowmen; let loose your arrows at her, not
keeping any back: for she has done evil against the Lord.

15 Give a loud cry against her on every side; she has given
herself up, her supports are overturned, her walls are broken
down: for it is the payment taken by the Lord; give her
payment; as she has done, so do to her.

16 Let the planter of seed be cut off from Babylon, and
everyone using the curved blade at the time of the grain-
cutting: for fear of the cruel sword, everyone will be turned
to his people, everyone will go in flight to his land.

17 Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have been driving
him away: first he was attacked by the king of Assyria, and
now his bones have been broken by Nebuchadrezzar, king of
Babylon.

18 So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has
said: See, I will send punishment on the king of Babylon and
on his land, as I have given punishment to the king of Assyria.

19 And I will make Israel come back to his resting-place,
and he will get his food on Carmel and Bashan, and have his
desire in full measure on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20 In those days and in that time, says the Lord, when the
evil-doing of Israel is looked for, there will be nothing; and
in Judah no sins will be seen: for I will have forgiveness for
those whom I will keep safe.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it,
and against the people of Pekod; put them to death and send
destruction after them, says the Lord, and do everything I
have given you orders to do.

22 There is a sound of war in the land and of great
destruction.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 How is the hammer of all the earth cut in two and
broken! how has Babylon become a waste among the nations!

24 I have put a net for you, and you have been taken, O
Babylon, without your knowledge: you have been uncovered
and taken because you were fighting against the Lord.

25 From his store-house the Lord has taken the instruments
of his wrath: for the Lord, the Lord of armies, has a work to
do in the land of the Chaldaeans.

26 Come up against her one and all, let her store-houses be
broken open: make her into a mass of stones, give her to the
curse, till there is nothing of her to be seen.

27 Put all her oxen to the sword; let them go down to death:

sorrow is theirs, for their day has come, the time of their
punishment.

28 The voice of those who are in flight, who have got away
safe from the land of Babylon, to give news in Zion of
punishment from the Lord our God, even payment for his
Temple.

29 Send for the archers to come together against Babylon,
all the bowmen; put up your tents against her on every side;
let no one get away: give her the reward of her work; as she
has done, so do to her: for she has been uplifted in pride
against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 For this cause her young men will be falling in her
streets, and all her men of war will be cut off in that day, says
the Lord.

31 See, I am against you, O pride, says the Lord, the Lord
of armies, for your day has come, the time when | will send
punishment on you.

32 And pride will go with uncertain steps and have a fall,
and there will be no one to come to his help: and I will put a
fire in his towns, burning up everything round about him.

33 This is what the Lord of armies has said: The children of
Israel and the children of Judah are crushed down together:
all those who took them prisoner keep them in a tight grip;
they will not let them go.

34 Their saviour is strong; the Lord of armies is his name:
he will certainly take up their cause, so that he may give rest
to the earth and trouble to the people of Babylon.

35 A sword is on the Chaldaeans, says the Lord, and on the
people of Babylon, and on her rulers and on her wise men.

36 A sword is on the men of pride, and they will become
foolish: a sword is on her men of war, and they will be
broken.

37 A sword is on all the mixed people in her, and they will
become like women: a sword is on her store-houses, and they
will be taken by her attackers.

38 A sword is on her waters, drying them up; for it is a land
of images, and their minds are fixed on false gods.

39 For this reason the beasts of the waste land with the
wolves will make their holes there and the ostriches will be
living in it: never again will men be living there, it will be
unpeopled from generation to generation.

40 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring
towns were overturned by God, says the Lord, so no man

will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-
place there.

41 See, a people is coming from the north; a great nation
and a number of kings will be put in motion from the inmost
parts of the earth.

42 Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and
have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and
they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the
fight, against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon has had news of them, and his
hands have become feeble: trouble has come on him and pain
like the pain of a woman in childbirth.

44 See, he will come up like a lion from the thick growth of
Jordan against the resting-place of Teman: but I will
suddenly make them go in flight from her; and I will put over
her the man of my selection: for who is like me? and who will
put forward his cause against me? and what keeper of sheep
will keep his place before me?

45 So give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has
made against Babylon, and to his purposes designed against
the land of the Chaldaeans; Truly, they will be pulled away
by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their
fields with them.

46 At the cry, Babylon is taken! the earth is shaking, and
the cry comes to the ears of the nations.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 51

1 The Lord has said: See, I will make a wind of destruction
come up against Babylon and against those who are living in
Chaldaea;

2 And I will send men to Babylon to make her clean and get
her land cleared: for in the day of trouble they will put up
their tents against her on every side.

3 Against her the bow of the archer is bent, and he puts on
his coat of metal: have no mercy on her young men, give all
her army up to the curse.

4 And the dead will be stretched out in the land of the
Chaldaeans, and the wounded in her streets.

5 For Israel has not been given up, or Judah, by his God, by
the Lord of armies; for their land is full of sin against the
Holy One of Israel.

6 Go in flight out of Babylon, so that every man may keep
his life; do not be cut offin her evil-doing: for it is the time of
the Lord's punishment; he will give her her reward.

7 Babylon has been a gold cup in the hand of the Lord,
which has made all the earth overcome with wine: the nations
have taken of her wine, and for this cause the nations have
gone off their heads.

8 Sudden is the downfall of Babylon and her destruction:
make cries of grief for her; take sweet oil for her pain, if it is
possible for her to be made well.

9 We would have made Babylon well, but she is not made
well: give her up, and let us go everyone to his country: for
her punishment is stretching up to heaven, and lifted up even
to the skies.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 The Lord has made clear our righteousness: come, and
let us give an account in Zion of the work of the Lord our
God.

11 Make bright the arrows; take up the body-covers: the
Lord has been moving the spirit of the king of the Medes;
because his design against Babylon is its destruction: for it is
the punishment from the Lord, the payment for his Temple.

12 Let the flag be lifted up against the walls of Babylon,
make the watch strong, put the watchmen in their places,
make ready a surprise attack: for it is the Lord's purpose, and
he has done what he said about the people of Babylon.

13 O you whose living-place is by the wide waters, whose
stores are great, your end is come, your evil profit is ended.

14 The Lord of armies has taken an oath by himself, saying,
Truly, I will make you full with men as with locusts, and
their voices will be loud against you.

15 He has made the earth by his power, he has made the
world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise
design the heavens have been stretched out:

16 At the sound of his voice there is a massing of the waters
in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of
the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain and sends
out the wind from his store-houses.

17 Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge;
every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made:
for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their
punishment, destruction will overtake them.

19 The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of
all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.

20 You are my fighting axe and my instrument of war: with
you the nations will be broken; with you kingdoms will be
broken;

21 With you the horse and the horseman will be broken;
with you the war-carriage and he who goes in it will be
broken;

22 With you man and woman will be broken; with you the
old man and the boy will be broken; with you the young man
and the virgin will be broken;

23 With you the keeper of sheep with his flock will be
broken, and with you the farmer and his oxen will be broken,
and with you captains and rulers will be broken.

24 And IJ will give to Babylon, and to all the people of
Chaldaea, their reward for all the evil they have done in Zion
before your eyes, says the Lord.

25 See, I am against you, says the Lord, O mountain of
destruction, causing the destruction of all the earth: and my
hand will be stretched out on you, rolling you down from the
rocks, and making you a burned mountain.

26 And they will not take from you a stone for the angle of
a wall or the base of a building; but you will be a waste place
for ever, says the Lord.

27 Let a flag be lifted up in the land, let the horn be
sounded among the nations, make the nations ready against
her; get the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz

together against her, make ready a scribe against her; let the
horses come up against her like massed locusts.

28 Make the nations ready for war against her, the king of
the Medes and his rulers and all his captains, and all the land
under his rule.

29 And the land is shaking and in pain: for the purposes of
the Lord are fixed, to make the land of Babylon an
unpeopled waste.

30 Babylon's men of war have kept back from the fight,
waiting in their strong places; their strength has given way,
they have become like women: her houses have been put on
fire, her locks are broken.

31 One man, running, will give word to another, and one
who goes with news will be handing it on to another, to give
word to the king of Babylon that his town has been taken
from every quarter:

32 And the ways across the river have been taken, and the
reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are in
the grip of fear.

33 For these are the words of the Lord of armies, the God
of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a grain-floor when
it is stamped down; before long, the time of her grain-
cutting will come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of
me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with
nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he
has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me
with his teeth.

35 May the violent things done to me, and my downfall,
come on Babylon, the daughter of Zion will say; and, May
my blood be on the people of Chaldaea, Jerusalem will say.

36 For this reason the Lord has said: See, I will give
support to your cause, and take payment for what you have
undergone; I will make her sea dry, and her fountain without
water.

37 And Babylon will become a mass of broken walls, a hole
for jackals, a cause of wonder and surprise, without a living
man in it.

38 They will be crying out together like lions, their voices
will be like the voices of young lions.

39 When they are heated, I will make a feast for them, and
overcome them with wine, so that they may become
unconscious, sleeping an eternal sleep without awaking, says
the Lord.

40 I will make them go down to death like lambs, like he-
goats together.

41 How is Babylon taken! and the praise of all the earth
surprised! how has Babylon become a cause of wonder among
the nations!

42 The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with
the mass of its waves.

43 Her towns have become a waste, a dry and unwatered
land, where no man has his living-place and no son of man
goes by.

44 And I will send punishment on Bel in Babylon, and take
out of his mouth what went into it; no longer will the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

nations be flowing together to him: truly, the wall of
Babylon will come down.

45 My people, go out from her, and let every man get away
safe from the burning wrath of the Lord.

46 So that your hearts may not become feeble and full of
fear because of the news which will go about in the land; for
a story will go about one year, and after that in another year
another story, and violent acts in the land, ruler against
ruler.

47 For this cause, truly, the days are coming when I will
send punishment on the images of Babylon, and all her land
will be shamed, and her dead will be falling down in her.

48 And the heaven and the earth and everything in them,
will make a song of joy over Babylon: for those who make
her waste will come from the north, says the Lord.

49 As Babylon had the dead of Israel put to the sword, so in
Babylon the dead of all the land will be stretched out.

50 You who have got away safe from the sword, go,
waiting for nothing; have the Lord in memory when you are
far away, and keep Jerusalem in mind.

51 We are shamed because bitter words have come to our
ears; our faces are covered with shame: for men from strange
lands have come into the holy places of the Lord's house.

52 For this reason, see, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will send punishment on her images; and through all
her land the wounded will be crying out in pain.

53 Even if Babylon was lifted up to heaven, even if she had
the high places of her strength shut in with walls, still I
would send against her those who will make her waste, says
the Lord.

54 There is the sound of a cry from Babylon, and of a great
destruction from the land of the Chaldaeans:

55 For the Lord is making Babylon waste, and putting an
end to the great voice coming out of her; and her waves are
thundering like great waters, their voice is sounding loud:

56 For the waster has come on her, even on Babylon, and
her men of war are taken, their bows are broken: for the
Lord is a rewarding God, and he will certainly give payment.

57 And I will make her chiefs and her wise men, her rulers
and her captains and her men of war, overcome with wine;
their sleep will be an eternal sleep without awaking, says the
King; the Lord of armies is his name.

58 The Lord of armies has said: The wide walls of Babylon
will be completely uncovered and her high doorways will be
burned with fire; so peoples keep on working for nothing,
and the weariness of nations comes to an end in the smoke.

59 The order which Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah,
the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with
Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of
his rule. Now Seraiah was the chief controller of the house.

60 And Jeremiah put in a book all the evil which was to
come on Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to
Babylon, see that you give them all these words;

62 And after reading them, say, O Lord, you have said
about this place that it 1s to be cut off, so that no one will be

living in it, not a man or a beast, but it will be unpeopled for
ever.

63 And it will be that, when you have come to an end of
reading this book, you are to have a stone fixed to it, and
have it dropped into the Euphrates:

64 And you are to say, So Babylon will go down, never to
be lifted up again, because of the evil which I will send on her:
and weariness will overcome them. So far, these are the
words of Jeremiah.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 52

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king;
he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's
name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had
done.

3 And because of the wrath of the Lord this came about in
Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them away from before
him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon.

4 And in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the
tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came
against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position
before it, building earthworks all round it.

5 So the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh
year of King Zedekiah.

6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the
store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was
no food for the people of the land.

7 Then an opening was made in the wall of the town, and
all the men of war went in flight out of the town by night
through the doorway between the two walls which was by
the king's garden; (now the Chaldaeans were stationed round
the town:) and they went by the way of the Arabah.

8 And the Chaldaean army went after King Zedekiah and
overtook him on the other side of Jericho, and all his army
went in flight from him in every direction.

9 Then they made the king a prisoner and took him up to
the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath to be
judged.

10 And the king of Babylon put the sons of Zedekiah to
death before his eyes: and he put to death all the rulers of
Judah in Riblah.

11 And he put out Zedekiah's eyes; and the king of Babylon,
chaining him in iron bands, took him to Babylon, and put
him in prison till the day of his death.

12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month,
in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of
Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a
servant of the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.

13 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house
and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house,
burned with fire:

14 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the
Chaldaean army which was with the captain.

15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took
away as prisoners the rest of the people who were still in the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

town, and those who had given themselves up to the king of
Babylon, and the rest of the workmen.

16 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, let the
poorest of the land go on living there, to take care of the
vines and the fields.

17 And the brass pillars which were in the house of the
Lord, and the wheeled bases and the great brass water-vessel
in the house of the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans,
who took all the brass away to Babylon.

18 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the
lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the
Lord's house, they took away.

19 And the cups and the fire-trays and the basins and the
pots and the supports for the lights and the spoons and the
wide basins; the gold of the gold vessels, and the silver of the
silver vessels, the captain of the armed men took away.

20 The two pillars, the great water-vessel, and the twelve
brass oxen which were under it, and the ten wheeled bases,
which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the
brass of all these vessels was without weight.

21 And as for the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits
high, and twelve cubits measured all round, and it was as
thick as a man's hand: it was hollow.

22 And there was a crown of brass on it: the crown was five
cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass;
and the second pillar had the same.

23 There were ninety-six apples on the outside; the number
of apples all round the network was a hundred.

24 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the
chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three
door-keepers;

25 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was
over the men of war, and seven of the king's near friends who
were in the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army,
who was responsible for getting the people of the land
together in military order, and sixty men of the people of the
land who were in the town.

26 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took
with him to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in
the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken prisoner away from
his land.

28 These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took away
prisoner: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-
three Jews:

29 And in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he took
away as prisoners from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-
two persons:

30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar,
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as
prisoners seven hundred and forty-five of the Jews: all the
persons were four thousand and six hundred.

31 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of
Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the
twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of

Babylon, in the first year after he became king, took
Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison.

32 And he said kind words to him and put his seat higher
than the seats of the other kings who were with him in
Babylon.

33 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest
at the king's table every day for the rest of his life.

34 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount
every day till the day of his death, for the rest of his life.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE SCROLL OF LAMENTATIONS
Hebrew title: Megilath Eikhah
Estimated Range of Dating: 6th to Sth centuries B.C.

(The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew: Eikhah, from its
incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for
the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. In the Hebrew Bible
it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings"), beside the Song of
Songs, Book of Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther
(the Megilot or "Five Scrolls"), although there is no set
order; in the Christian Old Testament it follows the Book of
Jeremiah, as the prophet Jeremiah is its traditional author.
Jeremiah’s authorship is no longer generally accepted,
although it 1s generally accepted that the destruction of
Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC forms the background to
the poems. The book is partly a traditional "city lament"
mourning the desertion of the city by God, its destruction,
and the ultimate return of the divinity, and partly a funeral
dirge in which the bereaved bewails and addresses the dead.

The tone is bleak: God does not speak, the degree of
suffering 1s presented as overwhelming, and expectations of
future redemption are minimal. None the less the author
repeatedly makes clear that the city (and even the author
himself) had profusely sinned against God, to which God had
strongly responded. In doing so the author does not blame
God but rather presents him as righteous, just and sometimes
even as merciful. (See chapter 1, 17-19 & 3,3 1-33)

Lamentations has traditionally been ascribed to Jeremiah,
probably on the grounds of the reference in 2 Chronicles
35:25 to the prophet composing a lament on the death of
King Josiah, but there 1s no reference to Josiah in the book
and no reason to connect it to Jeremiah. The language fits an
Exilic date (586-520 BC), and the poems probably
originated from Judeans who remained in the land. Scholars
are divided over whether they are the work of one or
multiple authors. One clue pointing to multiple authors 1s
that the gender and situation of the first-person witness
changes — the narration 1s feminine in the first and second
Jamentation, and masculine in the third, while the fourth and
fifth are eyewitness reports of Jerusalem's destruction;
conversely, the similarities of style, vocabulary, and
theological outlook, as well as the uniform historical setting,
are arguments for one author.

The book 1s traditionally recited on the fast day of Tisha
BrAv ("Ninth of Av"), mourning the destruction of both the
First Temple and the Second.)

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIA CHAPTER 1

1 See her seated by herself, the town which was full of
people! She who was great among the nations has become
like a widow! She who was a princess among the countries
has come under the yoke of forced work!

2 She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet
with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all
her friends have been false to her, they have become her
haters.

3 Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of
trouble and hard work; her living-place is among the nations,
there is no rest for her: all her attackers have overtaken her
in anarrow place.

4 The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the
holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests
are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is
bitter for her.

5 Those who are against her have become the head,
everything goes well for her haters; for the Lord has sent
sorrow on her because of the great number of her sins: her
young children have gone away as prisoners before the
attacker.

6 And all her glory has gone from the daughter of Zion: her
rulers have become like harts with no place for food, and
they have gone in flight without strength before the attacker.

7 Jerusalem keeps in mind, in the days of her sorrow and of
her wanderings, all the desired things which were hers in
days gone by; when her people came into the power of her
hater and she had no helper, her attackers saw their desire
effected on her and made sport of her destruction.

8 Great is the sin of Jerusalem; for this cause she has become
an unclean thing: all those who gave her honour are looking
down on her, because they have seen her shame: now truly,
breathing out grief, she is turned back.

9 In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought
to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no
comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted
up.

10 The hand of her hater is stretched out over all her
desired things; for she has seen that the nations have come
into her holy place, about whom you gave orders that they
were not to come into the meeting of your people.

11 Breathing out grief all her people are looking for bread;
they have given their desired things for food to give them life:
see, O Lord, and take note; for she has become a thing of
shame.

12 Come to me, all you who go by! Keep your eyes on me,
and see if there is any pain like the pain of my wound, which
the Lord has sent on me in the day of his burning wrath.

13 From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it has
overcome them: his net is stretched out for my feet, I am
turned back by him; he has made me waste and feeble all the
day.

14 A watch is kept on my sins; they are joined together by
his hand, they have come on to my neck; he has made my

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

strength give way: the Lord has given me up into the hands
of those against whom I have no power.

15 The Lord has made sport of all my men of war in me, he
has got men together against me to send destruction on my
young men: the virgin daughter of Judah has been crushed
like grapes under the feet of the Lord.

16 For these things I am weeping; my eye is streaming with
water; because the comforter who might give me new life is
far from me: my children are made waste, because the hater is
strong.

17 Zion's hands are outstretched; she has no comforter; the
Lord has given orders to the attackers of Jacob round about

him: Jerusalem has become like an unclean thing among them.

18 The Lord is upright; for I have gone against his orders:
give ear, now, all you peoples, and see my pain, my virgins
and my young men have gone away as prisoners.

19 I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me: my priests
and my responsible men were breathing their last breath in
the town, while they were looking for food to give them new
life.

20 See, O Lord, for I am in trouble; the inmost parts of my
body are deeply moved; my heart is turned in me; for I have
been uncontrolled: outside the children are put to the sword,
and in the house there is death.

21 Give ear to the voice of my grief; I have no comforter; all
my haters have news of my troubles, they are glad because
you have done it: let the day of fate come when they will be
like me.

22 Let all their evil-doing come before you; do to them as
you have done to me for all my sins: for loud is the sound of
my grief, and the strength of my heart is gone.

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIA CHAPTER 2

1 How has the daughter of Zion been covered with a cloud
by the Lord in his wrath! he has sent down from heaven to
earth the glory of Israel, and has not kept in memory the
resting-place of his feet in the day of his wrath.

2 The Lord has given up to destruction all the living-places
of Jacob without pity; pulling down in his wrath the strong
places of the daughter of Judah, stretching out on the earth
the wounded, even her king and her rulers.

3 In his burning wrath every horn of Israel has been cut off;
his right hand has been turned back before the attacker: he
has put a fire in Jacob, causing destruction round about.

4 His bow has been bent for the attack, he has taken his
place with his hand ready, in his hate he has put to death all
who were pleasing to the eye: on the tent of the daughter of
Zion he has let loose his passion like fire.

5 The Lord has become like one fighting against her,
sending destruction on Israel; he has sent destruction on all
her great houses, making waste his strong places: increasing
the grief and the sorrow of the daughter of Judah.

6 And he has violently taken away his tent, as from a
garden; he has made waste his meeting-place: the Lord has
taken away the memory of feast and Sabbath in Zion, and in
the passion of his wrath he is against king and priest.

7 The Lord has given up his altar and has been turned in
hate from his holy place; he has given up into the hands of
the attacker the walls of her great houses: their voices have
been loud in the house of the Lord as in the day of a holy
meeting.

8 It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the
daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not
kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on
tower and wall, they have become feeble together.

9 Her doors have gone down into the earth; he has sent
destruction on her locks: her king and her princes are among
the nations where the law is not; even her prophets have had
no vision from the Lord.

10 The responsible men of the daughter of Zion are seated
on the earth without a word; they have put dust on their
heads, they are clothed in haircloth: the heads of the virgins
of Jerusalem are bent down to the earth.

11 My eyes are wasted with weeping, the inmost parts of my
body are deeply moved, my inner parts are drained out on
the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people;
because of the young children and babies at the breast who
are falling without strength in the open squares of the town.

12 They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine?
when they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of
the town, when their life is drained out on their mother's
breast.

13 What example am I to give you? what comparison am I
to make for you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what am I to
make equal to you, so that I may give you comfort, O virgin
daughter of Zion? for your destruction is great like the sea:
who is able to make you well?

14 The visions which your prophets have seen for you are
false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so
that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you
false words, driving you away.

15 All who go by make a noise with their hands at you; they
make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem,
and saying, Is this the town which was the crown of
everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth?

16 All your haters are opening their mouths wide against
you; making hisses and whistling through their teeth, they
say, We have made a meal of her: certainly this is the day we
have been looking for; it has come, we have seen it.

17 The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has
put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are
past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater
glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against
you.

18 Let your cry go up to the Lord: O wall of the daughter
of Zion, let your weeping be flowing down like a stream day
and night; give yourself no rest, let not your eyes keep back
the drops of sorrow.

19 Up! give cries in the night, at the starting of the night-
watches; let your heart be flowing out like water before the
face of the Lord, lifting up your hands to him for the life of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

your young children who are falling down, feeble for need of
food, at the top of every street.

20 Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the
women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the
children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the
prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?

21 The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in
the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to
the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your
wrath, causing death without pity.

22 As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears
come round me on every side, and no one got away or was
kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were
folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to
their destruction by my hater.

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIA CHAPTER 3

1 Tam the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath.

2 By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is
no light.

3 Truly against me his hand has been turned again and
again all the day.

4 My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my
bones broken.

5 He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with
bitter sorrow.

6 He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been
long dead.

7 He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go
out; he has made great the weight of my chain.

8 Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer
shut out.

9 He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has
made my roads twisted.

10 He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret
places.

11 By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have
been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

12 With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his
arrows.

13 He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my
body.

14 I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their
song all the day.

15 He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me
the bitter root in full measure.

16 By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones,
and I am bent low in the dust.

17 My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more
memory of good.

18 And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the
Lord.

19 Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter
root and the poison.

20 My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent
down in me.

21 This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope.

22 It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to
destruction, because his mercies have no limit.

23 They are new every morning; great is your good faith.

24 I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of
this I will have hope in him.

25 The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to
the soul which is looking for him.

26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the
salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is
young.

28 Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he
has put it on him.

29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there
may be hope.

30 Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let
him be full of shame.

31 For the Lord does not give a man up for ever.

32 For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the
full measure of his love.

33 For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to
the children of men.

34 In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the
earth,

35 In his turning away the right of a man before the face of
the Most High.

36 In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has
no pleasure.

37 Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has
not been ordered by the Lord?

38 Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most
High?

39 What protest may a living man make, even a man about
the punishment of his sin?

40 Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning
again to the Lord;

41 Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the
heavens.

42 We have done wrong and gone against your law; we
have not had your forgiveness.

43 Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us,
cutting us off without pity;

44 Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not
get through.

45 You have made us like waste and that for which there is
no use, among the peoples.

46 The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.

47 Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and
destruction.

48 Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the
destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no
rest,

50 Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my
trouble from heaven.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

51 The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the
daughters of my town.

52 They who are against me without cause have gone hard
after me as if I was a bird;

53 They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me
with stones.

54 Waters were flowing over my head; J said, I am cut off.

55 I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the
lowest prison.

56 My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my
breathing, to my cry.

57 You came near in the day when J made my prayer to you:
you said, Have no fear.

58 O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you
have made my life safe.

59 O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause.

60 You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me,
and all their designs against me.

61 Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and
all their designs against me;

62 The lips of those who came up against me, and their
thoughts against me all the day.

63 Take note of them when they are seated, and when they
get up; I am their song.

64 You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to
the work of their hands.

65 You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse
on them.

66 You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them
from under the heavens of the Lord.

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIA CHAPTER 4

1 How dark has the gold become! how changed the best
gold! the stones of the holy place are dropping out at the top
of every street.

2 The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold,
are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the
potter!

3 Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they
give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has
become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land.

4 The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of
his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying
out for bread, and no man gives it to them.

5 Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are
wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in
purple are stretched out on the dust.

6 For the punishment of the daughter of my people is
greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was
overturned suddenly without any hand falling on her.

7 Her holy ones were cleaner than snow, they were whiter
than milk, their bodies were redder than corals, their form
was as the sapphire:

8 Their face is blacker than night; in the streets no one has
knowledge of them: their skin is hanging on their bones, they
are dry, they have become like wood.

9 Those who have been put to the sword are better off than
those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to
death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field.

10 The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling
their children; they were their food in the destruction of the
daughter of my people.

11 The Lord has given full effect to his passion, he has let
loose his burning wrath; he has made a fire in Zion, causing
the destruction of its bases.

12 To the kings of the earth and to all the people of the
world it did not seem possible that the attackers and the
haters would go into the doors of Jerusalem.

13 It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-
doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has
been drained out in her.

14 They are wandering like blind men in the streets, they
are made unclean with blood, so that their robes may not be
touched by men.

15 Away! unclean! they were crying out to them, Away!
away! let there be no touching: when they went away in
flight and wandering, men said among the nations, There is
no further resting-place for them.

16 The face of the Lord has sent them in all directions; he
will no longer take care of them: they had no respect for the
priests, they gave no honour to the old men.

17 Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false
help: we have been watching for a nation unable to give
salvation.

18 They go after our steps so that we may not go in our
streets: our end is near, our days are numbered; for our end
has come.

19 Those who went after us were quicker than the eagles of
the heaven, driving us before them on the mountains,
waiting secretly for us in the waste land.

20 Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was
taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we
will be living among the nations.

21 Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the
land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you
will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen.

22 The punishment of your evil-doing is complete, O
daughter of Zion; never again will he take you away as a
prisoner: he will give you the reward of your evil-doing, O
daughter of Edom; he will let your sin be uncovered.

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIA CHAPTER 5

1 Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note
and see our shame.

2 Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our
houses to those who are not our countrymen.

3 We are children without fathers, our mothers are like
widows.

4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for
a price.

5 Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness,
we have no rest.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

OER ERY oN EOE
BF PE OY

6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the
Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

7 Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of
their evil-doing is on us.

8 Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make
us free from their hands.

9 We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of
the sword of the waste land.

10 Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning
heat from need of food.

11 They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the
towns of Judah.

12 Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of
old men were not honoured.

13 The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys
were falling under the wood.

14 The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and
the music of the young men has come to an end.

15 The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed
into sorrow.

16 The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours,
for we are sinners.

17 Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our
eyes are dark;

18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste;
jackals go over it.

19 You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of
your power is eternal.

20 Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why
have you been turned away from us for so long?

21 Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned;
make our days new again as in the past.

22 But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath
against us.

LEDS

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
Hebrew title: Sefer Yekhezkel
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 6th-century B.C.

(The Book of Ezekiel belongs to the Nevi'im (Prophets) and
consists of 48 chapters and 1s the third of the Latter Prophets
in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books in the
Old Testament, following Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to
the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel,
exiled in Babylon, during the 22 years from 593 to 571 BC,
although tt 1s the product of a long and complex history and
does not necessarily preserve the very words of the prophet.

The visions, and the book, are structured around three
themes: (Ist) Judgement on Israel (chapters 1-24); (2nd)
Judgement on the nations (chapters 25-32); and (3rd)
Future blessings for Israel (chapters 33-48). Its themes
include the concepts of the presence of God, purity, Israel as
a divine community, and individual responsibility to God.
Its later influence has included the development of mystical
and apocalyptic traditions in Second Temple and rabbinic
Judaism and Christianity.

In the Chapters 10 and 11, the book contains a vision of
God in heaven and describes wheels and strange beings
around his throne. In fact, these two chapters deliver the
most remarkable descriptions of the entire Hebrew Bible. It
has a very technological character and gives the reader the
impression that a kind of flying machine is described. Some
scholars hold that Ezektel'’s vision might be a report and
detailed description of a kind of aircraft or, as Erich von
Déniken had pointed out, an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich decided to disprove the
hypothesis. However, a thorough examination convinced
him that Ezekiel might have seen a flying vehicle or spaceship
of which he then made detailed drawings of the alten craft.

Descriptions of such vehicles are not entirely unique but can
also be found in the Indian Ramayana Epic. In the Ramayana,
a "vimana" called vehicle 1s described as follows: "The
Pushpaka Vimana that resembles the Sun and belongs to my
brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and
excellent Vimana going everywhere at will ... that chariot
resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama]
got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the
Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere." It is the first
flying vimana mentioned in existing Hindu texts. With the
size of an encyclopaedia, the Ramayana 1s one of the largest
ancient epics in the world. Scholars estimate the age of the
text from the 7th to 4th centuries BC. [Ramayana, Elysium
Press, Calcutta, 1892]

The book opens with a vision of YHWH. The book moves
on to anticipate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

explains this as God's punishment, and closes with the
promise of a new beginning and a new Temple.

1. Inaugural vision Ezekiel 1:1-3:2 God approaches
Ezekiel as the divine warrior, riding in his battle chariot.
The chariot is drawn by four living creatures, each having
four faces (those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle) and
four wings. Beside each "living creature" is a "wheel within a
Wheel", with "tall and awesome" rims full of eyes all around.
God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet and as a "watchman"
in Israel: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites."
(2:3)

2. Judgement on Jerusalem and Judah and on the nations:
God warns of the certain destruction of Jerusalem and of the
devastation of the nations that have troubled his people: the
Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and Philistines, the
Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and Egypt.

3. Building a new city: The Jewish exile will come to an end,
a new city and new Temple will be built, and the Israelites
will be gathered and blessed as never before.

Some of the highlights include:

¢ The "throne vision", in which Ezekiel sees God enthroned
in the Temple among the heavenly host;

¢ The first "temple vision", in which Ezekiel sees God leave
the Temple because of the abominations practiced there
(meaning the worship of idols rather than YHWH, the
official God of Judah;

¢ Images of Israel, in which Israel is seen as a harlot bride,
among other things;

¢ The "valley of dry bones", in which the prophet sees the
dead of the house of Israel rise again;

¢ The destruction of Gog and Magog, in which Ezekiel sees
Israel's enemies destroyed and a new age of peace established,

¢ The final temple vision, in which Ezekiel sees a new
commonwealth centered around a new temple in Jerusalem,
sometimes called the Third Temple, to which God's Shekinah
(Divine Presence) has returned.)

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 1

1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, in the fourth
month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was by the river
Chebar among those who had been made prisoners, that the
heavens were made open and I saw visions of God.

2 On the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King
Jehoiachin had been made a prisoner,

3 The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel the priest, the
son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldaeans by the river Chebar;
and the hand of the Lord was on me there.

4 And, looking, I saw a storm-wind coming out of the
north, a great cloud with flames of fire coming after one
another, and a bright light shining round about it and in the
heart of it was something coloured like electrum.

5 And in the heart of it were the forms of four living beings.
And this was what they were like; they had the form of a man.

6 And every one had four faces, and every one of them had
four wings.

7 And their feet were straight feet; and the under sides of
their feet were like the feet of oxen; and they were shining
like polished brass.

8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings; the
four of them had faces on their four sides.

9 They went without turning, every one went straight
forward.

10 As for the form of their faces, they had the face of a man,
and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side,
and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side,
and the four of them had the face of an eagle.

11 And their wings were separate at the top; two of the
wings of every one were joined one to another, and two were
covering their bodies.

12 Every one of them went straight forward; wherever the
spirit was to go they went; they went on without turning.

13 And between the living beings it was like burning coals
of fire, as if flames were going one after the other between the
living beings; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire
went thunder-flames.

14 And the living beings went out and came back as quickly
as a thunder-flame.

15 Now while I was looking at the four living beings, I saw
one wheel on the earth, by the side of the living beings, for
the four of them.

16 The form of the wheels and their work was like a beryl;
the four of them had the same form and design, and they were
like a wheel inside a wheel.

17 The four of them went straight forward without turning
to one side.

18 And I saw that they had edges, and their edges, even of
the four, were full of eyes round about.

19 And when the living beings went on, the wheels went by
their side; and when the living beings were lifted up from the
earth, the wheels were lifted up.

20 Wherever the spirit was to go they went; and the wheels
were lifted up by their side: for the spirit of the living beings
was in the wheels.

21 When these went on, the others went; and when these
came to rest, the others came to rest; and when these were
lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up by their
side: for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

22 And over the heads of the living beings there was the
form of an arch, looking like ice, stretched out over their
heads on high.

23 Under the arch their wings were straight, one stretched
out to another: every one had two wings covering their
bodies on this side and two covering their bodies on that side.

24 And when they went, the sound of their wings was like
the sound of great waters to my ears, like the voice of the
Ruler of all, a sound like the rushing of an army: when they
came to rest they let down their wings.

25 And there was a voice from the top of the arch which
was over their heads: when they came to rest they let down
their wings.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 And on the top of the arch which was over their heads
was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on
the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on
high.

27 And I saw it coloured like electrum, with the look of fire
in it and round it, going up from what seemed to be the
middle of his body; and going down from what seemed to be
the middle of his body I saw what was like fire, and there was
a bright light shining round him.

28 Like the bow in the cloud on a day of rain, so was the
light shining round him. And this is what the glory of the
Lord was like. And when I saw it I went down on my face,
and the voice of one talking came to my ears.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 2

1 And he said to me, Son of man, get up on your feet, so
that I may say words to you.

2 And at his words the spirit came into me and put me on
my feet; and his voice came to my ears.

3 And he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the
children of Israel, to an uncontrolled nation which has gone
against me: they and their fathers have been sinners against
me even to this very day.

4 And the children are hard and stiff-hearted; I am sending
you to them: and you are to say to them, These are the words
of the Lord.

5 And they, if they give ear to you or if they do not give ear
(for they are an uncontrolled people), will see that there has
been a prophet among them.

6 And you, son of man, have no fear of them or of their
words, even if sharp thorns are round you and you are living
among scorpions: have no fear of their words and do not be
overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people.

7 And you are to give them my words, if they give ear to
you or if they do not: for they are uncontrolled.

8 But you, son of man, give ear to what I say to you, and do
not be uncontrolled like that uncontrolled people: let your
mouth be open and take what I give you.

9 And looking, I saw a hand stretched out to me, and I saw
the roll of a book in it;

10 And he put it open before me, and it had writing on the
front and on the back; words of grief and sorrow and trouble
were recorded in it.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 3

1 And he said to me, Son of man, take this roll for your
food, and go and say my words to the children of Israel.

2 And, on my opening my mouth, he made me take the roll
as food.

3 And he said to me, Son of man, let your stomach make a
meal of it and let your inside be full of this roll which I am
giving you. Then I took it, and it was sweet as honey in my
mouth.

4 And he said to me, Son of man, go now to the children of
Israel, and say my words to them.

5 For you are not sent to a people whose talk is strange and
whose language is hard, but to the children of Israel;

6 Not to a number of peoples whose talk is strange and
whose language is hard and whose words are not clear to you.
Truly, if I sent you to them they would give ear to you.

7 But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they
have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel
have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

8 See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and
your brow hard against their brows.

9 Like a diamond harder than rock I have made your brow:
have no fear of them and do not be overcome by their looks,
for they are an uncontrolled people.

10 Then he said to me, Son of man, take into your heart all
my words which I am about to say to you, and let your ears
be open to them.

11 And go now to those who have been taken away as
prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them,
This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do
not.

12 Then I was lifted up by the wind, and at my back the
sound of a great rushing came to my ears when the glory of
the Lord was lifted up from his place.

13 And there was the sound of the wings of the living
beings touching one another, and the sound of the wheels at
their side, the sound ofa great rushing.

14 And the wind, lifting me up, took me away: and I went
in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong
on me.

15 Then I came to those who had been taken away as
prisoners, who were at Telabib by the river Chebar, and I
was seated among them full of wonder for seven days.

16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came
to me, saying,

17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the
children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and
give them word from me of their danger.

18 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your
fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make
clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he
may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-
doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood.

19 But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he
is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will
overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe.

20 Again, when an upright man, turning away from his
righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his
way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no
word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing,
and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has
done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.

21 But if you say to the upright man that he is not to do
evil, he will certainly keep his life because he took note of
your word; and your life will be safe.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said,
Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk
with you.

23 Then I got up and went out into the valley; and I saw the
glory of the Lord resting there as I had seen it by the river
Chebar; and I went down on my face.

24 Then the spirit came into me and put me on my feet; and
he had talk with me and said to me, Go and keep yourself
shut up inside your house.

25 But see, O son of man, I will put bands on you,
prisoning you in them, and you will not go out among them:

26 And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your
mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests
to them: for they are an uncontrolled people.

27 But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth
open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has
said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let
him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 4

1 And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you
and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.

2 And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong
places against it, and making high an earthwork against it;
and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for
smashing down its walls.

3 And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron
between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it,
and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This
will be a sign to the children of Israel.

4 Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the
sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are
stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be
on you.

5 For Ihave had the years of their sin measured for you by a
number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you
will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.

6 And when these days are ended, turning on your right
side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of

Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.

7 And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in,
with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.

8 And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be
stretched out without turning from one side to the other till
the days of your attack are ended.

9 And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts
of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for
yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on
your side it will be your food.

10 And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels
a day: you are to take it at regular times.

11 And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a
hin: you are to take it at regular times.

12 And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before
their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.

13 And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will
have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I
am driving them.

14 Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been
unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which
has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts,
from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting
flesh has ever come into my mouth.

15 Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in
place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on
it.

16 And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away
from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their
bread by weight and with care, measuring out their
drinking-water with fear and wonder:

17 So that they may be in need of bread and water and be
wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 5

1 And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, using it like a
haircutter's blade, and making it go over your head and the
hair of your chin: and take scales for separating the hair by
weight.

2 You are to have a third part burned with fire inside the
town, when the days of the attack are ended; and a third part
you are to take and give blows with the sword round about it;
and give a third part for the wind to take away, and let loose
asword after them.

3 And take from them a small number of hairs, folding
them in your skirts.

4 And again take some of these and put them in the fire,
burning them up in the fire; and say to all the children of
Israel,

5 This is what the Lord has said: This is Jerusalem: I have
put her among the nations, and countries are round her on
every side;

6 And she has gone against my orders by doing evil more
than the nations, and against my rules more than the
countries round her: for they have given up my orders, and as
for my rules, they have not gone in the way of them.

7 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have been
more uncontrolled than the nations round about you, and
have not been guided by my rules or kept my orders, but have
kept the orders of the nations round about you;

8 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I, even I, am against
you; and I will be judging among you before the eyes of the
nations.

9 And I will do in you what I have not done and will not do
again, because of all your disgusting ways.

10 For this cause fathers will take their sons for food
among you, and sons will make a meal of their fathers; and I
will be judge among you, and all the rest of you I will send
away to every wind.

11 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you
have made my holy place unclean with all your hated things

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and all your disgusting ways, you will become disgusting to
me; my eye will have no mercy and I will have no pity.

12 A third of you will come to death from disease, wasting
away among you through need of food; a third will be put to
the sword round about you; and a third I will send away to
every wind, letting loose a sword after them.

13 So my wrath will be complete and my passion will come
to rest on them; and they will be certain that I the Lord have
given the word of decision, when my wrath against them is
complete.

14 And I will make you a waste and a name of shame among
the nations round about you, in the eyes of everyone who
goes by.

15 And you will be a name of shame and a cause of bitter
words, an example and a wonder to the nations round about
you, when I give effect to my judging among you in wrath
and in passion and in burning protests: I the Lord have said
it:

16 When I send on you the evil arrows of disease, causing
destruction, which I will send to put an end to you; and,
further, I will take away your necessary food.

17 And I will send on you need of food and evil beasts, and
they will be a cause of loss to you; and disease and violent
death will go through you; and I will send the sword on you:
I the Lord have said it.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 6

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned to the mountains of
Israel, and be a prophet to them, and say,

3 You mountains of Israel, give ear to the words of the
Lord: this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and the
hills, to the waterways and the valleys: See, I, even I, am
sending on you a sword for the destruction of your high
places.

4 And your altars will be made waste, and your sun-images
will be broken: and I will have your dead men placed before
your images.

5 And I will put the dead bodies of the children of Israel in
front of their images, sending your bones in all directions
about your altars.

6 In all your living-places the towns will become broken
walls, and the high places made waste; so that your altars
may be broken down and made waste, and your images
broken and ended, and so that your sun-images may be cut
down and your works rubbed out.

7 And the dead will be falling down among you, and you
will be certain that I am the Lord.

8 But still, I will keep a small band safe from the sword
among the nations, when you are sent wandering among the
countries.

9 And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind
among the nations where they have been taken away as
prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were
untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their
false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because

of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting
ways.

10 And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for
nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them.

11 This is what the Lord has said: Give blows with your
hand, stamping with your foot, and say, O sorrow! because
of all the evil and disgusting ways of the children of Israel:
for death will overtake them by the sword and through need
of food and by disease.

12 He who is far away will come to his death by disease; he
who is near will be put to the sword; he who is shut up will
come to his death through need of food; and I will give full
effect to my passion against them.

13 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when their
dead men are stretched among their images round about
their altars on every high hill, on all the tops of the
mountains, and under every branching tree, and under every
thick oak-tree, the places where they made sweet smells to all
their images.

14 And my hand will be stretched out against them, making
the land waste and unpeopled, from the waste land to Riblah,
through all their living-places: and they will be certain that I
am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 7

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 And you, son of man, say, This is what the Lord has said
to the land of Israel: An end has come, the end has come on
the four quarters of the land.

3 Now the end has come on you, and | will send my wrath
on you, judging you for your ways, I will send punishment
on you for all your disgusting acts.

4 My eye will not have mercy on you, and I will have no
pity: but I will send the punishment of your ways on you, and
your disgusting works will be among you: and you will be
certain that I am the Lord.

5 This is what the Lord has said: An evil, even one evil; see,
it is coming.

6 An end has come, the end has come; see, it is coming on
you.

7 The crowning time has come on you, O people of the land:
the time has come, the day is near; the day will not be slow in
coming, it will not keep back.

8 Now, in a little time, I will let loose my passion on you,
and give full effect to my wrath against you, judging you for
your ways, and sending punishment on you for all your
disgusting works.

9 My eye will not have mercy, and J will have no pity: I will
send on you the punishment of your ways, and your
disgusting works will be among you; and you will see that I
am the Lord who gives punishment.

10 See, the day; see, it is coming: the crowning time has
gone out; the twisted way is flowering, pride has put out
buds.

11 Violent behaviour has been lifted up into a rod of evil; it
will not be slow in coming, it will not keep back.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives
a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have
sorrow:

13 For the trader will not go back to the things for which
he had his price, even while he is still living:

14 And he who has given a price for goods will not get
them, for my wrath is on all of them.

15 Outside is the sword, and inside disease and need of food:

he who is in the open country will be put to the sword; he
who is in the town will come to his end through need of food
and disease.

16 And those of them who get away safely will go and be in
the secret places like the doves of the valleys, all of them will
come to death, every one in his sin.

17 All hands will be feeble and all knees without strength,
like water.

18 And they will put haircloth round them, and deep fear
will be covering them; and shame will be on all faces, and the
hair gone from all their heads.

19 They will put out their silver into the streets, and their
gold will be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold
will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the wrath of
the Lord; they will not get their desire or have food for their
need: because it has been the cause of their falling into sin.

20 As for their beautiful ornament, they had put it on high,
and had made the images of their disgusting and hated things
in it: for this cause I have made it an unclean thing to them.

21 And I will give it into the hands of men from strange
lands who will take it by force, and to the evil-doers of the
earth to have for themselves; and they will make it unholy.

22 And my face will be turned away from them, and they
will make my secret place unholy: violent men will go into it
and make it unholy.

23 Make the chain: for the land is full of crimes of blood,
and the town is full of violent acts.

24 For this reason I will send the worst of the nations and
they will take their houses for themselves: I will make the
pride of their strength come to an end; and their holy places
will be made unclean.

25 Shaking fear is coming; and they will be looking for
peace, and there will be no peace.

26 Destruction will come on destruction, and one story
after another; and the vision of the prophet will be shamed,
and knowledge of the law will come to an end among the
priests, and wisdom among the old.

27 The king will give himself up to sorrow, and the ruler
will be clothed with wonder, and the hands of the people of
the land will be troubled: I will give them punishment for
their ways, judging them as it is right for them to be judged;
and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 8

1 Now in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day
of the month, when I was in my house and the responsible
men of Judah were seated before me, the hand of the Lord
came on me there.

2 And looking, I saw a form like fire; from the middle of his
body and down there was fire: and up from the middle of his
body a sort of shining, like electrum.

3 And he put out the form of a hand and took me by the
hair of my head; and the wind, lifting me up between the
earth and the heaven, took me in the visions of God to
Jerusalem, to the way into the inner door facing to the north;
where was the seat of the image of envy.

4 And I saw the glory of the Lord there, as in the vision
which I saw in the valley.

5 Then he said to me, Son of man, now let your eyes be
lifted up in the direction of the north; and on looking in the
direction of the north, to the north of the doorway of the
altar, I saw this image of envy by the way in.

6 And he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are
doing? even the very disgusting things which the children of
Israel are doing here, causing me to go far away from my
holy place? but you will see other most disgusting things.

7 And he took me to the door of the open place; and
looking, I saw a hole in the wall.

8 And he said to me, Son of man, make a hole in the wall:
and after making a hole in the wall I saw a door.

9 And he said to me, Go in and see the evil and disgusting
things which they are doing here.

10 So I went in and saw; and there every sort of living thing
which goes flat on the earth, and unclean beasts, and all the
images of the children of Israel, were pictured round about
on the wall.

11 And before them seventy of the responsible men of the
children of Israel had taken their places, every man with a
vessel for burning perfumes in his hand, and in the middle of
them was Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan; and a cloud of
smoke went up from the burning perfume.

12 And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the
responsible men of the children of Israel do in the dark, every
man in his room of pictured images? for they say, The Lord
does not see us; the Lord has gone away from the land.

13 Then he said to me, You will see even more disgusting
things which they do.

14 Then he took me to the door of the way into the Lord's
house looking to the north; and there women were seated
weeping for Tammuz.

15 Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man?
you will see even more disgusting things than these.

16 And he took me into the inner square of the Lord's
house, and at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between
the covered way and the altar, there were about twenty-five
men with their backs turned to the Temple of the Lord and
their faces turned to the east; and they were worshipping the
sun, turning to the east.

17 Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? is
it a small thing to the children of Judah that they do the
disgusting things which they are doing here? for they have
made the land full of violent behaviour, making me angry
again and again: and see, they put the branch to my nose.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 For this reason I will let loose my wrath: my eye will not
have mercy, and I will have no pity.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 9

1 Then crying out in my hearing in a loud voice, he said,
Let the overseers of the town come near, every man armed.

2 And six men came from the way of the higher doorway
looking to the north, every man with his axe in his hand: and
one man among them was clothed in linen, with a writer's
inkpot at his side. And they went in and took their places by
the brass altar.

3 And the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the
winged ones on which it was resting, to the doorstep of the
house. And crying out to the man clothed in linen who had
the writer's inkpot at his side,

4 The Lord said to him, Go through the town, through the
middle of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the brows of the men
who are sorrowing and crying for all the disgusting things
which are done in it.

5 And to these he said in my hearing, Go through the town
after him using your axes: do not let your eyes have mercy,
and have no pity:

6 Give up to destruction old men and young men and
virgins, little children and women: but do not come near any
man who has the mark on him: and make a start at my holy
place. So they made a start with the old men who were before
the house.

7 And he said to them, Make the house unclean, make the
open places full of dead: go forward and send destruction on
the town.

8 Now while they were doing so, and I was untouched, I
went down on my face, and crying out, I said, Ah, Lord! will
you give all the rest of Israel to destruction in letting loose
your wrath on Jerusalem?

9 Then he said to me, The sin of the children of Israel and
Judah is very, very great, and the land is full of blood and the
town full of evil ways: for they say, The Lord has gone away
from the land, and the Lord does not see.

10 And as for me, my eye will not have mercy, and I will
have no pity, but I will send the punishment of their ways on
their heads.

11 Then the man clothed in linen, who had the inkpot at his
side, came back and said, I have done what you gave me
orders to do.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 10

1 Then looking, I saw that on the arch which was over the
head of the winged ones there was seen over them what
seemed like a sapphire stone, having the form of a king's seat.

2 And he said to the man clothed in linen, Go in between
the wheels, under the winged ones, and get your two hands
full of burning coals from between the winged ones and send
them in a shower over the town. And he went in before my
eyes.

3 Now the winged ones were stationed on the right side of
the house when the man went in; and the inner square was
full of the cloud.

4 And the glory of the Lord went up from the winged ones
and came to rest over the doorstep of the house; and the
house was full of the cloud and the open square was full of
the shining of the Lord's glory.

5 And the sound of the wings of the winged ones was clear
even in the outer square, like the voice of the Ruler of all.

6 And when he gave orders to the man clothed in linen,
saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the
winged ones, then he went in and took his place at the side of
a wheel.

7 And stretching out his hand to the fire which was between
the winged ones, he took some of it and went out.

8 And I saw the form of a man's hands among the winged
ones under their wings.

9 And looking, I saw four wheels by the side of the winged
ones, one wheel by the side of a winged one and another
wheel by the side of another: and the wheels were like the
colour of a beryl stone to the eye.

10 In form the four of them were all the same, they seemed
like a wheel inside a wheel.

11 When they were moving, they went on their four sides
without turning; they went after the head in the direction in
which it was looking; they went without turning.

12 And the edges of the four wheels were full of eyes round
about.

13 As for the wheels, they were named in my hearing, the
circling wheels.

14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face
of a winged one, and the second was the face of a man, and
the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

15 And the winged ones went up on high: this is the living
being which I saw by the river Chebar.

16 And when the winged ones went, the wheels went by
their side: and when their wings were lifted to take them up
from the earth, the wheels were not turned from their side.

17 When they were at rest in their place, these were at rest;
when they were lifted up, these went up with them: for the
spirit of life was in them.

18 Then the glory of the Lord went out from the doorstep
of the house, and came to rest over the winged ones.

19 And the winged ones, lifting up their wings, went up
from the earth before my eyes, with the wheels by their side:
and they came to rest at the east doorway of the Lord's house;
and the glory of the God of Israel was over them on high.

20 This is the living being which I saw under the God of
Israel by the river Chebar; and it was clear to me that they
were the winged ones.

21 Every one had four faces and every one had four wings;
and hands like a man's hands were under their wings.

22 As for the form of their faces, they were the faces whose
form I saw by the river Chebar; when they went, every one of
them went straight forward.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 11

1 And the wind, lifting me up, took me to the east doorway
of the Lord's house, looking to the east: and at the door I saw
twenty-five men; and among them IJ saw Jaazaniah, the son of
Azzur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, rulers of the people.

2 Then he said to me, Son of man, these are the men who
are designing evil, who are teaching evil ways in this town:

3 Who say, This is not the time for building houses: this
town is the cooking-pot and we are the flesh.

4 For this cause be a prophet against them, be a prophet, O
son of man.

5 And the spirit of the Lord came on me, and he said to me,
Say, These are the words of the Lord: This is what you have
said, O children of Israel; what comes into your mind is clear
to me.

6 You have made great the number of your dead in this
town, you have made its streets full of dead men.

7 For this reason the Lord has said: Your dead whom you
have put down in its streets, they are the flesh, and this town
is the cooking-pot: but I will make you come out from inside
it.

8 You have been fearing the sword, and I will send the
sword on you, says the Lord.

9 T will make you come out from inside the town and will
give you up into the hands of men from other lands, and will
be judge among you.

10 You will come to your death by the sword; and I will be
your judge in the land of Israel; and you will be certain that I
am the Lord.

11 This town will not be your cooking-pot, and you will
not be the flesh inside it; I will be your judge at the limit of
the land of Israel;

12 And you will be certain that Iam the Lord: for you have
not been guided by my rules or given effect to my orders, but
you have been living by the orders of the nations round
about you.

13 Now while I was saying these things, death came to
Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah. Then falling down on my face
and crying out with a loud voice, I said, Ah, Lord! will you
put an end to all the rest of Israel?

14 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

15 Son of man, your countrymen, your relations, and all
the children of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the
people of Jerusalem have said, Go far from the Lord; this
land is given to us for a heritage:

16 For this reason say, This is what the Lord has said:
Though I have had them moved far off among the nations,
and though I have sent them wandering among the countries,
still I have been a safe place for them for a little time in the
countries where they have come.

17 Then say, This is what the Lord has said: I will get you
together from the peoples, and make you come out of the
countries where you have been sent in flight, and I will give
you the land of Israel.

18 And they will come there, and take away all the hated
and disgusting things from it.

19 And I will give them a new heart, and I will put a new
spirit in them; and I will take the heart of stone out of their
flesh and give them a heart of flesh:

20 So that they may be guided by my rules and keep my
orders and do them: and they will be to me a people, and I
will be to them a God.

21 But as for those whose heart goes after their hated and
disgusting things, I will send on their heads the punishment
of their ways, says the Lord.

22 Then the wings of the winged ones were lifted up, and
the wheels were by their side; and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them on high.

23 And the glory of the Lord went up from inside the town,
and came to rest on the mountain on the east side of the town.

24 And the wind, lifting me up, took me in the visions of
God into Chaldaea, to those who had been taken away as
prisoners. So the vision which I had seen went away from me.

25 Then I gave an account to those who had been taken
prisoners of all the things which the Lord had made me see.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 12

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, you are living among an uncontrolled people,
who have eyes to see but see not, and ears for hearing but
they do not give ear; for they are an uncontrolled people.

3 And you, O son of man, by day, before their eyes, get
ready the vessels of one who is taken away, and go away from
your place to another place before their eyes: it may be that
they will see, though they are an uncontrolled people.

4 By day, before their eyes, take out your vessels like those
of one who is taken away: and go out in the evening before
their eyes, like those who are taken away as prisoners.

5 Make a hole in the wall, before their eyes, and go out
through it.

6 And before their eyes, take your goods on your back and
go out in the dark; go with your face covered: for I have
made you a sign to the children of Israel.

7 And I did as I was ordered: I took out my vessels by day,
like those of one who is taken away, and in the evening I
made a hole through the wall with a tent-pin; and in the dark
I went out, taking my things on my back before their eyes.

8 And in the morning the word of the Lord came to me,
saying,

9 Son of man, has not Israel, the uncontrolled people, said
to you, What are you doing?

10 You are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said:
This word has to do with the ruler in Jerusalem and all the
children of Israel in it.

11 Say, Iam your sign: as I have done, so will it be done to
them: they will go away as prisoners.

12 And the ruler who is among them will take his goods on
his back in the dark and go out: he will make a hole in the
wall through which to go out: he will have his face covered
so that he may not be seen.

13 And my net will be stretched out on him, and he will be
taken in my cords: and I will take him to Babylon to the land

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

of the Chaldaeans; but he will not see it, and there death will
come to him.

14 And all his helpers round about him and all his armies I
will send in flight to every wind; and I will let loose a sword
after them.

15 And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I send
them in flight among the nations, driving them out through
the countries.

16 But a small number of them I will keep from the sword,
from the need of food, and from disease, so that they may
make clear all their disgusting ways among the nations where
they come; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

17 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, take your food with shaking fear, and your
water with trouble and care;

19 And say to the people of the land, This is what the Lord
has said about the people of Jerusalem and the land of Israel:
They will take their food with care and their drink with
wonder, so that all the wealth of their land may be taken
from it because of the violent ways of the people living in it.

20 And the peopled towns will be made waste, and the land
will become a wonder; and you will be certain that I am the
Lord.

21 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

22 Son of man, what is this saying which you have about
the land of Israel, The time is long and every vision comes to
nothing?

23 For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has
said: I have made this saying come to an end, and it will no
longer be used as a common saying in Israel; but say to them,
The days are near, and the effect of every vision.

24 For there will be no more false visions or smooth use of
secret arts in Israel.

25 For I am the Lord; I will say the word and what I say I
will do; it will not be put off: for in your days, O
uncontrolled people, I will say the word and do it, says the
Lord.

26 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

27 Son of man, see, the children of Israel say, The vision
which he sees is for the days which are a long way off, and his
words are of times still far away.

28 Say to them then, This is what the Lord has said: Not
one of my words will be put off any longer, but what I say I
will do, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 13

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, be a prophet against the prophets of Israel,
and say to those prophets whose words are the invention of
their hearts, Give ear to the word of the Lord;

3 This is what the Lord has said: A curse on the foolish
prophets who go after the spirit which is in them and have
seen nothing!

4 O Israel, your prophets have been like jackals in the waste
places.

5 You have not gone up into the broken places or made up
the wall for the children of Israel to take your place in the
fight in the day of the Lord.

6 They have seen visions without substance and made use of
secret arts, who say, The Lord has said; and the Lord has not
sent them: hoping that the word would have effect.

7 Have you not seen a vision without substance and have
you not falsely made use of secret arts, when you say, The
Lord has said; though I have said nothing?

8 So this is what the Lord has said: Because your words are
without substance and your visions are false, see, I am
against you, says the Lord.

9 And my hand will be against the prophets who see visions
without substance and who make false use of secret arts: they
will not be in the secret of my people, and they will not be
recorded in the list of the children of Israel, and they will not
come into the land of Israel; and it will be clear to you that I
am the Lord.

10 Because, even because they have been guiding my people
into error, saying, Peace; when there is no peace; and in the
building of a division wall they put whitewash on it:

11 Say to those who put whitewash on it, There will be an
overflowing shower; and you, O ice-drops, will come raining
down; and it will be broken in two by the storm-wind.

12 And when the wall has come down, will they not say to
you, Where is the whitewash which you put on it?

13 For this reason, the Lord has said: I will have it broken
in two by a storm-wind in my passion; and there will be an
overflowing shower in my wrath, and you, O ice-drops, will
come raining angrily down.

14 So I will let the wall, which you were covering with
whitewash, be broken down; I will have it levelled to the
earth so that its base is uncovered: it will come down, and
destruction will come on you with it; and it will be clear to
you that Iam the Lord.

15 So I will let loose my passion on the wall in full measure,
and on those who put whitewash on it; and I will say to you,
Where is the wall, and where are those who put whitewash
on it?

16 Even the prophets of Israel who say words to Jerusalem,
who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says
the Lord.

17 And you, son of man, let your face be turned against the
daughters of your people, who are acting the part of
prophets at their pleasure; be a prophet against them, and
Say,

18 This is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the women
who are stitching bands on all arms and putting veils on the
heads of those of every size, so that they may go after souls!
Will you go after the souls of my people and keep yourselves
safe from death?

19 And you have put me to shame among my people for a
little barley and some bits of bread, sending death on souls
for whom there is no cause of death, and keeping those souls
living who have no right to life, by the false words you say to
my people who give ear to what is false.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against your
bands with which you go after souls, and I will violently take
them off their arms; and I will let loose the souls, even the
souls whom you go after freely.

21 And I will have your veils violently parted in two, and
will make my people free from your hands, and they will no
longer be in your power for you to go after them; and you
will be certain that I am the Lord.

22 Because with your false words you have given pain to the
heart of the upright man when I had not made him sad; in
order to make strong the hands of the evil-doer so that he
may not be turned from his evil way and get life:

23 For this cause you will see no more foolish visions or
make false use of secret arts: and I will make my people free
from your power; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 14

1 Then certain of the responsible men of Israel came to me
and took their seats before me.

2 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

3 Son of man, these men have taken their false gods into
their hearts and put before their faces the sin which is the
cause of their fall: am I to give ear when they come to me for
directions?

4 For this cause say to them, These are the words of the
Lord: Every man of Israel who has taken his false god into
his heart, and put before his face the sin which is the cause of
his fall, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will give him an
answer by myself in agreement with the number of his false
gods;

5 So as to take the children of Israel in the thoughts of their
hearts, because they have become strange to me through their
false gods.

6 For this cause say to the children of Israel, These are the
words of the Lord: Come back and give up your false gods
and let your faces be turned from your disgusting things.

7 When any one of the men of Israel, or of those from other
lands who are living in Israel, who has become strange to me,
and takes his false gods into his heart, and puts before his
face the sin which is the cause of his fall, comes to the prophet
to get directions from me; I the Lord will give him an answer
by myself:

8 And my face will be turned against that man, and I will
make him a sign and a common saying, cutting him off from

among my people; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

9 And if the prophet, tricked by deceit, says anything, it is I
the Lord by whom he has been tricked, and I will put out my
hand against him, and he will be cut off from among my
people Israel.

10 And the punishment of their sin will be on them: the sin
of the prophet will be the same as the sin of him who goes to
him for directions;

11 So that the children of Israel may no longer go
wandering away from me, or make themselves unclean with
all their wrongdoing; but they will be my people, and I will
be their God, says the Lord.

12 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

13 Son of man, when a land, sinning against me, does
wrong, and my hand is stretched out against it, and the
support of its bread is broken, and I make it short of food,
cutting off man and beast from it:

14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in
it, only themselves would they keep safe by their
righteousness, says the Lord.

15 Or if I send evil beasts through the land causing
destruction and making it waste, so that no man may go
through because of the beasts:

16 Even if these three men were in it, by my life, says the
Lord, they would not keep safe their sons or daughters, but
only themselves, and the land would be made waste.

17 Or if I send a sword against that land, and say, Sword,
go through the land, cutting off from it man and beast:

18 Even if these three men were in it, by my life, says the
Lord, they would not keep safe their sons or daughters, but
only themselves.

19 Or if I send disease into that land, letting loose my wrath
on it in blood, cutting off from it man and beast:

20 Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, by my life, says
the Lord, they would not keep son or daughter safe; only
themselves would they keep safe through their righteousness.

21 For this is what the Lord has said: How much more
when I send my four bitter punishments on Jerusalem, the
sword and need of food and evil beasts and disease, cutting
off from it man and beast?

22 But truly, there will still be a small band who will be
safe, even sons and daughters: and they will come out to you,
and you will see their ways and their doings: and you will be
comforted about the evil which I have sent on Jerusalem,
even about everything I have sent on it.

23 They will give you comfort when you see their ways and
their doings: and you will be certain that not for nothing
have I done all the things I have done in it, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 15

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, what is the vine-tree more than any
branching tree which is among the trees of the woods?

3 Will its wood be used for any work? do men make of it a
pin for hanging any vessel on?

4 See, it is put into the fire for burning: the fire has made a
meal of its two ends and the middle part of it is burned; is it
good for any work?

5 Truly, before it was cut down, it was not used for any
purpose: how much less, when the fire has made a meal of it
and it is burned, will it be made into anything?

6 For this cause the Lord has said: Like the vine-tree
among the trees of the woods which I have given to the fire
for burning, so will I give the people of Jerusalem.

7 And my face will be turned against them; and though they
have come out of the fire they will be burned up by it; and it
will be clear to you that I am the Lord when my face is turned
against them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 And I will make the land a waste because they have done
evil, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 16

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, make clear to Jerusalem her disgusting ways,

3 And say, This is what the Lord has said to Jerusalem:
Your start and your birth was from the land of the Canaanite;
an Amorite was your father and your mother was a Hittite.

4 As for your birth, on the day of your birth your cord was
not cut and you were not washed in water to make you clean;
you were not salted or folded in linen bands.

5 No eye had pity on you to do any of these things to you or
to be kind to you; but you were put out into the open
country, because your life was hated at the time of your birth.

6 And when I went past you and saw you stretched out in
your blood, I said to you, Though you are stretched out in
your blood, have life;

7 And be increased in number like the buds of the field; and
you were increased and became great, and you came to the
time of love: your breasts were formed and your hair was
long; but you were uncovered and without clothing.

8 Now when I went past you, looking at you, I saw that
your time was the time of love; and I put my skirts over you,
covering your unclothed body: and I gave you my oath and
made an agreement with you, says the Lord, and you became
mine.

9 Then I had you washed with water, washing away all your
blood and rubbing you with oil.

10 And I had you clothed with needlework, and put leather
shoes on your feet, folding fair linen about you and covering
you with silk.

11 And I made you fair with ornaments and put jewels on
your hands and a chain on your neck.

12 And IJ put a ring in your nose and ear-rings in your ears
and a beautiful crown on your head.

13 So you were made beautiful with gold and silver; and
your clothing was of the best linen and silk and needlework;
your food was the best meal and honey and oil: and you were
very beautiful.

14 You were so beautiful that the story of you went out
into all nations; you were completely beautiful because of my
glory which I had put on you, says the Lord.

15 But you put your faith in the fact that you were
beautiful, acting like a loose woman because you were widely
talked of, and offering your cheap love to everyone who went
by, whoever it might be.

16 And you took your robes and made high places for
yourself ornamented with every colour, acting like a loose
woman on them, without shame or fear.

17 And you took the fair jewels, my silver and gold which I
had given to you, and made for yourself male images, acting
like a loose woman with them;

18 And you took your robes of needlework for their
clothing, and put my oil and my perfume before them.

19 And my bread which I gave you, the best meal and oil
and honey which I gave you for your food, you put it before
them for a sweet smell, says the Lord.

20 And you took your sons and your daughters whom IJ had
by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was
your loose behaviour so small a thing,

21 That you put my children to death and gave them up to
go through the fire to them?

22 And in all your disgusting and false behaviour you had
no memory of your early days, when you were uncovered and
without clothing, stretched out in your blood.

23 And it came about, after all your evil-doing, says the
Lord,

24 That you made for yourself an arched room in every
open place.

25 You put up your high places at the top of every street,
and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening
your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose
ways.

26 And you went with the Egyptians, your neighbours,
great of flesh; increasing your loose ways, moving me to
wrath.

27 Now, then, my hand is stretched out against you,
cutting down your fixed amount, and I have given you up to
the desire of your haters, the daughters of the Philistines who
are shamed by your loose ways.

28 And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire
which was without measure; you were acting like a loose
woman with them, and still you had not enough.

29 And you went on in your loose ways, even as far as the
land of Chaldaea, and still you had not enough.

30 How feeble is your heart, says the Lord, seeing that you
do all these things, the work of a loose and overruling
woman;

31 For you have made your arched room at the top of every
street, and your high place in every open place; though you
were not like a loose woman in getting together your
payment.

32 The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her
husband!

33 They give payment to all loose women: but you give
rewards to your lovers, offering them payment so that they
may come to you on every side for your cheap love.

34 And in your loose behaviour you are different from
other women, for no one goes after you to make love to you:
and because you give payment and no payment is given to
you, in this you are different from them.

35 For this cause, O loose woman, give ear to the voice of
the Lord:

36 This is what the Lord has said: Because your unclean
behaviour was let loose and your body uncovered in your
loose ways with your lovers and with your disgusting images,
and for the blood of your children which you gave to them;

37 For this cause I will get together all your lovers with
whom you have taken your pleasure, and all those to whom
you have given your love, with all those who were hated by

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

you; I will even make them come together against you on
every side, and I will have you uncovered before them so that
they may see your shame.

38 And you will be judged by me as women are judged who
have been untrue to their husbands and have taken life; and I
will let loose against you passion and bitter feeling.

39 I will give you into their hands, and your arched room
will be overturned and your high places broken down; they
will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels:
and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed.

40 And they will get together a meeting against you,
stoning you with stones and wounding you with their swords.

41 And they will have you burned with fire, sending
punishments on you before the eyes of great numbers of
women; and I will put an end to your loose ways, and you
will no longer give payment.

42 And the heat of my wrath against you will have an end,
and my bitter feeling will be turned away from you, and I
will be quiet and will be angry no longer.

43 Because you have not kept in mind the days when you
were young, but have been troubling me with all these things;
for this reason I will make the punishment of your ways come
on your head, says the Lord, because you have done this evil
thing in addition to all your disgusting acts.

44 See, in every common saying about you it will be said,
As the mother is, so is her daughter.

45 You are the daughter of your mother whose soul is
turned in disgust from her husband and her children; and
you are the sister of your sisters who were turned in disgust
from their husbands and their children: your mother was a
Hittite and your father an Amorite.

46 Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she
and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your
right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 Still you have not gone in their ways or done the
disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was
only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in
all your ways.

48 By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did,
she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have
done.

49 Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full
measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were
seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the
poor or to those in need.

50 They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to
me: and so I took them away as you have seen.

51 And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have
made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs,
making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the
disgusting things which you have done.

52 And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have
given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which
are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than
you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have
made your sisters seem upright.

53 And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom
and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters,
and your fate with theirs.

54 So that you will be shamed and made low because of all
you have done, when I have mercy on you.

55 And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back
to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will
go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters
will go back to your first condition.

56 Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the
day of your pride,

57 Before your shame was uncovered? Now you have
become like her a word of shame to the daughters of Edom
and all who are round about you, the daughters of the
Philistines who put shame on you round about.

58 The reward of your evil designs and your disgusting
ways has come on you, says the Lord.

59 For this is what the Lord has said: I will do to you as
you have done, you who, putting the oath on one side, have
let the agreement be broken.

60 But still I will keep in mind the agreement made with
you in the days when you were young, and I will make with
you an eternal agreement.

61 Then at the memory of your ways you will be overcome
with shame, when I take your sisters, the older and the
younger, and give them to you for daughters, but not by
your agreement.

62 And I will make my agreement with you; and you will be
certain that I am the Lord:

63 So that, at the memory of these things, you may be at a
loss, never opening your mouth because of your shame; when
you have my forgiveness for all you have done, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 17

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, give out a dark saying, and make a
comparison for the children of Israel,

3 And say, This is what the Lord has said: A great eagle
with great wings, full of long feathers of different colours,
came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:

4 Biting off the highest of its young branches, he took it to
the land of Canaan, and put it in a town of traders.

5 And he took some of the seed of the land, planting it in
fertile earth, placing it by great waters; he put it in like a
willow-tree.

6 And its growth went on and it became a vine, low and
widely stretching, whose branches were turned to him and its
roots were under him: so it became a vine, putting out
branches and young leaves.

7 And there was another eagle with great wings and thick
feathers: and now this vine, pushing out its roots to him, sent
out its branches in his direction from the bed where it was
planted, so that he might give it water.

8 He had it planted in a good field by great waters so that it
might put out branches and have fruit and be a strong vine.

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 Say, This is what the Lord has said: Will it do well? will
he not have its roots pulled up and its branches cut off, so
that all its young leaves may become dry and it may be pulled
up by its roots?

10 And if it is planted will it do well? will it not become
quite dry at the touch of the east wind, drying up in the bed
where it was planted?

11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12 Say now to this uncontrolled people, Are these things
not clear to you? Say to them, See, the king of Babylon came
to Jerusalem and took its king and its rulers away with him
to Babylon;

13 And he took one of the sons of the king and made an
agreement with him; and he put him under an oath, and took
away the great men of the land:

14 So that the kingdom might be made low with no power
of lifting itself up, but might keep his agreement to be his
servants.

15 But he went against his authority in sending
representatives to Egypt to get from them horses and a great
army. Will he do well? will he be safe who does such things?
if the agreement is broken will he be safe?

16 By my life, says the Lord, truly in the place of the king
who made him king, whose oath he put on one side and let
his agreement with him be broken, even in Babylon he will
come to his death.

17 And Pharaoh with his strong army and great forces will
be no help to him in the war, when they put up earthworks
and make strong walls for the cutting off of lives:

18 For he put his oath on one side in letting the agreement
be broken; and though he had given his hand to it, he did all
these things; he will not get away safe.

19 And so the Lord has said, By my life, truly, for my oath
which he put on one side, and my agreement which has been
broken, I will send punishment on his head.

20 My net will be stretched out over him, and he will be
taken in my cords, and I will send him to Babylon, and there
I will be his judge for the wrong which he has done against
me.

21 All his best fighting-men will be put to the sword, and
the rest will be sent away to every wind: and you will be
certain that I the Lord have said it.

22 This is what the Lord has said: Further, I will take the
highest top of the cedar and put it in the earth; cutting off
from the highest of his young branches a soft one, I will have
it planted on a high and great mountain;

23 It will be planted on the high mountain of Israel: it will
put out branches and have fruit and be a fair cedar: under it
all birds of every sort will make their living-place, resting in
the shade of its branches.

24 And it will be clear to all the trees of the field that I the
Lord have made low the high tree and made high the low tree,
drying up the green tree and making the dry tree full of
growth; I the Lord have said it and have done it.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 18

1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 Why do you make use of this saying about the land of
Israel, The fathers have been tasting bitter grapes and the
children's teeth are on edge?

3 By my life, says the Lord, you will no longer have this
saying in Israel.

4 See, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the
soul of the son is mine: death will be the fate of the sinner's
soul.

5 But if a man is upright, living rightly and doing
righteousness,

6 And has not taken flesh with the blood for food, or given
worship to the images of the children of Israel; if he has not
had connection with his neighbour's wife, or come near to a
woman at the time when she is unclean;

7 And has done no wrong to any, but has given back to the
debtor what is his, and has taken no one's goods by force,
and has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing
to him who was without it;

8 And has not given his money out at interest or taken
great profits, and, turning his hand from evil-doing, has
kept faith between man and man,

9 And has been guided by my rules and has kept my laws
and done them: he is upright, life will certainly be his, says
the Lord.

10 If he has a son who is a thief, a taker of life, who does
any of these things,

11 Who has taken flesh with the blood as food, and has had
connection with his neighbour's wife,

12 Has done wrong to the poor and to him who is in need,
and taken property by force, and has not given back to one in
his debt what is his, and has given worship to images and has
done disgusting things,

13 And has given out his money at interest and taken great
profits: he will certainly not go on living: he has done all
these disgusting things: death will certainly be his fate; his
blood will be on him.

14 Now if he has a son who sees all his father's sins which he
has done, and in fear does not do the same:

15 Who has not taken the flesh with the blood for food, or
given worship to the images of the children of Israel, and has
not had connection with his neighbour's wife,

16 Or done wrong to any, or taken anything from one in
his debt, or taken goods by force, but has given food to him
who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without
it;

17 Who has kept his hand from evil-doing and has not
taken interest or great profits, who has done my orders and
been guided by my rules: he will certainly not be put to death
for the evil-doing of his father; life will certainly be his.

18 As for his father, because he was cruel, took goods by
force, and did what is not good among his people, truly,
death will overtake him in his evil-doing.

19 But you say, Why does not the son undergo punishment
for the evil-doing of the father? When the son has done what

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

is ordered and right, and has kept my rules and done them,
life will certainly be his.

20 The soul which does sin will be put to death: the son will
not be made responsible for the evil-doing of the father, or
the father for the evil-doing of the son; the righteousness of
the upright will be on himself, and the evil-doing of the evil-
doer on himself.

21 But if the evil-doer, turning away from all the sins which
he has done, keeps my rules and does what is ordered and
right, life will certainly be his; death will not be his fate.

22 Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in
memory against him: in the righteousness which he has done
he will have life.

23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the evil-doer? says
the Lord: am I not pleased if he is turned from his way so that
he may have life?

24 But when the upright man, turning away from his
righteousness, does evil, like all the disgusting things which
the evil man does, will he have life? Not one of his upright
acts will be kept in memory: in the wrong which he has done
and in his sin death will overtake him.

25 But you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Give ear,
now, O children of Israel; is my way not equal? are not your
ways unequal?

26 When the upright man, turning away from his
righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil
which he has done death will overtake him.

27 Again, when the evil-doer, turning away from the evil
he has done, does what is ordered and right, he will have life
for his soul.

28 Because he had fear and was turned away from all the
wrong which he had done, life will certainly be his, death
will not be his fate.

29 But still the children of Israel say, The way of the Lord
is not equal. O children of Israel, are my ways not equal? are
not your ways unequal?

30 For this cause I will be your judge, O children of Israel,
judging every man by his ways, says the Lord. Come back
and be turned from all your sins; so that they may not be the
cause of your falling into evil.

31 Put away all your evil-doing in which you have done sin;
and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: why
are you desiring death, O children of Israel?

32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him on whom
death comes, says the Lord: be turned back then, and have
life.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 19

| Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,

2 What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions,
stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her
little ones.

3 And one of her little ones came to growth under her care,
and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his
food; and he took men for his meat.

4 And the nations had news of him; he was taken in the hole
they had made: and, pulling him with hooks, they took him
into the land of Egypt.

5 Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and
gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a
young lion.

6 And he went up and down among the lions and became a
young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he
took men for his meat.

7 And he sent destruction on their widows and made waste
their towns; and the land and everything in it became waste
because of the loud sound of his voice.

8 Then the nations came against him from the kingdoms
round about: their net was stretched over him and he was
taken in the hole they had made.

9 They made him a prisoner with hooks, and took him to
the king of Babylon; they put him in the strong place so that
his voice might be sounding no longer on the mountains of
Israel.

10 Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by
the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the
great waters.

11 And she had a strong rod for a rod of authority for the
rulers, and it became tall among the clouds and it was seen
lifted up among the number of its branches.

12 But she was uprooted in burning wrath, and made low
on the earth; the east wind came, drying her up, and her
branches were broken off; her strong rod became dry, the fire
made a meal of it.

13 And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and
unwatered country.

14 And fire has gone out from her rod, causing the
destruction of her branches, so that there is no strong rod in
her to be the ruler's rod of authority. This is a song of grief,
and it was for a song of grief.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 20

1 Now it came about in the seventh year, in the fifth month,
on the tenth day of the month, that certain of the responsible
men of Israel came to get directions from the Lord and were
seated before me.

2 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

3 Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is
what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions
from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions
from me.

4 Will you be their judge, O son of man, will you be their
judge? make clear to them the disgusting ways of their
fathers,

5 And say to them, This is what the Lord has said: In the
day when I took Israel for myself, when I made an oath to the
seed of the family of Jacob, and I gave them knowledge of
myself in the land of Egypt, saying to them with an oath, I
am the Lord your God;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 In that day I gave my oath to take them out of the land of
Egypt into a land which I had been searching out for them, a
land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands:

7 And I said to them, Let every man among you put away
the disgusting things to which his eyes are turned, and do not
make yourselves unclean with the images of Egypt; I am the
Lord your God.

8 But they would not be controlled by me, and did not give
ear to me; they did not put away the disgusting things to
which their eyes were turned, or give up the images of Egypt:
then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full
effect to my wrath against them in the land of Egypt.

9 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it
might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations
among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them
knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt.

10 So I made them go out of the land of Egypt and took
them into the waste land.

11 And I gave them my rules and made clear to them my
orders, which, if a man keeps them, will be life to him.

12 And further, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign
between me and them, so that it might be clear that I, who
make them holy, am the Lord.

13 But the children of Israel would not be controlled by me
in the waste land: they were not guided by my rules, and they
were turned away from my orders, which, if a man does them,
will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths:
then I said that I would let loose my passion on them in the
waste land, and put an end to them.

14 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it
might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before
whose eyes I had taken them out.

15 And further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land,
that I would not take them into the land which I had given
them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all
lands;

16 Because they were turned away from my orders, and
were not guided by my rules, and had no respect for my
Sabbaths: for their hearts went after their images.

17 But still my eye had pity on them and I kept them from
destruction and did not put an end to them completely in the
waste land.

18 And I said to their children in the waste land, Do not be
guided by the rules of your fathers or keep their orders or
make yourselves unclean with their images:

19 Tam the Lord your God; be guided by my rules and keep
my orders and do them:

20 And keep my Sabbaths holy; and they will be a sign
between me and you so that it may be clear to you that I am
the Lord your God.

21 But the children would not be controlled by me; they
were not guided by my rules, and they did not keep and do
my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and
they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said I would let
loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath
against them in the waste land.

22 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it
might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before
whose eyes I had taken them out.

23 Further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land that I
would send them wandering among the nations, driving
them out among the countries;

24 Because they had not done my orders, but had been
turned away from my rules, and had not given respect to my
Sabbaths, and their eyes were turned to the images of their
fathers.

25 And further, I gave them rules which were not good and
orders in which there was no life for them;

26 I made them unclean in the offerings they gave, causing
them to make every first child go through the fire, so that I
might put an end to them.

27 For this cause, son of man, say to the children of Israel,
This is what the Lord has said: In this your fathers have
further put shame on my name by doing wrong against me.

28 For when I had taken them into the land which I made
an oath to give to them, then they saw every high hill and
every branching tree and made their offerings there, moving
me to wrath by their offerings; and there the sweet smell of
their offerings went up and their drink offerings were
drained out.

29 Then I said to them, What is this high place where you
go to no purpose? And it is named Bamah to this day.

30 For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what
the Lord has said: Are you making yourselves unclean as
your fathers did? are you being untrue to me by going after
their disgusting works?

31 And when you give your offerings, causing your sons to
go through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all
your images to this day; and will you come to me for
directions, O children of Israel? By my life, says the Lord,
you will get no direction from me.

32 And that which comes into your minds will never take
place; when you say, We will be like the nations, like the
families of the countries, servants of wood and stone;

33 By my life, says the Lord, truly, with a strong hand and
with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose, I
will be King over you:

34 And I will take you out from the peoples and get you
together out of the countries where you are wandering, with
a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with
burning wrath let loose:

35 And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples,
and there I will take up the cause with you face to face.

36 As I took up the cause with your fathers in the waste
land of the land of Egypt, so will I take up the cause with you
says the Lord.

37 And I will make you go under the rod and will make you
small in number:

38 Clearing out from among you all those who are
uncontrolled and who are sinning against me; I will take
them out of the land where they are living, but they will not

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

come into the land of Israel: and you will be certain that Iam
the Lord.

39 As for you, O children of Israel, the Lord has said: Let
every man completely put away his images and give ear to me:
and let my holy name no longer be shamed by your offerings
and your images.

40 For in my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel,
says the Lord, there all the children of Israel, all of them, will
be my servants in the land; there I will take pleasure in them,
and there I will be worshipped with your offerings and the
first-fruits of the things you give, and with all your holy
things.

41 I will take pleasure in you as in a sweet smell, when I
take you out from the peoples and get you together from the
countries where you have been sent in flight; and I will make
myself holy in you before the eyes of the nations.

42 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take
you into the land of Israel, into the country which I made an
oath to give to your fathers.

43 And there, at the memory of your ways and of all the
things you did to make yourselves unclean, you will have
bitter hate for yourselves because of all the evil things you
have done.

44 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take
you in hand for the honour of my name, and not for your evil
ways or your unclean doings, O children of Israel, says the
Lord.

45 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

46 Son of man, let your face be turned to the south, let your
words be dropped to the south, and be a prophet against the
woodland of the South;

47 And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the
words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will
have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green
tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be
put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be
burned by it.

48 And all flesh will see that I the Lord have had it lighted:
it will not be put out.

49 Then I said, Ah, Lord! they say of me, Is he not a maker
of stories?

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 21

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned to Jerusalem, let your
words be dropped in the direction of her holy place, and be a
prophet against the land of Israel;

3 And say to the land of Israel, These are the words of the
Lord: See, I am against you, and I will take my sword out of
its cover, cutting off from you the upright and the evil.

4 Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut
off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its
cover against all flesh from the south to the north:

5 And all flesh will see that I the Lord have taken my sword
out of its cover: and it will never go back.

6 Make sounds of grief, son of man; with body bent and a
bitter heart make sounds of grief before their eyes.

7 And when they say to you, Why are you making sounds of
grief? then say, Because of the news, for it is coming: and
every heart will become soft, and all hands will be feeble, and
every spirit will be burning low, and all knees will be turned
to water: see, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

9 Son of man, say as a prophet, These are the words of the
Lord: Say, A sword, a sword which has been made sharp and
polished:

10 It has been made sharp to give death; it is polished so
that it may be like a thunder-flame: shall we then make mirth?
the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.

11 And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be
taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it
polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.

12 Give loud cries and make sounds of grief, O son of man:
for it has come on my people, it has come on all the rulers of
Israel: fear of the sword has come on my people: for this cause
give signs of grief.

13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword condemns
even the rod? it shall be no more, sais the Lord God.

14 So then, son of man, be a prophet, and put your hands
together with a loud sound, and give two blows with the
sword, and even three; it is the sword of those who are
wounded, even the sword of the wounded; the great sword
which goes round about them.

15 In order that hearts may become soft, and the number of
those who are falling may be increased, I have sent death by
the sword against all their doors: you are made like a flame,
you are polished for death.

16 Be pointed to the right, to the left, wherever your edge
is ordered.

17 And I will put my hands together with a loud sound,
and I will let my wrath have rest: I the Lord have said it.

18 And the word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

19 And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that
the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of
them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top
of the road:

20 Put a pillar at the top of the road for the sword to come
to Rabbah in the land of the children of Ammon, and to
Judah and to Jerusalem in the middle of her.

21 For the king of Babylon took his place at the parting of
the ways, at the top of the two roads, to make use of secret
arts: shaking the arrows this way and that, he put questions
to the images of his gods, he took note of the inner parts of
dead beasts.

22 At his right hand was the fate of Jerusalem, to give
orders for destruction, to send up the war-cry, to put engines
of war against the doors, lifting up earthworks, building
walls.

23 And this answer given by secret arts will seem false to
those who have given their oaths and have let them be broken:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

but he will keep the memory of evil-doing so that they may
be taken.

24 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made
your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your
wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-
doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in
them.

25 And you, O evil one, wounded to death, O ruler of Israel,
whose day has come in the time of the last punishment;

26 This is what the Lord has said: Take away the holy head-
dress, take off the crown: this will not be again: let that
which is low be lifted up, and that which is high be made low.

27 I will let it be overturned, overturned, overturned: this
will not be again till he comes whose right it is; and I will
give it to him.

28 And you, son of man, say as a prophet, This is what the
Lord has said about the children of Ammon and about their
shame: Say, A sword, even a sword let loose, polished for
death, to make it shining so that it may be like a flame:

29 Your vision is to no purpose, your use of secret arts
gives a false answer, to put it on the necks of evil-doers who
are wounded to death, whose day has come, in the time of the
last punishment.

30 Go back into your cover. In the place where you were
made, in the land from which you were taken, I will be your
judge.

31 And I will let loose my burning passion on you,
breathing out on you the fire of my wrath: and I will give
you up into the hands of men like beasts, trained to
destruction.

32 You will be food for the fire; your blood will be drained
out in the land; there will be no more memory of you: for I
the Lord have said it.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 22

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a
judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her
disgusting ways.

3 And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A
town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that
her time may come, and making images in her to make her
unclean!

4 You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and
you are unclean through the images which you have made;
and you have made your day come near, and the time of your
judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of
shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries.

5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will
make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of
sounds of fear.

6 See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been
causing death in you.

7 In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in
you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in

you they have done wrong to the child without a father and
to the widow.

8 You have made little of my holy things, and have made
my Sabbaths unclean.

9 In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death;
in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in
your streets they have put evil designs into effect.

10 In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in
you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she
was unclean.

11 And in you one man has done what was disgusting with
his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-
law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his
father's daughter.

12 In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood;
you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken
away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me
in mind, says the Lord.

13 See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath
against your taking of goods by force and against the blood
which has been flowing in you.

14 Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days
when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do
it.

15 And I will send you in flight among the nations and
wandering among the countries; and I will completely take
away out of you everything which is unclean.

16 And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations;
and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the
poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass
and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

19 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all
become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside
Jerusalem.

20 As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin
together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it
soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion,
and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft.

21 Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my
wrath, and you will become soft in it.

22 As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become
soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let
loose my passion on you.

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

24 Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain
or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath.

25 Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently
taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have
taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the
number of widows in her.

26 Her priests have been acting violently against my law;
they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no
division between what is holy and what is common, and they
have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am
not honoured among them.

27 Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their
food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of
souls, so that they may get their profit.

28 And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing
foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying,
This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said
nothing.

29 The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking
men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and
those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a
strange land.

30 And I was looking for a man among them who would
make up the wall and take his station in the broken place
before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction
on it: but there was no one.

31 And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end
to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment
of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 23

1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one
mother:

3 They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they
were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts
were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were
crushed.

4 Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her
sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and
daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and
Jerusalem, Oholibah.

5 And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was
full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her
neighbours,

6 Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them
young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses.

7 And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the
noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the
images of all who were desired by her.

8 And she has not given up her loose ways from the time
when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her
lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they
let loose on her their unclean desire.

9 For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers,
into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed.

10 By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons
and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she
became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the
punishment which was right.

11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even
more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than
that of her sister.

12 She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and
rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on
horses, all of them young men to be desired.

13 And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them
went the same way.

14 And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men
pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in
bright red,

15 With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses
hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers,
like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea.

16 And when she saw them she was full of desire for them,
and sent servants to them in Chaldaea.

17 And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love,
and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became
unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them.

18 So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame
uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been
turned from her sister.

19 But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour,
keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose
woman in the land of Egypt.

20 And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is
like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses.

21 And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early
years come back to mind, when her young breasts were
crushed by the Egyptians.

22 For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has
said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even
those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I
will make them come up against you on every side;

23 The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and
Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men
to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her
neighbours, all of them on horseback.

24 And they will come against you from the north on
horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples;
they will put themselves in order against you with
breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round
about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will
give their decision against you as seems right to them.

25 And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and
they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away
your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the
sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest
of you will be burned up in the fire.

26 And they will take all your clothing off you and take
away your ornaments.

27 So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose
behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes
will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no
more memory of Egypt.

28 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you
up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the
hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in
disgust:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

29 And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away
all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and
without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will
be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways.

30 They will do these things to you because you have been
untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have
become unclean with their images.

31 You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give
her cup into your hand.

32 This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink
from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be
laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to
undergo.

33 You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of
wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria.

34 And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take
the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I
have said it, says the Lord.

35 So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not
kept me in your memory, and because your back has been
turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your
evil designs and your loose ways.

36 Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the
judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting
things she has done.

37 For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands,
and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this,
she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire
to them to be burned up.

38 Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made
my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean.

39 For when she had made an offering of her children to
her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean;
see, this is what she has done inside my house.

40 And she even sent for men to come from far away, to
whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was
washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself
fair with ornaments.

41 And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put
ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil.

42 The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and
with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from
the wilderness; and they put jewels on her hands and
beautiful crowns on her head.

43 Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, now will
they play the prostitute with her, and she [with them].

44 And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so
they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman.

45 And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false
wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has
been untrue to me and blood is on her hands.

46 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great
meeting of the people come together against her, and will
send on her shaking fear and take everything from her.

47 And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put
an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and
daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire.

48 And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all
women not to do as you have done.

49 And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways,
and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and
you will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 24

1 And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in
the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,

2 Son of man, put down in writing this very day: The king
of Babylon let loose the weight of his attack against
Jerusalem on this very day.

3 And make a comparison for this uncontrolled people, and
say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Put on the
cooking-pot, put it on the fire and put water in it:

4 And get the bits together, the fat tail, every good part,
the leg and the top part of it: make it full of the best bones.

5 Take the best of the flock, put much wood under it: see
that its bits are boiling well; let the bones be cooked inside it.

6 For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town
of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has
never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to
come on it.

7 For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock
not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered
with dust;

8 In order that it might make wrath come up to give
punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that
it may not be covered.

9 For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of
blood! and I will make great the burning mass.

10 Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh
well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned.

11 And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated
and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may
become soft and her waste be completely taken away.

12 Ihave made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste
which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell.

13 As for your unclean purpose: because I have been
attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made
clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose
my passion on you in full measure.

14 1 the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not
go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed;
in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will
be judged, says the Lord.

15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

16 Son of man, see, I am taking away the desire of your eyes
by disease: but let there be no sorrow or weeping or drops
running from your eyes.

17 Let there be no sound of sorrow; make no weeping for
your dead, put on your head-dress and your shoes on your

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

feet, let not your lips be covered, and do not take the food of
those in grief.

18 So in the morning I was teaching the people and in the
evening death took my wife; and in the morning I did what I
had been ordered to do.

19 And the people said to me, Will you not make clear to us
the sense of these things; is it for us you do them?

20 Then I said to them, The word of the Lord came to me,
saying,

21 Say to the people of Israel, The Lord has said, See, I will
make my holy place unclean, the pride of your strength, the
pleasure of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your
sons and daughters, who did not come with you here, will be
put to the sword.

22 And you will do as I have done, not covering your lips
or taking the food of those in grief.

23 And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your
shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but
you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-
doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder.

24 And Ezekiel will be a sign to you; everything he has
done you will do: when this takes place, you will be certain
that I am the Lord.

25 And as for you, son of man, your mouth will be shut in
the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their
glory, the desire of their eyes, and that on which their hearts
are fixed, and their sons and daughters.

26 In that day, one who has got away safe will come to you
to give you news of it.

27 In that day your mouth will be open to him who has got
away safe, and you will say words to him and your lips will
no longer be shut: so you will be a sign to them and they will
be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 25

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned to the children of
Ammon, and be a prophet against them:

3 And say to the children of Ammon, Give ear to the word
of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you said,
Aha! against my holy place when it was made unclean, and
against the land of Israel when it was made waste, and
against the people of Judah when they were taken away as
prisoners;

4 For this cause I will give you up to the children of the east
for their heritage, and they will put their tent-circles in you
and make their houses in you; they will take your fruit for
their food and your milk for their drink.

5 And I will make Rabbah a place for housing camels, and
the children of Ammon a resting-place for flocks: and you
will be certain that I am the Lord.

6 For the Lord has said, Because you have made sounds of
joy with your hands, stamping your feet, and have been glad,
putting shame with all your soul on the land of Israel;

7 For this cause my hand has been stretched out against you,
and I will give up your goods to be taken by the nations; I

will have you cut off from the peoples and will put an end to
you among the countries: I will give you up to destruction;
and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

8 This is what the Lord has said: Because Moab and Seir are
saying, See, the people of Judah are like all the nations;

9 For this cause, I will let the side of Moab be uncovered,
and his towns on every side, the glory of the land, Beth-
jeshimoth, Baal-meon and as far as Kiriathaim.

10 To the children of the east I have given her for a heritage,
as well as the children of Ammon, so that there may be no
memory of her among the nations:

11 And I will be the judge of Moab; and they will see that I
am the Lord.

12 This is what the Lord has said: Because Edom has taken
his payment from the people of Judah, and has done great
wrong in taking payment from them;

13 The Lord has said, My hand will be stretched out
against Edom, cutting off from it man and beast: and I will
make it waste, from Teman even as far as Dedan they will be
put to the sword.

14 I will take payment from Edom because of my people
Israel; and I will take Edom in hand in my wrath and in my
passion: and they will have experience of my reward, says the
Lord.

15 This is what the Lord has said: Because the Philistines
have taken payment, with the purpose of causing shame and
destruction with unending hate;

16 The Lord has said, See, my hand will be stretched out
against the Philistines, cutting off the Cherethites and
sending destruction on the rest of the sea-land.

17 And I will take great payment from them with acts of
wrath; and they will be certain that I am the Lord when I
send my punishment on them.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 26

1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month,
the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha,
she who was the doorway of the peoples is broken; she is
turned over to them; she who was full is made waste;

3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I am against you, O
Tyre, and will send up a number of nations against you as the
sea sends up its waves.

4 And they will give the walls of Tyre to destruction and
have its towers broken: and I will take even her dust away
from her, and make her an uncovered rock

5 She will be a place for the stretching out of nets in the
middle of the sea; for I have said it, says the Lord: and her
goods will be given over to the nations.

6 And her daughters in the open country will be put to the
sword: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

7 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will send up
from the north Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, king of
kings, against Tyre, with horses and war-carriages and with
an army and great numbers of people.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 He will put to the sword your daughters in the open
country: he will make strong walls against you and put up an
earthwork against you, arming himself for war against you.

9 He will put up his engines of war against your walls, and
your towers will be broken down by his axes.

10 Because of the number of his horses you will be covered
with their dust: your walls will be shaking at the noise of the
horsemen and of the wheels and of the war-carriages, when
he comes through your doorways, as into a town which has
been broken open.

11 Your streets will be stamped down by the feet of his
horses: he will put your people to the sword, and will send
down the pillars of your strength to the earth.

12 They will take by force all your wealth and go off with
the goods with which you do trade: they will have your walls
broken down and all the houses of your desire given up to
destruction: they will put your stones and your wood and
your dust deep in the water.

13 I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the
sound of your instruments of music will be gone for ever.

14 I will make you an uncovered rock: you will be a place
for the stretching out of nets; there will be no building you
up again: for I the Lord have said it, says the Lord.

15 This is what the Lord has said to Tyre: Will not the sea-
lands be shaking at the sound of your fall, when the wounded
give cries of pain, when men are put to the sword in you?

16 Then all the rulers of the sea will come down from their
high seats, and put away their robes and take off their
clothing of needlework: they will put on the clothing of grief,
they will take their seats on the earth, shaking with fear
every minute and overcome with wonder at you.

17 And they will send up a song of grief for you, and say to
you, What destruction has come on you, how are you cut off
from the sea, the noted town, which was strong in the sea,
she and her people, causing the fear of them to come on all
the dry land!

18 Now the sea-lands will be shaking in the day of your fall;
and all the ships on the sea will be overcome with fear at your
going.

19 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make you a
waste town, like the towns which are unpeopled; when I
make the deep come upon you, covering you with great
waters.

20 Then I will make you go down with those who go down
into the underworld, to the people of the past, causing your
living-place to be in the deepest parts of the earth, in places
long unpeopled, with those who go down into the deep, so
that there will be no one living in you; and you will have no
glory in the land of the living.

21 I will make you a thing of fear, and you will come to an
end: even if you are looked for, you will not be seen again for
ever, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 27
1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,
2 And you, son of man, make a song of grief for Tyre;

3 And say to Tyre, O you who are seated at the doorway of
the sea, trading for the peoples with the great sea-lands,
these are the words of the Lord: You, O Tyre, have said, I am
aship completely beautiful.

4 Your builders have made your outlines in the heart of the
seas, they have made you completely beautiful.

5 They have made all your boards of fir-trees from Senir:
they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make the supports
for your sails.

6 Of oak-trees from Bashan they have made your driving
blades; they have made your floors of ivory and boxwood
from the sea-lands of Kittim.

7 The best linen with needlework from Egypt was your sail,
stretched out to be a flag for you; blue and purple from the
sea-lands of Elishah gave you shade.

8 The people of Zidon and Arvad were your boatmen; the
wise men of Zemer were in you; they were guiding your ships;

9 The responsible men of Gebal and its wise men were in
you, making your boards watertight: all the ships of the sea
with their seamen were in you trading in your goods.

10 Cush and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of
war, hanging up their body-covers and head-dresses of war
in you: they gave you your glory.

11 The men of Arvad in your army were on your walls, and
were watchmen in your towers, hanging up their arms on
your walls round about; they made you completely beautiful.

12 Tarshish did business with you because of the great
amount of your wealth; they gave silver, iron, tin, and lead
for your goods.

13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders; they gave
living men and brass vessels for your goods.

14 The people of Togarmah gave horses and war-horses and
transport beasts for your goods.

15 The men of Rodan were your traders: a great number of
sea-lands did business with you: they gave you horns of ivory
and ebony as an offering.

16 Edom did business with you because of the great number
of things which you made; they gave emeralds, purple, and
needlework, and the best linen and coral and rubies for your
goods.

17 Judah and the land of Israel were your traders; they gave
grain of Minnith and sweet cakes and honey and oil and
perfume for your goods.

18 Damascus did business with you because of the great
amount of your wealth, with wine of Helbon and white wool.

19 Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for your goods: they
gave polished iron and spices, cassia, and calamus, for your
goods.

20 Dedan did trade with you in cloths for the backs of
horses.

21 Arabia and all the rulers of Kedar did business with you;
in lambs and sheep and goats, in these they did business with
you.

22 The traders of Sheba and Raamah did trade with you;
they gave the best of all sorts of spices and all sorts of stones
of great price and gold for your goods.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traders of Asshur and
all the Medes:

24 These were your traders in beautiful robes, in rolls of
blue and needlework, and in chests of coloured cloth, corded
with cords and made of cedar-wood, in them they did trade
with you.

25 Tarshish ships did business for you in your goods: and
you were made full, and great was your glory in the heart of
the seas.

26 Your boatmen have taken you into great waters: you
have been broken by the east wind in the heart of the seas.

27 Your wealth and your goods, the things in which you do
trade, your seamen and those guiding your ships, those who
make your boards watertight, and those who do business
with your goods, and all your men of war who are in you,
with all who have come together in you, will go down into
the heart of the seas in the day of your downfall.

28 At the sound of the cry of your ships' guides, the boards
of the ship will be shaking.

29 And all the boatmen, the seamen and those who are
expert at guiding a ship through the sea, will come down
from their ships and take their places on the land;

30 And their voices will be sounding over you, and crying
bitterly they will put dust on their heads, rolling themselves
in the dust:

31 And they will have the hair of their heads cut off because
of you, and will put haircloth on their bodies, weeping for
you with bitter grief in their souls, even with bitter sorrow.

32 And in their weeping they will make a song of grief for
you, sorrowing over you and saying, Who is like Tyre, who
has come to an end in the deep sea?

33 When your goods went out over the seas, you made
numbers of peoples full; the wealth of the kings of the earth
was increased with your great wealth and all your goods.

34 Now that you are broken by the seas in the deep waters,
your goods and all your people will go down with you.

35 All the people of the sea-lands are overcome with
wonder at you, and their kings are full of fear, their faces are
troubled.

36 Those who do business among the peoples make sounds
of surprise at you; you have become a thing of fear, you have
come to an end for ever.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 28

1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, This is what the
Lord has said: Because your heart has been lifted up, and you
have said, I am a god, I am seated on the seat of God in the
heart of the seas; but you are man and not God, though you
have made your heart as the heart of God:

3 See, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret which is
deeper than your knowledge:

4 By your wisdom and deep knowledge you have got power
for yourself, and put silver and gold in your store-houses:

5 By your great wisdom and by your trade your power is
increased, and your heart is lifted up because of your power:

6 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made
your heart as the heart of God,

7 See, I am sending against you strange men, feared among
the nations: they will let loose their swords against your
bright wisdom, they will make your glory a common thing.

8 They will send you down to the underworld, and your
death will be the death of those who are put to the sword in
the heart of the seas.

9 Will you say, in the face of those who are taking your life,
I am God? but you are man and not God in the hands of
those who are wounding you.

10 Your death will be the death of those who are without
circumcision, by the hands of men from strange lands: for I
have said it, says the Lord.

11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12 Son of man, make a song of grief for the king of Tyre,
and say to him, This is what the Lord has said: You are all-
wise and completely beautiful;

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every stone of
great price was your clothing, the sardius, the topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the emerald and
the carbuncle: your store-houses were full of gold, and things
of great price were in you; in the day when you were made
they were got ready.

14 I gave you your place with the winged one; I put you on
the mountain of God; you went up and down among the
stones of fire.

15 There has been no evil in your ways from the day when
you were made, till sin was seen in you.

16 Through all your trading you have become full of
violent ways, and have done evil: so I sent you out shamed
from the mountain of God; the winged one put an end to you
from among the stones of fire.

17 Your heart was lifted up because you were beautiful, you
made your wisdom evil through your sin: I have sent you
down, even to the earth; I have made you low before kings,
so that they may see you.

18 By all your sin, even by your evil trading, you have made
your holy places unclean; so I will make a fire come out from
you, it will make a meal of you, and I will make you as dust
on the earth before the eyes of all who see you.

19 All who have knowledge of you among the peoples will
be overcome with wonder at you: you have become a thing of
fear, and you will never be seen again.

20 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

21 Son of man, let your face be turned to Zidon, and be a
prophet against it, and say,

22 These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you,
O Zidon; and I will get glory for myself'in you: and they will
be certain that I am the Lord, when I send my punishments
on her, and I will be seen to be holy in her.

23 And I will send on her disease and blood in her streets;
and the wounded will be falling in the middle of her, and the
sword will be against her on every side; and they will be
certain that I am the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And there will no longer be a plant with sharp points
wounding the children of Israel, or a thorn troubling them
among any who are round about them, who put shame on
them; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

25 This is what the Lord has said: When I have got together
the children of Israel from the peoples among whom they are
wandering, and have been made holy among them before the
eyes of the nations, then they will have rest in the land which
is theirs, which I gave to my servant Jacob

26 And they will be safe there, building houses and
planting vine-gardens and living without fear; when I have
sent my punishments on all those who put shame on them
round about them; and they will be certain that I am the
Lord their God.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 29

1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day
of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned against Pharaoh, king

of Egypt, and be a prophet against him and against all Egypt:

3 Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am
against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast
stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile
is mine, and I have made it for myself.

4 And I will put hooks in your mouth, and the fish of your
streams will be hanging from your skin; and I will make you
come up out of your streams, with all the fish of your streams
hanging from your skin.

5 And I will let you be in the waste land, you and all the fish
of your streams: you will go down on the face of the land;
you will not be taken up or put to rest in the earth; I have
given you for food to the beasts of the field and the birds of
the heaven.

6 And it will be clear to all the people of Egypt that I am
the Lord, because you have been a false support to the
children of Israel.

7 When they took a grip of you in their hands, you were
crushed so that their arms were broken: and when they put
their weight on you for support, you were broken and all
their muscles gave way.

8 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am sending a
sword on you, cutting off from you man and beast.

9 And the land of Egypt will be an unpeopled waste; and
they will be certain that I am the Lord: because he has said,
The Nile is mine, and I made it.

10 See, then, I am against you and against your streams,
and I will make the land of Egypt an unpeopled waste, from
Migdol to Syene, even as far as the edge of Ethiopia.

11 No foot of man will go through it and no foot of beast,
and it will be unpeopled for forty years.

12 I will make the land of Egypt a waste among the
countries which are made waste, and her towns will be
unpeopled among the towns which have been made waste, for
forty years: and I will send the Egyptians in flight among the
nations and wandering through the countries.

13 For this is what the Lord has said: At the end of forty
years I will get the Egyptians together from the peoples
where they have gone in flight:

14 I will let the fate of Egypt be changed, and will make
them come back into the land of Pathros, into the land from
which they came; and there they will be an unimportant
kingdom.

15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and never again
will it be lifted up over the nations: I will make them small,
so that they may not have rule over the nations.

16 And Egypt will no longer be the hope of the children of
Israel, causing sin to come to mind when their eyes are turned
to them: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

17 Now in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on
the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me,
saying,

18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, made his
army do hard work against Tyre, and the hair came off every
head and every arm was rubbed smooth: but he and his army
got no payment out of Tyre for the hard work which he had
done against it.

19 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am giving the
land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon: he will
take away her wealth, and take her goods by force and
everything which is there; and this will be the payment for
his army.

20 Ihave given him the land of Egypt as the reward for his
hard work, because they were working for me, says the Lord.

21 In that day I will make a horn put out buds for the
children of Israel, and I will let your words come freely
among them, and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 30

1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 Son of man, be a prophet, and say, These are the words of
the Lord: Give a cry, Aha, for the day!

3 For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near, a day of
cloud; it will be the time of the nations.

4 And a sword will come on Egypt, and cruel pain will be in
Ethiopia, when they are falling by the sword in Egypt; and
they will take away her wealth and her bases will be broken
down.

5 Ethiopia and Put and Lud and all the mixed people and
Libya and the children of the land of the Cherethites will all
be put to death with them by the sword.

6 This is what the Lord has said: The supporters of Egypt
will have a fall, and the pride of her power will come down:
from Migdol to Syene they will be put to the sword in it, says
the Lord.

7 And she will be made waste among the countries which
have been made waste, and her towns will be among the
towns which are unpeopled.

8 And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have
put a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 In that day men will go out quickly to take the news,
causing fear in untroubled Ethiopia; and bitter pain will
come on them as in the day of Egypt; for see, it is coming.

10 This is what the Lord has said: I will put an end to great
numbers of the people of Egypt by the hand of
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.

11 He and the people with him, causing fear among the
nations, will be sent for the destruction of the land; their
swords will be let loose against Egypt and the land will be
full of dead.

12 And I will make the Nile streams dry, and will give the
land into the hands of evil men, causing the land and
everything in it to be wasted by the hands of men from a
strange country: I the Lord have said it.

13 This is what the Lord has said: In addition to this, I will
give up the images to destruction and put an end to the false
gods in Noph; never again will there be a ruler in the land of
Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

14 And I will make Pathros a waste, and put a fire in Zoan,
and send my punishments on No.

15 I will let loose my wrath on Sin, the strong place of
Egypt, cutting off the mass of the people of No.

16 And I will put a fire in Egypt; Syene will be twisting in
pain, and No will be broken into, as by the onrush of waters.

17 The young men of On and Pi-beseth will be put to the
sword: and these towns will be taken away prisoners.

18 And at Tehaphnehes the day will become dark, when the
yoke of Egypt is broken there, and the pride of her power
comes to an end: as for her, she will be covered with a cloud,
and her daughters will be taken away prisoners.

19 And I will send my punishments on Egypt: and they will
be certain that I am the Lord.

20 Now in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the
seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me,
saying,

21 Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has
been broken by me, and no band has been put round it to
make it well, no band has been twisted round it to make it
strong for gripping the sword.

22 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and by me his strong arm will be
broken; and I will make the sword go out of his hand.

23 And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the
nations and wandering through the countries.

24 And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong,
and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will
be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the
cries of aman wounded to death.

25 And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong,
and the arms of Pharaoh will be hanging down; and they will
be certain that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the
hand of the king of Babylon and it is stretched out against
the land of Egypt.

26 And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the
nations and wandering through the countries; and they will
be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 31

1 Now in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first
day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his
people; Whom are you like in your great power?

3 See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth,
giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds.

4 It got strength from the waters and the deep made it tall:
its streams went round about its planted land and it sent out
its waterways to all the trees of the field.

5 In this way it became taller than all the trees of the field;
and its branches were increased and its arms became long
because of the great waters.

6 In its branches all the birds of heaven came to rest, and
under its arms all the beasts of the field gave birth to their
young, and great nations were living in its shade.

7 So it was beautiful, being so tall and its branches so long,
for its root was by great waters.

8 No cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-
trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as
nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of
God was so beautiful.

9 T made it beautiful with its mass of branches: so that all
the trees in the garden of God were full of envy of it.

10 For this cause the Lord has said: Because he is tall, and
has put his top among the clouds, and his heart is full of
pride because he is so high,

11 I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the
nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin,
driving him out.

12 And men from strange lands, who are to be feared
among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on
the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come
down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land;
all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and
have let him be.

13 All the birds of heaven have come to rest on his broken
stem where it is stretched on the earth, and all the beasts of
the field will be on his branches:

14 In order that no trees by the waters may be lifted up in
their growth, putting their tops among the clouds; and that
no trees which are watered may take their place on high: for
they are all given up to death, to the lowest parts of the earth
among the children of men, with those who go down to the
underworld.

15 This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes
down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for
him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be
stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees
of the field will be feeble because of him.

16 I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall,
when I send him down to the underworld with those who go
down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting
themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even
all the watered ones.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 And they will go down with him to the underworld, to
those who have been put to the sword; even those who were
his helpers, living under his shade among the nations

18 Whom then are you like? for you will be sent down with
the trees of Eden into the lowest parts of the earth: there you
will be stretched out among those without circumcision,
with those who were put to the sword. This is Pharaoh and
all his people, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 32

1 And it came about in the twelfth year, in the twelfth
month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the
Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, make a song of grief for Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, and say to him, Young lion of the nations,
destruction has come on you; and you were like a sea-beast in
the seas, sending out bursts of water, troubling the waters
with your feet, making their streams dirty.

3 This is what the Lord has said: My net will be stretched
out over you, and I will take you up in my fishing-net.

4 And I will let you be stretched on the land; I will send you
out violently into the open field; I will let all the birds of
heaven come to rest on you and will make the beasts of all the
earth full of you.

5 And J will put your flesh on the mountains, and make the
valleys full of your blood.

6 And the land will be watered with your blood, and the
waterways will be full of you.

7 And when I put out your life, the heaven will be covered
and its stars made dark; I will let the sun be covered with a
cloud and the moon will not give her light.

8 All the bright lights of heaven I will make dark over you,
and put dark night on your land, says the Lord.

9 And the hearts of numbers of peoples will be troubled,
when I send your prisoners among the nations, into a
country which is strange to you.

10 And I will make a number of peoples overcome with
wonder at you, and their kings will be full of fear because of
you, when my sword is waved before them: they will be
shaking every minute, every man fearing for his life, in the
day of your fall.

11 For this is what the Lord has said: The sword of the
king of Babylon will come on you.

12 I will let the swords of the strong be the cause of the fall
of your people; all of them men to be feared among the
nations: and they will make waste the pride of Egypt, and all
its people will come to destruction.

13 And I will put an end to all her beasts which are by the
great waters, and they will never again be troubled by the
foot of man or by the feet of beasts.

14 Then I will make their waters clear and their rivers will
be flowing like oil, says the Lord.

15 When I make Egypt an unpeopled waste, cutting off
from the land all the things in it; when I send punishment on
all those living in it, then it will be clear to them that I am
the Lord.

16 It is a song of grief, and people will give voice to it, the
daughters of the nations will give voice to it, even for Egypt
and all her people, says the Lord.

17 And in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the
month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 Son of man, let your voice be loud in sorrow for the
people of Egypt and send them down, even you and the
daughters of the nations; I will send them down into the
lowest parts of the earth, with those who go down into the
underworld.

19 Are you more beautiful than any? go down, and take
your rest among those without circumcision,

20 Among those who have been put to the sword: they will
give a resting-place with them to all their people.

21 The strong among the great ones will say to him from
the underworld, Are you more beautiful than any? go down,
you and your helpers, and take your rest among those
without circumcision, and those who have been put to the
sword.

22 There is Asshur and all her army, round about her last
resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword:

23 Whose resting-places are in the inmost parts of the
underworld, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living.

24 There is Elam and all her people, round about her last
resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword, who
have gone down without circumcision into the lowest parts
of the earth, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living,
and are put to shame with those who go down to the
underworld:

25 They have made a bed for her among the dead, and all
her people are round about her resting-place: all of them
without circumcision, put to death with the sword; for they
were a cause of fear in the land of the living, and are put to
shame with those who go down to the underworld: they have
been given a place among those who have been put to the
sword.

26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her people, round
about her last resting-place: all of them without circumcision,
put to death by the sword; for they were a cause of fear in the
land of the living.

27 And they have been put to rest with the fighting men
who came to their end in days long past, who went down to
the underworld with their instruments of war, placing their
swords under their heads, and their body-covers are over
their bones; for their strength was a cause of fear in the land
of the living.

28 But you will have your bed among those without
circumcision, and will be put to rest with those who have
been put to death with the sword.

29 There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who have
been given a resting-place with those who were put to the
sword: they will be resting among those without
circumcision, even with those who go down to the
underworld.

30 There are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the
Zidonians, who have gone down with those who have been

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

put to the sword: they are shamed on account of all the fear
caused by their strength; they are resting there without
circumcision, among those who have been put to the sword,
and are put to shame with those who go down to the
underworld.

31 Pharaoh will see them and be comforted on account of
all his people: even Pharaoh and all his army, put to death by
the sword, says the Lord.

32 For he put his fear in the land of the living: and he will
be put to rest among those without circumcision, with those
who have been put to death with the sword, even Pharaoh
and all his people, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 33

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, give a word to the children of your people,
and say to them, When I make the sword come on a land, if
the people of the land take a man from among their number
and make him their watchman:

3 If, when he sees the sword coming on the land, by
sounding the horn he gives the people news of their danger;

4 Then anyone who, hearing the sound of the horn, does
not take note of it, will himself be responsible for his death, if
the sword comes and takes him away.

5 On hearing the sound of the horn, he did not take note;
his blood will be on him; for if he had taken note his life
would have been safe.

6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not
give a note on the horn, and the people have no word of the
danger, and the sword comes and takes any person from
among them; he will be taken away in his sin, but I will make
the watchman responsible for his blood.

7 So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the
children of Israel; and you are to give ear to the word of my
mouth and give them news from me of their danger.

8 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly overtake
you; and you say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the
danger of his way; death will overtake that evil man in his
evil-doing, but I will make you responsible for his blood.

9 But if you make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his
way for the purpose of turning him from it, and he is not
turned from his way, death will overtake him in his evil-
doing, but your life will be safe.

10 And you, son of man, say to the children of Israel, You
say, Our wrongdoing and our sins are on us and we are
wasting away in them; how then may we have life?

11 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no
pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to
me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be
turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death,
O children of Israel?

12 And you, son of man, say to the children of your people,
The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe
in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil
man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is
turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not

have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does
evil.

13 When I say to the upright that life will certainly be his;
if he puts his faith in his righteousness and does evil, not one
of his upright acts will be kept in memory; but in the evil he
has done, death will overtake him.

14 And when I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be
your fate; if he is turned from his sin and does what is
ordered and right;

15 If the evil-doer lets one who is in his debt have back
what is his, and gives back what he had taken by force, and is
guided by the rules of life, doing no evil; life will certainly be
his, death will not overtake him.

16 Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in
mind against him: he has done what is ordered and right, life
will certainly be his.

17 But the children of your people say, The way of the Lord
is not equal: when it is they whose way is not equal.

18 When the upright man, turning away from his
righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him in it.

19 And when the evil man, turning away from his evil-
doing, does what is ordered and right, he will get life by it.

20 And still you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O
children of Israel, I will be your judge, giving to everyone the
reward of his ways.

21 Now in the twelfth year after we had been taken away
prisoners, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month,
one who had got away in flight from Jerusalem came to me,
saying, The town has been taken.

22 Now the hand of the Lord had been on me in the evening,
before the man who had got away came to me; and he made
my mouth open, ready for his coming to me in the morning;
and my mouth was open and I was no longer without voice.

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

24 Son of man, those who are living in these waste places in
the land of Israel say, Abraham was but one, and he had land
for his heritage: but we are a great number; the land is given
to us for our heritage.

25 For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has
said: You take your meat with the blood, your eyes are lifted
up to your images, and you are takers of life: are you to have
the land for your heritage?

26 You put your faith in your swords, you do disgusting
things, everyone takes his neighbour's wife: are you to have
the land for your heritage?

27 This is what you are to say to them: The Lord has said,
By my life, truly, those who are in the waste places will be
put to the sword, and him who is in the open field I will give
to the beasts for their food, and those who are in the strong
places and in holes in the rocks will come to their death by
disease.

28 And I will make the land a waste and a cause of wonder,
and the pride of her strength will come to an end; and the
mountains of Israel will be made waste so that no one will go
through.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

29 Then they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I
have made the land a waste and a cause of wonder, because of
all the disgusting things which they have done,

30 And as for you, son of man, the children of your people
are talking together about you by the walls and in the
doorways of the houses, saying to one another, Come now,
give ear to the word which comes from the Lord.

31 And they come to you as my people come, and are seated
before you as my people, hearing your words but doing them
not: for deceit is in their mouth and their heart goes after
profit for themselves.

32 And truly you are to them like a love song by one who
has a very pleasing voice and is an expert player on an
instrument: for they give ear to your words but do them not.

33 And when this comes about (see, it is coming), then it
will be clear to them that a prophet has been among them.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 34

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, be a prophet against the keepers of the flock
of Israel, and say to them, O keepers of the sheep! this is the
word of the Lord: A curse is on the keepers of the flock of
Israel who take the food for themselves! is it not right for the
keepers to give the food to the sheep?

3 You take the milk and are clothed with the wool, you put
the fat beasts to death, but you give the sheep no food.

4 You have not made the diseased ones strong or made well
that which was ill; you have not put bands on the broken or
got back that which had been sent away or made search for
the wandering ones; and the strong you have been ruling
cruelly.

5 And they were wandering in every direction because there
was no keeper: and they became food for all the beasts of the
field.

6 And my sheep went out of the way, wandering through
all the mountains and on every high hill: my sheep went here
and there over all the face of the earth; and no one was
troubled about them or went in search of them.

7 For this cause, O keepers of the flock, give ear to the
word of the Lord:

8 By my life, says the Lord, truly, because my sheep have
been taken away, and my sheep became food for all the beasts
of the field, because there was no keeper, and my keepers did
not go in search of the sheep, but the keepers took food for
themselves and gave my sheep no food;

9 For this reason, O you keepers of the flock, give ear to the
word of the Lord;

10 This is what the Lord has said: See I am against the
keepers of the flock, and I will make search and see what they
have done with my sheep, and will let them be keepers of my
sheep no longer; and the keepers will no longer get food for
themselves; I will take my sheep out of their mouths so that
they may not be food for them.

11 For this is what the Lord has said: Truly, I, even I, will
go searching and looking for my sheep.

12 As the keeper goes looking for his flock when he is
among his wandering sheep, so I will go looking for my
sheep, and will get them safely out of all the places where
they have been sent wandering in the day of clouds and black
night.

13 And IJ will take them out from among the peoples, and
get them together from the countries, and will take them
into their land; and I will give them food on the mountains
of Israel by the water-streams and wherever men are living in
the country.

14 will give them good grass-land for their food, and their
safe place will be the mountains of the high place of Israel:
there they will take their rest in a good place, and on fat
grass-land they will take their food on the mountains of
Israel.

15 I myself will give food to my flock, and I will give them
rest, says the Lord.

16 I will go in search of that which had gone wandering
from the way, and will get back that which had been sent in
flight, and will put bands on that which was broken, and
give strength to that which was ill: but the fat and the strong
I will give up to destruction; I will give them for their food
the punishment which is theirs by right.

17 And as for you, O my flock, says the Lord, truly, I will
be judge between sheep and sheep, the he-sheep and the he-
goats.

18 Does it seem a small thing to you to have taken your
food on good grass-land while the rest of your grass-land is
stamped down under your feet? and that after drinking from
clear waters you make the rest of the waters dirty with your
feet?

19 And as for my sheep, their food is the grass which has
been stamped on by your feet, and their drink the water
which has been made dirty by your feet.

20 For this reason the Lord has said to them, Truly, I, even
I, will be judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.

21 Because you have been pushing with side and leg,
pushing the diseased with your horns till they were sent away
in every direction;

22 I will make my flock safe, and they will no longer be
taken away, and I will be judge between sheep and sheep.

23 And I will put over them one keeper, and he will give
them food, even my servant David; he will give them food
and be their keeper.

24 And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David
their ruler; I the Lord have said it.

25 And I will make with them an agreement of peace, and
will put an end to evil beasts through all the land: and they
will be living safely in the waste land, sleeping in the woods.

26 And I will give the rain at the right time, and I will
make the shower come down at the right time; there will be
showers of blessing.

27 And the tree of the field will give its fruit and the earth
will give its increase, and they will be safe in their land; and
they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have had their

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

yoke broken and have given them salvation from the hands of
those who made them servants.

28 And their goods will no longer be taken by the nations,
and they will not again be food for the beasts of the earth;
but they will be living safely and no one will be a cause of
fear to them.

29 And I will give them planting-places of peace, and they
will no longer be wasted from need of food or put to shame
by the nations.

30 And they will be certain that I the Lord their God am
with them, and that they, the children of Israel, are my
people, says the Lord.

31 And you are my sheep, the sheep of my grass-lands, and I
am your God, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 35

1 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned to Mount Seir, and be
a prophet against it,

3 And say to it, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am
against you, O Mount Seir, and my hand will be stretched
out against you, and I will make you a waste and a cause for
wonder.

4] will make your towns unpeopled and you will be a waste;
and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

5 Because yours has been a hate without end, and you have
given up the children of Israel to the power of the sword in
the time of their trouble, in the time of the punishment of the
end:

6 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you have
been sinning through blood, blood will come after you.

7 And I will make Mount Seir a cause for wonder and a
waste, cutting off from it all comings and goings.

8 I will make his mountains full of those who have been put
to death; in your valleys and in all your water-streams men
will be falling by the sword.

9 I will make you waste for ever, and your towns will be
unpeopled: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

10 Because you have said, The two nations and the two
countries are to be mine, and we will take them for our
heritage; though the Lord was there:

11 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, I will do to you
as you have done in your wrath and in your envy, which you
have made clear in your hate for them; and | will make clear
to you who I am when you are judged by me.

12 And you will see that I the Lord have had knowledge of
all the bitter things which you have said against the
mountains of Israel, saying, They have been made waste, they
are given to us to take for our heritage.

13 And you have made yourselves great against me with
your mouths, increasing your words against me; and it has
come to my ears.

14 This is what the Lord has said: Because you were glad
over my land when it was a waste, so will I do to you:

15 You will become a waste, O Mount Seir, and all Edom,
even all of it: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 36

1 And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains
of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the
word of the Lord:

2 This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has
said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our
heritage, we have taken them:

3 For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the
Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad
over you and put you to shame on every side, because you
have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you
are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the
people:

4 For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the
word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the
mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys,
to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is
living, from which the goods have been taken and which have
been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round
about:

5 For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my
bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations
and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage
for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter
envy of soul have made attacks on it:

6 For this cause be a prophet about the land of Israel, and
say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to
the valleys, This is what the Lord has said: Truly, in my
bitter feeling and in my wrath I have said these things,
because you have undergone the shame of the nations:

7 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath
that the nations which are round about you are themselves to
undergo the shame which they have put on you.

8 But you, O mountains of Israel, will put out your
branches and give your fruit to my people Israel; for they are
ready to come.

9 For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and
you will be ploughed and planted:

10 And I will let your numbers be increased, all the children
of Israel, even all of them: and the towns will be peopled and
the waste places will have buildings;

11 Man and beast will be increased in you, and they will
have offspring and be fertile: I will make you thickly peopled
as you were before, and will do more for you than at the first:
and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

12 Yes, I will have you walked on by the feet of men, even
my people Israel; they will have you for a heritage and you
will be theirs, and never again will you take their children
from them.

13 This is what the Lord has said: Because they say to you,
You, O land, are the destruction of men, causing loss of
children to your nation;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 For this reason you will no longer take the lives of men
and will never again be the cause of loss of children to your
nation, says the Lord.

15 And I will not let the shaming of the nations come to
your ears, and no longer will you be looked down on by the
peoples, says the Lord.

16 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

17 Son of man, when the children of Israel were living in
their land, they made it unclean by their way and their acts:
their way before me was as when a woman is unclean at the
time when she is kept separate.

18 So I let loose my wrath on them because of those whom
they had violently put to death in the land, and because they
had made it unclean with their images:

19 And I sent them in flight among the nations and
wandering through the countries: I was their judge,
rewarding them for their way and their acts.

20 And when they came among the nations, wherever they
went, they made my holy name unclean, when it was said of
them, These are the people of the Lord who have gone out
from his land.

21 But I had pity for my holy name which the children of
Israel had made unclean wherever they went.

22 For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what
the Lord has said: I am doing this, not because of you, O
children of Israel, but because of my holy name, which you
have made unclean among the nations wherever you went.

23 And I will make holy my great name which has been
made unclean among the nations, which you have made
unclean among them; and it will be clear to the nations that I
am the Lord, says the Lord, when I make myself holy in you
before their eyes.

24 For I will take you out from among the nations, and get
you together from all the countries, and take you into your
land.

25 And I will put clean water on you so that you may be
clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I
will make you clean.

26 And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in
you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and
give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit in you, causing you to be guided
by my rules, and you will keep my orders and do them.

28 So that you may go on living in the land which I gave to
your fathers; and you will be to me a people, and I will be to
you a God.

29 And J will make you free from all your unclean ways:
and at my voice the grain will come up and be increased, and
I will not let you be short of food.

30 And I will make the tree give more fruit and the field
fuller produce, and no longer will you be shamed among the
nations for need of food.

31 And at the memory of your evil ways and your
wrongdoings, you will have bitter hate for yourselves
because of your evil-doings and your disgusting ways, O
children of Israel.

32 Not because of you am I doing it, says the Lord; let it be
clear to you, and be shamed and made low because of your
ways, O children of Israel.

33 This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I make
you clean from all your evil-doings I will let the towns be
peopled and there will be building on the waste places.

34 And the land which was waste will be farmed, in place of
being a waste in the eyes of everyone who went by.

35 And they will say, This land which was waste has become
like the garden of Eden; and the towns which were unpeopled
and wasted and pulled down are walled and peopled.

36 Then the rest of the nations round about you will be
certain that I the Lord am the builder of the places which
were pulled down and the planter of that which was waste: I
the Lord have said it, and I will do it.

37 This is what the Lord has said: The children of Israel
will again make prayer to me for this, that I may do it for
them; I will make them increased with men like a flock.

38 Like sheep for the offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem
at her fixed feasts, so the unpeopled towns will be made full
of men: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 37

1 The hand of the Lord had been on me, and he took me out
in the spirit of the Lord and put me down in the middle of
the valley; and it was full of bones;

2 And he made me go past them round about: and I saw
that there was a very great number of them on the face of the
wide valley, and they were very dry.

3 And he said to me, Son of man, is it possible for these
bones to come to life? And I made answer, and said, It is for
you to say, O Lord.

4 And again he said to me, Be a prophet to these bones, and
say to them, O you dry bones, give ear to the word of the
Lord.

5 This is what the Lord has said to these bones: See, I will
make breath come into you so that you may come to life;

6 And I will put muscles on you and make flesh come on you,
and put skin over you, and breath into you, so that you may
have life; and you will be certain that Iam the Lord.

7 So I gave the word as I was ordered: and at my words
there was a shaking of the earth, and the bones came together,
bone to bone.

8 And looking I saw that there were muscles on them and
flesh came up, and they were covered with skin: but there was
no breath in them.

9 And he said to me, Be a prophet to the wind, be a prophet,
son of man, and say to the wind, The Lord has said: Come
from the four winds, O wind, breathing on these dead so that
they may come to life.

10 And I gave the word at his orders, and breath came into
them, and they came to life and got up on their feet, a very
great army.

11 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are all the
children of Israel: and see, they are saying, Our bones have
become dry our hope is gone, we are cut off completely.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 For this cause be a prophet to them, and say, This is
what the Lord has said: See, I am opening the resting-places
of your dead, and I will make you come up out of your
resting-places, O my people; and I will take you into the land
of Israel.

13 And you will be certain that I am the Lord by my
opening the resting-places of your dead and making you
come up out of your resting-places, O my people.

14 And I will put my spirit in you, so that you may come to
life, and I will give you a rest in your land: and you will be
certain that I the Lord have said it and have done it, says the
Lord.

15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

16 And you, son of man, take one stick, writing on it, For
Judah and for the children of Israel who are in his company:
then take another stick, writing on it, For Joseph, the stick
of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel who are in his
company:

17 Then, joining them one to another, make them one stick,
so that they may be one in your hand.

18 And when the children of your people say to you, Will
you not make clear to us what these things have to do with us?

19 Then say to them, This is what the Lord has said: See, I
am taking the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel who are in his company;
and I will put it on the stick of Judah and make them one
stick, and they will be one in my hand.

20 And the sticks with your writing on them will be in your
hand before their eyes.

21 And say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I
am taking the children of Israel from among the nations
where they have gone, and will get them together on every
side, and take them into their land:

22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the
mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all:
and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be
parted into two kingdoms:

23 And they will no longer make themselves unclean with
their images or with their hated things or with any of their
sins: but I will give them salvation from all their turning
away in which they have done evil, and will make them clean;
and they will be to mea people, and I will be to them a God.

24 And my servant David will be king over them; and they
will all have one keeper: and they will be guided by my
orders and will keep my rules and do them.

25 And they will be living in the land which I gave to Jacob,
my servant, in which your fathers were living; and they will
go on living there, they and their children and their
children's children, for ever: and David, my servant, will be
their ruler for ever.

26 And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will
be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on
them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy
place among them for ever.

27 And my House will be over them; and I will be to them a
God, and they will be to mea people.

28 And the nations will be certain that I who make Israel
holy am the Lord, when my holy place is among them for
ever.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 38

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, let your face be turned against Gog, of the
land of Magog, the ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and
be a prophet against him,

3 And say, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am against
you, O Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

4 And turning you round, I will put hooks in your mouth
and make you come out with all your army, horses and
horsemen, all of them in full war-dress, a great force with
breastplate and body-cover, all of them armed with swords:

5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them; all of them with body-
cover and metal head-dress:

6 Gomer and all her forces; the people of Togarmah in the
inmost parts of the north, with all his forces: a great number
of peoples with you.

7 Be ready, make yourself ready, you and all the forces who
are with you, and be ready for my orders.

8 After a long time you will get your orders: in the last
years you will come into the land which has been given back
from the sword, which has been got together out of a great
number of peoples, on the mountains of Israel which have
ever been a waste: but it has been taken out from the peoples
and they will be living, all of them, without fear of danger.

9 And you will go up, you will come like a storm, you will
be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your forces,
and a great number of peoples with you.

10 This is what the Lord has said: In that day it will come
about that things will come into your mind, and you will
have thoughts of an evil design:

11 And you will say, I will go up to the land of small
unwalled towns; I will go to those who are quiet, living, all
of them, without fear of danger, without walls or locks or
doors:

12 To take their property by force and go off with their
goods; turning your hand against the waste places which
now are peopled, and against the people who have been got
together out of the nations, who have got cattle and goods
for themselves, who are living in the middle of the earth.

13 Sheba, and Dedan and her traders, Tarshish with all her
traders, will say to you, Have you come to take our goods?
have you got your armies together to take away our property
by force? to take away silver and gold, cattle and goods, to
go off with great wealth?

14 For this cause, son of man, be a prophet and say to Gog,
These are the words of the Lord: In that day, when my people
Israel are living without fear of danger, will you not be
moved against them?

15 And you will come from your place in the inmost parts
of the north, you and a great number of peoples with you, all
of them on horseback, a great force and a strong army:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And you will come up against my people Israel, like a
cloud covering the land; and it will come about, in the last
days, that I will make you come against my land, so that the
nations may have knowledge of me when I make myself holy
in you, O Gog, before their eyes.

17 This is what the Lord has said: You are he of whom I
gave them word in earlier times by my servants, the prophets
of Israel, who in those days went on saying, year after year,
that I would make you come up against them.

18 And it will come about in that day, when Gog comes up
against the land of Israel, says the Lord, that my wrath will
come up, and my passion and my bitter feeling.

19 For in the fire of my wrath I have said, Truly, in that
day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

20 So that the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the
beasts of the field and everything moving on the earth, and
all the men who are on the face of the earth, will be shaking
before me, and the mountains will be overturned and the
high places will come down, and every wall will come falling
down to the earth.

21 And I will send to all my mountains for a sword against
him, says the Lord: every man's sword will be against his
brother.

22 And I will take up my cause against him with disease and
with blood; and I will send down on him and on his forces
and on the peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower
and great ice-drops, fire, and burning.

23 And I will make my name great and make myself holy,
and I will make myself clear to a number of nations; and they
will be certain that I am the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 39

1 And you, son of man, be a prophet against Gog, and say,
These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O
Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

2 And turning you round, I will be your guide, and make
you come up from the inmost parts of the north; I will make
you come on to the mountains of Israel:

3 And with a blow I will send your bow out of your left
hand and your arrows falling from your right hand.

4 On the mountains of Israel you will come down, you and
all your forces and the peoples who are with you: I will give
you to cruel birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field
to be their food.

5 You will come down in the open field: for I have said it,
says the Lord.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who are
living in the sea-lands without fear: and they will be certain
that I am the Lord.

7 And I will make clear my holy name among my people
Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean:
and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the Holy
One in Israel.

8 See, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord; this is
the day of which I have given word.

9 And those who are living in the towns of Israel will go
out and make fires of the instruments of war, burning the
body-covers and the breastplates, the bows and the arrows
and the sticks and the spears, and for seven years they will
make fires of them:

10 And they will take no wood out of the field or have any
cut down in the woods; for they will make their fires of the
instruments of war: and they will take by force the property
of those who took their property, and go off with the goods
of those who took their goods, says the Lord.

11 And it will come about in those days, that I will give to
Gog a last resting-place there in Israel, in the valley of
Abarim on the east of the sea: and those who go through will
be stopped: and there Gog and all his people will be put to
rest, and the place will be named, The valley of Hamon-gog.

12 And the children of Israel will be seven months putting
them in the earth, so as to make the land clean.

13 And all the people of the land will put them in the earth;
and it will be to their honour in the day when I let my glory
be seen, says the Lord.

14 And they will put on one side men to do no other work
but to go through the land and put in the earth the rest of
those who are still on the face of the land, to make it clean:
after seven months are ended they are to make a search.

15 And while they go through the land, if anyone sees a
man's bone, he is to put up a sign by the place till those who
are doing the work have put it in the earth in the valley of
Hamon-gog.

16 And there they will put all the army of Gog in the earth.
So they will make the land clean.

17 And you, son of man, this is what the Lord has said: Say
to the birds of every sort and to all the beasts of the field, Get
together and come; come together on every side to the
offering which I am putting to death for you, a great offering
on the mountains of Israel, so that you may have flesh for
your food and blood for your drink.

18 The flesh of the men of war will be your food, and your
drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of sheep and
lambs, of he-goats, of oxen, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.

19 You will go on feasting on the fat till you are full, and
drinking the blood till you are overcome with it, of my
offering which I have put to death for you.

20 At my table you will have food in full measure, horses
and war-carriages, great men and all the men of war, says the
Lord.

21 And I will put my glory among the nations, and all the
nations will see my punishments which I have put into effect,
and my hand which I have put on them.

22 So the children of Israel will be certain that I am the
Lord their God, from that day and for the future.

23 And it will be clear to the nations that the children of
Israel were taken away prisoners for their evil-doing; because
they did wrong against me, and my face was covered from
them: so I gave them up into the hands of their attackers, and
they all came to their end by the sword.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 In the measure of their unclean ways and their sins, so I
did to them; and I kept my face covered from them.

25 For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate
of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children
of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name.

26 And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the
wrong which they have done against me, when they are living
in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a
cause of fear to them;

27 When I have taken them back from among the peoples
and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and
have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great
number of nations.

28 And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God,
because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and
have taken them together back to their land; and I have not
let one of them be there any longer.

29 And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I
have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of
Israel, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 40

1 In the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken away
prisoners, in the first month of the year, on the tenth day of
the month, in the fourteenth year after the town was taken,
on the very same day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he
took me there.

2 In the visions of God he took me into the land of Israel,
and put me down on a very high mountain, on which there
was, as it seemed, a building like a town opposite me.

3 He took me there, and I saw a man, looking like brass,
with a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod: and he
was stationed in the doorway.

4 And the man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes
and give hearing with your ears, and take to heart everything
Tam going to let you see; for in order that I might let you see
them, you have come here: and give an account of all you see
to the children of Israel.

5 And there was a wall on the outside of the house all round,
and in the man's hand there was a measuring rod six cubits
long by a cubit and a hand's measure: so he took the measure
of the building from side to side, one rod; and from base to
top, one rod.

6 Then he came to the doorway looking to the east, and
went up by its steps; and he took the measure of the doorstep,
one rod wide.

7 And the watchmen's rooms were one rod long and one
rod wide; and the space between the rooms was five cubits;
the doorstep of the doorway, by the covered way of the
doorway inside, was one rod.

8 And he took the measure of the covered way of the
doorway inside,

9 Eight cubits; and its uprights, two cubits; the covered
way of the doorway was inside.

10 And the rooms of the doorway on the east were three on
this side and three on that; all three were of the same size;

and the uprights on this side and on that were of the same
size.

11 And he took the measure of the opening of the doorway,
ten cubits wide; and the way down the doorway was thirteen
cubits;

12 And the space in front of the rooms, a cubit on this side
and a cubit on that side; and the rooms six cubits on this side
and six cubits on that.

13 And he took the measure of the doorway from the back
of one room to the back of the other, twenty-five cubits
across, from door to door.

14 And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty
cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway
was the open square round about.

15 And from before the opening of the doorway to before
the inner covered way of the doorway was fifty cubits.

16 And the rooms and their uprights had sloping windows
inside the doorway all round, and in the same way the
covered way had windows all round on the inside: and on
every upright there were palm-trees.

17 Then he took me into the outer square, and there were
rooms and a stone floor made for the open square all round:
there were thirty rooms on the stone floor.

18 And the stone floor was by the side of the doorways, and
was as wide as the doorways were long, even the lower floor.

19 Then he took the measure of the square across, from
before the lower doorway inside to before the inner doorway
outside, one hundred cubits. And he took me in the direction
of the north,

20 And there was a doorway to the outer square, looking to
the north; and he took the measure of it to see how wide and
how long it was.

21 And it had three rooms on this side of it and three on
that; its uprights and its covered ways were the same size as
those of the first doorway: it was fifty cubits long and
twenty-five cubits wide.

22 And its windows, and the windows of its covered ways,
and its palm-trees, were the same as those of the doorway
looking to the east; and there were seven steps up to it; and
the covered way went inside.

23 And there was a doorway to the inner square opposite
the doorway on the north, like the doorway on the east; and
he took the measure from doorway to doorway, a hundred
cubits.

24 And he took me to the south, and I saw a doorway
looking to the south: and he took the measure of its rooms
and its uprights and its covered ways by these measures.

25 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all
round, like the other windows: it was fifty cubits long and
twenty-five cubits wide.

26 And there were seven steps up to it, and its covered way
went inside: and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one
on that, on its uprights.

27 And there was a doorway to the inner square looking to
the south: he took the measure from doorway to doorway to
the south, a hundred cubits.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 Then he took me to the inner square by the south
doorway: and he took the measure of the south doorway by
these measures;

29 And the rooms in it and the uprights and the covered
ways, by these measures:

30 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all
round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

31 The covered way was on the side nearest the outer square;
and there were palm-trees on the uprights: and there were
eight steps going up to it.

32 And he took me into the inner square facing the east:
and he took the measure of the doorway by these measures;

33 And of the rooms in it and its uprights and its covered
ways, by these measures: and there were windows in it and in
the covered way round about: it was fifty cubits long and
twenty-five cubits wide.

34 And the covered way was on the side nearest the outer
square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side
and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it.

35 And he took me to the north doorway: and he took the
measure of it by these measures;

36 Its rooms, its uprights, and its covered way had the same
measures, and its covered way had windows all round: it was
fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

37 Its uprights were on the side nearest to the outer square;
there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on
that: and there were eight steps going up to it.

38 And there was a room with a door in the covered way of
the doorway, where the burned offering was washed.

39 And in the covered way of the doorway there were two
tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which the
burned offering and the sin-offering and the offering for
error were put to death:

40 On the outer side, to the north, as one goes up to the
opening of the doorway, were two tables.

41 There were four tables on one side and four tables on the
other, by the side of the doorway; eight tables, on which they
put to death the beasts for the offerings.

42 And there were four tables for the burned offering, made
of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits
wide and a cubit high, where the instruments were placed
which were used for putting to death the burned offering and
the beasts for the offerings.

43 And they had edges all round as wide as a man's hand:
and on the tables was the flesh of the offerings.

44 And he took me into the inner square, and there were
two rooms in the inner square, one at the side of the north
doorway, facing south; and one at the side of the south
doorway, facing north.

45 And he said to me, This room, facing south, is for the
priests who have the care of the house.

46 And the room facing north is for the priests who have
the care of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who, from
among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord to do the
work of his house.

47 And he took the measure of the open square, a hundred
cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, being square; and the
altar was in front of the house.

48 Then he took me to the covered way before the house,
and took the measure of its uprights, five cubits on one side
and five cubits on the other: and the doorway was fourteen
cubits wide; and the side-walls of the doorway were three
cubits on one side and three cubits on the other.

49 The covered way was twenty cubits long and twelve
cubits wide, and they went up to it by ten steps; and there
were pillars by the uprights, one on one side and one on the
other.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 41

1 And he took me to the Temple, and took the measure of
the uprights, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide
on the other.

2 And the door-opening was ten cubits wide; and the side
walls of the door-opening were five cubits on one side and
five cubits on the other: and it was forty cubits long and
twenty cubits wide.

3 And he went inside and took the measure of the uprights
of the door-opening, two cubits: and the door-opening, six
cubits; and the side-walls of the door-opening were seven
cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other.

4 And by his measure it was twenty cubits long and twenty
cubits wide in front of the Temple: and he said to me, This is
the most holy place.

5 Then he took the measure of the wall of the house, which
was six cubits; and of the side-rooms round the house, which
were four cubits wide.

6 And the side-rooms, room over room, were three times
thirty; there were inlets in the wall of the house for the side-
rooms round about, for supports in the wall of the house.

7 The side-rooms became wider as they went higher up the
house, by the amount of the space let into the wall up round
about the house, because of the inlets in the house; and one
went up from the lowest floor by steps to the middle, and
from the middle to the upper floor.

8 And I saw that the house had a stone floor all round; the
bases of the side-rooms were a full rod of six great cubits high.

9 The wall supporting the side-rooms on the outside was
five cubits thick: and there was a free space of five cubits
between the side-rooms of the house.

10 And between the rooms was a space twenty cubits wide
all round the house.

11 And the free space had doors opening from the side-
rooms, one door on the north and one door on the south:
and the free space was five cubits wide all round.

12 And the building which was in front of the separate
place at the side to the west was seventy cubits wide; the wall
of the building was five cubits thick all round and ninety
cubits long.

13 And he took the measure of the house; it was a hundred
cubits long; and the separate place and the building with its
walls was a hundred cubits long;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And the east front of the house and of the separate place
was a hundred cubits wide.

15 And he took the measure of the building in front of the
separate place which was at the back of it, and the pillared
walks on one side and on the other side; they were a hundred
cubits long; and the Temple and the inner part and its outer
covered way were covered in;

16 And the sloping windows and the covered ways round
all three of them were of shakiph-wood all round from the
level of the earth up to the windows;

17 And there was a roof over the doorway and as far as the
inner house, and to the outside and on the wall all round,
inside and outside.

18 And it had pictured forms of winged beings and palm-
trees; a palm-tree between two winged ones, and every
winged one had two faces;

19 So that there was the face of a man turned to the palm-
tree on one side, and the face of a young lion on the other
side: so it was made all round the house.

20 From earth level up to the windows there were winged
ones and palm-trees pictured on the wall.

21 The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the
sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the
other.

22 The altar was made of wood, and was three cubits high
and two cubits long; it had angles, and its base and sides
were of wood; and he said to me, This is the table which is
before the Lord.

23 The Temple had two doors.

24 And the holy place had two doors, and the doors had
two turning leaves, two for one and two for the other.

25 And on the doors of the temple were cherubims and
palm trees, as on the walls; and thick planks of wood were
upon the front of the porch outside.

26 And there were sloping [or narrow] windows and palm-
trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the covered
way: and the side-rooms of the house and the thresholds [or
thick planks].

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 42

1 And he took me out into the inner square in the direction
of the north: and he took me into the rooms which were
opposite the separate place and opposite the building to the
north.

2 On the north side it was a hundred cubits long and fifty
cubits wide,

3 Opposite the space of twenty cubits which was part of the

inner square, and opposite the stone floor of the outer square.

There were covered ways facing one another on the third
floor.

4 And in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits wide and
a hundred cubits long; and their doors were facing north.

5 And the higher rooms were shorter: for the covered ways
took up more space from these than from the lower and
middle rooms.

6 For they were on three floors, and they had no pillars like
the pillars of the outer square; so the highest was narrower
than the lowest and middle floors from the earth level.

7 And the wall which went outside by the side of the rooms,
in the direction of the outer square in front of the rooms, was
fifty cubits long.

8 For the rooms in the outer square were fifty cubits long:
and in front of the Temple was a space of a hundred cubits.

9 And under these rooms was the way in from the east side,
as one goes into them from the outer square at the head of
the outer wall.

10 (And he took me) to the south, and in front of the
separate place and in front of the building there were rooms.

11 And there was a walk in front of them like that by the
rooms on the north; they were equally long and wide; and
the ways out of them were the same in design and had the
same sort of doors.

12 And under the rooms on the south was a door at the
head of the outer wall in the direction of the east as one goes
in.

13 And he said to me, The north rooms and the south
rooms in front of the separate place are the holy rooms,
where the priests who come near the Lord take the most holy
things for their food: there the most holy things are placed,
with the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering
for error; for the place is holy.

14 When the priests go in, they may not go out of the holy
place into the outer square, and there they are to put the
robes in which they do the work of the Lord's house, for they
are holy: and they have to put on other clothing before they
come near that which has to do with the people.

15 And when he had come to the end of measuring the inner
house, he took me out to the doorway looking to the east,
and took its measure all round.

16 He went round and took the measure of it on the east
side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the
rod all round.

17 And he went round and took the measure of it on the
north side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured
with the rod all round.

18 And he went round and took the measure of it on the
south side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured
with the rod all round.

19 And he went round and took the measure of it on the
west side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured
with the rod all round.

20 He took its measure on the four sides: and it had a wall
all round, five hundred long and five hundred wide,
separating what was holy from what was common.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 43

1 And he took me to the doorway looking to the east:

2 And there was the glory of the God of Israel coming from
the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of great
waters, and the earth was shining with his glory.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And the vision which I saw was like the vision I had seen
when he came for the destruction of the town: and like the
vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I went down on
my face.

4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way
of the doorway looking to the east.

5 And the spirit, lifting me up, took me into the inner
square; and I saw that the house was full of the glory of the
Lord.

6 And the voice of one talking to me came to my ears from
inside the house; and the man was by my side.

7 And he said to me, Son of man, this is the place where the
seat of my power is and the resting-place of my feet, where I
will be among the children of Israel for ever: and no longer
will the people of Israel make my holy name unclean, they or
their kings, by their loose ways and by the dead bodies of
their kings;

8 By putting their doorstep by my doorstep, and the pillar
of their door by the pillar of my door, with only a wall
between me and them; and they have made my holy name
unclean by the disgusting things which they have done: so in
my wrath I sent destruction on them.

9 Now let them put their loose ways and the dead bodies of
their kings far from me, and I will be among them for ever.

10 You, son of man, give the children of Israel an account
of this house, so that they may be shamed because of their
evil-doing: and let them see the vision of it and its image.

11 And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give
them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure,
and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its
rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its
laws and do them.

12 This is the law of the house: On the top of the mountain
all the space round it on every side will be most holy. See,
this is the law of the house.

13 And these are the measures of the altar in cubits: (the
cubit being a cubit and a hand's measure;) its hollow base is a
cubit high and a cubit wide, and it has an overhanging edge
as wide as a hand-stretch all round it:

14 And from the base on the earth level to the lower shelf,
the altar is two cubits high and a cubit wide; and from the
smaller shelf to the greater shelf it is four cubits high and a
cubit wide.

15 And the fireplace is four cubits high: and coming up
from the fireplace are the horns, a cubit high.

16 And the fireplace is twelve cubits long and twelve cubits
wide, square on its four sides.

17 And the shelf is fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits
wide, on its four sides; the edge round it is half a cubit; the
base of it is a cubit all round, and its steps are facing the east.

18 And he said to me, Son of man, the Lord God has said,
These are the rules for the altar, when they make it, for the
offering of burned offerings on it and the draining out of the
blood.

19 You are to give to the priests, the Levites of the seed of
Zadok, who come near to me, says the Lord God, to do my
work, a young ox for a sin-offering.

20 You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four
horns and on the four angles of the shelf and on the edge all
round: and you are to make it clean and free from sin.

21 And you are to take the ox of the sin-offering, and have
it burned in the special place ordered for it in the house,
outside the holy place.

22 And on the second day you are to have a he-goat
without any mark on it offered for a sin-offering; and they
are to make the altar clean as they did with the young ox.

23 And after you have made it clean, let a young ox without
a mark be offered, and a male sheep from the flock without a
mark.

24 And you are to take them before the Lord, and the
priests will put salt on them, offering them up for a burned
offering to the Lord.

25 Every day for seven days you are to give a goat for a sin-
offering: and let them give in addition a young ox and a male
sheep from the flock without any mark on them.

26 For seven days they are to make offerings to take away
sin from the altar and to make it clean; so they are to make it
holy.

27 And when these days have come to an end, then on the
eighth day and after, the priests will make your burned
offerings on the altar and your peace-offerings; and I will
take pleasure in you, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 44

1 And he took me back to the outer doorway of the holy
place, looking to the east; and it was shut.

2 And the Lord said to me, This doorway is to be shut, it is
not to be open, and no man is to go in by it, because the Lord,
the God of Israel, has gone in by it; and it is to be shut.

3 But the ruler will be seated there to take his food before
the Lord; he will go in by the covered way to the door, and
will come out by the same way.

4 And he took me to the north doorway in front of the
house; and, looking, I saw that the house of the Lord was full
of the glory of the Lord; and I went down on my face.

5 And the Lord said to me, Son of man, take to heart, and
let your eyes see and your ears be open to everything I say to
you about all the rules of the house of the Lord and all its
laws; and take note of the ways into the house and all the
ways out of the holy place.

6 And say to the uncontrolled children of Israel, This is
what the Lord has said: O you children of Israel, let it be
enough for you, among the disgusting things which you have
done,

7 To have let men from strange lands, without circumcision
of heart or flesh, come into my holy place, making my house
unclean; and to have made the offering of my food, even the
fat and the blood; and in addition to all your disgusting
ways, you have let my agreement be broken.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 And you have not taken care of my holy things; but you
have put them as keepers to take care of my work in my holy
place.

9 For this cause the Lord has said, No man from a strange
land, without circumcision of heart and flesh, of all those
who are living among the children of Israel, is to come into
my holy place.

10 But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when
Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go
after their images; their punishment will come on them.

11 But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and
overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the
house: they will put to death the burned offering and the
beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place
before them as their servants.

12 Because they did this work for them before their images,
and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this
cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord,
and their punishment will be on them.

13 And they will not come near me to do the work of priests
to me, or come near any of my holy things, or the things
which are most holy: but their shame will be on them, and
the punishment for the disgusting things which they have
done.

14 But I will make them responsible for the care of the
house and all its work and everything which is done in it.

15 But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care
of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned
away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they
will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the
blood, says the Lord;

16 They are to come into my holy place and they are to
come near to my table, to do my work and have the care of
my house.

17 And when they come in by the doorways of the inner
square, they are to be clothed in linen robes; there is to be no
wool on them while they are doing my work in the doorway
of the inner square and inside the house.

18 They are to have linen head-dresses on their heads and
linen trousers on their legs, and they are to have nothing
round them to make their skin wet with heat.

19 And when they go out into the outer square to the
people, they are to take off the robes in which they do the
work of priests, and put them away in the holy rooms, and
put on other clothing, so that the people may not be made
holy by their robes.

20 They are not to have all the hair cut off their heads, and
they are not to let their hair get long, but they are to have
the ends of their hair cut.

21 The priests are not to take wine when they go into the
inner square.

22 And they are not to take as wives any widow or woman
whose husband has put her away: but they may take virgins
of the seed of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

23 And they are to make clear to my people the division
between what is holy and what is common, and to give them
the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean.

24 In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges,
judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my
laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep
my Sabbaths holy.

25 They are not to come near any dead person so as to
become unclean: but for a father or mother or son or
daughter or brother or for a sister who has no husband, they
may make themselves unclean.

26 And after he has been made clean, seven days are to be
numbered for him.

27 And on the day when he goes into the inner square, to
do the work of the holy place, he is to make his sin-offering,
says the Lord.

28 And they are to have no heritage; I am their heritage:
you are to give them no property in Israel; I am their
property.

29 Their food is to be the meal offering and the sin-offering
and the offering for error; and everything given specially to
the Lord in Israel will be theirs.

30 And the best of all the first-fruits of everything, and
every offering which is lifted up of all your offerings, will be
for the priests: and you are to give the priest the first of your
bread-making, so causing a blessing to come on your house.

31 The priests may not take for food any bird or beast
which has come to a natural death or whose death has been
caused by another animal.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 45

1 And when you are making a distribution of the land, by
the decision of the Lord, for your heritage, you are to make
an offering to the Lord of a part of the land as holy: it is to
be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide: all
the land inside these limits is to be holy.

2 Of this, a square five hundred long and five hundred wide
is to be for the holy place, with a space of fifty cubits all
round it.

3 And of this measure, let a space be measured, twenty-five
thousand long and ten thousand wide: in it there will be the
holy place, even the most holy.

4 This holy part of the land is to be for the priests, the
servants of the holy place, who come near to the Lord to do
his work; it is to be a place for their houses and for grass-
land and for cattle.

5 A space of land twenty-five thousand long and ten
thousand wide is to be for the Levites, the servants of the
house, a property for themselves, for towns for their living-
places.

6 And as the property for the town you are to have a part
five thousand wide and twenty-five thousand long, by the
side of the offering of the holy part of the land: this is to be
for all the children of Israel.

7 And for the ruler there is to be a part on one side and on
the other side of the holy offering and of the property of the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

town, in front of the holy offering and in front of the
property of the town on the west of it and on the east:
measured in the same line as one of the parts of the land, from
its limit on the west to its limit on the east of the land.

8 And this will be his heritage in Israel: and my rulers will
no longer be cruel masters to my people; but they will give
the land as a heritage to the children of Israel by their tribes.

9 This is what the Lord has said: Let this be enough for you,
O rulers of Israel: let there be an end of violent behaviour and
wasting; do what is right, judging uprightly; let there be no
more driving out of my people, says the Lord.

10 Have true scales and a true ephah and a true bath.

11 The ephah and the bath are to be of the same measure, so
that the bath is equal to a tenth of a homer, and the ephah to
a tenth of a homer: the unit of measure is to be a homer.

12 And the shekel is to be twenty gerahs: five shekels are
five, and ten shekels are ten, and your maneh is to be fifty
shekels

13 This is the offering you are to give: a sixth of an ephah
out of a homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah out of a
homer of barley;

14 And the fixed measure of oil is to be a tenth of a bath
from the cor, for ten baths make up the cor;

15 And one lamb from the flock out of every two hundred,
from all the families of Israel, for a meal offering and for a
burned offering and for peace-offerings, to take away their
sin, says the Lord.

16 All the people are to give this offering to the ruler.

17 And the ruler will be responsible for the burned offering
and the meal offering and the drink offering, at the feasts and
the new moons and the Sabbaths, at all the fixed feasts of the
children of Israel: he will give the sin-offering and meal
offering and burned offering and the peace-offerings, to take
away the sin of the children of Israel.

18 This is what the Lord has said: In the first month, on the
first day of the month, you are to take a young ox without
any mark on him, and you are to make the holy place clean.

19 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin-
offering and put it on the uprights at the sides of the doors of
the house, and on the four angles of the shelf of the altar, and
on the sides of the doorway of the inner square.

20 And this you are to do on the seventh day of the month
for everyone who is in error and for the feeble-minded: you
are to make the house free from sin.

21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month,
you are to have the Passover, a feast of seven days;
unleavened bread is to be your food.

22 And on that day the ruler is to give for himself and for
all the people of the land an ox for a sin-offering.

23 And on the seven days of the feast he is to give a burned
offering to the Lord, seven oxen and seven sheep without any
mark on them, every day for seven days; and a he-goat every
day for a sin-offering.

24 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for every ox
and an ephah for every sheep and a hin of oil to every ephah.

25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month,
at the feast, he is to give the same for seven days; the sin-
offering, the burned offering, the meal offering, and the oil
as before.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 46

1 This is what the Lord has said: The doorway of the inner
square looking to the east is to be shut on the six working
days; but on the Sabbath it is to be open, and at the time of
the new moon it is to be open.

2 And the ruler is to go in through the covered way of the
outer doorway outside, and take his place by the pillar of the
doorway, and the priests will make his burned offering and
his peace-offerings and he will give worship at the doorstep
of the doorway; then he will go out, and the door will not be
shut till the evening.

3 And the people of the land are to give worship at the door
of that doorway before the Lord on the Sabbaths and at the
new moons.

4 And the burned offering offered to the Lord by the ruler
on the Sabbath day is to be six lambs without a mark on
them and a male sheep without a mark;

5 And the meal offering is to be an ephah for the sheep, and
for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to
an ephah.

6 And at the time of the new moon it is to be a young ox of
the herd without a mark on him, and six lambs and a male
sheep, all without a mark:

7 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for the ox and
an ephah for the sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able
to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

8 And when the ruler comes in, he is to go in through the
covered way of the doorway, and he is to go out by the same
way.

9 But when the people of the land come before the Lord at
the fixed feasts, he who comes in by the north doorway to
give worship is to go out by the south doorway; and he who
comes in by the south doorway is to go out by the north
doorway: he is not to come back by the doorway through
which he went in, but is to go straight before him.

10 And the ruler, when they come in, is to come among
them, and is to go out when they go out.

11 At the feasts and the fixed meetings the meal offerings
are to be an ephah for an ox, and an ephah for a male sheep,
and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil
to an ephah.

12 And when the ruler makes a free offering, a burned
offering or a peace-offering freely given to the Lord, the
doorway looking to the east is to be made open for him, and
he is to make his burned offering and his peace-offerings as he
does on the Sabbath day: and he will go out; and the door
will be shut after he has gone out.

13 And you are to give a lamb a year old without any mark
on it for a burned offering to the Lord every day: morning by
morning you are to give it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And you are to give, morning by morning, a meal
offering with it, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil
dropped on the best meal; a meal offering offered to the Lord
at all times by an eternal order.

15 And they are to give the lamb and the meal offering and
the oil, morning by morning, for a burned offering at all
times.

16 This is what the Lord has said: If the ruler gives a
property to any of his sons, it is his heritage and will be the
property of his sons; it is theirs for their heritage.

17 And if he gives a part of his heritage to one of his
servants, it will be his till the year of making free, and then it
will go back to the ruler; for it is his sons' heritage, and is to
be theirs.

18 And the ruler is not to take the heritage of any of the
people, driving them out of their property; he is to give a
heritage to his sons out of the property which is his: so that
my people may not be sent away from their property.

19 And he took me through by the way in at the side of the
doorway into the holy rooms which are the priests’, looking
to the north: and I saw a place at the side of them to the west.

20 And he said to me, This is the place where the offering
for error and the sin-offering are to be cooked in water by
the priests, and where the meal offering is to be cooked in the
oven; so that they may not be taken out into the outer square
to make the people holy.

21 And he took me out into the outer square and made me
go by the four angles of the square; and I saw that in every
angle of the open square there was a space shut in.

22 In the four angles there were spaces walled in, forty
cubits long and thirty wide; the four were of the same size.

23 And there was a line of wall all round inside them,
round all four, and boiling-places were made under it all
round about.

24 And he said to me, These are the boiling-rooms, where
the offering of the people is cooked by the servants of the
house.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 47

1 And he took me back to the door of the house; and I saw
that waters were flowing out from under the doorstep of the
house on the east, for the house was facing east: and the
waters came down from under, from the right side of the
house, on the south side of the altar.

2 And he took me out by the north doorway, and made me
go round to the outside of the doorway looking to the east;
and I saw waters running slowly out on the south side.

3 And the man went out to the east with the line in his hand,
and after measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go
through the waters, which came over my feet.

4 And again, measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go
through the waters which came up to my knees. Again,
measuring a thousand, he made me go through the waters up
to the middle of my body.

5 Again, after his measuring a thousand, it became a river
which it was not possible to go through: for the waters had

become deep enough for swimming, a river it was not
possible to go through.

6 And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then
he took me to the river's edge.

7 And he took me back, and I saw at the edge of the river a
very great number of trees on this side and on that.

8 And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the
east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will
go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet.

9 And it will come about that every living and moving
thing, wherever their streams come, will have life; and there
will be very much fish because these waters have come there
and have been made sweet: and everything wherever the river
comes will have life.

10 And fishermen will take up their places by it: from En-
gedi as far as En-eglaim will be a place for the stretching out
of nets; the fish will be of every sort, like the fish of the Great
Sea, a very great number.

11 The wet places and the pools will not be made sweet;
they will be given up to salt.

12 And by the edge of the river, on this side and on that,
will come up every tree used for food, whose leaves will ever
be green and its fruit will not come to an end: it will have
new fruit every month, because its waters come out from the
holy place: the fruit will be for food and the leaf will make
well those who are ill.

13 This is what the Lord has said: These are the limits by
which you will take up your heritage in the land among the
twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph is to have two parts.

14 And you are to make an equal division of it; as I gave my
oath to your fathers to give it to you: for this land is to be
your heritage.

15 And this is to be the limit of the land: on the north side,
from the Great Sea, in the direction of Hethlon, as far as the
way into Hamath;

16 To Zedad, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the
limit of Damascus and the limit of Hazar-hatticon, which is
on the limit of Hauran.

17 And this is the limit from the sea in the direction of
Hazar-enon; and the limit of Damascus is to the north, and
on the north is the limit of Hamath. This is the north side.

18 And the east side will be from Hazar-enon, which is
between Hauran and Damascus; and between Gilead and the
land of Israel the Jordan will be the limit, to the east sea, to
Tamar. This is the east side.

19 And the south side to the south will be from Tamar as
far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream of Egypt,
to the Great Sea. This is the south side, on the south.

20 And the west side will be the Great Sea, from the limit
on the south to a point opposite the way into Hamath. This
is the west side.

21 You will make a division of the land among you, tribe
by tribe.

22 And you are to make a distribution of it, by the decision
of the Lord, for a heritage to you and to the men from other
lands who are living among you and who have children in

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

your land: they will be the same to you as if they were
Israelites by birth, they will have their heritage with you
among the tribes of Israel.

23 In whatever tribe the man from a strange land is living,
there you are to give him his heritage, says the Lord.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 48

1 Now these are the names of the tribes: from the north end,
from the west on the way of Hethlon to the way into Hamath,
in the direction of Hazar-enon, with the limit of Damascus to
the north, by Hamath; and on the limit from the east side to
the west side: Dan, one part.

2 And on the limit of Dan, from the east side to the west
side: Asher, one part.

3 And on the limit of Asher, from the east side to the west
side: Naphtali, one part.

4 And on the limit of Naphtali, from the east side to the
west side: Manasseh, one part.

5 And on the limit of Manasseh, from the east side to the
west side: Ephraim, one part.

6 And on the limit of Ephraim, from the east side to the
west side: Reuben, one part.

7 And on the limit of Reuben, from the east side to the west
side: Judah, one part.

8 And on the limit of Judah, from the east side to the west
side, will be the offering which you are to make, twenty-five
thousand wide, and as long as one of the parts, from the east
side to the west side: and the holy place will be in the middle
of it.

9 The offering you will give to the Lord is to be twenty-five
thousand long and twenty-five thousand wide.

10 And for these, that is the priests, the holy offering is to
be twenty-five thousand long to the north, ten thousand
wide to the west, ten thousand wide to the east and twenty-
five thousand long to the south; and the holy place of the
Lord will be in the middle of it.

11 For the priests who have been made holy, those of the
sons of Zadok who kept the orders I gave them, who did not
go out of the right way when the children of Israel went from
the way, as the Levites did,

12 Even for them will be the offering from the offering of
the land, a thing most holy, on the limit of the land given to
the Levites.

13 And the Levites are to have a part of the land equal to
the limit of the priests', twenty-five thousand long and ten
thousand wide, all of it together to be twenty-five thousand
long and twenty thousand wide.

14 And they are not to let any of it go for a price, or give it
in exchange; and the part of the land given to the Lord is not
to go into other hands: for it is holy to the Lord.

15 And the other five thousand, measured from side to side,
in front of the twenty-five thousand, is to be for common use,
for the town, for living in and for a free space: and the town
will be in the middle of it.

16 And these will be its measures: the north side, four
thousand five hundred, and the south side, four thousand five

hundred, and on the east side, four thousand five hundred,
and on the west side, four thousand five hundred.

17 And the town will have a free space on the north of two
hundred and fifty, on the south of two hundred and fifty, on
the east of two hundred and fifty, and on the west of two
hundred and fifty.

18 And the rest, in measure as long as the holy offering,
will be ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west:
and its produce will be for food for the workers of the town.

19 It will be farmed by workers of the town from all the
tribes of Israel.

20 The size of the offering all together is to be twenty-five
thousand by twenty-five thousand: you are to make the holy
offering a square, together with the property of the town.

21 And the rest is to be for the prince, on this side and on
that side of the holy offering and of the property of the town,
in front of the twenty-five thousand to the east, as far as the
east limit, and to the west, in front of the twenty-five
thousand, as far as the west limit, and of the same measure as
those parts; it will be the property of the prince: and the holy
offering and holy place of the house will be in the middle of it.

22 And the property of the Levites and the property of the
town will be in the middle of the prince's property; between
the limit of Judah's part and the limit of Benjamin's part will
be for the prince.

23 And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the
west side: Benjamin, one part.

24 And on the limit of Benjamin, from the east side to the
west side: Simeon, one part.

25 And on the limit of Simeon, from the east side to the
west side: Issachar, one part.

26 And on the limit of Issachar, from the east side to the
west side: Zebulun, one part.

27 And on the limit of Zebulun, from the east side to the
west side: Gad one part.

28 And on the limit of Gad, on the south side and to the
south of it, the limit will be from Tamar to the waters of
Meribath-kadesh, to the stream, to the Great Sea.

29 This is the land of which distribution is to be made by
the decision of the Lord, among the tribes of Israel for their
heritage, and these are their heritages, says the Lord.

30 And these are the outskirts of the town: on the north
side, four thousand five hundred by measure;

31 And the doors of the town are to be named by the names
of the tribes of Israel; three doors on the north, one for
Reuben, one for Judah, one for Levi;

32 And at the east side, four thousand five hundred by
measure, and three doors, one for Joseph, one for Benjamin,
one for Dan;

33 And at the south side, four thousand five hundred by
measure, and three doors, one for Simeon, one for Issachar,
one for Zebulun;

34 At the west side, four thousand five hundred by measure,
with their three doors, one for Gad, one for Asher, one for
Naphtali.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 It is to be eighteen thousand all round: and the name of
the town from that day will be, The Lord is there.

THE BOOK OF DANIEL

Hebrew title: Sefer Daniyel
Estimated Range of Dating: 2nd century B.C.

(The Book of Daniel ts a 2nd-century BC biblical
apocalypse with an ostensible 6th century setting, combining
a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a portrayal of end
times) both cosmic in scope and political in focus. It gives
"an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble
Jew exiled at Babylon", and its message is that just as the
God of Israel saves Daniel from his enemies, so he would save
all Israel in their present oppression. This messiantc-
apocalyptic message influenced the Jewish Messianic
Movement, the New Testament as well as the Protestant
Reformation.

The Hebrew Bible includes the Book of Daniel in the
Ketuvim (writings), while Christian Bibles group the work
with the Major Prophets. It divides into two parts, a set of
six court tales in chapters 1-6, written mostly in Aramaic,
and four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7-12, written
mostly in Hebrew; the deuterocanon contains three
additional sections, the Song of the Three Holy Children,
Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.

The Book of Daniel 1s divided between the court tales of
chapters 1-6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7-12, and
between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8—12 and the Aramaic
of chapters 2—7. Basic structure:

PARTI: Tales (chapters 1:1-6:29)

¢ /: Introduction (1:1—21 — set in the Babylonian era,
written in Hebrew)

¢ 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (2:1-49 —
Babylonian era; Aramaic)

¢ 3: The fiery furnace (3:1—30/3:1-23, 91-97 — Babylonian
era; Aramaic)

¢ 4: Nebuchadnezzar's madness (3:31/98—4:34/4:1-37 —
Babylonian era; Aramaic)

¢ 5: Belshazzar's feast (5:1—6:1 — Babylonian era; Aramaic)

¢ 6: Daniel in the lions' den (6:2—29 — Median era with
mention of Persia; Aramaic)

PART II: Visions (chapters 1—12:13)

¢ The beasts from the sea (1-28 — Babylonian era: Aramaic)

¢ 8: The ram and the he-goat (8:1—27 — Babylonian era;
Hebrew)

¢ 9: Interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy
weeks (9: 1—27 — Median era; Hebrew)

¢ 10: The angel's revelation: kings of the north and south
(10:1—12:13 — Persian era, mention of Greek era; Hebrew)

The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter
Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions, the
original Septuagint version, c. 100 BC, and the later
Theodotion version from c. 2nd century AD.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

[The Masoretic Text (MT) is the authoritative Hebrew
Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Tanakh in Rabbinic
Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its
precise letter-text, with its vocalisation and accentuation
known as the masorah. It was primarily copied, edited and
distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes
between the 7th and 10th centuries AD.]

Both Greek texts contain three additions to Daniel: The
Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children; the
story of Susannah and the Elders; and the story of Bel and
the Dragon. Theodotion is much closer to the Masoretic Text
and became so popular that it replaced the original
Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the
Septuagint itself; The Greek additions were apparently never
part of the Hebrew text.

Eight copies of the Book of Daniel, all incomplete, have
been found at Qumran, two in Cave 1, five in Cave 4, and one
in Cave 6. Between them, they preserve text from eleven of
Daniel's twelve chapters, and the twelfth 1s quoted in the
Florilegium (a compilation scroll) 4Q174, showing that the
book at Qumran did not lack this conclusion. All eight
manuscripts were copied between 125 BC (4QDanc) and
about 50 AD (4QDanb), showing that Daniel was being read
at Qumran only about 40 years after its composition. All
appear to preserve the 12-chapter Masoretic version rather
than the longer Greek text.

The prophecies of Daniel are accurate down to the career of
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and oppressor of the
Jews, but not in its prediction of his death: the author seems
to know about Antiochus' two campaigns in Egypt (169 and
167 BO, the desecration of the Temple (the "abomination of
desolation"), and the fortification of the Akra (a fortress
built inside Jerusalem), but he seems to know nothing about
the reconstruction of the Temple or about the actual
circumstances of Antiochus’ death in late 164 BCE. Chapters
10-12 must therefore have been written between 167 and
164 BC. There is no evidence of a significant time lapse
between those chapters and chapters 8 and 9, and chapter 7
may have been written just a few months earlier again.

Further evidence of the book's date 1s in the fact that Dantel
1s excluded from the Hebrew Bible's canon of the prophets,
which was closed around 200 BC, and the Wisdom of Strach,
a work dating from around 180 BC, draws on almost every
book of the Old Testament except Daniel, leading scholars to
suppose that its author was unaware of it. Daniel is, however,
quoted in a section of the Sibylline Oracles commonly dated
to the middle of the 2nd century BC, and was popular at
Qumran at much the same time, suggesting that it was
known from the middle of that century.

The author/editor was probably an educated Jew,
knowledgeable in Greek learning, and of high standing in his
own community. It 1s possible that the name of Daniel was
chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a
wise seer in Hebrew tradition.

Daniel ts one of a large number of Jewish apocalypses, all of
them pseudonymous. The stories of the first half are

legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the product
of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century
BC). Chapters 1-6 are in the voice of an anonymous narrator,
except for chapter 4 which ts in the form of a letter from king
Nebuchadnezzar; the second half (chapters 7-12) 1s
presented by Daniel himself, introduced by the anonymous
narrator in chapters 7 and 10.

The visions of chapters 7-12 reflect the crisis which took
place in Judea in 167-164 BC when Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
the Greek king of the Seleucid Empire, threatened to destroy
traditional Jewish worship in Jerusalem. When Antiochus
came to the throne in 175 BC the Jews were largely pro-
Seleucid. The High Priestly family was split by rivalry, and
one member, Jason, offered the king a large sum to be made
High Priest. Jason also asked—or more accurately, paid —
to be allowed to make Jerusalem a polis, or Greek city. This
meant, among other things, that city government would be
in the hands of the citizens, which meant in turn that
citizenship would be a valuable commodity, to be purchased
from Jason. None of this threatened the Jewish religion, and
the reforms were widely welcomed, especially among the
Jerusalem aristocracy and the leading priests. Three years
later Jason was deposed when another priest, Menelaus,
offered Antiochus an even larger sum for the post of High
Priest.

Antiochus invaded Egypt twice, in 169 BC with success,
but on the second incursion, in late 168 BC, he was forced to
withdraw by the Romans. Jason, hearing a rumour that
Antiochus was dead, attacked Menelaus to take back the
High Priesthood. Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem,
plundered the Temple, and introduced measures to pacify his
Egyptian border by imposing complete Hellenisation: the
Jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December
167 BC an "abomination of desolation", probably a Greek
altar, was introduced into the Temple. With the Jewish
religion now clearly under threat a resistance movement
sprang up, led by the Maccabee brothers, and over the next
three years it won sufficient victories over Antiochus to take
back and purify the Temple.

The crisis which the author of Daniel addresses is the
defilement of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BC (first
introduced in chapter 8:11): the daily offering which used to
take place twice a day, at morning and evening, stopped, and
the phrase "evenings and mornings" recurs through the
following chapters as a reminder of the mussed sacrifices. But
whereas the events leading up to the sacking of the Temple in
167 BC and the immediate aftermath are remarkably
accurate, the predicted war between the Syrians and the
Egyptians (11:40—43) never took place, and the prophecy
that Antiochus would die in Palestine (11:44-45) was
inaccurate (he died in Persia). The obvious conclusion ts that
the account must have been completed near the end of the
reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BC,
or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem, and the
consensus of modern scholarship 1s accordingly that the book
dates to the period 167-163 BC.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

DANIEL CHAPTER 1

1 In the third year of the rule of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem,
shutting it in with his forces.

2 And the Lord gave into his hands Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he
took them away into the land of Shinar to the house of his
god; and he put the vessels into the store-house of his god.

3 And the king gave orders to Ashpenaz, the captain of his
unsexed servants, to take in some of the children of Israel,
certain of the king's family, and those of high birth;

4 Young men who were strong and healthy, good-looking,
and trained in all wisdom, having a good education and
much knowledge, and able to take positions in the king's
house; and to have them trained in the writing and language
of the Chaldaeans.

5 And a regular amount of food and wine every day from
the king's table was ordered for them by the king; and they
were to be cared for for three years so that at the end of that
time they might take their places before the king.

6 And among these there were, of the children of Judah,
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

7 And the captain of the unsexed servants gave them names;
to Daniel he gave the name of Belteshazzar, to Hananiah the
name of Shadrach, to Mishael the name of Meshach, and to
Azariah the name of Abed-nego.

8 And Daniel had come to the decision that he would not
make himself unclean with the king's food or wine; so he
made a request to the captain of the unsexed servants that he
might not make himself unclean.

9 And God put into the heart of the captain of the unsexed
servants kind feelings and pity for Daniel.

10 And the captain of the unsexed servants said to Daniel, I
am in fear of my lord the king, who has given orders about
your food and your drink; what if he sees you looking less
happy than the other young men of your generation? then
you would have put my head in danger from the king.

11 Then Daniel said to the keeper in whose care the captain
of the unsexed servants had put Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah:

12 Put your servants to the test for ten days; let them give
us grain for our food and water for our drink.

13 Then take a look at our faces and the faces of the young
men who have food from the king's table; and, having seen
them, do to your servants as it seems right to you.

14 So he gave ear to them in this thing and put them to the
test for ten days.

15 And at the end of ten days their faces seemed fairer and
they were fatter in flesh than all the young men who had
their food from the king's table.

16 So the keeper regularly took away their meat and the
wine which was to have been their drink, and gave them
grain.

17 Now as for these four young men, God gave them
knowledge and made them expert in all book-learning and
wisdom: and Daniel was wise in all visions and dreams.

18 Now at the end of the time fixed by the king for them to
go in, the captain of the unsexed servants took them in to
Nebuchadnezzar.

19 And the king had talk with them; and among them all
there was no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah; so they were given places before the king.

20 And in any business needing wisdom and good sense,
about which the king put questions to them, he saw that they
were ten times better than all the wonder-workers and users
of secret arts in all his kingdom.

21 And Daniel went on till the first year of King Cyrus.

DANIEL CHAPTER 2

1 In the second year of the rule of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and
his sleep went from him.

2 Then the king gave orders that the wonder-workers, and
the users of secret arts, and those who made use of evil
powers, and the Chaldaeans, were to be sent for to make clear
to the king his dreams. So they came and took their places
before the king.

3 And the king said to them, I have had a dream, and my
spirit is troubled by the desire to have the dream made clear
to me.

4 Then the Chaldaeans said to the king in the Aramaean
language, O King, have life for ever: give your servants an
account of your dream, and we will make clear to you the
sense of it.

5 The king made answer and said to the Chaldaeans, This is
my decision: if you do not make clear to me the dream and
the sense of it, you will be cut in bits and your houses made
waste.

6 But if you make clear the dream and the sense of it, you
will have from me offerings and rewards and great honour:
so make clear to me the dream and the sense of it.

7 A second time they said in answer, Let the king give his
servants an account of his dream, and we will make clear the
sense.

8 The king made answer and said, I am certain that you are
attempting to get more time, because you see that my
decision is fixed;

9 That if you do not make my dream clear to me there is
only one fate for you: for you have made ready false and evil
words to say before me till the times are changed: so give me
an account of the dream, and I will be certain that you are
able to make the sense of it clear.

10 Then the Chaldaeans said to the king in answer, There is
not a man on earth able to make clear the king's business; for
no king, however great his power, has ever made such a
request to any wonder-worker or user of secret arts or
Chaldaean.

11 The king's request is a very hard one, and there is no
other who is able to make it clear to the king, but the gods,
whose living-place is not with flesh.

12 Because of this the king was angry and full of wrath, and
gave orders for the destruction of all the wise men of Babylon.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 So the order went out that the wise men were to be put
to death; and they were looking for Daniel and his friends to
put them to death.

14 Then Daniel gave an answer with wisdom and good
sense to Arioch, the captain of the king's armed men, who
had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon;

15 He made answer and said to Arioch, O captain of the
king, why is the king's order so cruel? Then Arioch gave
Daniel an account of the business.

16 And Daniel went in and made a request to the king to
give him time and he would make clear the sense of his dream
to the king.

17 And Daniel went to his house and gave his friends
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah the news:

18 So that they might make a request for the mercy of the
God of heaven in the question of this secret; so that Daniel
and his friends might not come to destruction with the rest of
the wise men of Babylon.

19 Then the secret was made clear to Daniel in a vision of
the night. And Daniel gave blessing to the God of heaven.

20 And Daniel said in answer, May the name of God be
praised for ever and ever: for wisdom and strength are his:

21 By him times and years are changed: by him kings are
taken away and kings are lifted up: he gives wisdom to the
wise, and knowledge to those whose minds are awake:

22 He is the unveiler of deep and secret things: he has
knowledge of what is in the dark, and the light has its living-
place with him.

23 I give you praise and worship, O God of my fathers, who
have given me wisdom and strength, and have now made
clear to me what we were requesting from you: for you have
given us knowledge of the king's business.

24 For this reason Daniel went to Arioch, to whom the
king had given orders for the destruction of the wise men of
Babylon, and said to him, Do not put to death the wise men
of Babylon: take me in before the king and I will make clear
to him the sense of the dream.

25 Then Arioch quickly took Daniel in before the king, and
said to him, Here is a man from among the prisoners of
Judah, who will make clear to the king the sense of the dream.

26 The king made answer and said to Daniel, whose name
was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make clear to me the dream
which I saw and its sense?

27 Then Daniel said in answer to the king, No wise men, or
users of secret arts, or wonder-workers, or readers of signs,
are able to make clear to the king the secret he is searching
for;

28 But there is a God in heaven, the unveiler of secrets, and
he has given to King Nebuchadnezzar knowledge of what
will take place in the last days. Your dreams and the visions
of your head on your bed are these:

29 As for you, O King, the thoughts which came to you on
your bed were of what will come about after this: and the
unveiler of secrets has made clear to you what is to come.

30 As for me, this secret is not made clear to me because of
any wisdom which I have more than any living man, but in

order that the sense of the dream may be made clear to the
king, and that you may have knowledge of the thoughts of
your heart.

31 You, O King, were looking, and a great image was there.
This image, which was very great, and whose glory was very
bright, was placed before you: its form sent fear into the
heart.

32 As for this image, its head was made of the best gold, its
breast and its arms were of silver, its middle and its sides
were of brass,

33 Its legs of iron, its feet were in part of iron and in part of
potter's earth.

34 While you were looking at it, a stone was cut out, but
not by hands, and it gave the image a blow on its feet, which
were of iron and earth, and they were broken in bits.

35 Then the iron and the earth, the brass and the silver and
the gold, were smashed together, and became like the dust on
the floors where grain is crushed in summer; and the wind
took them away so that no sign of them was to be seen: and
the stone which gave the image a blow became a great
mountain, covering all the earth.

36 This is the dream; and we will make clear to the king the
sense of it.

37 You, O King, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven
has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the
glory,

38 Wherever the children of men are living; into whose
hands he has given the beasts of the field and the birds of
heaven, and has made you ruler over them all, you are the
head of gold.

39 And after you another kingdom, lower than you, will
come to power; and a third kingdom, of brass, ruling over all
the earth.

40 And the fourth kingdom will be strong as iron: because,
as all things are broken and overcome by iron, so it will have
the power of crushing and smashing down all the earth.

41 And as you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's work
and part of iron, there will be a division in the kingdom; but
there will be some of the strength of iron in it, because you
saw the iron mixed with the potter's earth.

42 And as the toes of the feet were in part of iron and in
part of earth, so part of the kingdom will be strong and part
of it will readily be broken.

43 And as you saw the iron mixed with earth, they will give
their daughters to one another as wives: but they will not be
united one with another, even as iron is not mixed with earth.

44 And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will
put up a kingdom which will never come to destruction, and
its power will never be given into the hands of another
people, and all these kingdoms will be broken and overcome
by it, but it will keep its place for ever.

45 Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that by it the iron and the
brass and the earth and the silver and the gold were broken
to bits, a great God has given the king knowledge of what is

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

to take place in the future: the dream is fixed, and its sense is
certain.

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar, falling down on his face,
gave worship to Daniel, and gave orders for an offering and
spices to be given to him;

47 And the king made answer to Daniel and said, Truly,
your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and an
unveiler of secrets, for you have been able to make this secret
clear.

48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him
offerings in great number, and made him ruler over all the
land of Babylon, and chief over all the wise men of Babylon.

49 And at Daniel's request, the king gave Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego authority over the business of the
land of Babylon: but Daniel was kept near the king's person.

DANIEL CHAPTER 1

1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, sixty
cubits high and six cubits wide: he put it up in the valley of
Dura, in the land of Babylon.

2 And Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to get together all the
captains, the chiefs, the rulers, the wise men, the keepers of
public money, the judges, the overseers, and all the rulers of
the divisions of the country, to come to see the unveiling of
the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had put up.

3 Then the captains, the chiefs, the rulers, the wise men, the
keepers of public money, the judges, the overseers, and all the
rulers of the divisions of the country, came together to see
the unveiling of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king
had put up; and they took their places before the image
which Nebuchadnezzar had put up.

4 Then one of the king's criers said in a loud voice, To you
the order is given, O peoples, nations, and languages,

5 That when the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon,
psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of instruments, comes to your
ears, you are to go down on your faces in worship before the
image of gold which Nebuchadnezzar the king has put up:

6 And anyone not falling down and worshipping will that
same hour be put into a burning and flaming fire.

7 So at that time, all the people, when the sound of the
horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, and all sorts of
instruments, came to their ears, went down on their faces in
worship before the image of gold which Nebuchadnezzar the
king had put up.

8 At that time certain Chaldaeans came near and made a
statement against the Jews.

9 They made answer and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king,
O King, have life for ever.

10 You, O King, have given an order that every man, when
the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe,
and all sorts of instruments, comes to his ears, is to go down
on his face in worship before the image of gold:

11 And anyone not falling down and worshipping is to be
put into a burning and flaming fire.

12 There are certain Jews whom you have put over the
business of the land of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abed-nego; these men have not given attention to you, O
King: they are not servants of your gods or worshippers of
the gold image which you have put up.

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his wrath and passion gave
orders for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to be sent for.
Then they made these men come in before the king.

14 Nebuchadnezzar made answer and said to them, Is it
true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you will
not be servants of my god or give worship to the image of
gold which I have put up?

15 Now if you are ready, on hearing the sound of the horn,
pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of
instruments, to go down on your faces in worship before the
image which I have made, it is well: but if you will not give
worship, that same hour you will be put into a burning and
flaming fire; and what god is there who will be able to take
you out of my hands?

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answering
Nebuchadnezzar the king, said, There is no need for us to
give you an answer to this question.

17 If our God, whose servants we are, is able to keep us safe
from the burning and flaming fire, and from your hands, O
King, he will keep us safe.

18 But if not, be certain, O King, that we will not be the
servants of your gods, or give worship to the image of gold
which you have put up.

19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of wrath, and the form of
his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-
nego: and he gave orders that the fire was to be heated up
seven times more than it was generally heated.

20 And he gave orders to certain strong men in his army to
put cords on Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and put
them into the burning and flaming fire.

21 Then these men had cords put round them as they were,
in their coats, their trousers, their hats, and their clothing,
and were dropped into the burning and flaming fire.

22 And because the king's order was not to be put on one
side, and the heat of the fire was so great, the men who took
up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were burned to death
by the flame of the fire.

23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-
nego, with the cords about them, went down into the
burning and flaming fire.

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar, full of fear and wonder,
got up quickly, and said to his wise men, Did we not put
three men in cords into the fire? and they made answer and
said to the king, True, O King.

25 He made answer and said, Look! I see four men loose,
walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not damaged;
and the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door of the
burning and flaming fire: he made answer and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, you servants of the Most High
God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego came out of the fire.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 And the captains, the chiefs, and the rulers, and the
king's wise men who had come together, saw these men, over
whose bodies the fire had no power, and not a hair of their
heads was burned, and their coats were not changed, and
there was no smell of fire about them.

28 Nebuchadnezzar made answer and said, Praise be to the
God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent his
angel and kept his servants safe who had faith in him, and
who put the king's word on one side and gave up their bodies
to the fire, so that they might not be servants or worshippers
of any other god but their God.

29 And it is my decision that any people, nation, or
language saying evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego, will be cut to bits and their houses made
waste: because there is no other god who is able to give
salvation such as this.

30 Then the king gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego
even greater authority in the land of Babylon.

DANIEL CHAPTER 4
1 Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and

languages living in all the earth: May your peace be increased.

2 It has seemed good to me to make clear the signs and
wonders which the Most High God has done with me.

3 How great are his signs! and how full of power are his
wonders! his kingdom is an eternal kingdom and his rule
goes on from generation to generation.

41, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my place, and all things
were going well for me in my great house:

5 I saw a dream which was a cause of great fear to me; I was
troubled by the images of my mind on my bed, and by the
visions of my head.

6 And I gave orders for all the wise men of Babylon to come
in before me so that they might make clear to me the sense of
my dream.

7 Then the wonder-workers, the users of secret arts, the
Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs came in to me: and I put
the dream before them but they did not make clear the sense
of it to me.

8 But at last Daniel came in before me, he whose name was
Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and in whom is the
spirit of the holy gods: and I put the dream before him,
saying,

9 O Belteshazzar, master of the wonder-workers, because I
am certain that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and you
are troubled by no secret; this is the dream which I saw: make
clear to me its sense.

10 On my bed I saw a vision: there was a tree in the middle
of the earth, and it was very high.

11 And the tree became tall and strong, stretching up to
heaven, and to be seen from the ends of the earth:

12 Its leaves were fair and it had much fruit, and in it was
food enough for all: the beasts of the field had shade under it,
and the birds of heaven were resting in its branches, and it
gave food to all living things.

13 In the visions of my head on my bed I saw a watcher, a
holy one, coming down from heaven,

14 Crying out with a loud voice; and this is what he said:
Let the tree be cut down and its branches broken off; let its
leaves be taken off and its fruit sent in every direction: let the
beasts get away from under it and the birds from its branches:

15 But keep its broken end and its roots still in the earth,
even with a band of iron and brass; let him have the young
grass of the field for food, and let him be wet with the dew of
heaven, and let his part be with the beasts.

16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, and the
heart of a beast be given to him; and let seven times go by
him.

17 This order is fixed by the watchers, and the decision is by
the word of the holy ones: so that the living may be certain
that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and
gives it to any man at his pleasure, lifting up over it the
lowest of men.

18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw; and do you, O
Belteshazzar, make clear the sense of it, for all the wise men
of my kingdom are unable to make the sense of it clear to me;
but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.

19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was at a loss
for a time, his thoughts troubling him. The king made
answer and said, Belteshazzar, do not be troubled by the
dream or by the sense of it. Belteshazzar, answering, said, My
lord, may the dream be about your haters, and its sense
about those who are against you.

20 The tree which you saw, which became tall and strong,
stretching up to heaven and seen from the ends of the earth;

21 Which had fair leaves and much fruit, and had in it food
for all; under which the beasts of the field were living, and in
the branches of which the birds of heaven had their resting-
places:

22 It is you, O King, who have become great and strong:
for your power is increased and stretching up to heaven, and
your rule to the end of the earth.

23 And as for the vision which the king saw of a watcher, a
holy one, coming down from heaven, saying, Let the tree be
cut down and given to destruction;

24 This is the sense of it, O King, and it is the decision of
the Most High which has come on my lord the king:

25 That they will send you out from among men, to be with
the beasts of the field; they will give you grass for your food
like the oxen, and you will be wet with the dew of heaven,
and seven times will go by you, till you are certain that the
Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives it to any
man at his pleasure.

26 And as they gave orders to let the broken end and the
roots of the tree be, so your kingdom will be safe for you
after it is clear to you that the heavens are ruling.

27 For this cause, O King, let my suggestion be pleasing to
you, and let your sins be covered by righteousness and your
evil-doing by mercy to the poor, so that the time of your
well-being may be longer.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 All this came to King Nebuchadnezzar.

29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof
of his great house in Babylon.

30 The king made answer and said, Is this not great
Babylon, which I have made for the living-place of kings, by
the strength of my power and for the glory of my honour?

31 While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice
came down from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to
you it is said: The kingdom has gone from you:

32 And they will send you out from among men, to be with
the beasts of the field; they will give you grass for your food
like the oxen, and seven times will go by you, till you are
certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men,
and gives it to any man at his pleasure.

33 That very hour the order about Nebuchadnezzar was put
into effect: and he was sent out from among men, and had
grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with
the dew of heaven, till his hair became long as eagles' feathers
and his nails like those of birds.

34 And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifting up
my eyes to heaven, got back my reason, and, blessing the
Most High, I gave praise and honour to him who is living for
ever, whose rule is an eternal rule and whose kingdom goes
on from generation to generation.

35 And all the people of the earth are as nothing: he does
his pleasure in the army of heaven and among the people of
the earth: and no one is able to keep back his hand, or say to
him, What are you doing?

36 At the same time my reason came back to me; and for the
glory of my kingdom, my honour and my great name came
back to me; and my wise men and my lords were turned to me
again; and I was made safe in my kingdom and had more
power than before.

37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give worship and praise and
honour to the King of heaven; for all his works are true and
his ways are right: and those who go in pride he is able to
make low.

DANIEL CHAPTER 5

1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of
his lords, drinking wine before the thousand.

2 Belshazzar, while he was overcome with wine, gave orders
for them to put before him the gold and silver vessels which
Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the Temple in
Jerusalem; so that the king and his lords, his wives and his
other women, might take their drink from them.

3 Then they took in the gold and silver vessels which had
been in the Temple of the house of God at Jerusalem; and the
king and his lords, his wives and his other women, took wine
from them.

4 They took their wine and gave praise to the gods of gold
and silver, of brass and iron and wood and stone.

5 In that very hour the fingers of a man's hand were seen,
writing opposite the support for the light on the white wall
of the king's house, and the king saw the part of the hand
which was writing.

6 Then the colour went from the king's face, and he was
troubled by his thoughts; strength went from his body, and
his knees were shaking.

7 The king, crying out with a loud voice, said that the users
of secret arts, the Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs, were
to be sent for. The king made answer and said to the wise
men of Babylon, Whoever is able to make out this writing,
and make clear to me the sense of it, will be clothed in purple
and have a chain of gold round his neck, and will be a ruler
of high authority in the kingdom.

8 Then all the king's wise men came in: but they were not
able to make out the writing or give the sense of it to the
king.

9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled and the
colour went from his face, and his lords were at a loss.

10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his
lords, came into the house of the feast: the queen made
answer and said, O King, have life for ever; do not be
troubled by your thoughts or let the colour go from your
face:

11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of
the holy gods; and in the days of your father, light and
reason like the wisdom of the gods were seen in him: and
King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him master of the
wonder-workers, and the users of secret arts, and the
Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs;

12 Because a most special spirit, and knowledge and reason
and the power of reading dreams and unfolding dark sayings
and answering hard questions, were seen to be in him, even in
Daniel (named Belteshazzar by the king): now let Daniel be
sent for, and he will make clear the sense of the writing.

13 Then they took Daniel in before the king; the king made
answer and said to Daniel, So you are that Daniel, of the
prisoners of Judah, whom my father took out of Judah.

14 And I have had news of you, that the spirit of the gods is
in you, and that light and reason and special wisdom have
been seen in you.

15 And now the wise men, the users of secret arts, have been
sent in before me for the purpose of reading this writing and
making clear to me the sense of it: but they are not able to
make clear the sense of the thing:

16 And I have had news of you, that you have the power of
making things clear, and of answering hard questions: now if
you are able to make out the writing and give me the sense of
it, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain round
your neck and be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom.

17 Then Daniel made answer and said to the king, Keep
your offerings for yourself, and give your rewards to another;
but I, after reading the writing to the king, will give him the
sense of it.

18 As for you, O King, the Most High God gave to
Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the kingdom and great power
and glory and honour:

19 And because of the great power he gave him, all peoples
and nations and languages were shaking in fear before him:
some he put to death and others he kept living, at his

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

pleasure, lifting up some and putting others down as it
pleased him.

20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became
hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and
they took his glory from him:

21 And he was sent out from among the sons of men; and
his heart was made like the beasts’, and he was living with the
asses of the fields; he had grass for his food like the oxen, and
his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he was certain
that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives
power over it to anyone at his pleasure.

22 And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not kept your
heart free from pride, though you had knowledge of all this;

23 But you have been lifting yourself'up against the Lord of
heaven, and they have put the vessels of his house before you,
and you and your lords, your wives and your women, have
taken wine in them; and you have given praise to gods of
silver and gold, of brass and iron and wood and stone, who
are without the power of seeing or hearing, and without
knowledge: and to the God in whose hand your breath is,
and whose are all your ways, you have not given glory;

24 Then the part of the hand was sent out from before him,
and this writing was recorded.

25 And this is the writing which was recorded, Mene, tekel,
peres.

26 This is the sense of the words: Mene; your kingdom has
been numbered by God and ended.

27 Tekel; you have been put in the scales and seen to be
under weight.

28 Peres; your kingdom has been cut up and given to the
Medes and Persians.

29 Then, by the order of Belshazzar, they put a purple robe
on Daniel, and a gold chain round his neck, and a public
statement was made that he was to be a ruler of high
authority in the kingdom.

30 That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans,
was put to death.

31 And Darius the Mede took the kingdom, being then
about sixty-two years old.

DANIEL CHAPTER 6

1 Darius was pleased to put over the kingdom a hundred
and twenty captains, who were to be all through the
kingdom;

2 And over them were three chief rulers, of whom Daniel
was one; and the captains were to be responsible to the chief
rulers, so that the king might undergo no loss.

3 Then this Daniel did his work better than the chief rulers
and the captains, because there was a special spirit in him;
and it was the king's purpose to put him over all the
kingdom.

4 Then the chief rulers and the captains were looking for
some cause for putting Daniel in the wrong in connection
with the kingdom, but they were unable to put forward any
wrongdoing or error against him; because he was true, and
no error or wrong was to be seen in him.

5 Then these men said, We will only get a reason for
attacking Daniel in connection with the law of his God.

6 Then these chief rulers and the captains came to the king
and said to him, O King Darius, have life for ever.

7 All the chief rulers of the kingdom, the chiefs and the
captains, the wise men and the rulers, have made a common
decision to put in force a law having the king's authority,
and to give a strong order, that whoever makes any request
to any god or man but you, O King, for thirty days, is to be
put into the lions' hole.

8 Now, O King, put the order in force, signing the writing
so that it may not be changed, like the law of the Medes and
Persians which may not come to an end.

9 For this reason King Darius put his name on the writing
and the order.

10 And Daniel, on hearing that the writing had been signed,
went into his house; (now he had windows in his room on the
roof opening in the direction of Jerusalem;) and three times a
day he went down on his knees in prayer and praise before his
God, as he had done before.

11 Then these men were watching and saw Daniel making
prayers and requesting grace before his God.

12 Then they came near before the king and said, O King,
have you not put your name to an order that any man who
makes a request to any god or man but you, O King, for
thirty days, is to be put into the lions’ hole? The king made
answer and said, The thing is fixed by the law of the Medes
and Persians which may not come to an end.

13 Then they made answer and said before the king, Daniel,
one of the prisoners of Judah, has no respect for you, O King,
or for the order signed by you, but three times a day he
makes his prayer to God.

14 When this thing came to the king's ears, it was very evil
to him, and his heart was fixed on keeping Daniel safe, and
till the going down of the sun he was doing everything in his
power to get him free.

15 Then these men said to the king, Be certain, O King,
that by the law of the Medes and Persians no order or law
which the king has put into force may be changed.

16 Then the king gave the order, and they took Daniel and
put him into the lions' hole. The king made answer and said
to Daniel, Your God, whose servant you are at all times, will
keep you safe.

17 Then they got a stone and put it over the mouth of the
hole, and it was stamped with the king's stamp and with the
stamp of the lords, so that the decision about Daniel might
not be changed.

18 Then the king went to his great house, and took no food
that night, and no d were placed before him, and his sleep
went from him.

19 Then very early in the morning the king got up and
went quickly to the lions' hole.

20 And when he came near the hole where Daniel was, he
gave a loud cry of grief; the king made answer and said to
Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

whose servant you are at all times, able to keep you safe from
the lions?

21 Then Daniel said to the king, O King, have life for ever.

22 My God has sent his angel to keep the lions' mouths shut,
and they have done me no damage: because I was seen to be
without sin before him; and further, before you, O King, I
have done no wrong.

23 Then the king was very glad, and gave orders for them
to take Daniel up out of the hole. So Daniel was taken up out
of the hole and he was seen to be untouched, because he had
faith in his God.

24 And at the king's order, they took those men who had
said evil against Daniel, and put them in the lions’ hole, with
their wives and their children; and they had not got to the
floor of the hole before the lions overcame them and all their
bones were broken.

25 Then King Darius sent a letter to all the peoples, nations,
and languages, living in all the earth: May your peace be
increased.

26 It is my order that in all the kingdom of which I am
ruler, men are to be shaking with fear before the God of
Daniel: for he is the living God, unchanging for ever, and his
kingdom 1s one which will never come to destruction, his rule
will go on to the end.

27 He gives salvation and makes men free from danger, and
does signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who has kept
Daniel safe from the power of the lions.

28 So this Daniel did well in the kingdom of Darius and in
the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian.

DANIEL CHAPTER 7

1 In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel
saw a dream, and visions came into his head on his bed: then
he put the dream in writing.

2 [had a vision by night, and saw the four winds of heaven
violently moving the great sea.

3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one
from another.

4 The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings; while I was
watching its wings were pulled off, and it was lifted up from
the earth and placed on two feet like a man, and a man's
heart was given to it.

5 And IJ saw another beast, like a bear, and it was lifted up
on one side, and three side-bones were in its mouth, between
its teeth: and they said to it, Up! take much flesh.

6 After this I saw another beast, like a leopard, which had
on its back four wings like those of a bird; and the beast had
four heads, and the power of a ruler was given to it.

7 After this, in my vision of the night, I saw a fourth beast,
a thing causing fear and very troubling, full of power and
very strong; and it had great iron teeth: it took its food,
crushing some of it to bits and stamping down the rest with
its feet: it was different from all the beasts before it; and it
had ten horns.

8 I was watching the horns with care, and I saw another
coming up among them, a little one, before which three of

the first horns were pulled up by the roots: and there were
eyes like a man's eyes in this horn, and a mouth saying great
things.

9 I went on looking till the seats of kings were placed, and
one like a very old man took his seat: his clothing was white
as snow, and the hair of his head was like clean wool; his seat
was flames of fire and its wheels burning fire.

10 A stream of fire was flowing and coming out from before
him: a thousand thousands were his servants, and ten
thousand times ten thousand were in their places before him:
the judge was seated and the books were open.

11 Then I saw--because of the voice of the great words
which the horn said--I saw till the beast was put to death,
and its body was given to destruction, and the beast was
given to the burning of fire.

12 As for the rest of the beasts, their authority was taken
away: but they let them go on living for a measure of time.

13 I saw in visions of the night, and there was coming with
the clouds of heaven one like a man, and he came to the one
who was very old, and they took him near before him.

14 And to him was given authority and glory and a
kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages were his
servants: his authority is an eternal authority which will not
come to an end, and his kingdom is one which will not come
to destruction.

15 As for me, Daniel, my spirit was pained because of this,
and the visions of my head were troubling me.

16 I came near to one of those who were waiting there,
questioning him about what all this was. And he said to me
that he would make clear to me the sense of these things.

17 These great beasts are four kings who will be cut off
from the earth.

18 But the saints of the Most High will take the kingdom,
and it will be theirs for ever, even for ever and ever.

19 Then it was my desire to have certain knowledge about
the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, a
cause of great fear, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of
brass; who took his food, crushing some of it to bits and
stamping on the rest with his feet;

20 And about the ten horns on his head and the other
which came up, causing the fall of three; that horn which had
eyes, and a mouth saying great things, which seemed to be
greater than the other horns.

21 And I saw how that horn made war on the saints and
overcame them,

22 Till he came, who was very old, and the decision was
made and the authority was given to the saints of the Most
High; and the time came when the saints took the kingdom.

23 This is what he said: The fourth beast is a fourth
kingdom which will come on earth, different from all the
kingdoms, and it will overcome all the earth, crushing it
down and smashing it.

24 And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings
will come to power; and after them another will come up: he
will be different from the first ones and will put down three
kings.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

25 And he will say words against the Most High,
attempting to put an end to the saints of the Most High; and
he will have the idea of changing times and law; and the
saints will be given into his hands for a time and times and
half a time.

26 But the judge will be seated, and they will put an end to
his authority, to overcome it and send complete destruction
on it.

27 And the kingdom and the authority and the power of
the kingdoms under all the heaven will be given to the people
of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom 1s an eternal
kingdom, and all powers will be his servants and do his
pleasure.

28 Here is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, I was
greatly troubled by my thoughts, and the colour went from
my face: but I kept the thing in my heart.

DANIEL CHAPTER 8

1 In the third year of the rule of Belshazzar the king, a
vision was seen by me, Daniel, after the one I saw at first.

2 And I saw in the vision; and when I saw it, I was in the
strong town Shushan, which is in the country of Elam; and in
the vision I was by the water-door of the Ulai.

3 And lifting up my eyes, I saw, there before the stream, a
male sheep with two horns: and the two horns were high, but

one was higher than the other, the higher one coming up last.

4 I saw the sheep pushing to the west and to the north and
to the south; and no beasts were able to keep their place
before him, and no one was able to get people out of his
power; but he did whatever his pleasure was and made
himself great.

5 And while I was giving thought to this, I saw a he-goat
coming from the west over the face of all the earth without
touching the earth: and the he-goat had a great horn
between his eyes.

6 And he came to the two-horned sheep which I saw before
the stream, rushing at him in the heat of his power.

7 And I saw him come right up to the sheep, and he was
moved with wrath against him, attacking the sheep so that
his two horns were broken; and the sheep had not strength to
keep his place before him, but was pushed down on the earth
and crushed under his feet: and there was no one to get the
sheep out of his power.

8 And the he-goat became very great: and when he was
strong, the great horn was broken, and in its place came up
four other horns turned to the four winds of heaven.

9 And out of one of them came another horn, a little one,
which became very great, stretching to the south and to the
east and to the beautiful land.

10 And it became great, even as high as the army of heaven,
pulling down some of the army, even of the stars, to the earth
and crushing them under its feet.

11 It made itself great, even as great as the lord of the army;
and by it the regular burned offering was taken away, and
the place overturned and the holy place made waste.

12 And the host was given up, with the continual sacrifice,
through transgression, and it threw down truth to the earth,
and it had worked, and prospered.

13 Then there came to my ears the voice of a holy one
talking; and another holy one said to that certain one who
was talking, How long will the vision be while the regular
burned offering is taken away, and the unclean thing causing
fear is put up, and the holy place crushed under foot?

14 And he said to him, For two thousand, three hundred
evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be made
clean.

15 And it came about that when I, Daniel, had seen this
vision, I had a desire for the sense of it to be unfolded; and I
saw one before me in the form of a man.

16 And the voice of a man came to my ears between the
sides of the Ulai, crying out and saying, Gabriel, make the
vision clear to this man.

17 So he came and took his place near where I was; and
when he came, I was full of fear and went down on my face:
but he said to me, Let it be clear to you, O son of man; for the
vision has to do with the time of the end.

18 Now while he was talking to me, I went into a deep sleep
with my face to the earth: but touching me, he put me on my
feet where I had been.

19 And he said, See, I will make clear to you what is to
come in the later time of the wrath: for it has to do with the
fixed time of the end.

20 The sheep which you saw with two horns, they are the
kings of Media and Persia.

21 And the he-goat is the king of Greece: and the great
horn between his eyes is the first king.

22 And as for that which was broken, in place of which four
came up, four kingdoms will come up from his nation, but
not with his power.

23 And in the later years of their kingdom, when their evil
doings have become complete, there will come up a king full
of pride and expert in dark sayings.

24 And his power will be great, and he will be purposing
strange things. And all will go well for him and he will do his
pleasure; and he will send destruction on the strong ones.

25 And his designs will be turned against the holy people,
causing deceit to do well in his hand; in his heart he will
make himself great, and send destruction on numbers who
are living unconscious of their danger; and he will put
himself up against the prince of princes; but he will be
broken, though not by men's hands.

26 And the vision of evenings and mornings which has been
talked of is true: and keep the vision secret; for it has to do
with the far-off future.

27 And I, Daniel, was ill for some days; then I got up and
did the king's business: and I was full of wonder at the vision,
but no one was able to give the sense of it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

DANIEL CHAPTER 9

1 In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the
seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of
the Chaldaeans;

2 In the first year of his rule, I, Daniel, saw clearly from the
books the number of years given by the word of the Lord to
the prophet Jeremiah, in which the making waste of
Jerusalem was to be complete, that is, seventy years.

3 And turning my face to the Lord God, I gave myself up to
prayer, requesting his grace, going without food, in
haircloth and dust.

4 And I made prayer to the Lord my God, putting our sins
before him, and said, O Lord, the great God, greatly to be
feared. keeping your agreement and mercy with those who
have love for you and do your orders;

5 We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have
gone against you, turning away from your orders and from
your laws:

6 We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who
said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our
fathers and all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even
to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of
Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those
who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them
because of the sin which they have done against you.

8 O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and
our fathers, because of our sin against you.

9 With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for
we have gone against him;

10 And have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God
to go in the way of his laws which he put before us by the
mouth of his servants the prophets.

11 And all Israel have been sinners against your law,
turning away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the
curse has been let loose on us, and the oath recorded in the
law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have done evil
against him.

12 And he has given effect to his words which he said
against us and against those who were our judges, by sending
a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been
done what has been done to Jerusalem.

13 As it was recorded in the law of Moses, all this evil has
come on us: but we have made no prayer for grace from the
Lord our God that we might be turned from our evil doings
and come to true wisdom.

14 So the Lord has been watching over this evil and has
made it come on us: for the Lord our God is upright in all his

acts which he has done, and we have not given ear to his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, who took your people out
of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made a great
name for yourself even to this day; we are sinners, we have
done evil.

16 O Lord, because of your righteousness, let your wrath
and your passion be turned away from your town Jerusalem,
your holy mountain: because, through our sins and the evil-

doing of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become
a cause of shame to all who are round about us.

17 And now, give ear, O our God, to the prayer of your
servant and to his request for grace, and let your face be
shining on your holy place which is made waste, because of
your servants, O Lord.

18 O my God, let your ear be turned and give hearing; let
your eyes be open and see how we have been made waste and
the town which is named by your name: for we are not
offering our prayers before you because of our righteousness,
but because of your great mercies.

19 O Lord, give ear; O Lord, have forgiveness; O Lord,
take note and do; let there be no more waiting; for the
honour of your name, O my God, because your town and
your people are named by your name.

20 And while I was still saying these words in prayer, and
putting my sins and the sins of my people Israel before the
Lord, and requesting grace from the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God;

21 Even while I was still in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom
I had seen in the vision at first when my weariness was great,
put his hand on me about the time of the evening offering.

22 And teaching me and talking to me he said, O Daniel, I
have come now to give you wisdom.

23 At the first word of your prayer a word went out, and I
have come to give you knowledge; for you are a man dearly
loved: so give thought to the word and let the vision be clear
to you.

24 Seventy weeks have been fixed for your people and your
holy town, to let wrongdoing be complete and sin come to its
full limit, and for the clearing away of evil-doing and the
coming in of eternal righteousness: so that the vision and the
word of the prophet may be stamped as true, and to put the
holy oil on a most holy place.

25 Have then the certain knowledge that from the going
out of the word for the building again of Jerusalem till the
coming of a prince, on whom the holy oil has been put, will
be seven weeks: in sixty-two weeks its building will be
complete, with square and earthwork.

26 And at the end of the times, even after the sixty-two
weeks, a Messiah will be cut off and have nothing; and the
town and the holy place will be made waste together with a
prince; and the end will come with an overflowing of waters,
and even to the end there will be war; the making waste
which has been fixed.

27 And a strong order will be sent out against the great
number for one week; and so for half of the week the offering
and the meal offering will come to an end; and in its place
will be an unclean thing causing fear; till the destruction
which has been fixed is let loose on him who has made waste.

DANIEL CHAPTER 10

1 In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a secret was
unfolded to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar; and the
thing was true, even a hard work: and he had knowledge of it,
and the vision was clear to him.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 In those days I, Daniel, gave myself up to grief for three
full weeks.

3 I had no pleasing food, no meat or wine came into my
mouth, and I put no oil on my body till three full weeks were
ended.

4 And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month I was by
the side of the great river;

5 And lifting up my eyes I saw the form of a man clothed in
a linen robe, and round him there was a band of gold, of the
best gold:

6 And his body was like the beryl, and his face had the look
of a thunder-flame, and his eyes were like burning lights, and
his arms and feet like the colour of polished brass, and the
sound of his voice was like the sound of an army.

7 And I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision, for
the men who were with me did not see it; but a great shaking
came on them and they went in flight to take cover.

8 So I was by myself, and I saw this great vision, and all my
strength went from me; and the colour went from my face.

9 But the sound of his words came to my ears, and on
hearing his voice I went into a deep sleep with my face to the
earth.

10 Then a hand gave me a touch, awaking me, and putting
me on my knees and my hands.

11 And he said to me, O Daniel, you man dearly loved, take
in the sense of the words I say to you and get up on to your
feet: for to you I am now sent; and when he had said this to
me J got on to my feet, shaking with fear.

12 Then he said to me, Have no fear, Daniel; for from the
first day when you gave your heart to getting wisdom and
making yourself poor in spirit before your God, your words

have come to his ears: and I have come because of your words.

13 But the angel of the kingdom of Persia put himself
against me for twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief
angels, came to my help; and when I came he was still there
with the angel of the kings of Persia.

14 Now I have come to give you knowledge of the fate of
your people in the later days; for there is still a vision for the
days.

15 And after he had said these words to me, I kept my face
turned to the earth and was unable to say anything.

16 Then one whose form was like the sons of men put his
finger on my lips; and opening my mouth, I said to him who
was before me, O my lord, because of the vision my pains
have come on me, and I have no more strength.

17 For how may this servant of my lord have talk with my
lord? for, as for me, straight away my strength went from me
and there was no breath in my body.

18 Then again one having the form of a man put his hand
on me and gave me strength.

19 And he said to me, O man greatly loved, have no fear:
peace be with you, be strong and let your heart be lifted up.
And at his words I became strong, and said, Let my lord say
on, for you have given me strength.

20 Then he said, It is clear to you why I have come to you.
And now I will give you an account of what is recorded in the
true writings:

21 But I am going back to make war with the angel of
Persia, and when I am gone, the angel of Greece will come.
And there is no one on my side against these, but Michael,
your angel.

DANIEL CHAPTER 11

1 And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede I was
on his side to make his position safe and make him strong.

2 And now I will make clear to you what is true. There are
still three kings to come in Persia, and the fourth will have
much greater wealth than all of them: and when he has
become strong through his wealth, he will put his forces in
motion against all the kingdoms of Greece.

3 And a strong king will come to power, ruling with great
authority and doing whatever is his pleasure.

4 And when he has become strong, his kingdom will be
broken and parted to the four winds of heaven; but not to his
offspring, for it will be uprooted; and his kingdom will be
for the others and not for these: but not with the same
authority as his.

5 And the king of the south will be strong, but one of his
captains will be stronger than he and will be ruler; and his
rule will be a great rule.

6 And at the end of years they will be joined together; and
the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of
the north to make an agreement: but she will not keep the
strength of her arm; and his offspring will not keep their
place; but she will be uprooted, with those who were the
cause of her coming, and her son, and he who took her in
those times.

7 But out of a branch from her roots one will come up to
take his place, who will come against the army, forcing his
way into the strong place of the king of the north, and he
will take them in hand and overcome them:

8 And their gods and their metal images and their fair
vessels of silver and gold he will take away into the south;
and for some years he will keep away from the king of the
north.

9 And he will come into the kingdom of the king of the
south, but he will go back to his land.

10 And his son will make war, and will get together an
army of great forces, and he will make an attack on him,
overflowing and going past: and he will again take the war
even to his strong place.

11 And the king of the south will be moved with wrath, and
will come out and make war on him, on this same king of the
north: and he will get together a great army, but the army
will be given into his hand.

12 And the army will be taken away, and his heart will be
uplifted: he will be the cause of the downfall of tens of
thousands, but he will not be strong.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And again the king of the north will get together an
army greater than the first; and he will make an attack on
him at the end of years, with a great army and much wealth.

14 In those times, a number will take up arms against the
king of the south: and the children of the violent among your
people will be lifting themselves up to make the vision come
true; but it will be their downfall.

15 So the king of the north will come, and put up
earthworks and take a well-armed town: and the forces of the
king of the south will make an attempt to keep their position,
even the best of his army, but they will not have strength to
do so.

16 And he who comes against him will do his pleasure, and
no one will be able to keep his place before him: he will take
up his position in the beautiful land and in his hand there
will be destruction.

17 And it will be his purpose to come with the strength of
all his kingdom, but in place of this he will make an
agreement with him; and he will give him the daughter of
women to send destruction on it; but this will not take place
or come about.

18 After this, his face will be turned to the islands, and he
will take a number of them: but a chief, by his destruction,
will put an end to the shame offered by him; and more than
this, he will make his shame come back on him.

19 Then his face will be turned to the strong places of his
land: but his way will be stopped, causing his downfall, and
he will not be seen again.

20 Then his place will be taken by one who will send out a
man with the glory of a king to get wealth together; but
after a short time destruction will overtake him, but not in
wrath or in the fight.

21 And his place will be taken by a low person, to whom
the honour of the kingdom had not been given: but he will
come in time of peace and will get the kingdom by fair words.

22 And his forces will be completely taken away from
before him and broken; and even the ruler of the agreement
will have the same fate.

23 And from the time when they make an agreement with
him, he will be working falsely: for he will take up arms
suddenly with a small force,

24 Against fertile places, and will make waste a part of the
country; and he will do what his fathers have not done, or his
fathers’ fathers; he will make distribution among them of
goods taken in war and by force, and of property: he will
even make designs against the strong places for a time.

25 And he will put in motion his power and his strength
against the king of the south with a great army; and the king
of the south will go to war with a very great and strong army:
but he will be forced to give way, because of their designs
against him;

26 And his fears will overcome him and be the cause of his
downfall, and his army will come to complete destruction,
and a great number will be put to the sword.

27 And as for these two kings, their hearts will be fixed on
doing evil and they will say false words at one table; but it
will come to nothing: for the end will be at the time fixed.

28 And he will go back to his land with great wealth; and
his heart will be against the holy agreement; and he will do
his pleasure and go back to his land.

29 At the time fixed he will come back and come into the
south; but in the later time it will not be as it was before.

30 For those who go out from the west will come against
him, and he will be in fear and will go back, full of wrath
against the holy agreement; and he will do his pleasure: and
he will go back and be united with those who have given up
the holy agreement.

31 And armies sent by him will take up their position and
they will make unclean the holy place, even the strong place,
and take away the regular burned offering and put in its
place an unclean thing causing fear.

32 And those who do evil against the agreement will be
turned to sin by his fair words: but the people who have
knowledge of their God will be strong and do well.

33 And those who are wise among the people will be the
teachers of the mass of the people: but they will come to their
downfall by the sword and by the flame, being made
prisoners and undergoing loss for a long time.

34 Now at the time of their downfall they will have a little
help, but numbers will be joined to them in the town, and in
their separate heritages.

35 And some of those who are wise will have wisdom in
testing themselves and making themselves clean, till the time
of the end: for it is still for the fixed time.

36 And the king will do his pleasure; he will put himself on
high, lifting himself over every god, and saying things to be
wondered at against the God of gods; and all will be well for
him till the wrath is complete; for what has been purposed
will be done.

37 He will have no respect for the gods of his fathers or for
the god desired by women; he will have no respect for any
god: for he will put himself on high over all.

38 But in place of this he will give honour to the god of
armed places, and to a god of whom his fathers had no
knowledge he will give honour with gold and silver and
jewels and things to be desired.

39 And he will make use of the people of a strange god to
keep his strongest places; to those whom he takes note of he
will give high honour: and he will make them rulers over the
mass of the people, and will make division of the land for a
price.

40 And at the time of the end, the king of the south will
make an attack on him: and the king of the north will come
against him like a storm-wind, with war-carriages and
horsemen and numbers of ships; and he will go through many
lands like overflowing waters.

41 And he will come into the beautiful land, and tens of
thousands will be overcome: but these will be kept from
falling into his hands: Edom and Moab and the chief of the
children of Ammon.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

42 And his hand will be stretched out on the countries: and
the land of the south will not be safe from him.

43 But he will have power over the stores of gold and silver,
and over all the valued things of the south: and the Libyans
and the Ethiopians will be at his steps.

44 But he will be troubled by news from the east and from
the north; and he will go out in great wrath, to send
destruction on, and put an end to, great numbers.

45 He will put the tents of his great house between the sea
and the beautiful holy mountain: but he will come to his end
with no helper.

DANIEL CHAPTER 12

1 And at that time Michael will take up his place, the great
angel, who is the supporter of the children of your people:
and there will be a time of trouble, such as there never was
from the time there was a nation even till that same time: and
at that time your people will be kept safe, everyone who is
recorded in the book.

2 And a number of those who are sleeping in the dust of the
earth will come out of their sleep, some to eternal life and
some to eternal shame.

3 And those who are wise will be shining like the light of
the outstretched sky; and those by whom numbers have been

turned to righteousness will be like the stars for ever and ever.

4 But as for you, O Daniel, let the words be kept secret and
the book rolled up and kept shut till the time of the end:
numbers will be going out of the way and troubles will be
increased.

5 Then I, Daniel, looking, saw two others, one at the edge
of the river on this side and one at the edge of the river on
that side.

6 And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was over the
waters of the river, How long will it be to the end of these
wonders?

7 Then in my hearing the man clothed in linen, who was
over the river, lifting up his right hand and his left hand to
heaven, took an oath by him who is living for ever that it
would be a time, times, and a half; and when the power of the
crusher of the holy people comes to an end, all these things
will be ended.

8 And the words came to my ears, but the sense of them was
not clear to me: then I said, O my lord, what is the sense of
these things?

9 And he said, Go on your way, Daniel: for the words are
secret and shut up till the time of the end;

10 Till a number are tested and make themselves clean; and
the evil-doers will do evil; for not one of the evil-doers will
have knowledge; but all will be made clear to those who are
wise.

11 And from the time when the regular burned offering is
taken away, and an unclean thing causing fear is put up,
there will be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days.

12 A blessing will be on the man who goes on waiting, and
comes to the thousand, three hundred and thirty-five days.

13 But you, go on your way and take your rest: for you will
be in your place at the end of the days.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE TREI ASAR
(THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS)

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET HOSEA

Hebrew title: Sefer Hosea
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 760—720 B.C.

(Dated to c. 760-720 BC, The Book of Hosea (Hebrew:
Sefer Hosea) is one of the oldest books of the Hebrew Bible,
predating most of the Torah (Pentateuch). It is part of The
Trei Asar, a book of the Hebrew Bible with 12 chapters or
parts. This little biographical collection was probably made
in Babylon in the years of the captivity,

Set around the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the
Book of Hosea denounces the worship of gods other than
Yahweh, metaphorically comparing Israel's abandonment of
Yahweh to a woman being unfaithful to her husband.
According to the book's narrative, the relationship between
Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer 1s comparable to the
relationship between Yahweh and his unfaithful people Israel.
The eventual reconciliation of Hosea and Gomer is treated as
a hopeful metaphor for the eventual reconciliation between
Yahweh and Israel.

A brief outline of the concepts:

¢ Chapters 1—2; Account of Hosea's marriage with Gomer
biographically which is a metaphor for the relationship with
Yahweh and Israel.

¢ Chapter 3; Account of AHosea’s marriage
autobiographically. This 1s possibly a marriage to different
women

¢ Chapters 4—14:9/ 14:10; Oracle judging Israel, Ephraim
in particular, for not living up to the covenant.)

HOSEA CHAPTER |

1 The word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the son of
Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash,
king of Israel.

2 The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord
said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and
children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord.

3 So he took as his wife Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim,
and she gave birth to a son.

4 And the Lord said to him, Give him the name of Jezreel,
for after a little time I will send punishment for the blood of
Jezreel on the line of Jehu, and put an end to the kingdom of
Israel.

5 And in that day I will let the bow of Israel be broken in
the valley of Jezreel.

6 And after that she gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord
said, Give her the name Lo-ruhamah; for I will not again
have mercy on Israel, to give them forgiveness.

7 But I will have mercy on Judah and will give them
salvation by the Lord their God, but not by the bow or the
sword or by fighting or by horses or horsemen.

8 Now when Lo-ruhamah had been taken from the breast,
the woman gave birth to a son.

9 And the Lord said, Give him the name Lo-ammi; for you
are not my people, and I will not be your God.

10 But still the number of the children of Israel will be like
the sand of the sea, which may not be measured or numbered;
and in place of its being said to them, You are not my people,
it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God

11 And the children of Israel and the children of Judah will
come together and take for themselves one head, and will go
up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

HOSEA CHAPTER 2

1 Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters,
Ruhamah.

2 Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she
is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away
her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between
her breasts;

3 For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making
her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a
waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need
of water.

4 And J will have no mercy on her children, for they are the
children of her loose ways.

5 For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them
birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after
my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and
my linen, my oil and my wine.

6 For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a
wall round her so that she may not go on her way.

7 And if she goes after her lovers she will not overtake them;
if she makes search for them she will not see them; then will
she say, I will go back to my first husband, for then it was
better for me than now.

8 For she had no knowledge that it was I who gave her the
grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her silver and gold
which they gave to the Baal.

9 So I will take away again my grain in its time and my
wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen with which
her body might have been covered.

10 And now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of
her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand.

11 And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new
moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings.

12 And I will make waste her vines and her fig-trees, of
which she has said, These are the payments which my lovers

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

have made to me; and I will make them a waste of trees, and
the beasts of the field will take them for food.

13 And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals,
to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made
herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after
her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord.

14 For this cause I will make her come into the waste land
and will say words of comfort to her.

15 And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her
answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the
time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16 And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me, Ishi;
and you will never again give me the name of Baali;

17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her
mouth, and never again will she say their names.

18 And in that day I will make an agreement for them with
the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things
which go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and
the sword and war in all the land, and will make them take
their rest in peace.

19 And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will
take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging,
in love and in mercies.

20 I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will
have knowledge of the Lord.

21 And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give
an answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth;

22 And the earth will give its answer to the grain and the
wine and the oil, and they will give an answer to Jezreel;

23 And I will put her as seed in the earth, and I will have
mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to
those who were not my people, You are my people, and they
will say, My God.

HOSEA CHAPTER 3

1 And the Lord said to me, Give your love again to a
woman who has a lover and is false to her husband, even as
the Lord has love for the children of Israel, though they are
turned to other gods and are lovers of grape-cakes.

2 So I got her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a
homer and a half of barley;

3 And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of
time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to
have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

4 For the children of Israel will for a long time be without
king and without ruler, without offerings and without
pillars, and without ephod or images.

5 And after that, the children of Israel will come back and
go in search of the Lord their God and David their king; and
they will come in fear to the Lord and to his mercies in the
days to come.

HOSEA CHAPTER 4
1 Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for
the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because

there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge
of God in the land.

2 There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and
attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses
are broken into, and there is blood touching blood.

3 Because of this the land will be dry, and everyone living in
it will be wasted away, with the beasts of the field and the
birds of heaven; even the fishes of the sea will be taken away.

4 Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people
are like those who go to law with a priest.

5 You will not be able to keep on your feet by day, and by
night the prophet will be falling down with you, and I will
give your mother to destruction.

6 Destruction has overtaken my people because they have
no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will
give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you
have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep
your children in my memory.

7 Even while they were increasing in number they were
sinning against me; I will let their glory be changed into
shame.

8 The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire
is for their wrongdoing.

9 And the priest will be like the people; I will give them
punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts.

10 They will have food, but they will not be full; they will
be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no
longer give thought to the Lord.

11 Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom.

12 My people get knowledge from their tree, and their rod
gives them news; for a false spirit is the cause of their
wandering, and they have been false to their God.

13 They make offerings on the tops of mountains, burning
perfumes in high places, under trees of every sort, because
their shade is good: and so your daughters are given up to
loose ways and your brides are false to their husbands.

14 I will not give punishment to your daughters or your
brides for their evil behaviour; for they make themselves
separate with loose women, and make offerings with those
who are used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: the
people who have no wisdom will be sent away.

15 Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O
Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an
oath, By the living Lord.

16 For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be
controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb ina
wide place.

17 Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be.

18 Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false;
her rulers take pleasure in shame.

19 They are folded in the skirts of the wind; they will be
shamed because of their offerings.

HOSEA CHAPTER 5

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

| Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and
you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have
been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor.

2 They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am
the judge of all.

3 I have knowledge of Ephraim, and Israel is not secret
from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have been false to me,
Israel has become unclean.

4 Their works will not let them come back to their God, for
a false spirit is in them and they have no knowledge of the
Lord.

5 And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and
Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of
Judah will be the same as theirs.

6 They will go, with their flocks and their herds, in search
of the Lord, but they will not see him; he has taken himself
out of their view.

7 They have been false to the Lord; they have given birth to
strange children; now the new moon will make them waste
with their fields.

8 Let the horn be sounded in Gibeah and in Ramah; give a
loud cry in Beth-aven, They are after you, O Benjamin.

9 Ephraim will become a waste in the day of punishment; I
have given knowledge among the tribes of Israel of what is
certain.

10 The rulers of Judah are like those who take away a
landmark; I will let loose my wrath on them like flowing
water.

11 Ephraim is troubled; he is crushed by his judges, because
he took pleasure in walking after deceit.

12 And so to Ephraim I am like a wasting insect, and a
destruction to the children of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his disease and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king; but
he is not able to make you well or give you help for your
wound.

14 For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion
to the children of Judah; I, even I, will give him wounds and
go away; I will take him away, and there will be no helper.

15 I will go back to my place till they are made waste; in
their trouble they will go after me early and will make search
for me.

HOSEA CHAPTER 6

1 Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us
wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he
will give help.

2 After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he
will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

3 And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge
of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his
decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain watering the earth.

40 Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I
to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like
the dew which goes early away.

5 So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the
words of my mouth;

6 Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the
knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

7 But like a man, they have gone against the agreement;
there they were false to me.

8 Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood.

9 And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the
priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to
Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.

10 In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are
seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

11 And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.

HOSEA CHAPTER 7

1 When my desire was for the fate of my people to be
changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was
made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are
false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of
outlaws takes property by force in the streets.

2 And they do not say to themselves that I keep in mind all
their sin; now their evil acts come round them on every side;
they are before my face.

3 In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in
their deceit.

4 They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the
bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when
the paste is mixed till it is leavened.

5 On the day of our king, the rulers made him ill with the
heat of wine; his hand was stretched out with the men of
pride.

6 For they have made their hearts ready like an oven, while
they are waiting secretly; their wrath is sleeping all night; in
the morning it is burning like a flaming fire.

7 They are all heated like an oven, and they put an end to
their judges; all their kings have been made low; not one
among them makes prayer to me.

8 Ephraim is mixed with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not
turned.

9 Men from other lands have made waste his strength, and
he is not conscious of it; grey hairs have come on him here
and there, and he has no knowledge of it.

10 And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; but
for all this, they have not gone back to the Lord their God,
or made search for him.

11 And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom;
they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12 When they go, my net will be stretched out over them; I
will take them like the birds of heaven, I will give them
punishment, I will take them away in the net for their sin.

13 May trouble be theirs! for they have gone far away from
me; and destruction, for they have been sinning against me; I
was ready to be their saviour, but they said false words
against me.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 And they have not made prayer to me in their hearts, but
they make loud cries on their beds; they are cutting
themselves for food and wine, they are turned against me.

15 Though I have given training and strength to their arms,
they have evil designs against me.

16 They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a
false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the
sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of
Egypt will make sport of them.

HOSEA CHAPTER 8

1 Put the horn to your mouth. He comes like an eagle
against the house of the Lord; because they have gone against
my agreement, they have not kept my law.

2 They will send up to me a cry for help: We, Israel, have
knowledge of you, O God of Israel.

3 Israel has given up what is good; his haters will go after
him.

4 They have put up kings, but not by me; they have made
princes, but I had no knowledge of it; they have made images
of silver and gold, so that they may be cut off.

5 I will have nothing to do with your young ox, O Samaria;
my wrath is burning against them; how long will it be before
the children of Israel make themselves clean?

6 The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will
be broken into bits.

7 For they have been planting the wind, and their fruit will
be the storm; his grain has no stem, it will give no meal, and
if it does, a strange nation will take it.

8 Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the
nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by
himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers.

10 But though they give money to the nations for help, still
I will send them in all directions; and in a short time they
will be without a king and rulers.

11 Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin,
altars have become a cause of sin to him.

12 Though I put my law in writing for him in ten thousand
rules, they are to him as a strange thing.

13 He gives the offerings of his lovers, and takes the flesh
for food; but the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will
keep in mind their evil-doing and give them the punishment
of their sins; they will go back to Egypt.

14 For Israel has no memory of his Maker, and has put up
the houses of kings; and Judah has made great the number of
his walled towns. But I will send a fire on his towns and put
an end to his great houses.

HOSEA CHAPTER 9

1 Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations;
for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been
for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor.

2 The grain-floor and the place where the grapes are
crushed will not give them food; there will be no new wine
for them.

3 They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but
Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean
food in Assyria.

4 They will give no wine offering to the Lord, they will not
make offerings ready for him; their bread will be like the
bread of those in sorrow; all who take it will be unclean,
because their bread will be only for their desire, it will not
come into the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do on the day of worship, and on the day
of the feast of the Lord?

6 For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get
them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their
fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and
thorns will come up in their tents.

7 The days of punishment, the days of reward are come;
Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man
who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin.

8 There is great hate against the watchman of Ephraim, the
people of my God; as for the prophet, there is a net in all his
ways, and hate in the house of his God.

9 They have gone deep in evil as in the days of Gibeah; he
will keep in mind their wrongdoing, he will give them
punishment for their sins.

10 I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land;
I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early
fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves
holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that
to which they gave their love.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird:
there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of
life.

12 Even though their children have come to growth I will
take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their
evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame
because of it.

13 As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from
her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to
be put to death.

14 O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies
which may not give birth and breasts without milk.

15 All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for
them; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my
house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are
uncontrolled.

16 The rod has come on Ephraim, their root is dry, let them
have no fruit; even though they give birth, I will put to death
the dearest fruit of their bodies.

17 My God will give them up because they did not give ear
to him; they will be wandering among the nations.

HOSEA CHAPTER 10

1 Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is
increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land
is fair, so they have made fair pillars.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste:
he will have their altars broken down, he will give their
pillars to destruction.

3 Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no
fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us?

4 Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false
oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a
ploughed field.

5 The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox
of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its
priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has
gone in flight.

6 And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great
king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed
because of its image.

7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water.

8 And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to
destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their
altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and
to the hills, Come down on us.

9 O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah;
there they took up their position, so that the fighting against
the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah.

10 I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples
will come together against them when I give them the reward
of their two sins.

11 And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in
crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I
will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be
working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth.

12 Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in
mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time
to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends
righteousness on you like rain.

13 You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of
evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith
in your way, in the number of your men of war.

14 So a great outcry will go up from among your people,
and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was
broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was
broken on the rocks with her children.

15 So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at
dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.

HOSEA CHAPTER 11

1 When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my
son out of Egypt.

2 When I sent for them, then they went away from me; they
made offerings to the Baals, burning perfumes to images.

3 But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in
my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to
make them well.

4] made them come after me with the cords of a man, with
the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke
from off their mouths, putting meat before them.

5 He will go back to the land of Egypt and the Assyrian will
be his king, because they would not come back to me.

6 And the sword will go through his towns, wasting his
children and causing destruction because of their evil designs.

7 My people are given up to sinning against me; though
their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up.

8 How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your
saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may
I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is
soft with pity.

9 I will not put into effect the heat of my wrath; I will not
again send destruction on Ephraim; for I am God and not
man, the Holy One among you; I will not put an end to you.

10 They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a
lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the
west, shaking with fear;

11 Shaking with fear like a bird, they will come out of
Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will give
them rest in their houses, says the Lord.

12 The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are
about me on every side. Judah still strays from God, and is
unfaithful to the Holy One.

HOSEA CHAPTER 12

1 Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east
wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they
make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt.

2 The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give
punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the
reward of his acts.

3 In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot,
and in his strength he was fighting with God;

4 He had a fight with the angel and overcame him; he made
request for grace to him with weeping; he came face to face
with him in Beth-el and there his words came to him;

5 Even the Lord, the God of armies; the Lord is his name.

6 So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right,
and be waiting at all times on your God.

7 As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he
takes pleasure in twisted ways.

8 And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much
property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me.

9 But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I
will give you tents for your living-places again as in the days
of the holy meeting.

10 My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave
them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the
prophets I made use of comparisons.

11 In Gilead there is evil. They are quite without value; in
Gilgal they make offerings of oxen; truly their altars are like
masses of stones in the hollows of a ploughed field.

12 And Jacob went in flight into the field of Aram, and
Israel became a servant for a wife, and for a wife he kept
sheep.

13 And by a prophet the Lord made Israel come up out of
Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 [have been bitterly moved to wrath by Ephraim; so that
his blood will be on him, and the Lord will make his shame
come back on him.

HOSEA CHAPTER 13

1 When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was
lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal,
death overtook him.

2 And now their sins are increased; they have made
themselves a metal image, false gods from their silver, after
their designs, all of them the work of the metal-workers; they
say of them, Let them give offerings, let men give kisses to
the oxen.

3 So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which
goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is
driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from
the fireplace.

4 But I am the Lord your God, from the land of Egypt; you
have knowledge of no other God and there is no saviour but
me.

5 [had knowledge of you in the waste land where no water
was.

6 When I gave them food they were full, and their hearts
were full of pride, and they did not keep me in mind.

7 So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep
watch by the road;

8 I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young
ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will
be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will
be wounded by the beasts of the field.

9 I have sent destruction on you, O Israel; who will be your
helper?

10 Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all
your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you
said, Give me a king and rulers.

11 I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have
taken him away in my wrath.

12 The wrongdoing of Ephraim is shut up; his sin is put
away in secret.

13 The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he
is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to
keep his place when children come to birth.

14 I will give the price to make them free from the power of
the underworld, I will be their saviour from death: O death!
where are your pains? O underworld! where is your
destruction? my eyes will have no pity.

15 Though he gives fruit among his brothers, an east wind
will come, the wind of the Lord coming up from the waste
land, and his spring will become dry, his fountain will be
without water: it will make waste the store of all the vessels
of his desire.

16 Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her
God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children
will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child
will be cut open.

HOSEA CHAPTER 14

1 O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-
doing has been the cause of your fall.

2 Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to
him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we
may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our
lips.

3 Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses;
we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our
gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no
father.

4] will put right their errors; freely will my love be given
to them, for my wrath is turned away from him.

5 I will be as the dew to Israel; he will put out flowers like a
lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon.

6 His branches will be stretched out, he will be beautiful as
the olive-tree and sweet-smelling as Lebanon.

7 They will come back and have rest in his shade; their life
will be made new like the grain, and they will put out flowers
like the vine; his name will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any
longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over
him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit.

9 He who is wise will see these things; he who has good
sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord
are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will
be falling in them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET JOEL

Hebrew title: Sefer Joel
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 520—400 B.C.

(The Book of Joel is part of the Hebrew Bible, one of twelve
prophetic books known as the Twelve Minor Prophets. (The
term indicates the short length of the text in relation to
longer prophetic texts known as the Major Prophets.

The Book of Hosea 1s one of the books of the Hebrew Bible
and of the Christian Old Testament. The book 1s about a man
who was told by God to marry a woman who would not live
with him as she should have done. Even though Hosea
brought her back to his house and had some children with
her, she kept leaving him and going away to other men.
Hosea was told that his story was a picture of the way God's
people treated God, by going after other gods (idols) even
though God wanted them to stay with Him and love Him.)

JOEL CHAPTER 1

1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of
Pethuel.

2 Give ear to this, you old men, and take note, you people
of the land. Has this ever been in your days, or in the days of
your fathers?

3 Give the story of it to your children, and let them give it
to their children, and their children to another generation.

4 What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by
the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food
for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take,
has been food for the field-fly.

5 Come out of your sleep, you who are overcome with wine,
and give yourselves to weeping; give cries of sorrow, all you
drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it has been
cut off from your mouths.

6 For a nation has come up over my land, strong and
without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has
the back teeth of a great lion.

7 By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he
has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its
branches are made white.

8 Make sounds of grief like a virgin dressed in haircloth for
the husband of her early years.

9 The meal offering and the drink offering have been cut off
from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's servants,
are sorrowing.

10 The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the
grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor.

11 The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens
give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the
produce of the fields has come to destruction.

12 The vine has become dry and the fig-tree is feeble; the
pomegranate and the palm-tree and the apple-tree, even all
the trees of the field, are dry: because joy has gone from the
sons of men.

13 Put haircloth round you and give yourselves to sorrow,
you priests; give cries of grief, you servants of the altar: come
in, and, clothed in haircloth, let the night go past, you
servants of my God: for the meal offering and the drink
offering have been kept back from the house of your God.

14 Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy
meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land,
come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out
to the Lord.

15 Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and
as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come.

16 Is not food cut off before our eyes? joy and delight from
the house of our God?

17 The grains have become small and dry under the spade;
the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken
down; for the grain is dry and dead.

18 What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of
cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the
flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen.

19 O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to
the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are
burned with its flame.

20 The beasts of the field are turning to you with desire: for
the water-streams are dry and fire has put an end to the
grass-lands of the waste.

JOEL CHAPTER 2

1 Let the horn be sounded in Zion, and a war-cry in my
holy mountain; let all the people of the land be troubled: for
the day of the Lord is coming;

2 For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud
and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people
is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them
and will not be after them again, from generation to
generation.

3 Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is
burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and
after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept
safe from them.

4 Their form is like the form of horses, and they are
running like war-horses.

5 Like the sound of war-carriages they go jumping on the
tops of the mountains; like the noise of a flame of fire
burning up the grain-stems, like a strong people lined up for
the fight.

6 At their coming the people are bent with pain: all faces
become red together.

7 They are running like strong men, they go over the wall
like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their
lines are not broken.

8 No one is pushing against another; everyone goes straight
on his way: bursting through the sword points, their order is
not broken.

9 They make a rush on the town, running on the wall; they
go up into the houses and in through the windows like a thief.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 The earth is troubled before them and the heavens are
shaking: the sun and the moon have become dark, and the
stars keep back their shining:

11 And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very
great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word:
for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and
who has strength against it?

12 But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all
your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with
sorrow:

13 Let your hearts be broken, and not your clothing, and
come back to the Lord your God: for he is full of grace and
pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, ready to be turned
from his purpose of punishment.

14 May it not be that he will again let his purpose be
changed and let a blessing come after him, even a meal
offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

15 Let a horn be sounded in Zion, let a time be fixed for
going without food, have a holy meeting:

16 Get the people together, make the mass of the people
holy, send for the old men, get together the children and
babies at the breast: let the newly married man come out of
his room and the bride from her tent.

17 Let the priests, the servants of the Lord, be weeping
between the covered way and the altar, and let them say,
Have mercy on your people, O Lord, do not give up your
heritage to shame, so that the nations become their rulers:
why let them say among the peoples, Where is their God?

18 Then the Lord had a care for the honour of his land and
had pity on his people.

19 And the Lord made answer and said to his people, See, I
will send you grain and wine and oil in full measure: and I
will no longer let you be shamed among the nations:

20 I will send the one from the north far away from you,
driving him into a dry and waste land, with his front to the
sea of the east and his back to the sea of the west, and the
smell of him will go up, even his evil smell will go up.

21 Have no fear, O land; be glad with great joy; for the
Lord has done great things.

22 Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands
of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing
fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength.

23 Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the
Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure,
making the rain come down for you, the early and the late
rain as at the first.

24 And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-
places overflowing with wine and oil.

25 I will give back to you the years which were food for the
locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great
army which I sent among you.

26 You will have food in full measure, and give praise to
the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for
you:

27 And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am
the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will
never be shamed.

28 And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I
will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams,
your young men will see visions:

29 And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I
will send my spirit.

30 And I will let wonders be seen in the heavens and on the
earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun will be made dark and the moon turned to
blood, before the great day of the Lord comes, a day to be
feared.

32 And it will be that whoever makes his prayer to the
name of the Lord will be kept safe: for in Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem some will be kept safe, as the Lord has said, and
will be among the small band marked out by the Lord.

JOEL CHAPTER 3

1 For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of
Judah and Jerusalem be changed,

2 I will get together all the nations, and make them come
down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up
with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel,
whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of
my land which has been parted by them.

3 And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of
chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl
for a drink of wine.

4 And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and
all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment?
and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on
your head,

5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the
houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things.

6 And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem
you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send
them far away from their land:

7 See, I will have them moved from the place where you
have sent them, and will let what you have done come back
on your head;

8 I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of
the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for
a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has
said it.

9 Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get
the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let
them come up.

10 Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and
your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong.

11 Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get
yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down,
O Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of
Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the
nations round about.

13 Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you
down, for the wine-crusher 1s full, the vessels are overflowing;
for great is their evil-doing.

14 Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of
the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars
keep back their shining.

16 And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his
voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and
the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate
for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel.

17 And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God,
living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy,
and no strange person will ever again go through her.

18 And it will come about in that day that the mountains
will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing
with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with
water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the
Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees.

19 Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction,
because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because
they have let blood be drained out in their land without
cause.

20 But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation.

21 And I will send punishment for their blood, for which
punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET AMOS

Hebrew title: Sefer Amos
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 790-740 B.C.

(The Book of Amos belongs to the Nevi'im (Hebrew for:
"prophets") and of the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets
in the Tanakh / Old Testament.

Amos lived during the time of two other prophets,Hosea
and Isaiah, around 750 BC while Jeroboam II (785—745 BC)
was king of Israel and Uzziah (c. 770-750 BC) was king of
Judah. Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah but preached in
the northern Kingdom of Israel. His major themes of social
Justice, God's omnipotence, and divine judgement became the
main elements of his teachings.

The book of Amos 1s probably the oldest book of a prophet
in the Bible and it has 9 chapters. Its message 1s harsh, but
Amos wrote some of the most poetic parts of the Bible. The
author (we do not know with certainty if it was Amos or one
of his disciples) was not a simpleton, he was well-educated. In
the first chapter, he says that God will punish many of the
nations around Israel. Then in the second chapter he uses
similar words to say that Judah and Israel will also be
punished. The rest of the book tells the reasons for that
punishment before ending with a promise that Israel would
then be restored. He wrote about social justice, God's power,
Judgement and eventual restoration.

Structure

Oracles against the nations (1.3—2.6)

Addresses to groups in Israel

¢ Women of Samaria (4. 1-3)

¢ Rich persons in Samaria (6.1—7)

¢ Rich persons in Jerusalem (8.4—8)

Five symbolic visions of God's judgement on Israel,
interrupted by a confrontation between Amos and his
Listeners at Bethel (7. 10-17):

¢ Locusts (7. 1—3)

¢ Fire (7.46)

¢A plumb line (7.7-9)

°A basket of fruit (8. 1-3)

¢ God beside the altar (9. 1—&a)

Epilogue 9:8b—15.)

AMOS CHAPTER 1

1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of
Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king
of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king
of Israel, two years before the earth-shock.

2 And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his
voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the
keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will
be wasted away.

3 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of
Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-
crushing instruments.

4 And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up
the great houses of Ben-hadad.

5 And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken,
and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of
Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of
Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into
Kir, says the Lord.

6 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza,
and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they
took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom.

7 And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its
great houses:

8 Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from
Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon;
and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of
the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God.

9 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre,
and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they
gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a
thought to the brothers’ agreement between them.

10 And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its
great houses.

11 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of
Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because
his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and
his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever.

12 And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great
houses of Bozrah.

13 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the
children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be
changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut
open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land.

14 And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up
its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a
storm in the day of the great wind:

15 And their king will be made prisoner, he and his
captains together, says the Lord.

AMOS CHAPTER 2

1 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of
Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because
he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust.

2 And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great
houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise
and outcries and the sound of the horn:

3 And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and
all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord.

4 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of
Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because
they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his
rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have
made them go out of the right way.

5 And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great
houses of Jerusalem.

6 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of
Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because
they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for
the price of two shoes;

7 Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of
the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to
the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name:

8 By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from
those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their
god the wine of those who have made payment for
wrongdoing.

9 Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them,
who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting
off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth.

10 And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you
for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for
your heritage the land of the Amorite.

11 And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of
your young men J made separate for myself. Is it not even so,
O children of Israel? says the Lord.

12 But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink;
and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer.

13 See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a
cart full of grain.

14 And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and
the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war
will not get away safely:

15 And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is
quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will
not keep his life.

16 And he who is without fear among the fighting men will
go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord.

AMOS CHAPTER 3

| Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you,
O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up
out of the land of Egypt, saying,

2 You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care
of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your
sins.

3 Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by
agreement?

4 Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no
food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding
from his hole if he has taken nothing?

5 Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth
where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from
the earth if it has taken nothing at all?

6 If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be
full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done
it?

7 Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear
his secret to his servants, the prophets.

8 The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear?
The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the
prophet to keep quiet?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in
the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains
of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what
cruel acts are done in it.

10 For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right,
says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and
destruction in their great houses.

11 For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come,
shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will
come down and your great houses will be made waste.

12 These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep
takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear;
so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in
Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed.

13 Give ear now, and give witness against the family of
Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies;

14 For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins,
I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns
of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth.

15 And I will send destruction on the winter house with the
summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the
great houses will come to an end, says the Lord.

AMOS CHAPTER 4

| Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the
hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those
in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine
and give us drink.

2 The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that
the days are coming when they will take you away with
hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks.

3 And you will go out through the broken places, every one
going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon,
says the Lord.

4 Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the
number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning
and your tenths every three days:

5 Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering,
let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for
this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord.

6 But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth,
and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still
you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

7 And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still
three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one
town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on,
and the part where there was no rain became a waste.

8 So two or three towns went wandering to one town
looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have
not come back to me, says the Lord.

9 T have sent destruction on your fields by burning and
disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens,
your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms:
and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

10 Ihave sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have
put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your

horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to
your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the
Lord.

11 And I have sent destruction among you, as when God
sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like
a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not
come back to me, says the Lord.

12 So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I
will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O
Israel.

13 For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made
the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who
makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of
the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.

AMOS CHAPTER 5

1 Give ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O
children of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel has been made low, never again to be
lifted up: she is stretched out by herself on her land; there is
no one to put her on her feet again.

3 For these are the words of the Lord God: The town which
was able to send out a thousand, will have only a hundred;
and that which sent out a hundred, will have only ten, in
Israel.

4 For these are the words of the Lord to the children of
Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have
life:

5 Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to
Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will
certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing.

6 Go to the Lord for help so that you may have life; for fear
that he may come like fire bursting out in the family of
Joseph, causing destruction, and there will be no one to put
it out in Beth-el.

7 You who make the work of judging a bitter thing,
crushing down righteousness to the earth;

8 Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by
whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the
day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of
the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord
is his name;

9 Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that
destruction comes on the walled town.

10 They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in
the public place, and he whose words are upright is
disgusting to them.

11 So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and
you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for
yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest
in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not
give you wine.

12 For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and
how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who
take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the
public place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil
time.

14 Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours:
and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you
say.

15 Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be
done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of
armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph.

16 So these are the words of the Lord, the God of armies,
the Lord: There will be weeping in all the open spaces; and in
all the streets they will say, Sorrow! sorrow! and they will
get in the farmer to the weeping, and the makers of sad songs
to give cries of grief.

17 In all the vine-gardens there will be cries of grief: for I
will go through among you, says the Lord.

18 Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord!
what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light.

19 As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face
with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the
wall and got a bite from a snake.

20 Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even
very dark, with no light shining in it?

21 Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to
do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings.

22 Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal
offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have
nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are
shut to the melody of your instruments.

24 But let the right go rolling on like waters, and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25 Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal
offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel?

26 Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan
your images, the star of your god, which you made for
yourselves.

27 And I will send you away as prisoners farther than
Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.

AMOS CHAPTER 6

1 Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and
to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of
Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom
the people of Israel come!

2 Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath
the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you
better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs?

3 You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the
violent to come near;

4 Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft
seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from
the cattle-house;

5 Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments,
and designing for themselves instruments of music, like
David;

6 Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best
oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph.

7 So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those
who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were
stretched out will come to an end.

8 The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord,
the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and
I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town
with everything in it.

9 Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a
house, death will overtake them.

10 And when a man's relation, even the one who is
responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his
bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part
of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No;
then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may
not be named.

11 For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be
full of cracks and the little house will be broken.

12 Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may
the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by
you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter
plant?

13 You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have
we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is
ours?

14 For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says
the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way
into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.

AMOS CHAPTER 7

1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw that,
when the growth of the late grass was starting, he made
locusts; it was the late growth after the king's cutting was
done.

2 And it came about that after they had taken all the grass
of the land, I said, O Lord God, have mercy: how will Jacob
be able to keep his place? for he is small.

3 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, It will
not be.

4 This is what the Lord let me see: and I saw that the Lord
God sent for a great fire to be the instrument of his
punishment; and, after burning up the great deep, it was
about to put an end to the Lord's heritage.

5 Then said I, O Lord God, let there be an end: how will
Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small.

6 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, And this
will not be.

7 This is what he let me see: and I saw the Lord stationed by
a wall made straight by a weighted line, and he had a
weighted line in his hand.

8 And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I
said, A weighted line. Then the Lord said, See, I will let
down a weighted line among my people Israel; never again
will my eyes be shut to their sin:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And the high places of Isaac will be unpeopled, and the
holy places of Israel will be made waste; and I will come up
against the family of Jeroboam with the sword.

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent to Jeroboam,
king of Israel, saying, Amos has made designs against you
among the people of Israel: the land is troubled by his words.

11 For Amos has said, Jeroboam will be put to the sword,
and Israel will certainly be taken away as a prisoner out of
his land.

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go in flight into the
land of Judah, and there get your living by working as a
prophet:

13 But be a prophet no longer at Beth-el: for it is the holy
place of the king, and the king's house.

14 Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet,
or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one
who takes care of sycamore-trees:

15 And the Lord took me from the flock, and the Lord said
to me, Go, be a prophet to my people Israel.

16 Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be
no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people
of Isaac.

17 So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a
loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters
will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into
parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an
unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a
prisoner out of his land.

AMOS CHAPTER 8

1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket
of summer fruit.

2 And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket
of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, The end has come
to my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their
sin.

3 And the songs of the king's house will be cries of pain in
that day, says the Lord God: great will be the number of the
dead bodies, and everywhere they will put them out without
a word.

4 Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and
whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in
the land,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may
do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out
in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure
small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of
deceit;

6 Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the
price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of
the grain.

7 The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I
will ever keep in mind all their works.

8 Will not the land be shaking with fear because of this, and
everyone in it have sorrow? and all of it will be overflowing

like the River; and it will be troubled and go down again like
the River of Egypt.

9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God,
that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day,
and I will make the earth dark in daylight:

10 Your feasts will be turned into sorrow and all your
melody into songs of grief; everyone will be clothed with
haircloth, and the hair of every head will be cut; I will make
the weeping like that for an only son, and the end of it like a
bitter day.

11 See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will
send times of great need on the land, not need of food or
desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.

12 And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from
the north even to the east, running here and there in search
of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it.

13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be
feeble from need of water.

14 Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and
say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way
of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be
lifted up.

AMOS CHAPTER 9

1 I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving
blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were
shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with
earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any
one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of
them will be safe.

2 Even if they go deep into the underworld, my hand will
take them up from there; if they go up to heaven, I will get
them down:

3 Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in
search of them and get them out; though they keep
themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give
orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite:

4 And though they are taken away as prisoners by their
attackers, even there will I give orders to the sword to put
them to death: my eyes will be fixed on them for evil and not
for good.

5 For the Lord, the God of armies, is he at whose touch the
land is turned to water, and everyone in it will be given up to
sorrow; all of it will be overflowing like the River, and will
go down again like the River of Egypt;

6 It is he who makes his rooms in the heaven, basing his
arch on the earth; whose voice goes out to the waters of the
sea, and sends them flowing over the face of the earth; the
Lord is his name.

7 Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O
children of Israel? says the Lord. Have I not taken Israel up
out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Aramaeans from Kir?

8 See, the eyes of the Lord are on the evil kingdom, and |
will put an end to it in all the earth; but I will not send
complete destruction on Jacob, says the Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 For see, I will give orders, and I will have Israel moved
about among all the nations, as grain is moved about by the
shaking of the tray, but not the smallest seed will be dropped
on the earth.

10 All those sinners among my people will be put to the
sword who say, Evil will not overtake us or come face to face
with us.

11 In that day I will put up the tent of David which has
come down, and make good its broken places; and I will put
up again his damaged walls, building it up as in the past;

12 So that the rest of Edom may be their heritage, and all
the nations who have been named by my name, says the Lord,
who is doing this.

13 See, the days will come, says the Lord, when the
ploughman will overtake him who is cutting the grain, and
the crusher of the grapes him who is planting seed; and sweet
wine will be dropping from the mountains, and the hills will
be turned into streams of wine.

14 And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed,
and they will be building up again the waste towns and
living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and
taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens
and get the fruit of them.

15 And I will have them planted in their land, and never
again will they be uprooted from their land which I have
given them, says the Lord your God.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET OBADIAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Ovadyah
Estimated Range of Dating: 7th to 6th centuries B.C.

(The book of Obadiah is based on a prophetic vision
concerning the fall of Edom,[verse 1,4,18] a mountain
dwelling nation[v.8,9,19,21] whose founding father was
Esau [v.6][Genesis 36:9]. The text consists ofa single chapter,
divided into 21 verses, making it the shortest book in the
Hebrew Bible. The text of Obadiah is most interesting as it
bears witness to the animosities Hebrews and Arabs feel to
one another from very early times onwards.

Obadiah describes an encounter with God, who addresses
Edom'’s arrogance and charges them for their violent actions
against their brother nation, the House of Jacob
(Israel)[v. 10]. Edom (also called Idumaea) refers to an Arabic
tribe that ruled the region which the Romans knew under the
name Arabia Petraea, meaning Arabia whose capital was the
City of Petra. The western half of ancient Edom 1s the Negev
desert all the way to Eilat, all part of modern Israel. The
eastern half is possessed by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.

The historian Tovma (Thomas) Artsruni, who began
writing History sometime in the 870s, uses the name "Mecca"
or "Makka" for the ancient City of "Petra" (city of rocks)
When he writes about Mohammed [who was a Hashemite]:
"At that time, in a place of Petrea Arabia Pharan, named
Makka - The Mecca - he showed himself to brothers bandits,
warriors and band chiefs, who were worshiping in a temple
the idols of Ammonites, Samam and Kabar." (Brosset, 1894,
Livre Il, 4. Pg 89).

Throughout most of the history of Judah, Edom was
controlled absolutely from Jerusalem as a vassal state.
Among the region's great powers, Edom was held in low
regard, probably due to the different Arabic lifestyle which
was more adapted to desert and mountains than to life in
cities. Obadiah said that the high elevation of their dwelling
place in the mountains of Seir had gone to their head, and
they had puffed themselves up in pride. "'Though thou exalt
thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the
stars, thence will I bring thee down’, saith the Lord."
(Obadiah 1:4).

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II sacked Jerusalem, carted
away the King of Judah, and installed a puppet ruler. The
Edomites helped the Babylonians loot the city. Obadiah,
writing this prophecy around 590 BC, suggests the Edomites
should have remembered that blood was thicker than water.
"In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day
that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and
foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon
Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them [Obadiah 1:11)."
Obadiah said in judgement God would wipe out the house of
Esau forever, and not even a remnant would remain. The
Edomites' land would be possessed by Egypt and they would
cease to exist as a people. But the Day of the Lord was at

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

hand for all nations, and someday the children of Israel
would return from their exile and possess the land of Edom.

The following text talks about Israel's relations to the
Zoroastrian Persians whose religion also was monotheistic.
It goes: "And the captivity of this host of the children of
Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto
Zarephath [the ancient Phoenician City of Sarepta, now
Sarafand, Lebanon]; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which 1s
in Sepharad [the modern Byar area in northwestern Iran],
shall possess the cities of the south."

Both, Zarephath and Sepharad, were part of the Median
Empire or Median Dynasty of Persia [Madai] that was in
power between c. 678 BC and 549 BC. The Medes had an
ancient Iranian religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian
Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named
as "Magi" [from which we got our word ‘magician’. A magus
was a ‘wise or learned man’. Later, during the reigns of the
last Median kings, the reforms of Zoroaster spread into
western Iran. Through the Israelite-Persian relatinships,
Zoroastrian philosophy entered also Judaism.

Scriptural parallels: The exact expression "the Day of the
Lord”, from Obadiah 1:15, has been used by other authors
throughout the Old and New Testaments, as follows:

Old Testament: Isaiah 2,13, 34, 58, Jeremiah 46:10,
Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 13:5, Joel 1, 2, 3, Amos 5:18,
5:20, Zephaniah 1, 2, Zechariah 14:1, Malachi 4:5

New Testament: 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, Acts
2:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 1:14

For other parallels, compare Obadiah 1:1—8 with Jeremiah
49:7-16.)

OBADIAH CHAPTER 1

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord has said
about Edom: We have had word from the Lord, and a
representative has been sent among the nations, saying, Up!
and let us make war against her.

2 See, I have made you small among the nations: you are
much looked down on.

3 You have been tricked by the pride of your heart, O you
whose living-place is in the cracks of the rock, whose house is
high up; who has said in his heart, Who will make me come
down to earth?

4 Though you go up on high like an eagle, though your
house is placed among the stars, I will make you come down
from there, says the Lord.

5 If thieves came, attacking you by night, (how are you cut
off!) would they not go on taking till they had enough? if
men came cutting your grapes would they take them all?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his
secret stores looked for!

7 All the men who were united with you have been false to
you, driving you out to the edge of the land: the men who
were at peace with you have overcome you; they have taken
their heritage in your place.

8 Will I not, in that day, says the Lord, take away the wise
men out of Edom, and wisdom out of the mountain of Esau?

9 And your men of war, O Teman, will be overcome with
fear, so that every one of them may be cut off from the
mountain of Esau.

10 Because you were the cause of violent death and because
of your cruel behaviour to your brother Jacob, you will be
covered with shame and will be cut off for ever.

11 Because you were there watching when men from other
lands took away his goods, and strange men came into his
doors, and put the fate of Jerusalem to the decision of chance;
you were like one of them.

12 Do not see with pleasure your brother's evil day, the day
of his fate, and do not be glad over the children of Judah on
the day of their destruction, or make wide your mouth on the
day of trouble.

13 Do not go into the doors of my people on the day of
their downfall; do not be looking on their trouble with
pleasure on the day of their downfall, or put your hands on
their goods on the day of their downfall.

14 And do not take your place at the cross-roads, cutting
off those of his people who get away; and do not give up to
their haters those who are still there in the day of trouble.

15 For the day of the Lord is coming quickly on all nations:
as you have done it will be done to you; the reward of your
acts will come on your head.

16 For as you have been drinking on my holy mountain, so
will all the nations go on drinking without end; they will go
on drinking and the wine will go down their throats, and
they will be as if they had never been.

17 But in Mount Zion some will be kept safe, and it will be
holy; and the children of Jacob will take their heritage.

18 And the children of Jacob will be a fire and those of
Joseph a flame, and the children of Esau dry stems of grass,
burned up by them till all is gone: and there will be no people
living in Esau; for the Lord has said it.

19 And they will take the South, and the lowland, and the
country of Ephraim, and Gilead, as their heritage.

20 And those of the children of Israel who were the first to
be taken away as prisoners, will have their heritage among
the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and those who were taken
away from Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will have the
towns of the South.

21 And those who have been kept safe will come up from
Mount Zion to be judges of the mountain of Esau; and the
kingdom will be the Lord's.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET JONAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Yonah
Estimated Range of Dating: Sth century B.C.

(The Book of Jonah 1s a book of the Nevi'im ("Prophets")
in the Hebrew Bible. It tells of a Hebrew prophet named
Jonah son of Amittai who 1s sent by God to prophesy the
destruction of Nineveh but tries to escape the divine mission.
Set in the reign of Jeroboam II (786-746 BC), it was
probably written in the post-exilic period, some time
between the late Sth to early 4th century BC. The story has a
long interpretive history and has become well known
through popular children’s stories. In Judaism, it 1s the
Haftarah portion read during the afternoon of Yom Kippur
to instill reflection on God's willingness to forgive those who
repent; it remains a popular story among Christians. It 1s
also retold in the Koran.

Unlike the other Prophets, the book of Jonah 1s almost
entirely narrative, with the exception of the poem in chapter
2. The actual prophetic word against Nineveh 1s given only
in passing through the narrative. As with any good narrative,
the story of Jonah has a setting, characters, a plot, and
themes. It also relies heavily on such literary devices as irony,
satire, and allusion as a device of deception. As it deals with
the anger and scorn of conquered people, it 1s also highly
political.

Outline:

1. Jonah Flees His Mission (chapters 1—2)

¢ Jonah’s Commission and Flight (1: 1-3)

¢ Endangered ‘Sailors’ (citizens) Cry to Their gods (1:4—6)

¢ Jonah's Disobedience Exposed (1:7—10)

¢ Jonah's punishment and Deliverance (1:11—2:1;2:10)

¢ His Prayer of Thanksgiving (2:2—9)

2. Jonah Reluctantly fulfills His Mission (chapters 3-4)

¢ Jonah'’s Renewed Commussion and Obedience (3:1—4)

¢ Endangered Ninevites Repentant Appeal to God (3:4—9)

¢ The Ninevites' Repentance Acknowledged (3:10-4:4)

¢ Jonah's Deliverance and Rebuke (4:5—11)

Jonah is the central character in the Book of Jonah, in
which God commands him to go to the city of Nineveh to
prophesy against it "for their great wickedness is come up
before me," but Jonah instead attempts to flee from "the
presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa and sailing to
Tarshish*. A huge storm arises and the sailors, realising that
it 1s. no ordinary storm, cast lots and discover that Jonah 1s to
blame. Jonah admits this and states that if he 1s thrown
overboard, the storm will cease. The sailors refuse to do this
and continue rowing, but all their efforts fail and they are
eventually forced to throw Jonah overboard. As a result, the
storm calms and the sailors then offer sacrifices to God.
Jonah 1s miraculously saved by being swallowed by a large
fish, in whose belly he spends three days and three nights.
While in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction

and commits to thanksgiving and to paying what he has
vowed. God then commands the fish to vomit Jonah out.

[* Tarshish, Phoenician and Hebrew: t-r-s-s, Tarsis, occurs
in the Hebrew Bible most frequently as a place name that
could be reached by crossing the sea from Phoenicia (modern
Lebanon) and the Land of Israel. Titus Flavius Josephus
clearly identifies "Tarshush" in his Jewish Antiquities
(Antiquitates ludaicae 1. 6, § 1) as the City of Tarsus in
southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which some have
later equated with the Tarsisi mentioned in Assyrian records
from the reign of Esarhaddon. It was the hometown of Saul
of Tarsos, better known as Paul the Apostle.

Tarsus 1s first mentioned as Tarsisi in Neo-Assyrian [911
and 609 BC] records of the campaigns of Esarhaddon, as well
as several times in the records of Shalmaneser I and
Sennacherib, the latter having the city rebuilt. The city may
have been of Semitic origin or was founded by Semites again.
Legends seem to confirm that: Japheth (Hebrew: Yepet,
Greek: Iapheth; Latin: Iapetus), 1s one of the three sons of
Noah in the Book of Genesis. Through his son Javan, he got
his grandson Tarshish. Stephanus of Byzantium quotes
Athenodorus of Tarsus as relating another legend: Anchiale,
daughter of Iapetus [Japheth] and sister of Javan, founded
Anchiale (a city near Tarsus): her son Cydnus gave his name
to the River Cydnus (today: River Berdan, sometimes called
River Tarsos) at Tarsus. The son of Cydnus was Parthentus,
from whom the city was called Parthenia: afterwards the
name was changed to Tarshish, after Cydnus' cousin. And
today that 1s Tarsus.]

The question why Jonah took the route to Niniveh via
Tarsos becomes clear only at a second glance. It may well
have been safer as he did not need to cross the Syrian Desert
but could join a caravan from its starting point in Tarsos to
the main eastbound trading road that led him through the
Fertile Crescent' directly to the River Tigris. From there he
went south on a river boat directly to Niniveh. This journey
would have lasted only a few days.

Generations of Bible readers wondered what the story with
the fish mean. The name of the great city itself is the solution
to this riddle. The city name "Niniveh" comes from the
Akkadian word "Ninua" (or Nina). The cuneiform character
for 'Nina' means "fish in a house" or the "Great Fish". In
Aramaic, the common language of Israel and Judaea,
"Nuna" means "fish" as well. So "Niniveh" is the "Place of
Fish" or the "Great City of Fish". We deal here with a
marvellous allusion. When Jonah 1s swallowed by a large fish,
in whose belly he spends three days and three nights, 1t means
nothing else but that he enters Niniveh, stays for three days,
and 1s finally thrown out; may be because of the trouble he
has made. The author might have been compelled to compose
this allusion in order to protect his readers from the Assyrian
authorities in Israel and Judah who also could read the story.

The significance of Niniveh cannot be overestimated. The
City of Nineveh (Akkadian: Uru Ninua) was an ancient
Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located on the eastern
bank of the Tigris River, near the outskirts of modern-day

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Mosul in northern Iraq. It was the capital of the Neo-
Assyrian Empire. In fact, at that time it was the largest city
in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612
BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it was
sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples, the
Babylonians, Medes, Chaldeans, Persians, Scythians and
Cimmerians. The Israelites might have taken part in that raid
as the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BC,
when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

At this time, the total area of Nineveh comprised about 7
square kilometres (1,730 acres), and fifteen great gates
penetrated its walls. An elaborate system of eighteen canals
brought water from the hills to Nineveh, and several sections
of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by
Sennacherib were discovered at Jerwan, about 65 kilometres
(40 mui) distant. Archaeologist found the palace which has
overall dimensions of about 503 by 242 metres (1,650 ft X
794 ft) and was built on a massive limestone platform 22m
(70 ft) high. In total, the foundation is made of roughly
2,680,000 cubic metres (3,505,308 cu yd) of brick
(approximately 160 million bricks). The walls on top, made
out of mud brick, were an additional 20 metres (66 ft) tall.
The enclosed area of the city had between 100,000 and
150,000 inhabitants, about twice as many as Babylon at the
time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide.
And Jonah confirms it: "Then said the LORD, Thou hast had
pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured,
neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and
perished in a might: 11And should not I spare Nineveh, that
great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons
that cannot discern between their right hand and their left
hand; and also much cattle?" [A score 1s 20; 6 x 20 = 120;
1,000 x 120 = 120,000 inhabitants. ]

The stone carvings found in Niniveh tell the story of the
Assyrian conquest in shocking details. In the inscriptions,
King Sennacherib boasted of his conquests. He wrote of
Babylon: "Tts inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare,
and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city." A full
and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the
siege of Lachish in 701; it 1s the "finest" from the reign of
Sennacherib, and now in the British Museum. He later wrote
about a battle in Lachish: "And Hezekiah of Judah who had
not submitted to my yoke ... him I shut up in Jerusalem his
royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against
him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for
fus crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from
his land." No wonder that the Jews were angry and the
author of this book casted their anger into a masterpiece of
world literature.)

JONAH CHAPTER 1

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of
Amittai, saying,

2 Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and let your voice
come to it; for their evil-doing has come up before me.

3 And Jonah got up to go in flight to Tarshish, away from
the Lord; and he went down to Joppa, and saw there a ship
going to Tarshish: so he gave them the price of the journey
and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away
from the Lord.

4 And the Lord sent out a great wind on to the sea and
there was a violent storm in the sea, so that the ship seemed
in danger of being broken.

5 Then the sailors were full of fear, every man crying to his
god; and the goods in the ship were dropped out into the sea
to make the weight less. But Jonah had gone down into the
inmost part of the ship where he was stretched out in a deep
sleep.

6 And the ship's captain came to him and said to him, What
are you doing sleeping? Up! say a prayer to your God, if by
chance God will give a thought to us, so that we may not
come to destruction.

7 And they said to one another, Come, let us put this to the
decision of chance and see on whose account this evil has
come on us. So they did so, and Jonah was seen to be the man.

8 Then they said to him, Now make clear to us what is your
work, and where you come from? what is your country, and
who are your people?

9 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, a worshipper of the
Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

10 And the men were in great fear, and they said to him,
What is this you have done? For the men had knowledge of
his flight from the Lord because he had not kept it from them.

11 And they said to him, What are we to do to you so that
the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was getting
rougher and rougher.

12 And he said to them, Take me up and put me into the sea,
and the sea will become calm for you: for I am certain that
because of me this great storm has come on you.

13 And the men were working hard to get back to the land,
but they were not able to do so: for the sea got rougher and
rougher against them.

14 So, crying to the Lord, they said, Give ear to our prayer,
O Lord, give ear, and do not let destruction overtake us
because of this man's life; do not put on us the sin of taking
life without cause: for you, O Lord, have done what seemed
good to you.

15 So they took Jonah up and put him into the sea: and the
sea was no longer angry.

16 Then great was the men's fear of the Lord; and they
made an offering to the Lord and took oaths to him.

17 And the Lord made ready a great fish to take Jonah into
its mouth; and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and
three nights.

JONAH CHAPTER 2

1 Then Jonah made prayer to the Lord his God from the
inside of the fish, and said,

2 In my trouble I was crying to the Lord, and he gave me an
answer; out of the deepest underworld I sent up a cry, and
you gave ear to my voice.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 For you have put me down into the deep, into the heart of
the sea; and the river was round about me; all your waves and
your rolling waters went over me.

4 And I said, I have been sent away from before your eyes;
how may I ever again see your holy Temple?

5 The waters were circling round me, even to the neck; the
deep was about me; the sea-grass was twisted round my head.

6 I went down to the bases of the mountains; as for the
earth, her walls were about me for ever: but you have taken
up my life from the underworld, O Lord my God.

7 When my soul in me was overcome, I kept the memory of
the Lord: and my prayer came in to you, into your holy
Temple.

8 The worshippers of false gods have given up their only
hope.

9 But I will make an offering to you with the voice of praise;
I will give effect to my oaths. Salvation is the Lord's.

10 And at the Lord's order, the fish sent Jonah out of its
mouth on to the dry land.

JONAH CHAPTER 3

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time,
saying,

2 Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and give it the word
which I have given you.

3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh as the Lord had
said. Now Nineveh was a very great town, three days'
journey from end to end.

4 And Jonah first of all went a day's journey into the town,
and crying out said, In forty days destruction will overtake
Nineveh.

5 And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time
was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth,
from the greatest to the least.

6 And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up
from his seat of authority, and took off his robe, and
covering himself with haircloth, took his seat in the dust.

7 And he had it given out in Nineveh, By the order of the
king and his great men, no man or beast, herd or flock, is to
have a taste of anything; let them have no food or water:

8 And let man and beast be covered with haircloth, and let
them make strong prayers to God: and let everyone be turned
from his evil way and the violent acts of their hands.

9 Who may say that God will not be turned, changing his
purpose and turning away from his burning wrath, so that
destruction may not overtake us?

10 And God saw what they did, how they were turned from
their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil
which he said he would do to them, and he did it not.

JONAH CHAPTER 4

1 But this seemed very wrong to Jonah, and he was angry.

2 And he made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord, is this
not what I said when I was still in my country? This is why I
took care to go in flight to Tarshish: for I was certain that
you were a loving God, full of pity, slow to be angry and

great in mercy, and ready to be turned from your purpose of
evil.

3 So now, O Lord, give ear to my prayer and take my life
from me; for death is better for me than life.

4 And the Lord said, Have you any right to be angry?

5 Then Jonah went out of the town, and took his seat on
the east side of the town and made himself a roof of branches
and took his seat under its shade till he saw what would
become of the town.

6 And the Lord God made a vine come up over Jonah to
give him shade over his head. And Jonah was very glad
because of the vine.

7 But early on the morning after, God made ready a worm
for the destruction of the vine, and it became dry and dead.

8 Then when the sun came up, God sent a burning east wind:
and so great was the heat of the sun on his head that Jonah
was overcome, and, requesting death for himself, said, Death
is better for me than life.

9 And the Lord said to Jonah, Have you any right to be
angry about the vine? And he said, I have a right to be truly
angry.

10 And the Lord said, You had pity on the vine, for which
you did no work and for the growth of which you were not
responsible; which came up in a night and came to an end in
a night;

11 And am J not to have mercy on Nineveh, that great town,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand
persons without the power of judging between right and left,
as well as much cattle?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET MICAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Mikayahu
Estimated Range of Dating: early 5th century B.C.

(The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor
prophets in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament. It records the
sayings of Micah, whose real name is Mikayahu, meaning
"Who 1s like Yahweh?". Chapter 1:1 identifies the prophet as
"Micah of Moresheth" (a town in southern Judah), and states
that he lived during the reigns of Yehotam, Ahaz and
Hezekiah, roughly 750-700 BC.

Scholars accept that only chapters 1-3 contain material
from the late 8th century prophet Micah. The latest material
comes from the post-Exilic period after the Temple was
rebuilt in 515 BC, so that the early Sth century BC seems to
be the period when the book was completedThe book has
three major divisions, chapters 1-2, 3-5 and 6-7, each
introduced by the word "Hear," with a pattern of
alternating announcements of doom and expressions of hope
within each division. Micah reproaches unjust leaders,
defends the rights of the poor against the rich and powerful;
while looking forward to a world at peace centered on Zion
under the leadership of a new Davidic monarch. While the
book 1s relatively short, it includes lament (1.8—16; 7.8—10),
theophany (1.34), hymnic prayer of petition and confidence
(7.14-20), and the "covenant lawsuit" (6.1—8), a distinct
genre in which Yahweh (God) sues Israel for breach of
contract of the Mosaic covenant.

Just like Jonah, the Book of Micah ts very political. After a
long period of peace, Israel, Judah, and the other nations of
the region came under increasing pressure from the
aggressive and rapidly expanding Neo-Assyrian empire.
Between 734 and 727 Tiglath-Pileser IIT of Assyria
conducted almost annual campaigns in Palestine, reducing
the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah and the
Philistine cities to vassalage, receiving tribute from Ammon,
Moab and Edom, and absorbing Damascus (the Kingdom of
Aram) into the Empire. On Tiglath-Pileser's death Israel
rebelled, resulting in an Assyrian counter-attack and the
destruction of the capital, Samaria, in 721 after a three-year
siege. Micah 1:2—7 draws on this event: Samaria, says the
prophet, has been destroyed by God because of its crimes of
idolatry, oppression of the poor, and misuse of power. The
Assyrian attacks on Israel (the northern kingdom) led to an
influx of refugees into Judah, which would have increased
social stresses, while at the same time the authorities in
Jerusalem had to invest huge amounts in tribute and defense.

Contents:

¢ The Heading (1:1): As is typical of prophetic books, an
anonymous editor has supplied the name of the prophet, an
indication of his time of activity, and an identification of his
speech as the "word of Yahweh", a generic term carrying a
claim to prophetic legitimacy and authority. Samaria and

Jerusalem are given prominence as the foci of the prophet's
attention.

¢ Judgement against Samaria (1:2—7): Drawing upon
ancient traditions for depicting a theophany, the prophet
depicts the coming of Yahweh to punish the city, whose sins
are idolatry and the abuse of the poor.

¢ Warnings to the cities of Judah (1:8—16): Samaria has
fallen, Judah 1s next. Micah describes the destruction of the
lesser towns of Judah (referring to the invasion of Judah by
Sennacherib, 701 BC). For these passages of doom on the
various cities, paronomasia 1s used. Paronomasia 1s a literary
device which 'plays' on the sound of each word for literary
effect. For example, the inhabitants of Beth-le-aphrah
(“house of dust") are told to "roll yourselves in the dust."
1:14. Though most of the Paronomasia 1s lost in translation,
it 1s the equivalent of ‘Ashdod shall be but ashes,' where the
fate of the city matches its name.

¢ Misuse of power denounced (2:1—5): Denounces those
who appropriate the land and houses of others. The context
may be simply the amassing wealth for its own sake, or could
be connected with the militarisation of the region for the
expected Assyrian attack.

¢ Threats against the prophet (2:6—11): The prophet is
warned not to prophesy. He answers that the rulers are
harming God's people, and want to listen only to those who
advocate the virtues of wine.

¢ A later promise (2:12—13): These verses assume that
Judgement has already fallen and Israel 1s already scattered
abroad.

¢ Judgement on wicked Zion (3:1—4): Israel's rulers are
accused of gaining more wealth at the expense of the poor, by
any means. The metaphor of flesh being torn illustrates the
length to which the ruling classes and socialites would go to
further increase their wealth. Prophets are corrupt, seeking
personal gain. Jerusalem's rulers believe that God will always
be with them, but God will be with his people, and Jerusalem
will be destroyed.

¢ Zion's future hope (4:1—5) This is a later passage, almost
identical with Isatah 2:2—4. Zion (meaning the Temple) will
be rebuilt, but by God, and based not on violence and
corruption but on the desire to learn God's laws, beat swords
to ploughshares and live in peace.

¢ Further promises to Zion (4:6—7) This 1s another later
passage, promising Zion that she will once more enjoy her
former independence and power.

¢ Deliverance from Distress in Babylon (4:9-5:1) The
similarities to Isaiah 41:15—16 and the references to Babylon
suggest the period of this material, although it is unclear
whether a period during or after the siege of 586 is meant.
Despite their trials, God will not desert his people.

¢ The promised ruler from Bethlehem (5:1—14): This
passage 1s usually dated to the exile. Although chapters 4:9—
10 have said that there 1s "no king in Zion", these chapters
predict the coming Messiah will emerge from Bethlehem, the
traditional home of the Davidic monarchy, to restore Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Assyria will be stricken, and Israel's punishment will lead to
the punishment of the nations.

¢ A Covenant lawsuit (6:1—5): Yahweh accuses Israel (the
people of Judah) of breaking the covenant through their lack
of justice and honesty, after the pattern of the kings of Israel
(northern kingdom).

¢ Torah Liturgy (6:6—8): Micah speaks on behalf of the
community asking what they should do in order to get back
on God's good side. Micah then responds by saying that God
requires only "to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with your God." Thus declaring that the burnt
offering of both animals and humans (which may have been
practiced in Judah under Kings Ahaz and Manasseh) is not
necessary for God.

¢ The City as a Cheat (6:9-16): The city is reprimanded for
its dishonest trade practices.

¢ Lament (1—7): The first passage in the book in the first
person: whether it comes from Micah himself 1s disputed.
Honesty and decency have vanished, families are filled with
strife.

¢ A song of fallen Jerusalem (8—10): The first person voice
continues, but now it 1s the city who speaks. She recognises
that her destruction 1s deserved punishment from God. The
recognition gives grounds for hope that God is still with her.

¢ A prophecy of restoration (11-13): Fallen Jerusalem 1s
promised that she will be rebuilt and that her power will be
greater than ever (a contrast with the vision of peace in 4:1—
Dy)

¢ A prayer for future prosperity (14-17): The mood
switches from a request for power to grateful astonishment at
God's mercy.)

MICAH CHAPTER |

1 The word of the Lord which came to Micah the
Morashtite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah: his vision about Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth
and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy Temple.

3 For see, the Lord is coming out from his place, and will
come down, stepping on the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains will be turned to water under him,
and the deep valleys will be broken open, like wax before the
fire, like waters flowing down a slope.

5 All this is because of the wrongdoing of Jacob and the sins
of the children of Israel. What is the wrongdoing of Jacob? is
it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are
they not Jerusalem?

6 So I will make Samaria into a field and the plantings of a
vine-garden: I will send its stones falling down into the valley,
uncovering its bases.

7 And all her pictured images will be hammered into bits,
and all the payments for her loose ways will be burned with
fire, and all the images of her gods I will make waste: for

with the price of a loose woman she got them together, and
as the price of a loose woman will they be given back.

8 For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I
will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief like
the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.

9 For her wounds may not be made well: for it has come
even to Judah, stretching up to the doorway of my people,
even to Jerusalem.

10 Give no word of it in Gath, let there be no weeping at all:
at Beth-le-aphrah be rolling in the dust.

11 Be uncovered and go away, you who are living in
Shaphir: the one living in Zaanan has not come out of her
town; Beth-ezel is taken away from its base, even from its
resting-place.

12 For the one living in Maroth is waiting for good: for
evil has come down from the Lord to the doorways of
Jerusalem.

13 Let the war-carriage be yoked to the quick-running
horse, you who are living in Lachish: she was the first cause
of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the wrongdoings of Israel
were seen in you.

14 For this cause give a parting offering to Moresheth-gath:
the daughter of Achzib will be a deceit to the king of Israel.

15 Even now will the taker of your heritage come to you,
you who are living in Mareshah: the glory of Israel will come
to destruction for ever.

16 Let your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in
sorrow for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled
from your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away
from you as prisoners.

MICAH CHAPTER 2

1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in
the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.

2 They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and
for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and
his family, even to a man and his heritage.

3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I
am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take
your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it
is an evil time.

4 In that day this saying will be said about you, and this
song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is
measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who
have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and
complete destruction has come to us.

5 For this cause you will have no one to make the decision
by the measuring line in the meeting of the Lord.

6 Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and
the curse will not come to the family of Jacob!

7 Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do
not his words do good to his people Israel?

8 As for you, you have become haters of those who were at
peace with you: you take the clothing of those who go by
without fear, and make them prisoners of war.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 The women of my people you have been driving away
from their dearly loved children; from their young ones you
are taking my glory for ever.

10 Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been
made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you.

11 Ifa man came with a false spirit of deceit, saying, I will
be a prophet to you of wine and strong drink: he would be
the sort of prophet for this people.

12 I will certainly make all of you, O Jacob, come together;
I will get together the rest of Israel; I will put them together
like the sheep in their circle: like a flock in their green field;
they will be full of the noise of men.

13 The opener of the way will go up before them: forcing
their way out they will go on to the doorway and out
through it: their king will go on before them, and the Lord
at their head.

MICAH CHAPTER 3

1 And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers
of the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of
what is right?

2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off
their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;

3 Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food,
skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up
as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.

4 Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will
not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from
them at that time, because their acts have been evil.

5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by
whom my people have been turned from the right way; who,
biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts

nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him.

6 For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision;
and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future;
the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be
black over them.

7 And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future
will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no
answer from God.

8 But I truly am full of the spirit of the Lord, with power of
judging and with strength to make clear to Jacob his
wrongdoing and to Israel his sin.

9 Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob,
you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right,
twisting what is straight.

10 They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem
with evil-doing.

11 Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take
payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading
the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they
say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us.

12 For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field
because of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken
walls, and the mountain of the house like a high place in the
woods.

MICAH CHAPTER 4

1 But in the last days it will come about that the mountain
of the Lord's house will be placed on the top of the
mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and peoples will be
flowing to it.

2 And a number of nations will go and say, Come, and let
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he will give us knowledge of his ways and
we will be guided by his word: for from Zion the law will go
out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 And he will be judge between great peoples, and strong
nations far away will be ruled by his decisions; their swords
will be hammered into plough-blades and their spears into
vine-knives: nations will no longer be lifting up their swords
against one another, and knowledge of war will have gone
for ever.

4 But every man will be seated under his vine and under his
fig-tree, and no one will be a cause of fear to them: for the
mouth of the Lord of armies has said it.

5 For all the peoples will be walking, every one in the name
of his god, and we will be walking in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever.

6 In that day, says the Lord, I will get together her who
goes with uncertain steps, I will get together her who has
been sent away, and her on whom I have sent evil;

7 And I will make her whose steps were uncertain a small
band, and her who was feeble a strong nation: and the Lord
will be their King in Mount Zion from now and for ever.

8 And you, O tower of the flock, Ophel of the daughter of
Zion, to you it will come, even the earlier authority, the
kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in
you? has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains
have taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth:

10 Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the
town, living in the open country, and will come even to
Babylon; there you will have salvation; there the Lord will
make you free from the hands of your haters.

11 And now a number of nations have come together
against you, and they say, Let her be made unclean and let
our eyes see the fate of Zion.

12 But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord,
their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got
them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor.

13 Up! and let the grain be crushed, O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron and your feet brass, and a
number of peoples will be broken by you, and you will give
up their increase to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of
all the earth.

MICAH CHAPTER 5

1 Now you will give yourselves deep wounds for grief; they
will put up a wall round us: they will give the judge of Israel
a blow on the face with a rod.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the
families of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be
ruler in Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time
past, from the eternal days.

3 For this cause he will give them up till the time when she
who is with child has given birth: then the rest of his
brothers will come back to the children of Israel.

4 And he will take his place and give food to his flock in the
strength of the Lord, in the glory of the name of the Lord his
God; and their resting-place will be safe: for now he will be
great to the ends of the earth.

5 And this will be our peace: when the Assyrian comes into
our country and his feet are in our land, then we will put up
against him seven keepers of the flocks and eight chiefs
among men.

6 And they will make waste the land of Assyria with the
sword, and the land of Nimrod with the edge of the sword:
he will give us salvation from the Assyrian when he comes
into our country, when his feet come inside the limit of our
land.

7 And the rest of Jacob will be among the mass of peoples
like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which may
not be kept back by man, or be waiting for the sons of men.

8 And the rest of Jacob will be among the nations, in the
middle of the mass of peoples, like a lion among the beasts of
the woods, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep: if he
goes through, they will be crushed under foot and pulled to
bits, and there will be no saviour.

9 Your hand is lifted up against those who are against you,
and all your haters will be cut off.

10 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that I
will take away your horses from you, and will give your war-
carriages to destruction:

11 I will have the towns of your land cut off and all your
strong places pulled down:

12 I will put an end to your use of secret arts, and you will
have no more readers of signs:

13 And I will have your images and your pillars cut off
from you; and you will no longer give worship to the work of
your hands.

14 I will have your Asherahs pulled up from among you:
and I will send destruction on your images.

15 And my punishment will be effected on the nations with
such burning wrath as they have not had word of.

MICAH CHAPTER 6

| Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward
your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding
among the hills.

2 Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take
note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against
his people, and he will take it up with Israel.

3 O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a
weariness to you? give answer against me.

4 For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you
free from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron,
and Miriam.

5 O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by
Balak, king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of
Beor, gave him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that
you may be certain of the upright acts of the Lord.

6 With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent
head before the high God? am I to come before him with
burned offerings, with young oxen a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with
ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my
wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what
is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right,
and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your
God.

9 The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear,
you tribes and the meeting of the town.

10 Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my
memory, and the short measure, which is cursed?

11 Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of
false weights go without punishment?

12 For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said
what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.

13 So I have made a start with your punishment; I have
made you waste because of your sins.

14 You will have food, but not enough; your shame will be
ever with you: you will get your goods moved, but you will
not take them away safely; and what you do take away I will
give to the sword.

15 You will put in seed, but you will not get in the grain;
you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be
rubbed with the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you
will have no wine.

16 For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of
the family of Ahab, and you have been guided by their
designs: so that I might make you a cause of wonder and your
people a cause of hisses; and the shame of my people will be
on you.

MICAH CHAPTER 7

1 Sorrow is mine! for I am as when they have got in the
summer fruits, like the last of the grapes: there is nothing for
food, not even an early fig for my desire.

2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one
upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood,
every man is going after his brother with a net.

3 Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes
requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward;
and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the
right is twisted.

4 The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright
ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate
has come; now will trouble come on them.

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5 Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in
a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against
her who is resting on your breast.

6 For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes
against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family.

7 But as for me, I am looking to the Lord; I am waiting for
the God of my salvation: the ears of my God will be open to
me.

8 Do not be glad because of my sorrow, O my hater: after
my fall I will be lifted up; when I am seated in the dark, the
Lord will be a light to me.

9 T will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin
against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right
for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see
his righteousness;

10 And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she
who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will
see their desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under
foot like the dust of the streets.

11 A day for building your walls! in that day will your
limits be stretched far and wide.

12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the
towns of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from
sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

13 But the land will become a waste because of its people, as
the fruit of their works.

14 Keep your people safe with your rod, the flock of your
heritage, living by themselves in the woods in the middle of
Carmel: let them get their food in Bashan and Gilead as in
the past.

15 As in the days when you came out from the land of
Egypt, let us see things of wonder.

16 The nations will see and be shamed because of all their
strength; they will put their hands on their mouths, their
ears will be stopped.

17 They will take dust as their food like a snake, like the
things which go flat on the earth; they will come shaking
with fear out of their secret places: they will come with fear
to the Lord our God, full of fear because of you.

18 Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-
doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he
does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in
mercy.

19 He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under
his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of
the sea.

20 You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your
mercy to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers
from times long past.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET NAHUM
Hebrew title: Sefer Nakhum
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 7th century B.C.

(The Book of Nahum ts the seventh book of the 12 minor
prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It 1s attributed to the prophet
Nahum. Not much 1s known about Nahum. His name means

"comforter", and he was from the town of Elkosh or Alqosh
(Nahum 1:1), which may have been a town of northern
Galilee. The scholarly consensus 1s that the "book of vision"
was written at the time of the fall of Nineveh at the hands of
the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC. This theory 1s
demonstrated by the fact that the oracles must be dated after
the Assyrian destruction of Thebes, Egypt in 663 BC, as this
event is mentioned in Nahum 3:8.

In his book "Jewish Antiquities" [Books IX—XI_], Titus
Flavius Josephus places Nahum during the reign of Jotham,
while others place him in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz,
Judah's next king, or even the latter half of the reign of
Hezekiah, Ahaz's son. All three accounts date the book to the
8th century BC. The book would then have been written in
Jerusalem, where Nahum would have witnessed the invasion
of Sennacherib and the destruction of his host (2 Kings
19-35).

The subject of Nahum's prophecy is the approaching
complete and final destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the
great and at that time flourishing Assyrian empire.
Ashurbanipal was at the height of his glory. Nineveh was a
city of vast extent, and was then the centre of the civilisation
and commerce of the world, according to Nahum a "bloody
city all full of lies and robbery" (Nahum 3:1), a reference to
the Neo-Assyrian Empire's military campaigns and demand
of tribute and plunder from conquered cities.

All conquered nations were full of hatred and Jonah had
already uttered his message of warning, and Nahum was
followed by Zephaniah, who also predicted (Zephaniah 2:4—
15) the destruction of the city.

Nineveh was destroyed apparently by fire around 625 BC,
and the Assyrian empire came to an end, an event which
changed the face of Asia.

The Babylonian chronicle of the fall of Nineveh tells the
story of the end of Nineveh. Nabopolassar of Babylon joined
forces with Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and laid siege for
three months. Assyria lasted a few more years after the loss of
its fortress, but attempts by Egyptian Pharaoh Neco II to
rally the Assyrians fatled due to opposition from king Josiah
of Judah, and it seemed to be all over by 609 BC.)

Archaeological digs have uncovered the splendour of
Nineveh in its zenith under Sennacherib (705—681 BC),
Esarhaddon (681-669 BC), and Ashurbanipal (669-633
BC). Massive walls were eight miles in circumference. It had a
water aqueduct, palaces and a rich library with 20,000 clay
tablets, including accounts of a creation in Enuma Elish and
a flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh. They served once as

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blueprint for some of the most exciting narratives of the
Tanakh.)

NAHUM CHAPTER |

1 The word about Nineveh. The book of the vision of
Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 The Lord is a God who takes care of his honour and gives
punishment for wrong; the Lord gives punishment and is
angry; the Lord sends punishment on those who are against
him, being angry with his haters.

3 The Lord is slow to get angry and great in power, and
will not let the sinner go without punishment: the way of the
Lord is in the wind and the storm, and the clouds are the
dust of his feet.

4 He says sharp words to the sea and makes it dry, drying
up all the rivers: Bashan is feeble, and Carmel, and the flower
of Lebanon is without strength.

5 The mountains are shaking because of him, and the hills
flowing away; the earth is falling to bits before him, the
world and all who are in it.

6 Who may keep his place before his wrath? and who may
undergo the heat of his passion? his wrath is let loose like fire
and the rocks are broken open by him.

7 The Lord is good, a strong place in the day of trouble;
and he has knowledge of those who take him for their safe
cover.

8 But like water overflowing he will take them away; he
will put an end to those who come up against him, driving
his haters into the dark.

9 What are you designing against the Lord? he will put an
end to it: his haters will not come up again a second time.

10 For though they are like twisted thorns, and are
overcome as with drink, they will come to destruction like
stems of grass fully dry.

11 One has gone out from you who is designing evil against
the Lord, whose purposes are of no value.

12 This is what the Lord has said: The days of my cause
against you are ended; they are cut off and past. Though I
have sent trouble on you, you will no longer be troubled.

13 And now I will let his yoke be broken off you, and your
chains be parted.

14 The Lord has given an order about you, that no more of
your name are to be planted: from the house of your gods I
will have the pictured and metal images cut off; I will make
your last resting-place a place of shame; for you are
completely evil.

15 See on the mountains the feet of him who comes with
good news, giving word of peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah,
give effect to your oaths: for the good-for-nothing man will
never again go through you; he is completely cut off.

NAHUM CHAPTER 2

1 A crusher has come up before your face: keep a good
look-out, let the way be watched, make yourself strong, let
your power be greatly increased.

2 For the Lord will make good the vine of Jacob, as well as
the vine of Israel: for the wasters have made them waste and
sent destruction on the branches of their vine.

3 The body-covers of his fighting men have been made red,
the men of war are clothed in bright red: the war-carriages
are like flames of fire in the day when he gets ready, the
horses are shaking.

4 The war-carriages are rushing through the streets,
pushing against one another in the wide ways, looking like
burning lights, running like thunder-flames.

5 He takes the record of his great men: they go falling on
their way; they go quickly to the wall, the cover is made
ready.

6 The river doorways are forced open, and the king's house
is flowing away.

7 And the queen is uncovered, she is taken away and her
servant-girls are weeping like the sound of doves, hammering
on their breasts.

8 But Nineveh is like a pool of water whose waters are
flowing away; Keep your place, they say; but no one is
turning back.

9 Take silver, take gold; for there is no end to the store;
take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired.

10 Everything has been taken from her, all is gone, she has
nothing more: the heart is turned to water, the knees are
shaking, all are twisted in pain, and colour has gone from all
faces.

11 Where is the lions' hole, the place where the young lions
got their food, where the lion and the she-lion were walking
with their young, without cause for fear?

12 Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was
pulled down by the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his
resting-place stored with meat.

13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will
have your war-carriages burned in the smoke, and your
young lions will be food for the sword: you will no longer
get your food by force on the earth, and the voice of your
she-lions will be stopped for ever.

NAHUM CHAPTER 3

1 A curse is on the town of blood; it is full of deceit and
violent acts; and there is no end to the taking of life.

2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels;
horses rushing and war-carriages jumping,

3 Horsemen driving forward, and the shining sword and
the bright spear: and a great number of wounded, and masses
of dead bodies; they are falling over the bodies of the dead:

4 Because of all the false ways of the loose woman, expert in
attraction and wise in secret arts, who takes nations in the
net of her false ways, and families through her secret arts.

5 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will
have your skirts pulled over your face, and let the nations see
you unclothed, and the kingdoms your shame.

6 I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame,
and will put you up to be looked at by all.

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7 And it will come about that all who see you will go in
flight from you and say, Nineveh is made waste: who will be
weeping for her? where am I to get comforters for her?

8 Are you better than No-amon, seated on the Nile streams,
with waters all round her; whose wall was the sea and her
earthwork the waters?

9 Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number;
Put and Lubim were her helpers.

10 But even she has been taken away, she has gone away as a
prisoner: even her young children are smashed to bits at the
top of all the streets: the fate of her honoured men is put to
the decision of chance, and all her great men are put in chains.

11 And you will be overcome with wine, you will become
feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who
are fighting against you.

12 All your walled places will be like fig-trees and your
people like the first figs, falling at a shake into the mouth
which is open for them.

13 See, the people who are in you are women; the doorways
of your land are wide open to your attackers: the locks of
your doors have been burned away in the fire.

14 Get water for the time when you are shut in, make
strong your towns: go into the potter's earth, stamping it
down with your feet, make strong the brickworks.

15 There the fire will make you waste; you will be cut off by
the sword: make yourself as great in number as the worms, as
great in number as the locusts.

16 Let your traders be increased more than the stars of
heaven:

17 Your crowned ones are like the locusts, and your scribes
like the clouds of insects which take cover in the walls on a
cold day, but when the sun comes up they go in flight, and
are seen no longer in their place.

18 Sorrow! how are the keepers of your flock sleeping, O
king of Assyria! your strong men are at rest; your people are
wandering on the mountains, and there is no one to get them
together.

19 Your pain may not be made better; you are wounded to
death: all those hearing the news about you will be waving
their hands in joy over you: for who has not undergone the
weight of your evil-doing again and again?

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET HABAKKUK
Hebrew title: Sefer Habaquq
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 640—590 B.C.

(The Book of Habakkuk is the eighth book of the 12 minor
prophets of the Bible. It 1s attributed to the prophet
Habakkuk, and was probably composed between the 7th and
the 6th centuries BC., not long before the Babylonians’ siege
and capture of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Of the three chapters in
the book, the first two are a dialog between Yahweh and the
prophet. A copy of these chapters 1s included in the
Habakkuk Commentary, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Chapter 3 may be an independent addition, now recognised
as a liturgical piece, but was possibly written by the same
author as chapters I and 2.

Habakkuk identifies himself as a prophet in the opening
verse. Due to the liturgical nature of the book of Habakkuk,
there have been some scholars who think that the author may
have been a temple prophet. Temple prophets are described
in 1 Chronicles 25:1 as using lyres, harps and cymbals. Some
feel that this is echoed in Habakkuk 3:19b, and that
Habakkuk may have been a Levite and singer in the Temple.
There 1s no biographical information on the prophet
Habakkuk; in fact less is known about him than any other
writer of the Bible. The only canonical information that
exists comes from the book that is named for him. His name
comes either from the Hebrew word khavak meaning
"embrace" or else from an Akkadian word hambakuku for a
kind of plant.

Although his name does not appear in any other part of the
Jewish Bible, Rabbinic tradition holds Habakkuk to be the
Shunammite woman's son, who was restored to life by Elisha
in 2 Kings 4:16. The prophet Habakkuk 1s also mentioned in
the narrative of Bel and the Dragon, part of the
deuterocanonical additions to Daniel in a late section of that
book. In the superscription of the Old Greek version,
Habakkuk is called the son of Joshua of the tribe of Levi. In
this book Habakkuk 1s lifted by an angel to Babylon to
provide Daniel with some food while he 1s in the lion's den.

It is unknown when Habakkuk lived and preached, but the
reference to the rise and advance of the Chaldeans (New
Babylonians) in 1:6—-11 places him in the middle to last
quarter of the 7th century BC One possible period might be
during the reign of Jehotakim, from 609-598 BC. The
reasoning for this date 1s that it 1s during his reign that the
Neo-Babylonian Empire of the Chaldeans was growing in
power. The Babylonians marched against Jerusalem in 598
BC. Jehotakim died while the Babylonians were marching
towards Jerusalem and Jehotakim'’s eighteen-year-old son
Jehoiachin assumed the throne. Upon the Babylonians'
arrival, Jehotachin and his advisors surrendered Jerusalem
after a short time. With the transition of rulers and the
young age and inexperience of Jehotachin, they were not able

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to stand against Chaldean forces. There is a sense of an
intimate knowledge of the Babyloman brutality in 1:12-17.)

HABAKKUK CHAPTER 1

1 The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I
make an outcry to you about violent behaviour, but you do
not send salvation.

3 Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes
fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me:
and there is fighting and bitter argument.

4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not
effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers;
because of which right is twisted.

5 See among the nations, and take note, and be full of
wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you
will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you.

6 For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and
quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the
earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs.

7 They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from
themselves.

8 And their horses are quicker than leopards and their
horsemen more cruel than evening wolves; they come from
far away, like an eagle in flight rushing on its food.

9 They are coming all of them with force; the direction of
their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like
the sands of the sea.

10 He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the
strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks
and takes them.

11 Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the
limit; he will make his strength his god.

12 Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for
you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for
our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked
out to put us right.

13 Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are
unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the
false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end
to one who is more upright than himself?

14 He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the
worms which have no ruler over them.

15 He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his
net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause
he is glad and full of joy.

16 For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning
perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much
food and his meat is fat.

17 For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to
his destruction of the nations.

HABAKKUK CHAPTER 2

1 I will take my position and be on watch, placing myself on
my tower, looking out to see what he will say to me, and
what answer he will give to my protest.

2 And the Lord gave me an answer, and said, Put the vision
in writing and make it clear on stones, so that the reader may
go quickly.

3 For the vision is still for the fixed time, and it is moving
quickly to the end, and it will not be false: even if it is slow in
coming, go on waiting for it; because it will certainly come,
it will not be kept back.

4 As for the man of pride, my soul has no pleasure in him;
but the upright man will have life through his good faith.

5 A curse on the cruel and false one! the man full of pride,
who never has enough; who makes his desires wide as the
underworld! he is like death; he is never full, but he makes all
nations come to him, getting all peoples together to himself.

6 Will not all these take up a word of shame against him
and a bitter saying against him, and say, A curse on him who
goes on taking what is not his and is weighted down with the
property of debtors!

7 Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you,
and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to
them like goods taken in war?

8 Because you have taken their goods from great nations,
all the rest of the peoples will take your goods from you;
because of men's blood and violent acts against the land and
the town and all who are living in it.

9 A curse on him who gets evil profits for his family, so that
he may put his resting-place on high and be safe from the
hand of the wrongdoer!

10 You have been a cause of shame to your house by cutting
offa number of peoples, and sinning against your soul.

11 For the stone will give a cry out of the wall, and it will
be answered by the board out of the woodwork.

12 A curse on him who is building a place with blood, and
basing a town on evil-doing!

13 See, is it not the pleasure of the Lord of armies that the
peoples are working for the fire and using themselves up for
nothing?

14 For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters.

15 A curse on him who gives his neighbour the wine of his
wrath, making him overcome with strong drink from the cup
of his passion, so that you may be a witness of their shame!

16 You are full of shame in place of glory: take your part in
the drinking, and let your shame be uncovered: the cup of the
Lord's right hand will come round to you and your glory
will be covered with shame.

17 For the violent acts against Lebanon will come on you,
and the destruction of the cattle will be a cause of fear to you,
because of men's blood and the violent acts against the land
and the town and all who are living in it.

18 What profit is the pictured image to its maker? and as
for the metal image, the false teacher, why does its maker put
his faith in it, making false gods without a voice?

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19 A curse on him who says to the wood, Awake! to the
unbreathing stone, Up! let it be a teacher! See, it is plated
with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it.

20 But the Lord is in his holy Temple: let all the earth be
quiet before him.

HABAKKUK CHAPTER 3

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, put to Shigionoth.

2 O Lord, word of you has come to my ears; I have seen
your work, O Lord; when the years come near make it clear;
in wrath keep mercy in mind.

3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount
Paran. Selah. The heavens were covered with his glory, and
the earth was full of his praise.

4 He was shining like the light; he had rays coming out
from his hand: there his power was kept secret.

5 Before him went disease, and flames went out at his feet.

6 From his high place he sent shaking on the earth; he saw
and nations were suddenly moved: and the eternal mountains
were broken, the unchanging hills were bent down; his ways
are eternal.

7 The curtains of Cushan were troubled, and the tents of
Midian were shaking.

8 Was your wrath burning against the rivers? were you
angry with the sea, that you went on your horses, on your
war-carriages of salvation?

9 Your bow was quite uncovered. Selah. By you the earth
was cut through with rivers.

10 The mountains saw you and were moved with fear; the
clouds were streaming with water: the voice of the deep was
sounding; the sun did not come up, and the moon kept still
in her place.

11 At the light of your arrows they went away, at the
shining of your polished spear.

12 You went stepping through the land in wrath, crushing
the nations in your passion.

13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the
salvation of the one on whom your holy oil was put;
wounding the head of the family of the evil-doer, uncovering
the base even to the neck. Selah.

14 You have put your spears through his head, his
horsemen were sent in flight like dry stems; they had joy in
driving away the poor, in making a meal of them secretly.

15 The feet of your horses were on the sea, on the mass of
great waters.

16 Hearing it, my inner parts were moved, and my lips were
shaking at the sound; my bones became feeble, and my steps
were uncertain under me: I gave sounds of grief in the day of
trouble, when his forces came up against the people in bands.

17 For though the fig-tree has no flowers, and there is no
fruit on the vine, and work on the olive comes to nothing,
and the fields give no food; and the flock is cut off from its
resting-place, and there is no herd in the cattle-house:

18 Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the
God of my salvation.

19 The Lord God is my strength, and he makes my feet like
roes' feet, guiding me on my high places. For the chief music-
maker on corded instruments.

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THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Tsephanyah
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 580—540 B.C.

(The Book of Zephaniah (Hebrew: Tsfanya) 1s the ninth of
the Twelve Minor Prophets, preceded by the Book of
Habakkuk and followed by the Book of Haggai. Zephaniah
means "Yahweh has hidden / protected," or "Yahweh hides".
The book begins with: "The word of the Lord which came
unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the
son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah [King Hezekiahj, in the
days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah." That ts all
we know about Zephaniah.

However, the name "Cushi," ts interesting. It was the name
of Zephaniah's father and it means "Kushite". The text of
Zephaniah mentions the sin and restoration of "Ethiopia."
There is some confusion when it comes to the name
"Ethiopia" in the Bible. Ethiopia here means "Nubia"
[which 1s in today's Sudan] and refers to the ancient kingdom
of Kush that had tts centres around the 4th and Sth cataracts
of the River Nile. Hezekiah's reign was between c. 715 and
686 BC.

The Kingdom of Kush survived longer than that of Egypt,
invaded Egypt (under the leadership of King Piye), and
controlled Egypt during the 8th century BC as the 25th
Dynasty [744-656 BC] of Egypt.

Of the Nubian kings of this era, Taharka 1s perhaps the best
known. A son and the third successor of the founding
pharaoh, Piye, he was crowned in Memphis, Egypt c. 690.
Taharka ruled over both Nubia and Egypt, restored
Egyptian temples at Karnak, and built new temples and
pyramids in Nubia before being driven from Lower Egypt by
the Assyrians. Napata and Meroé were the capitals of Kush.

As with many of the other prophets, there 1s no external
evidence to directly associate composition of the book with a
prophet by the name of Zephaniah. Some scholars consider
the words in Zephaniah to reflect a time early in the reign of
King Josiah (640-609 BC) before his reforms of 622 BC
took full effect, in which case the prophet may have been
born during the reign of Manasseh (698/687—-642 BC).
Others agree that some portion of the book 1s postmonarchic,
that is, dating to later than 586 BC when the Kingdom of
Judah fell in the Siege of Jerusalem. Some who consider the
book to have largely been written by a historical Zephaniah
have suggested that he may have been a disciple of Isaiah
because of the two books' similar focus on rampant
corruption and injustice in Judah.)

ZEPHANIAH CHAPTER |

1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son
of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of
Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of
Judah.

2 T will take away everything from the face of the earth, says
the Lord.

3 I will take away man and beast; I will take away the birds
of the heaven and the fishes of the sea; causing the downfall
of the evil-doers, and cutting man off from the face of the
earth, says the Lord.

4 And my hand will be stretched out on Judah and on all
the people of Jerusalem, cutting off the name of the Baal
from this place, and the name of the false priests,

5 And the worshippers of the army of heaven on the house-
tops, and the Lord's worshippers who take oaths by Milcom,

6 And those who are turned back from going after the Lord,
and those who have not made prayer to the Lord or got
directions from him.

7 Let there be no sound before the Lord God: for the day of
the Lord is near: for the Lord has made ready an offering, he
has made his guests holy.

8 And it will come about in the day of the Lord's offering,
that I will send punishment on the rulers and the king's sons
and all who are clothed in robes from strange lands.

9 And in that day I will send punishment on all those who
come jumping over the doorstep and make their master's
house full of violent behaviour and deceit.

10 And in that day, says the Lord, there will be the sound
of a cry from the fish doorway, and an outcry from the new
town, and a great thundering from the hills, and cries of
grief from the people of the Hollow;

11 Because of the downfall of all the people of Canaan: all
those who were weighted down with silver have been cut off.

12 And it will come about at that time, that I will go
searching through Jerusalem with lights; and I will send
punishment on the men who have become like wine stored
over-long, who say to themselves, The Lord will not do good
and will not do evil.

13 And their wealth will be violently taken away, and their
houses will be made waste: they will go on building houses
and never living in them, and planting vine-gardens but not
drinking the wine from them.

14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and coming
very quickly; the bitter day of the Lord is near, coming on
more quickly than a man of war.

15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and sorrow,
a day of wasting and destruction, a day of dark night and
deep shade, a day of cloud and thick dark.

16 A day of sounding the horn and the war-cry against the
walled towns and the high towers.

17 And I will send trouble on men so that they will go
about like the blind, because they have done evil against the
Lord: and their blood will be drained out like dust, and their
strength like waste.

18 Even their silver and their gold will not be able to keep
them safe in the day of the Lord's wrath; but all the land will
be burned up in the fire of his bitter wrath: for he will put an
end, even suddenly, to all who are living in the land.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ZEPHANIAH CHAPTER 2

1 Come together, make everyone come together, O nation
without shame;

2 Before the Lord sends you violently away in flight like the
waste from the grain; before the burning wrath of the Lord
comes on you, before the day of the Lord's wrath comes on
you.

3 Make search for the Lord, all you quiet ones of the earth,
who have done what is right in his eyes; make search for
righteousness and a quiet heart: it may be that you will be
safely covered in the day of the Lord's wrath.

4 For Gaza will be given up and Ashkelon will become
waste: they will send Ashdod out in the middle of the day,
and Ekron will be uprooted.

5 Sorrow to the people living by the sea, the nation of the
Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan,
the land of the Philistines; I will send destruction on you till
there is no one living in you.

6 And the land by the sea will be grass-land, with houses for
keepers of sheep and walled places for flocks.

7 The land by the sea will be for the rest of the children of
Judah; by the sea they will give their flocks food: in the
houses of Ashkelon they will take their rest in the evening;
for the Lord their God will take them in hand and their fate
will be changed.

8 My ears have been open to the bitter words of Moab and
the words of shame of the children of Ammon, which they
have said against my people, lifting themselves up against the
limit of their land.

9 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord of armies, the
God of Israel, truly Moab will become like Sodom and the
children of Ammon like Gomorrah, given up to waste plants
and salt pools and unpeopled for ever: the rest of my people
will take their property, the overflow of my nation will take
their heritage.

10 This will be their fate because of their pride, because
they have said evil, lifting themselves up against the people of
the Lord of armies.

11 The Lord will let himself be seen by them: for he will
make all the gods of the earth feeble; and men will go down
before him in worship, everyone from his place, even all the
sea-lands of the nations.

12 And you Ethiopians will be put to death by my sword.

13 And his hand will be stretched out against the north, for
the destruction of Assyria; and he will make Nineveh
unpeopled and dry like the waste land.

14 And herds will take their rest in the middle of her, all
the beasts of the valley: the pelican and the porcupine will
make their living-places on the tops of its pillars; the owl will
be crying in the window; the raven will be seen on the
doorstep.

15 This is the town which was full of joy, living without
fear of danger, saying in her heart, I am, and there is no
other: how has she been made waste, a place for beasts to take
their rest in! everyone who goes by her will make hisses,
waving his hand.

ZEPHANIAH CHAPTER 3

1 Sorrow to her who is uncontrolled and unclean, the cruel
town!

2 She gave no attention to the voice, she had no use for
teaching, she put no faith in the Lord, she did not come near
to her God.

3 Her rulers are like loud-voiced lions in her; her judges are
wolves of the evening, crushing up the bones before the
morning.

4 Her prophets are good-for-nothing persons, full of deceit:
her priests have made the holy place unclean and have gone
violently against the law.

5 The Lord in her is upright; he will not do evil; every
morning he lets his righteousness be seen, he is unchanging;
but the evil-doer has no sense of shame.

6 I have had the nations cut off, their towers are broken
down; I have made their streets a waste so that no one goes
through them: destruction has overtaken their towns, so that
there is no man living in them.

7 said, Certainly you will go in fear of me, and come under
my training, so that whatever I may send on her may not be
cut off before her eyes: but they got up early and made all
their works evil.

8 For this reason, go on waiting for me, says the Lord, till
the day when I come up as a witness: for my purpose is to
send for the nations and to get the kingdoms together, so
that I may let loose on them my passion, even all my burning
wrath: for all the earth will be burned up in the fire of my
bitter passion.

9 For then I will give the people a clean language, so that
they may all make prayer to the Lord and be his servants
with one mind.

10 From over the rivers of Ethiopia, and from the sides of
the north, they will come to me with an offering.

11 In that day you will have no shame on account of all the
things in which you did evil against me: for then I will take
away from among you those who were lifted up in pride, and
you will no longer be lifted up with pride in my holy
mountain.

12 But I will still have among you a quiet and poor people,
and they will put their faith in the name of the Lord.

13 The rest of Israel will do no evil and say no false words;
the tongue of deceit will not be seen in their mouth: for they
will take their food and their rest, and no one will be a cause
of fear to them.

14 Make melody, O daughter of Zion; give a loud cry, O
Israel; be glad and let your heart be full of joy, O daughter of
Jerusalem.

15 The Lord has taken away those who were judging you,
he has sent your haters far away: the King of Israel, even the
Lord, is among you: you will have no more fear of evil.

16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, Have no fear: O
Zion, let not your hands be feeble.

17 The Lord your God is among you, as a strong saviour:
he will be glad over you with joy, he will make his love new

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

again, he will make a song of joy over you as in the time of a
holy feast.

18 I will take away your troubles, lifting up your shame
from off you.

19 See, at that time I will put an end to all who have been
troubling you: I will give salvation to her whose steps are
uncertain, and get together her who has been sent in flight;
and I will make them a cause of praise and an honoured name
in all the earth, when I let their fate be changed.

20 At that time I will make you come in, at that time I will
get you together: for I will make you a name and a praise
among all the peoples of the earth when I let your fate be
changed before your eyes, says the Lord.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET HAGGAI

Hebrew title: Sefer Haggay or Khagai
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 520 B.C.

(The Book of Haggai, also known as the Book of Aggeus, is
a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and has its place as
the third-to-last of the Minor Prophets. It is a short book,
consisting of only two chapters. The Book of Haggai was
written in 520 BC, some 18 years after Cyrus had conquered
Babylon and issued a decree in 538 BC, allowing the captive
Jews to return to Judea. The Book of Haggai 1s named after
its presumed author, the prophet Haggai. There is no
biographical information given about the prophet in the
Book of Haggai. Haggar's name 1s derived from the Hebrew
verbal root h-g-g, which means "to make a pilgrimage."
Haggat'’s name might come from his single-minded effort to
bring about the reconstruction of that destination of ancient
Judean pilgrims, the Temple in Jerusalem.

Haggar's message 1s filled with an urgency for the people to
proceed with the rebuilding of the second Jerusalem temple.
Haggai attributes a recent drought to the people's refusal to
rebuild the temple, which he sees as key to Jerusalem’s glory.
The book ends with the prediction of the downfall of
kingdoms, with one Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, as the
Lord’s chosen leader. [According to the biblical narrative,
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Achaemenid Persian
Empire's province Yehud Medinata [Judah] and the grandson
of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the
first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from
the Babylonian captivity in the first regnal year of Cyrus the
Great, Kurush IL, the king (emperor) of the Achaemenid
Empire. The date 1s generally thought to have been between
538 and 520 BC. Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the
Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after.]

The first chapter contains the first address (2-11) and its
effects (12-15).

The second chapter contains:

1. The second prophecy (1-9), which was delivered a month
after the first

2. The third prophecy (10-19), delivered two months and
three days after the second; and

3. The fourth prophecy (20-23), delivered on the same day
as the third

These discourses are referred to in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14.
(Compare Haggai 2:7, 8 and 22)

Haggat [1:14—15] reports that three weeks after hus first
prophecy, the rebuilding of the Temple began in c. 521 BC
and the Book of Ezra [6:15] indicates that it was finished in
516 BC. "The Temple was completed on the third day of the
month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius."")

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

HAGGAI CHAPTER |

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month,
on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by
Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler
of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high
priest, saying,

2 These are the words of the Lord of armies: These people
say, The time has not come for building the Lord's house.

3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet,
saying,

4 Is it a time for you to be living in roofed houses while this
house is a waste?

5 For this cause the Lord of armies has said, Give thought
to your ways.

6 Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food,
but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you
are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment
for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes.

7 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Give thought to
your ways.

8 Go up to the hills and get wood and put up the house;
and I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord.

9 You were looking for much, and it came to little; and

when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath.

Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a
waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his.

10 For this cause the heaven over you is kept from giving
dew, and the earth from giving her fruit.

11 And by my order no rain came on the land or on the
mountains or the grain or the wine or the oil or the produce
of the earth or on men or cattle or on any work of man's
hands.

12 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the
son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the
people, gave ear to the voice of the Lord their God and to the
words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God
had sent him, and the people were in fear before the Lord.

13 Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words
to the people, said, Iam with you, says the Lord.

14 And the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler
of Judah, was moved by the Lord, as was the spirit of Joshua,
the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
rest of the people; and they came and did work in the house
of the Lord of armies, their God.

15 On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth
month, in the second year of Darius the king.

HAGGAI CHAPTER 2

1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the
month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet,
saying,

2 Say now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of
Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest,
and to the rest of the people,

3 Who is there still among you who saw this house in its
first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes
as nothing?

4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be
strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be
strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and get to
work: for Iam with you, says the Lord of armies:

5 The agreement which I made with you when you came out
of Egypt, and my spirit, are with you still; have no fear.

6 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In a short
time I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth and
the sea and the dry land;

7 And I will make a shaking of all the nations, and the
desired things of all nations will come: and I will make this
house full of my glory, says the Lord of armies.

8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of
armies.

9 The second glory of this house will be greater than the
first, says the Lord of armies: and in this place I will give
peace, says the Lord of armies.

10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the
second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai
the prophet, saying,

11 These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a
point of law to the priests, saying,

12 If anyone has some holy flesh folded in the skirt of his
robe, will bread or soup or wine or oil or any other food be
made holy if touched by his skirt? And the priests answering
said, No.

13 Then Haggai said, Will any of these be made unclean by
the touch of one who is unclean through touching a dead
body? And the priests answering said, It will be made
unclean.

14 Then Haggai said, So is this people and so is this nation
before me, says the Lord; and so is every work of their hands;
and the offering they give there is unclean.

15 And now, give thought, looking back from this day to
the time before one stone was put on another in the Temple
of the Lord:

16 How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures,
there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to
get fifty vessels full, there were only twenty.

17 And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops
on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned
to me, says the Lord.

18 And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from
the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time
when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give
thought to it.

19 Is the seed still in the store-house? have the vine and the
fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive-tree, still not given
their fruit? from this day I will send my blessing on you.

20 And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai,
on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,

21 Say to Zerubbabel, ruler of Judah, I will make a shaking
of the heavens and the earth,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 Overturning the power of kingdoms; and I will send
destruction on the strength of the kingdoms of the nations;
by me war-carriages will be overturned with those who are in
them; and the horses and the horsemen will come down,
everyone by the sword of his brother.

23 In that day, says the Lord of armies, I will take you, O
Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord,
and will make you as a jewelled ring: for I have taken you to
be mine, says the Lord of armies.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET ZECHARIAH
Hebrew title: Sefer Zekharyah
Estimated Range of Dating: c. 520-518 BC

(The Book of Zechariah, attributed to the Hebrew prophet
Zechariah, is included in the Twelve Minor Prophets in the
Hebrew Bible. The name "Zechariah" means "God
remembered." Not much 1s known about Zechariah's life
other than what may be inferred from the book. It has been
speculated that his grandfather Iddo was the head of a
priestly family who returned with Zerubbabel, and that
Zechariah may himself have been a priest as well as a prophet.
This is supported by Zechariah's interest in the Temple and
the priesthood, and from Iddo's preaching in the Books of
Chronicles.

The Book of Zechariah was written by at least two different
people. Zechariah 1-8, sometimes referred to as First
Zechariah, was written in the 6th century BC. Zechariah 9-
14, often called Second Zechariah, contains within the text
no datable references to specific events or individuals but
most scholars give the text a date in the fifth century BC.

Second Zechariah, probably written by a disciple of
Zechariah, appears to make use of the books of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the Deuteronomistic History, and the
themes from First Zechariah.

Contents and Structure:

Chapters | to 6

The book begins with a preface, which recalls the nation’s
lustory, for the purpose of presenting a solemn warning to
the present generation. Then follows a series of eight visions,
succeeding one another in one night, which may be regarded
as a symbolical history of Israel, intended to furnish
consolation to the returned exiles and stir up hope in their
minds. The symbolic action, the crowning of Joshua,
describes how the kingdoms of the world become the
kingdom of God's Messiah.

Chapters 7 and 8

Chapters Zechariah 7 and Zechariah 8, written two years
later, are an answer to the question whether the days of
mourning for the destruction of the city should be kept any
longer, and an encouraging address to the people, assuring
them of God's presence and blessing.

Chapters 9 to 11 [sometimes called 'The First Oracle] tell of
a future time when the nations around them would be
destroyed by an army, but Jerusalem would be kept from
destruction. The coming of a Messiah is mentioned here [a
Jewish teaching that craves for firm leadership].

Chapters 12 to 14 [sometimes called 'The Second Oracle]
tell about the glories that awatt Israel in "the latter day", the
final conflict and triumph of God's kingdom.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER |

1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the
word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah,
the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

2 The Lord has been very angry with your fathers:

3 And you are to say to them, These are the words of the
Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies,
and I will come back to you.

4 Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier
prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways
and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or
take note, says the Lord.

5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they
go on living for ever?

6 But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants
the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and
turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of
armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so
has he done.

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the
month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the
Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of
Iddo the prophet, saying,

8 I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the
mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red,
black, white, and of mixed colours.

9 Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel
who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you
what they are.

10 And the man who was between the mountains,
answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent
to go up and down through the earth.

11 And the man who was between the mountains,
answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up
and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at
rest.

12 Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of
armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on
Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your
wrath has been burning for seventy years?

13 And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting
words to the angel who was talking to me.

14 And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let
your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord
of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and
of Zion.

15 And I am very angry with the nations who are living
untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the
evil worse.

16 So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to
Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says
the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over
Jerusalem.

17 And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what
the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be

overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give
comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself.

18 And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns.

19 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are
these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent
Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight.

20 And the Lord gave mea vision of four metal-workers.

21 Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said,
These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him
from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send
fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up
their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 2

1 And lifting up my eyes, I saw a man with a measuring-line
in his hand.

2 And I said to him, Where are you going? And he said to
me, To take the measure of Jerusalem, to see how wide and
how long it is.

3 And the angel who was talking to me went out, and
another angel went out, and, meeting him,

4 Said to him, Go quickly and say to this young man,
Jerusalem will be an unwalled town, because of the great
number of men and cattle in her.

5 For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her,
and I will be the glory inside her.

6 Ho, ho! go in flight from the land of the north, says the
Lord: for I have sent you far and wide to the four winds of
heaven, says the Lord.

7 Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living
with the daughter of Babylon.

8 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In the way of
glory he has sent me to the nations which have taken your
goods: for anyone touching you is touching what is most
dear to him.

9 For at the shaking of my hand over them, their goods will
be taken by those who were their servants: and you will see
that the Lord of armies has sent me.

10 Give songs of joy, O daughter of Zion: for I come, and I
will make my resting-place among you, says the Lord.

11 And a number of nations will be joined to the Lord in
that day, and will become my people; and I will be living
among you, and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent
me to you.

12 And Judah will be the Lord's heritage in the holy land,
and Jerusalem will again be his.

13 Let all flesh be quiet and make no sound before the Lord:
for he is awake and has come from his holy resting-place.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 3

1 And he let me see Joshua, the high priest, in his place
before the angel of the Lord, and the Satan at his right hand
ready to take up a cause against him.

2 And the Lord said to the Satan, May the Lord's word be
sharp against you, O Satan, the word of the Lord who has

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

taken Jerusalem for himself: is this not a burning branch
pulled out of the fire?

3 Now Joshua was clothed in unclean robes, and he was in
his place before the angel.

4 And he made answer and said to those who were there
before him, Take the unclean robes off him, and let him be
clothed in clean robes;

5 And let them put a clean head-dress on his head. So they
put a clean head-dress on his head, clothing him with clean
robes: and to him he said, See, I have taken your sin away
from you.

6 And the angel of the Lord made a statement to Joshua,
and said,

7 These are the words of the Lord of armies: If you will go
in my ways and keep what I have put in your care, then you
will be judge over my Temple and have the care of my house,
and I will give you the right to come in among those who are
there.

8 Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your
friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are
asign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen.

9 For see, the stone which I have put before Joshua; on one
stone are seven eyes: see, the design cut on it will be my work,
says the Lord of armies, and I will take away the sin of that
land in one day.

10 In that day, says the Lord of armies, you will be one
another's guests under the vine and under the fig-tree.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 4

1 And the angel who was talking to me came again,
awaking me as a man out of his sleep.

2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a
light-support, made all of gold, with its cup on the top of it
and seven lights on it; and there are seven pipes to every one
of the lights which are on the top of it;

3 And two olive-trees by it, one on the right side of the cup
and one on the left.

4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking
to me, What are these, my lord?

5 Then the angel who was talking to me, answering me,
said, Have you no knowledge of what these are? And I said,
No, my lord.

6 This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not
by force or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of
armies.

7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you
will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with
cries of Grace, grace, to it.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

9 The hands of Zerubbabel have put the base of this house
in place, and his hands will make it complete; and it will be
clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you.

10 For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small
things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted
measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in

answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord
which go quickly up and down through all the earth.

11 And I made answer and said to him, What are these two
olive-trees on the right side of the light-support and on the
left?

12 And answering a second time, I said to him, What are
these two olive branches, through whose gold pipes the oil is
drained out?

13 And he said in answer to me, Have you no knowledge
what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

14 And he said, These are the two sons of oil, whose place is
by the Lord of all the earth.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 5

1 Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight
through the air.

2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll
going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits
wide.

3 Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over
the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone
without punishment, and long enough has every taker of
false oaths gone without punishment.

4 And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will
go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who
takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house,
causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its
stones.

5 And the angel who was talking to me went out and said
to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah
which is going out.

6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah
which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-
doing in all the land.

7 And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman
was seated in the middle of the ephah.

8 And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the
ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it.

9 And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and
the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the
wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up
between earth and heaven.

10 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where
are they taking the ephah?

11 And he said to me, To make a house for her in the land
of Shinar: and they will make a place ready, and put her
there in the place which is hers.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 6

1 And again lifting up my eyes I saw four war-carriages
coming out from between the two mountains; and the
mountains were mountains of brass.

2 In the first war-carriage were red horses; and in the
second, black horses;

3 And in the third, white horses; and in the fourth, horses
of mixed colour.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking
to me, What are these, my lord?

5 And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the
four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all
the earth.

6 The carriage in which are the black horses goes in the
direction of the north country; the white go to the west; and
those of mixed colour go in the direction of the south
country.

7 And the red ones go to the east; and they made request
that they might go up and down through the earth: and he
said, Go up and down through the earth. So they went up
and down through the earth.

8 Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going
to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord
in the north country.

9 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

10 Take the offerings of those who went away as prisoners,
from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and from the family of
Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who have come from Babylon;

11 And take silver and gold and make a crown and put it on
the head of Zerubbabel;

12 And say to him, These are the words of the Lord of
armies: See, the man whose name is the Branch, under whom
there will be fertile growth.

13 And he will be the builder of the Temple of the Lord;
and the glory will be his, and he will take his place as ruler
on the seat of power; and Joshua will be a priest at his right
hand, and between them there will be a design of peace.

14 And the crown will be for grace to Heldai and Tobiyah
and Jedaiah and the son of Zephaniah, to keep their memory
living in the house of the Lord.

15 And those who are far away will come and be builders in
the Temple of the Lord, and it will be clear to you that the
Lord of armies has sent me to you.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 7

1 And it came about in the fourth year of King Darius, that
the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of
the ninth month, the month Chislev.

2 Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech
to make a request for grace from the Lord,

3 And to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of
armies and to the prophets, Am I to go on weeping in the
fifth month, separating myself as I have done in past years?

4 Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying

5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When
you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the
fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you
ever do it because of me?

6 And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not
doing it only for yourselves?

7 Are not these the words which the Lord said to you by the
earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was full of people and
wealth, and the towns round about her and the South and
the Lowland were peopled?

8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,

9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging
be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy
and pity for his brother:

10 Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a
father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor;
let there be no evil thought in your heart against your
brother.

11 But they would not give attention, turning their backs
and stopping their ears from hearing;

12 And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so
that they might not give ear to the law and the words which
the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there
came great wrath from the Lord of armies.

13 And it came about that as they would not give ear to his
voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of
armies:

14 But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all
the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was
waste after them, so that no man went through or came back:
for they had made waste the desired land.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 8

1 And the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying,

2 These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am angry
about the fate of Zion, I am angry about her with great
wrath.

3 This is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Zion,
and will make my living-place in Jerusalem: and Jerusalem
will be named The town of good faith; and the mountain of
the Lord of armies The holy mountain.

4 This is what the Lord of armies has said: There will again
be old men and old women seated in the open spaces of
Jerusalem, every man with his stick in his hand because he is
so old.

5 And the open spaces of the town will be full of boys and
girls playing in its open spaces.

6 This is what the Lord of armies has said: If this is a
wonder to the rest of this people, is it a wonder to me? says
the Lord of armies.

7 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will be the
saviour of my people from the east country, and from the
west country;

8 And I will make them come and be living in Jerusalem and
they will be to me a people and I will be to them a God, in
good faith and in righteousness.

9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your hands
be strong, you who are now hearing these words from the
mouths of the prophets, that is to say, in the days when the
base of the house of the Lord of armies has been put in place
for the building of the house, that is the Temple.

10 For before those days there was no payment for a man's
work, or for the use of a beast, and there was no peace for
him who went out or him who came in, because of the
attacker: for I had every man turned against his neighbour.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

11 But now I will not be to the rest of this people as I was in
the past, says the Lord of armies.

12 For I will let the seed of peace be planted; the vine will
give her fruit and the land will give her increase and the
heavens will give their dew; and I will give to the rest of this
people all these things for their heritage.

13 And it will come about that, as you were a curse among
the nations, O children of Judah and children of Israel, so I
will give you salvation and you will be a blessing: have no
fear and let your hands be strong.

14 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: As it was
my purpose to do evil to you when your fathers made me
angry, says the Lord of armies, and my purpose was not
changed:

15 So in these days it is again my purpose to do good to
Jerusalem and to the children of Judah: have no fear.

16 These are the things which you are to do: Let every man
say what is true to his neighbour; and let your judging give
peace in your towns.

17 Let no one have any evil thought in his heart against his
neighbour; and have no love for false oaths: for all these
things are hated by me, says the Lord.

18 And the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying,

19 This is what the Lord of armies has said: The times of
going without food in the fourth month and in the fifth and
the seventh and the tenth months, will be for the people of
Judah times of joy and happy meetings; so be lovers of good
faith and of peace.

20 This is what the Lord of armies has said: It will again
come about that when peoples and those living in great
towns come,

21 And the people of one town go to another and say, Let
us certainly go with a request for grace from the Lord, and
to give worship to the Lord of armies, then I will go with
you.

22 And great peoples and strong nations will come to give
worship to the Lord of armies in Jerusalem and to make
requests for grace from the Lord.

23 This is what the Lord of armies has said: In those days,
ten men from all the languages of the nations will put out
their hands and take a grip of the skirt of him who is a Jew,
saying, We will go with you, for it has come to our ears that
God is with you.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 9

1 A word of the Lord: The Lord has come to the land of
Hadrach, and Damascus is his resting-place: for the towns of
Aram are the Lord's,

2 As well as Hamath, which is by its limit, and Tyre and
Zidon, because they are very wise.

3 And Tyre made for herself a strong place, and got
together silver like dust and the best gold like the earth of
the streets.

4 See, the Lord will take away her heritage, overturning
her power in the sea; and she will be burned up with fire.

5 Ashkelon will see it with fear, and Gaza, bent with pain;
and Ekron, for her hope will be shamed: and the king will be
cut off from Gaza, and Ashkelon will be unpeopled.

6 And a mixed people will be living in Ashdod, and I will
have the pride of the Philistines cut off.

7 And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his
disgusting things from between his teeth; and some of his
people will be kept for our God: and he will be as a family in
Judah, and Ekron as one living in Jerusalem.

8 And IJ will put my forces in position round my house, so
that there may be no coming and going: and no cruel master
will again go through them: for now I have seen his trouble.

9 Be full of joy, O daughter of Zion; give a glad cry, O
daughter of Jerusalem: see, your king comes to you: he is
upright and has overcome; gentle and seated on an ass, on a
young ass.

10 And he will have the war-carriage cut off from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be cut
off: and he will say words of peace to the nations: and his rule
will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the
earth.

11 And as for you, because of the blood of your agreement,
I have sent out your prisoners from the deep hole in which
there is no water.

12 And they will come back to you, O daughter of Zion, as
prisoners of hope: today I say to you that I will give you back
twice as much;

13 For I have made Judah a bow bent for my use, I have
made Ephraim the arrows of the bow; I will make your sons,
O Zion, take up arms against your sons, O Greece, and will
make you like the sword of a man of war.

14 And the Lord will be seen over them, and his arrow will
go out like the thunder-flame: and the Lord God, sounding
the war-horn, will go in the storm-winds of the South.

15 The Lord of armies will be a cover for them; and they
will overcome, crushing under foot the armed men; they will
take their blood for drink like wine: they will be full like the
sides of the altar.

16 And the Lord their God will be their saviour in that day,
giving them food like the flock of his people: for they will be
like the jewels ofa crown shining over his land.

17 For how good it is and how beautiful! grain will make
the young men strong and new wine the virgins.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 10

| Make your request to the Lord for rain in the time of the
spring rains, even to the Lord who makes the thunder-flames;
and he will give them showers of rain, to every man grass in
the field.

2 For the images have said what is not true, and the readers
of signs have seen deceit; they have given accounts of false
dreams, they give comfort to no purpose: so they go out of
the way like sheep, they are troubled because they have no
keeper.

3 My wrath is burning against the keepers of the flock, and
I will send punishment on the he-goats: for the Lord of

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

armies takes care of his flock, the people of Judah, and will
make them like the horse of his pride in the fight.

4 From him will come the keystone, from him the nail,
from him the bow of war, from him will come every ruler;

5 Together they will be like men of war, crushing down
their haters into the earth of the streets in the fight; they will
make war because the Lord is with them: and the horsemen
will be shamed.

6 And IJ will make the children of Judah strong, and I will
be the saviour of the children of Joseph, and I will make them
come back again, for I have had mercy on them: they will be
as if I had not given them up: for I am the Lord their God
and I will give them an answer.

7 And Ephraim will be like a man of war, and their hearts
will be glad as with wine; and their children will see it with
joy; their hearts will be glad in the Lord.

8 With the sound of the pipe I will get them together; for I
have given the price to make them free: and they will be
increased as they were increased.

9 Though I had them planted among the peoples, they will
keep me in mind in far countries: and they will take care of
their children and will come back.

10 And I will make them come back out of the land of
Egypt, and will get them together out of Assyria; and I will
take them into the land of Gilead, and it will not be wide
enough for them.

11 And they will go through the sea of Egypt, and all the
deep waters of the Nile will become dry: and the pride of
Assyria will be made low, and the power of Egypt will be
taken away.

12 And their strength will be in the Lord; and their pride
will be in his name, says the Lord.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 11

1 Let your doors be open, O Lebanon, so that fire may be
burning among your cedars.

2 Give a cry of grief, O fir-tree, for the fall of the cedar,
because the great ones have been made low: give cries of grief,
O you oaks of Bashan, for the strong trees of the wood have
come down.

3 The sound of the crying of the keepers of the flock! for
their glory is made waste: the sound of the loud crying of the
young lions! for the pride of Jordan is made waste.

4 This is what the Lord my God has said: Take care of the
flock of death;

5 Whose owners put them to death and have no sense of sin;
and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be
praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock
have no pity for them.

6 For I will have no more pity for the people of the land,
says the Lord; but I will give up everyone into his
neighbour's hand and into the hand of his king: and they will
make the land waste, and I will not keep them safe from their
hands.

7 So I took care of the flock of death, for those who made
profit out of the flock; and I took for myself two rods,

naming one Beautiful, and the other Bands; and I took care
of the flock.

8 And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the
flock; for my soul was tired of them, and their souls were
disgusted with me.

9 And I said, I will not take care of you: If death comes to
any, let death be its fate; if any is cut off, let it be cut off; and
let the rest take one another's flesh for food.

10 And I took my rod Beautiful, cutting it in two, so that
the Lord's agreement, which he had made with all the
peoples, might be broken.

11 And it was broken on that day: and the sheep-traders,
who were watching me, were certain that it was the word of
the Lord.

12 And IJ said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my
payment; and if not, do not give it. So they gave me my
payment by weight, thirty shekels of silver.

13 And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the
price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty
shekels of silver and put them into the store-house in the
house of the Lord.

14 Then I took my other rod, the one named Bands, cutting
it in two, so that the relation of brothers between Judah and
Israel might be broken.

15 And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of
a foolish keeper of sheep.

16 For see, I will put a sheep-keeper over the land, who will
have no care for that which is cut off, and will not go in
search of the wanderers, or make well what is broken, and he
will not give food to that which is ill, but he will take for his
food the flesh of the fat, and let their feet be broken.

17 A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the
flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his
arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made
completely dark.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 12

1 The word of the Lord about Israel. The Lord by whom
the heavens are stretched out and the bases of the earth put in
place, and the spirit of man formed inside him, has said:

2 See, I will make Jerusalem a cup of shaking fear to all the
peoples round about, when Jerusalem is shut in.

3 And it will come about in that day that I will make
Jerusalem a stone of great weight for all the peoples; all those
who take it up will be badly wounded; and all the nations of
the earth will come together against it.

4 In that day, says the Lord, I will put fear into every horse
and make every horseman go off his head: and my eyes will be
open on the people of Judah, and I will make every horse of
the peoples blind.

5 And the families of Judah will say in their hearts, The
people of Jerusalem have their strength in the Lord of armies,
their God.

6 In that day I will make the families of Judah like a pot
with fire in it among trees, and like a flaming stick among
cut grain; they will send destruction on all the peoples round

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem will
be living again in the place which is hers, that is, in
Jerusalem.

7 And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah
first, so that the glory of the family of David and the glory of
the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of
Judah.

8 In that day the Lord will be a cover over the people of
Jerusalem; and he who is feeble among them in that day will
be as strong as David, and the family of David will be as God,
as the angel of the Lord before them.

9 And it will come about on that day that I will take in
hand the destruction of all the nations who come against
Jerusalem.

10 And I will send down on the family of David and on the
people of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer; and
their eyes will be turned to the one who was wounded by
their hands: and they will be weeping for him as for an only
son, and their grief for him will be bitter, like the grief of one
sorrowing for his oldest son.

11 In that day there will be a great weeping in Jerusalem,
like the weeping of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

12 And the land will give itself to weeping, every family
separately; the family of David by themselves, and their wives
by themselves; the family of Nathan by themselves, and their
wives by themselves;

13 The family of Levi by themselves, and their wives by
themselves; the family of Shimei by themselves, and their
wives by themselves;

14 And all the other families by themselves, and their wives
by themselves.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 13

1 In that day there will be a fountain open to the family of
David and to the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for that
which is unclean.

2 And it will come about on that day, says the Lord of
armies, that I will have the names of the images cut off out of
the land, and there will be no more memory of them: and I
will send all the prophets and the unclean spirit away from
the land.

3 And if anyone goes on acting as a prophet, then his father
and his mother who gave him life will say to him, You may
not go on living, for you are saying what is false in the name
of the Lord; and his father and his mother will put a sword
through him when he does so.

4 And it will come about in that day that the prophets will
be shamed, every man on account of his vision, when he is
talking as a prophet; and they will not put on a robe of hair
for purposes of deceit:

5 But he will say, I am no prophet, but a worker on the
land; for I have been an owner of land from the time when I
was young.

6 And if anyone says to him, What are these wounds
between your hands? then he will say, Those with which I was
wounded in the house of my friends.

7 Awake! O sword, against the keeper of my flock, and
against him who is with me, says the Lord of armies: put to
death the keeper of the sheep, and the sheep will go in flight:
and my hand will be turned against the little ones.

8 And it will come about that in all the land, says the Lord,
two parts of it will be cut off and come to an end; but the
third will be still living there.

9 And I will make the third part go through the fire,
cleaning them as silver is made clean, and testing them as
gold is tested: and they will make their prayer to me and I
will give them an answer: I will say, It is my people; and they
will say, The Lord is my God.

ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 14

1 See, a day of the Lord is coming when they will make
division of your goods taken by force before your eyes.

2 For I will get all the nations together to make war
against Jerusalem; and the town will be overcome, and the
goods taken from the houses, and the women taken by force:
and half the town will go away as prisoners, and the rest of
the people will not be cut off from the town.

3 Then the Lord will go out and make war against those
nations, as he did in the day of the fight.

4 And in that day his feet will be on the Mount of Olives,
which is opposite Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of
Olives will be parted in the middle to the east and to the west,
forming a very great valley; and half the mountain will be
moved to the north and half of it to the south.

5 You shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the
valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel; and you will go
in flight as you went in flight from the earth-shock in the
days of Uzziah, king of Judah: and the Lord my God will
come, and all his holy ones with him.

6 And in that day there will be no heat or cold or ice;

7 And it will be unbroken day, such as the Lord has
knowledge of, without change of day and night, and even at
nightfall it will be light.

8 And on that day living waters will go out from Jerusalem;
half of them flowing to the sea on the east and half to the sea
on the west: in summer and in winter it will be so.

9 And the Lord will be King over all the earth: in that day
there will be one Lord and his name one.

10 And all the land will become like the Arabah, from Geba
to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up and
be living in her place; from the doorway of Benjamin to the
place of the first doorway, to the doorway of the angle, and
from the tower of Hananel to the king's wine-crushing places,
men will be living in her.

11 And there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will be
living without fear of danger.

12 And this will be the disease which the Lord will send on
all the peoples which have been warring against Jerusalem:
their flesh will be wasted away while they are on their feet,
their eyes will be wasted in their heads and their tongues in
their mouths.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 And it will be on that day that a great fear will be sent
among them from the Lord; and everyone will take his
neighbour's hand, and every man's hand will be lifted against
his neighbour's.

14 And even Judah will be fighting against Jerusalem; and
the wealth of all the nations round about will be massed
together, a great store of gold and silver and clothing.

15 And the horses and the transport beasts, the camels and
the asses and all the beasts in those tents will be attacked by
the same disease.

16 And it will come about that everyone who is still living,
of all those nations who came against Jerusalem, will go up
from year to year to give worship to the King, the Lord of
armies, and to keep the feast of tents.

17 And it will be that if any one of all the families of the
earth does not go up to Jerusalem to give worship to the
King, the Lord of armies, on them there will be no rain.

18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up or come there,
they will be attacked by the disease which the Lord will send
on the nations:

19 This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the
punishment of all the nations who do not go up to keep the
feast of tents.

20 On that day all the bells of the horses will be holy to the
Lord, and the pots in the Lord's house will be like the basins
before the altar.

21 And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to
the Lord of armies: and all those who make offerings will
come and take them for boiling their offerings: in that day
there will be no more traders in the house of the Lord of
armies.

THE BOOK

OF THE PROPHET MALACHI
Hebrew title: Sefer Malakhiyah
Author: Azaryahu, known as Ezra (Greek: Esdras)
Estimated Range of Dating: mid-5th century B.C.

(Malachi [or Malachias; Malahi, Malakhi] ts the last book
of the Nevitm contained in the Tanakh, canonically the last
of the Twelve Minor Prophets. In the Christian ordering, the
grouping of the Prophetic Books is the last section of the Old
Testament, making Malachi the last book before The New
Testament.

This gives Christian Bible readers the false impression that
after Malachi was a 500-years long gap called the
"Intertestamental Period", with no writing activites at all,
and the New Testament would then be continueing the once
dropped writing traditions. This believe was desired by
Christian Bible compilers [designated by Emperor Flavius
Constantinus and his right-hand man Eusebius of Caesarea
Maritima].

This is the reason why the Christian Old Testament differs
from arrangement in the Hebrew Bible, although both have
almost the same contents. Christian Church authorities
wanted to point out by this arrangement, that the Jews [once
the Christians’ greatest rivals] were abandoned by God and
the ‘baton of faithfulness' had been passed over to the
Christians. The silent removal of the Hebrew Deuterocanon
from Protestant Bibles in 1885 had pretty much the same
reasons as background.

The word "Malachi," is a title meaning "My Messenger" or
simply "The Messenger". The title has been chosen because
there is no author attributed to this book and it occurs in the
superscription at 1:1. It 1s quite common that Semites use in
their book titles the most significant-looking word from the
first verse or line of the first chapter. One of the Targums
identifies Ezra (or Esdras) as the author of Malachi. [The
word Targum 1s Hebrew for interpretation, translation,
version. Targums or Targumim were originally spoken
translations of the Jewish scriptures that a professional
interpreter would give in the common language of the
listeners. This procedure had become necessary as Aramaic
became the common language of the Jewish people in the
centuries BC. Hebrew was only used for lithurgy and
worship and it was not understood anymore.]

The book of Malachi 1s divided into three chapters in the
Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint and four chapters in
the Latin Vulgate. The fourth chapter in the Vulgate consists
of the remainder of the third chapter starting at verse 3:19.

There are very few lustorical details in the Book of Malachi.
The greatest clue as to its dating may Ite in the fact that the
Persian-era term for governor (peha) is used in 1:8 of the
Hebrew original. This points to a composition date after the
Babylonian Exile (1st) because of the use of the Persian
period term peha' and (2nd) because Judah had a king before
the exile, not a governor. Since, in Malachi, the temple has

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

already been rebuilt, the book must be composed later than
515 BC. Malachi was apparently known to the author of
Ecclesiasticus early in the 2nd century BC. Because of the
development of themes in the book of Malachi, most scholars
assign it to a position after Haggai and Zechariah, close to
the time when Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in 445
BC.

The Book of Malachi was written to correct the lax
religious and social behaviour of the Israelites — particularly
the priests — in post-exilic Jerusalem. In 1:2, Malachi has the
people of Israel question God's love for them. This
introduction to the book illustrates the severity of the
situation which Malachi addresses. The graveness of the
situation 1s also indicated by the dialectical style with which
Malachi confronts his audience. Malachi proceeds to accuse
his audience of failing to respect God as God deserves.

In 2:1, Malachi states Yahweh Sabaoth 1s sending a curse
on the priests who have not honored him with appropriate
animal sacrifices: "Now, watch how I am going to paralyze
your arm and throw dung in your face--the dung from your
very solemnities--and sweep you away with it. Then you shall
learn that it 1s I who have given you this warning of my
intention to abolish my covenant with Levi, says Yahweh
Sabaoth."

In 2:10, Malachi addresses the issue of divorce. On this
topic, Malachi deals with divorce both as a social problem
("Why then are we faithless to one another ... 2" 2:10) and as
a religious problem ("Judah ... has married the daughter of a
foreign god" 2:11). In contrast to the book of Ezra, Malachi
urges each to remain steadfast to the wife of lus youth.

Malachi also criticises his audience for questioning God's
Justice. He reminds them that God is just, exhorting them to
be faithful as they await that justice. Malachi quickly goes on
to point out that the people have not been faithful. In fact,
the people are not giving God all that God deserves. Just as
the priests have been offering unacceptable sacrifices, so the
people have been neglecting to offer their full tithe to God.
The result of these shortcomings is that the people come to
believe that no good comes out of serving God.

Malachi assures the faithful among his audience that in the
eschaton, the differences between those who served God
faithfully and those who did not will become clear. The book
concludes by calling upon the teachings of Moses and by
promising that Elyah will return prior to the Day of
Yahweh. [The Last Judgement or The Day of the Lord
(Hebrew: ‘Day of Resurrection’ or Arabic: ‘Day of
Judgement') is part of the eschatological world view of the
Abrahamic religions and in the Frashokereti of
Zoroastrianism. ]

Primarily because of the following quote (3:1), the Book of
Malachi is frequently referred to in the Christian New
Testament: ""Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and
he will clear the way for Me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the
covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says
the LORD of hosts." Christians believe that the messianic

prophecies of the Book of Malachi have been fulfilled in the
life, ministry, transfiguration, death and resurrection of
Jesus. Most Jews and Muslims continue to await the coming
of the prophet Elyah who will prepare the way for the Lord.)

MALACHI CHAPTER 1

1 The word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

2 You have been loved by me, says the Lord. But you say,
Where was your love for us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
says the Lord: but Jacob was loved by me,

3 And Esau was hated, and I sent destruction on his
mountains, and gave his heritage to the beasts of the waste
land.

4 Though Edom says, We are crushed down but we will
come back, building up the waste places; this is what the
Lord of armies has said: They may put up buildings, but I
will have them pulled down; and they will be named The land
of evil-doing, and The people against whom the Lord keeps
his wrath for ever.

5 And your eyes will see it; and you will say, The Lord is
great even outside the limits of Israel.

6 A son gives honour to his father, and a servant has fear of
his master: if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I
am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord of armies
to you, O priests, who give no value to my name. And you
say, How have we not given value to your name?

7 You put unclean bread on my altar. And you say, How
have we made it unclean? By your saying, The table of the
Lord is of no value.

8 And when you give what is blind for an offering, it is no
evil! and when you give what is damaged and ill, it is no evil!
Give it now to your ruler; will he be pleased with you, or will
you have his approval? says the Lord of armies.

9 And now, make request for the grace of God so that he
may have mercy on us: this has been your doing: will he give
his approval to any of you? says the Lord of armies.

10 If only there was one among you who would see that the
doors were shut, so that you might not put a light to the fire
on my altar for nothing! I have no pleasure in you, says the
Lord of armies, and I will not take an offering from your
hands.

11 For, from the coming up of the sun till its going down,
my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place the
smell of burning flesh is offered to my name, and a clean
offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the
Lord of armies.

12 But you make it unholy by saying, The Lord's table has
become unclean, and his food is of no value.

13 And you say, See, what a weariness it is! and you let out
your breath at it, says the Lord of armies; and you have given
what has been cut about by beasts, and what is damaged in
its feet and ill; this is the offering you give: will this be
pleasing to me from your hands? says the Lord.

14 A curse on the false man who has a male in his flock, and
takes his oath, and gives to the Lord a damaged thing: for I

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

am a great King, says the Lord of armies, and my name is to
be feared among the Gentiles.

MALACHI CHAPTER 2

1 And now, O you priests, this order is for you.

2 If you will not give ear and take it to heart, to give glory
to my name, says the Lord of armies, then I will send the
curse on you and will put a curse on your blessing: truly,
even now I have put a curse on it, because you do not take it
to heart.

3 See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on
your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be
taken away with it.

4 And you will be certain that I have sent this order to you,
so that it might be my agreement with Levi, says the Lord of
armies.

5 My agreement with him was on my side life and peace,
and I gave them to him; on his side fear, and he had fear of
me and gave honour to my name.

6 True teaching was in his mouth, and no evil was seen on
his lips: he was walking with me in peace and righteousness,
turning numbers of people away from evil-doing.

7 For it is right for the priest's lips to keep knowledge, and
for men to be waiting for the law from his mouth: for he is
the servant sent from the Lord of armies.

8 But you are turned out of the way; you have made the law
hard for numbers of people; you have made the agreement of
Levi of no value, says the Lord of armies.

9 And so I have taken away your honour and made you low
before all the people, even as you have not kept my ways, and
have given no thought to me in using the law.

10 Have we not all one father? has not one God made us?
why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother,
putting shame on the agreement of our fathers?

11 Judah has been acting falsely, and a disgusting thing has
been done in Jerusalem; for Judah has made unclean the holy
place of the Lord which is dear to him, and has taken as his
wife the daughter of a strange god.

12 The Lord will have the man who does this cut off root
and branch out of the tents of Jacob, and him who makes an
offering to the Lord of armies.

13 And this again you do: covering the altar of the Lord
with weeping and with grief, so that he gives no more
thought to the offering, and does not take it with pleasure
from your hand.

14 But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has
been a witness between you and the wife of your early years,
to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and
the wife to whom you have given your word.

15 Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of
the Spirit? Why one? He sought a godly seed. So give
thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of
his early years.

16 For I am against the putting away of a wife, says the
Lord, the God of Israel, and against him who 1s clothed with

violent acts, says the Lord of armies: so give thought to your
spirit and do not be false in your acts.

17 You have made the Lord tired with your words. And
still you say, How have we made him tired? By your saying,
Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and
he has delight in them; or, Where is God the judge?

MALACHI CHAPTER 3

1 See, I am sending my servant, and he will make ready the
way before me; and the Lord, whom you are looking for, will
suddenly come to his Temple; and the angel of the agreement,
in whom you have delight, see, he is coming, says the Lord of
armies.

2 But by whom may the day of his coming be faced? and
who may keep his place when he is seen? for he is like the
metal-tester's fire and the cleaner's soap.

3 He will take his seat, testing and cleaning the sons of Levi,
burning away the evil from them as from gold and silver; so
that they may make offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing
to the Lord, as in days gone by, and as in past years.

5 And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be
a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who
have been untrue in married life, against those who take false
oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his
payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child
without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from
a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of
armies.

6 For I am the Lord, I am unchanged; and so you, O sons of
Jacob, have not been cut off.

7 From the days of your fathers you have been turned away
from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and
I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say,
How are we to come back?

8 Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you
have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept
back from you? Tenths and offerings.

9 You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from
me what is mine, even all this nation.

10 Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there
may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so,
says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows
of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that
there is no room for it.

11 And on your account I will keep back the locusts from
wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will
not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of
armies

12 And you will be named happy by all nations: for you
will be a land of delight, says the Lord of armies.

13 Your words have been strong against me, says the Lord.
And still you say, What have we said against you?

14 You have said, It is no use worshipping God: what
profit have we had from keeping his orders, and going in
clothing of sorrow before the Lord of armies?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 And now to us the men of pride seem happy; yes, the
evil-doers are doing well; they put God to the test and are
safe.

16 Then those in whom was the fear of the Lord had talk
together: and the Lord gave ear, and it was recorded in a
book to be kept in mind before him, for those who had the
fear of the Lord and gave thought to his name.

17 And they will be mine, says the Lord, in the day when I
make them my special property; and I will have mercy on
them as a man has mercy on his son who is his servant.

18 Then you will again see how the upright man is different
from the sinner, and the servant of God from him who is not.

MALACHI CHAPTER 4

1 For see, the day is coming, it is burning like an oven; all
the men of pride and all who do evil will be dry stems of grass:
and in the day which is coming they will be burned up, says
the Lord of armies, till they have not a root or a branch.

2 But to you who give worship to my name, the sun of
righteousness will come up with new life in its wings; and
you will go out, playing like young oxen full of food.

3 And the evil-doers will be crushed under you, they will be
dust under your feet, in the day when I do my work, says the
Lord of armies.

4 Keep in mind the law of Moses, my servant, which I gave
him in Horeb for all Israel, even the rules and the decisions.

5 See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of
the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared.

6 And by him the hearts of fathers will be turned to their
children, and the hearts of children to their fathers; for fear
that I may come and put the earth under a curse.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

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BOOKS CALLED

(The Hidden Books)

also knows as the

HEBREW DEUTEROCANON

or Second Canon
of the Old Testament

Edited and arranged by
Lord Henfield

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— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

RNG EN OADLS

THE HEBREW

DEUTEROCANON

also known as The Old Testament Apocrypha
or The Secondary Canon of the Hebrew Bible

(Apocrypha, Hidden Books, from Singular Apocryphon,
being the Hebrew Deuterocanon (The 2nd Jewish Canon) are
books which the Hebrews do not consider scripture but
educational, legal, and historical supplement. The books of
Ezra and Maccabees are worthwhile to read. Some contents
of the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of ben Strach go
back 2000 years before the Bible has been finalised in its
current form in Babylon during the 6th and Sth centuries BC.
See: Appendix D, The Instructions of Shuruppak.

Judaism has a much older history in Greece and the Roman
Republic than most modern people are aware of. The
Septuagint (Latin word for ‘seventy’, often abbreviated in
Roman numerals, LXX) or The Old Testament in Greek,
proves this fact. The Septuagint 1s the earliest extant Greek
translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, complete with
its Deuterocanon and various biblical apocrypha, dating
back to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

At the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, already
5-10% of the Greek and Roman population was Jewish. The
Hebrew Bible was (through its Greek translation) well
known among Greeks and Romans. The first Jews already
came, together with Phoenician traders and settlers, between
the 9th and 6th centuries BC. According to the Letter of
Aristeas, the Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek at the
request of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt (285—247
BC) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 7
six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who
independently produced identical translations.

The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend might
indicate the esteem and disdain in which the translation was
held at the time; Greek translations of Hebrew scriptures
were in circulation among the Alexandrian Jews. Egyptian
papyri from the period have led most scholars to view as
probable Aristeas'’s dating of the translation of the
Pentateuch to the third century BC. Whatever share the
royal court of Ptolemy may have had in the translation, it
satisfied a need felt by the Jewish community of Alexandria
and other places in Egypt (in whom the knowledge of
Hebrew was waning).

The Old Testament in Greek was in wide use by the time of
Caesar, Jesus and Saul of Tarsos (Paul of Tarsus, Paul the
Apostle, the man who created Roman Christianity, the
forerunner of modern Christianity) because most Christian
proselytes, God-fearers, and other gentile sympathisers of
Greek Judaism could not read Hebrew. Greek was the main
language of the educated elite in the rising Roman Republic

and the Roman Empire. The text of the Greek Old Testament
1s quoted more often than the original Hebrew Bible text in
the Greek New Testament (particularly the Pauline epistles
because Paul spoke Greek much better than Hebrew) by the
Apostolic Fathers, and later by the Greek Church Fathers.

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the
Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd
century BC; they did not survive as original-translation texts,
however, we have some fragments of them. The remaining
books of the Greek Old Testament are presumably
translations of the 2nd century BC. The Septuagint
translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which the early
church used as its Old Testament, included all of the
deuterocanonical books.

Modern critical editions of the Greek Old Testament are
based on the Codices Sinaiticus (c.330 AD), Vaticanus (c.330
AD), and Alexandrinus (c. 400 AD), The fourth- and fifth-
century Greek Old Testament manuscripts have different
lengths. The Codex Alexandrinus, for example, contains all
four books of the Maccabees, the Codex Sinaiticus contains 1
and 4 Maccabees, and the Codex Vaticanus contains none of
the four books. The reason for this kind of distribution 1s a
simple one. The Church in the Latin-speaking western half of
the Roman Empire was not so much interested in material
from the Greek-speaking East. In the East it was important
to make Greek and Jewish material available if the Church
and Chritianity as a whole wanted to become accepted by the
large and powerful eastern population. It was a political
decision from the top; meaning Bishop Athanasius of
Alexandria (293-373 AD), Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260—
339), or emperor even Flavius Constantinus I (c. 280-337
AD) himself,

The deuterocanonical books (from the Greek meaning
"belonging to the second canon") are books and passages
considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox
Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian
Church of the East to be canonical books of the Old
Testament but which are considered non-canonical by the
much younger Protestant denominations (16th century AD).
They date from the period 300 BC-100 AD approximately
(mostly from 200 BC-70 AD, te. before the definite
separation of the Church from Judaism). While the New
Testament never quotes from or ascribes canonical authority
to these books, some say there is a correspondence of thought,
while others see texts from these books being paraphrased,
referred or alluded to many times in the New Testament,
particularly in the Pauline epistles depending in large
measure on what 1s counted as a reference.

The Council of Rome (382 AD) defined a list of books of
Scripture presented as having been made canonical. It
included most of the deuterocanonical books. Since the 16th
century, most Protestant Churches have accepted only works
in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as canonical books
of the Old Testament, and hence classify all deuterocanonical
texts (of whichever definition) with the Apocrypha.)

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

APOCRYPHA AS SUPPLEMENTS FROM
THE HEBREW DEUTEROCANON, COMPLETE
(Translation: Various)

In Catholic Bibles, additions are often incorported directly
to the books (mentioned in brackets) We have chosen the
most modern translations available as follows:

DRV_ (Douay-Rheims Version, 1609), WEB (World
English Bible, 2000), DRA (Douay-Rheims American
Version, 1899), KJV (King James Version, 1611)

° 3 Ezra (I Esdras) Greek, DRV

° 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) 1—2 from Latin; 13—14 from Hebrew;
15—16 from Latin, DRV

* Book of Tobit, Tobias, Tobit, WEB

* Book of Judith, WEB

¢ Additions to Esther / The Rest of Esther (in Esther as ch.
11-16), WEB

¢ Wisdom of Solomon or Book of Wisdom, KJV

¢ Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach or Ecclestasticus, DRA

+ Prayer of Solomon (in Sirach as ch. 52), Biblia Catélica

¢ Baruch (original: Greek), WEB

+ Epistle of Jeremiah (in Baruch as ch. 6), KJV

+ The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy
Children (Dan 3), WEB

+ Susanna and the Elders (in Daniel as ch. 13), WEB

* Bel and the Dragon (in Dantel as ch. 14), WEB

+ Prayer of Manasseh (2 Chronicles; 33), KJV

¢ 1 Maccabees (from Hebrew), Sefer Makabi, DRA

° 2 Maccabees (from Greek), Vivlio ton Makkavaion, DRA

APES
Oa oe

3 EZRA
(1 Esdras; the name Esdras is Greek for Ezra)
Original language: Greek
Translation: Douay-Rheims Version, 1609
Estimated Range of Dating: Ist century B.C.

(The name Esdras is the Greek form of the Hebrew name
Ezra. I Esdras (Greek: "Eadpac A'), also Esdras A, Greek
Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras , 1s an ancient Greek version
of the biblical Book of Ezra in use among the early church,
and many modern Christians with varying degrees of
canonicity. 1 Esdras is substantially derived from Masoretic
Ezra—Nehemiah, with the passages specific to the career of
Nehemiah removed or re-attributed to Ezra, and some
additional material.

As part of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament,
it 1s now regarded as canonical in the churches of the East,
but apocryphal in the West; either presented in a separate
section, or excluded altogether. 1 Esdras 1s found in Origen's
Hexapla. The Greek Septuagint, the Old Latin bible and
related bible versions include both Esdras A' (English title: 1
Esdras) and Esdras B' (Ezra—Nehemiah) as separate books.

There is scope for considerable confusion with references to
I Esdras. The name refers primarily to translations of the
original Greek ‘Esdras A’. The Septuagint calls it Esdras A,
while the Vulgate calls it 3 Esdras. It was considered
apocryphal by Jerome. The Vulgate book of Ezra, translated
from the Hebrew was, from the 8th century onwards,
occasionally split into two books, which were then denoted |
Esdras (Ezra) and 2 Esdras (Nehemiah) respectively. Vulgate
Bible editions of the 13th century, and in what later became
the usage of the Clementine Vulgate and the Anglican
Articles of Religion, 'I Esdras' is applied to the Book of Ezra;
while the Book of Nehemiah corresponds to '2 Esdras’.
Septuagint version Esdras A 1s called in the Clementine
Vulgate 3 Esdras. The ‘Apocalypse of Ezra’, an additional
work associated with the name Ezra, 1s denoted '4 Esdras' in
the Clementine Vulgate and the Articles of Religion, but
called '2 Esdras' in the King James Version and in most
modern English bibles. | Esdras continues to be accepted as
canonical by Eastern Orthodoxy and the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church, with 2 Esdras varying in
canonicity between particular denominations within the
Eastern churches.

Overwhelmingly, citations in early Christian writings
claimed from the scriptural 'Book of Ezra\(without any
qualification) are taken from 1 Esdras, and never from the
Ezra' sections of Ezra—Nehemiah (Septuagint ‘Esdras B') ;
the majority of early citations being taken from the 1 Esdras
section containing the 'Tale of the Three Guardsmen’, which
is interpreted as Christological prophecy.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

1 Esdras contains the whole of Ezra with the addition of
one section; its verses are numbered differently. Just as Ezra
begins with the last two verses of 2 Chronicles, I Esdras
begins with the last two chapters; this suggests that
Chronicles and Esdras may have been read as one book at
sometime in the past.

Ezra 4:6 includes a reference to a King Ahasuerus.
Etymologically, Ahasuerus 1s the same as Xerxes, who
reigned between Darius I and Artaxerxes I. Eighteenth-
century expositor John Gill, who deemed the reference to
Xerxes out of place, identified Ahasuerus with Cambyses IL.
Nineteenth-century commentator Adam Clarke identified
fim with Bardiya, who both reigned before Darius I. In 1
Esdras, the section is reorganised, leading up to the
additional section, and the reference to Ahasuerus is removed.

The additional section begins with a story variously known
as the ‘Darius contest’ or 'Tale of the Three Guardsmen'
which was interpolated into | Esdras 3:4 to 4:4. This section
forms the core of | Esdras with Ezra 5, which together are
arranged in a literary chiasm around the celebration in
Jerusalem at the exiles’ return. This chiastic core forms |
Esdras into a complete literary unit, allowing it to stand
independently from the book of Nehemiah. Indeed, some
scholars, such as W. F. Albright and Edwin M. Yamauchi,
believe that Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem before Ezra.

The purpose of the book seems to be the presentation of the
dispute among the courtiers, the 'Tale of the Three
Guardsmen’, to which details from the other books are added
to complete the story. Since there are various discrepancies in
the account, most scholars hold that the work was written by
more than one author. Furthermore, there is disagreement as
to what the original language of the work was, Greek,
Aramaic, or Hebrew.

Josephus makes use of the 1 Esdras which he treats as
Scripture, while generally disregarding the canonical text of
Ezra—Nehemiah. Some scholars believe that the composition
Is ltkely to have taken place in the first century BC or the first
century AD. Many Protestant and Catholic scholars assign
no historical value to the sections of the book not duplicated
in Ezra—Nehemiah. The citations of the other books of the
Bible, however, provide an early alternative to the
Septuagint for those texts, which increases its value to
scholars.

In the current Greek texts, the book breaks off in the
middle of a sentence; that particular verse thus had to be
reconstructed from an early Latin translation. However, it 1s
generally presumed that the original work extended to the
Feast of Tabernacles, as described in Nehemiah 8:13—18. An
additional difficulty with the text appears to readers who are
unfamiliar with chiastic structures common in Semitic
literature. If the text is assumed to be a Western-style, purely
linear narrative, then Artaxerxes seems to be mentioned
before Darius, who is mentioned before Cyrus. (Such
jumbling of the order of events, however, is also presumed by
some readers to exist in the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah.)
The Semitic chiasm 1s corrected in at least one manuscript of

Titus Flavius Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews, Book
11, chapter 2 where we find that the name of the above-
mentioned Artaxerxes 1s called Cambyses.)

3 EZRA CHAPTER |

1 And Josias held the feast of the passover in Jerusalem unto
his Lord, and offered the passover the fourteenth day of the
first month;

2 Having set the priests according to their daily courses,
being arrayed in long garments, in the temple of the Lord.

3 And he spake unto the Levites, the holy ministers of Israel,
that they should hallow themselves unto the Lord, to set the
holy ark of the Lord in the house that king Solomon the son
of David had built:

4 And said, Ye shall no more bear the ark upon your
shoulders: now therefore serve the Lord your God, and
minister unto his people Israel, and prepare you after your
families and kindreds,

5 According as David the king of Israel prescribed, and
according to the magnificence of Solomon his son: and
standing in the temple according to the several dignity of the
families of you the Levites, who minister in the presence of
your brethren the children of Israel,

6 Offer the passover in order, and make ready the sacrifices
for your brethren, and keep the passover according to the
commandment of the Lord, which was given unto Moses.

7 And unto the people that was found there Josias gave
thirty thousand lambs and kids, and three thousand calves:
these things were given of the king's allowance, according as
he promised, to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites.

8 And Helkias, Zacharias, and Syelus, the governors of the
temple, gave to the priests for the passover two thousand and
six hundred sheep, and three hundred calves.

9 And Jeconias, and Samaias, and Nathanael his brother,
and Assabias, and Ochiel, and Joram, captains over
thousands, gave to the Levites for the passover five thousand
sheep, and seven hundred calves.

10 And when these things were done, the priests and Levites,
having the unleavened bread, stood in very comely order
according to the kindreds,

11 And according to the several dignities of the fathers,
before the people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the
book of Moses: and thus did they in the morning.

12 And they roasted the passover with fire, as appertaineth:
as for the sacrifices, they sod them in brass pots and pans
with a good savour,

13 And set them before all the people: and afterward they
prepared for themselves, and for the priests their brethren,
the sons of Aaron.

14 For the priests offered the fat until night: and the
Levites prepared for themselves, and the priests their
brethren, the sons of Aaron.

15 The holy singers also, the sons of Asaph, were in their
order, according to the appointment of David, to wit, Asaph,
Zacharias, and Jeduthun, who was of the king's retinue.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 Moreover the porters were at every gate; it was not
lawful for any to go from his ordinary service: for their
brethren the Levites prepared for them.

17 Thus were the things that belonged to the sacrifices of
the Lord accomplished in that day, that they might hold the
passover,

18 And offer sacrifices upon the altar of the Lord,
according to the commandment of king Josias.

19 So the children of Israel which were present held the
passover at that time, and the feast of sweet bread seven days.

20 And such a passover was not kept in Israel since the time
of the prophet Samuel.

21 Yea, all the kings of Israel held not such a passover as
Josias, and the priests, and the Levites, and the Jews, held
with all Israel that were found dwelling at Jerusalem.

22 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias was this
passover kept.

23 And the works or Josias were upright before his Lord
with an heart full of godliness.

24 As for the things that came to pass in his time, they were
written in former times, concerning those that sinned, and
did wickedly against the Lord above all people and
kingdoms, and how they grieved him exceedingly, so that the
words of the Lord rose up against Israel.

25 Now after all these acts of Josias it came to pass, that
Pharaoh the king of Egypt came to raise war at Carchamis
upon Euphrates: and Josias went out against him.

26 But the king of Egypt sent to him, saying, What have I
to do with thee, O king of Judea?

27 Tam not sent out from the Lord God against thee; for
my war is upon Euphrates: and now the Lord is with me, yea,
the Lord is with me hasting me forward: depart from me, and
be not against the Lord.

28 Howbeit Josias did not turn back his chariot from him,
but undertook to fight with him, not regarding the words of
the prophet Jeremy spoken by the mouth of the Lord:

29 But joined battle with him in the plain of Magiddo, and
the princes came against king Josias.

30 Then said the king unto his servants, Carry me away out
of the battle; for I am very weak. And immediately his
servants took him away out of the battle.

31 Then gat he up upon his second chariot; and being
brought back to Jerusalem died, and was buried in his
father's sepulchre.

32 And in all Jewry they mourned for Josias, yea, Jeremy
the prophet lamented for Josias, and the chief men with the
women made lamentation for him unto this day: and this was
given out for an ordinance to be done continually in all the
nation of Israel.

33 These things are written in the book of the stories of the
kings of Judah, and every one of the acts that Josias did, and
his glory, and his understanding in the law of the Lord, and
the things that he had done before, and the things now
recited, are reported in the book of the kings of Israel and
Judea.

34 And the people took Joachaz the son of Josias, and made
him king instead of Josias his father, when he was twenty and
three years old.

35 And he reigned in Judea and in Jerusalem three months:
and then the king of Egypt deposed him from reigning in
Jerusalem.

36 And he set a tax upon the land of an hundred talents of
silver and one talent of gold.

37 The king of Egypt also made king Joacim his brother
king of Judea and Jerusalem.

38 And he bound Joacim and the nobles: but Zaraces his
brother he apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt.

39 Five and twenty years old was Joacim when he was made
king in the land of Judea and Jerusalem; and he did evil
before the Lord.

40 Wherefore against him Nabuchodonosor the king of
Babylon came up, and bound him with a chain of brass, and
carried him into Babylon.

41 Nabuchodonosor also took of the holy vessels of the
Lord, and carried them away, and set them in his own temple
at Babylon.

42 But those things that are recorded of him, and of his
uncleaness and impiety, are written in the chronicles of the
kings.

43 And Joacim his son reigned in his stead: he was made
king being eighteen years old;

44 And reigned but three months and ten days in Jerusalem;
and did evil before the Lord.

45 So after a year Nabuchodonosor sent and caused him to
be brought into Babylon with the holy vessels of the Lord;

46 And made Zedechias king of Judea and Jerusalem, when
he was one and twenty years old; and he reigned eleven years:

47 And he did evil also in the sight of the Lord, and cared
not for the words that were spoken unto him by the prophet
Jeremy from the mouth of the Lord.

48 And after that king Nabuchodonosor had made him to
swear by the name of the Lord, he forswore himself, and
rebelled; and hardening his neck, his heart, he transgressed
the laws of the Lord God of Israel.

49 The governors also of the people and of the priests did
many things against the laws, and passed all the pollutions of
all nations, and defiled the temple of the Lord, which was
sanctified in Jerusalem.

50 Nevertheless the God of their fathers sent by his
messenger to call them back, because he spared them and his
tabernacle also.

51 But they had his messengers in derision; and, look, when
the Lord spake unto them, they made a sport of his prophets:

52 So far forth, that he, being wroth with his people for
their great ungodliness, commanded the kings of the
Chaldees to come up against them;

53 Who slew their young men with the sword, yea, even
within the compass of their holy temple, and spared neither
young man nor maid, old man nor child, among them; for he
delivered all into their hands.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

54 And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both
great and small, with the vessels of the ark of God, and the
king's treasures, and carried them away into Babylon.

55 As for the house of the Lord, they burnt it, and brake
down the walls of Jerusalem, and set fire upon her towers:

56 And as for her glorious things, they never ceased till
they had consumed and brought them all to nought: and the
people that were not slain with the sword he carried unto
Babylon:

57 Who became servants to him and his children, till the
Persians reigned, to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by the
mouth of Jeremy:

58 Until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, the whole time
of her desolation shall she rest, until the full term of seventy
years.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 2

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the
word of the Lord might be accomplished, that he had
promised by the mouth of Jeremy;

2 The Lord raised up the spirit of Cyrus the king of the
Persians, and he made proclamation through all his kingdom,
and also by writing,

3 Saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of the Persians; The Lord
of Israel, the most high Lord, hath made me king of the
whole world,

4 And commanded me to build him an house at Jerusalem in
Jewry.

5 If therefore there be any of you that are of his people, let
the Lord, even his Lord, be with him, and let him go up to
Jerusalem that is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord of
Israel: for he is the Lord that dwelleth in Jerusalem.

6 Whosoever then dwell in the places about, let them help
him, those, I say, that are his neighbours, with gold, and
with silver,

7 With gifts, with horses, and with cattle, and other things,
which have been set forth by vow, for the temple of the Lord
at Jerusalem.

8 Then the chief of the families of Judea and of the tribe of
Benjamin stood up; the priests also, and the Levites, and all
they whose mind the Lord had moved to go up, and to build
an house for the Lord at Jerusalem,

9 And they that dwelt round about them, and helped them
in all things with silver and gold, with horses and cattle, and
with very many free gifts of a great number whose minds
were stirred up thereto.

10 King Cyrus also brought forth the holy vessels, which
Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem, and had
set up in his temple of idols.

11 Now when Cyrus king of the Persians had brought them
forth, he delivered them to Mithridates his treasurer:

12 And by him they were delivered to Sanabassar the
governor of Judea.

13 And this was the number of them; A thousand golden
cups, and a thousand of silver, censers of silver twenty nine,

vials of gold thirty, and of silver two thousand four hundred
and ten, and a thousand other vessels.

14 So all the vessels of gold and of silver, which were
carried away, were five thousand four hundred threescore
and nine.

15 These were brought back by Sanabassar, together with
them of the captivity, from Babylon to Jerusalem.

16 But in the time of Artexerxes king of the Persians
Belemus, and Mithridates, and Tabellius, and Rathumus,
and Beeltethmus, and Semellius the secretary, with others
that were in commission with them, dwelling in Samaria and
other places, wrote unto him against them that dwelt in
Judea and Jerusalem these letters following;

17 To king Artexerxes our lord, Thy servants, Rathumus
the storywriter, and Semellius the scribe, and the rest of their
council, and the judges that are in Celosyria and Phenice.

18 Be it now known to the lord king, that the Jews that are
up from you to us, being come into Jerusalem, that rebellious
and wicked city, do build the marketplaces, and repair the
walls of it and do lay the foundation of the temple.

19 Now if this city and the walls thereof be made up again,
they will not only refuse to give tribute, but also rebel
against kings.

20 And forasmuch as the things pertaining to the temple
are now in hand, we think it meet not to neglect such a
matter,

21 But to speak unto our lord the king, to the intent that,
if it be thy pleasure it may be sought out in the books of thy
fathers:

22 And thou shalt find in the chronicles what is written
concerning these things, and shalt understand that that city
was rebellious, troubling both kings and cities:

23 And that the Jews were rebellious, and raised always
wars therein; for the which cause even this city was made
desolate.

24 Wherefore now we do declare unto thee, O lord the king,
that if this city be built again, and the walls thereof set up
anew, thou shalt from henceforth have no passage into
Celosyria and Phenice.

25 Then the king wrote back again to Rathumus the
storywriter, to Beeltethmus, to Semellius the scribe, and to
the rest that were in commission, and dwellers in Samaria
and Syria and Phenice, after this manner;

26 I have read the epistle which ye have sent unto me:
therefore I commanded to make diligent search, and it hath
been found that that city was from the beginning practising
against kings;

27 And the men therein were given to rebellion and war:
and that mighty kings and fierce were in Jerusalem, who
reigned and exacted tributes in Celosyria and Phenice.

28 Now therefore I have commanded to hinder those men
from building the city, and heed to be taken that there be no
more done in it;

29 And that those wicked workers proceed no further to the
annoyance of kings,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 Then king Artexerxes his letters being read, Rathumus,
and Semellius the scribe, and the rest that were in
commission with them, removing in haste toward Jerusalem
with a troop of horsemen and a multitude of people in battle
array, began to hinder the builders; and the building of the
temple in Jerusalem ceased until the second year of the reign
of Darius king of the Persians.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 3

1 Now when Darius reigned, he made a great feast unto all
his subjects, and unto all his household, and unto all the
princes of Media and Persia,

2 And to all the governors and captains and lieutenants
that were under him, from India unto Ethiopia, of an
hundred twenty and seven provinces.

3 And when they had eaten and drunken, and being
satisfied were gone home, then Darius the king went into his
bedchamber, and slept, and soon after awaked.

4 Then three young men, that were of the guard that kept
the king's body, spake one to another;

5 Let every one of us speak a sentence: he that shall
overcome, and whose sentence shall seem wiser than the
others, unto him shall the king Darius give great gifts, and
great things in token of victory:

6 As, to be clothed in purple, to drink in gold, and to sleep
upon gold, and a chariot with bridles of gold, and an
headtire of fine linen, and a chain about his neck:

7 And he shall sit next to Darius because of his wisdom, and
shall be called Darius his cousin.

8 And then every one wrote his sentence, sealed it, and laid
it under king Darius his pillow;

9 And said that, when the king is risen, some will give him
the writings; and of whose side the king and the three princes
of Persia shall judge that his sentence is the wisest, to him
shall the victory be given, as was appointed.

10 The first wrote, Wine is the strongest.

11 The second wrote, The king is strongest.

12 The third wrote, Women are strongest: but above all
things Truth beareth away the victory.

13 Now when the king was risen up, they took their
writings, and delivered them unto him, and so he read them:

14 And sending forth he called all the princes of Persia and
Media, and the governors, and the captains, and the
lieutenants, and the chief officers;

15 And sat him down in the royal seat of judgement; and
the writings were read before them.

16 And he said, Call the young men, and they shall declare
their own sentences. So they were called, and came in.

17 And he said unto them, Declare unto us your mind
concerning the writings. Then began the first, who had
spoken of the strength of wine;

18 And he said thus, O ye men, how exceeding strong is
wine! it causeth all men to err that drink it:

19 It maketh the mind of the king and of the fatherless child
to be all one; of the bondman and of the freeman, of the poor
man and of the rich:

20 It turneth also every thought into jollity and mirth, so
that a man remembereth neither sorrow nor debt:

21 And it maketh every heart rich, so that a man
remembereth neither king nor governor; and it maketh to
speak all things by talents:

22 And when they are in their cups, they forget their love
both to friends and brethren, and a little after draw out
swords:

23 But when they are from the wine, they remember not
what they have done.

24 O ye men, is not wine the strongest, that enforceth to do
thus? And when he had so spoken, he held his peace.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 4

1 Then the second, that had spoken of the strength of the
king, began to say,

20 ye men, do not men excel in strength that bear rule over
sea and land and all things in them?

3 But yet the king is more mighty: for he is lord of all these
things, and hath dominion over them; and whatsoever he
commandeth them they do.

4 If he bid them make war the one against the other, they
do it: if he send them out against the enemies, they go, and
break down mountains walls and towers.

5 They slay and are slain, and transgress not the king's
commandment: if they get the victory, they bring all to the
king, as well the spoil, as all things else.

6 Likewise for those that are no soldiers, and have not to do
with wars, but use husbundry, when they have reaped again
that which they had sown, they bring it to the king, and
compel one another to pay tribute unto the king.

7 And yet he is but one man: if he command to Kall, they kill;
if he command to spare, they spare;

8 If he command to smite, they smite; if he command to
make desolate, they make desolate; if he command to build,
they build;

9 If he command to cut down, they cut down; if he
command to plant, they plant.

10 So all his people and his armies obey him: furthermore
he lieth down, he eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest:

11 And these keep watch round about him, neither may any
one depart, and do his own business, neither disobey they
him in any thing.

12 O ye men, how should not the king be mightiest, when
in such sort he is obeyed? And he held his tongue.

13 Then the third, who had spoken of women, and of the
truth, (this was Zorobabel) began to speak.

14 O ye men, it is not the great king, nor the multitude of
men, neither is it wine, that excelleth; who is it then that
ruleth them, or hath the lordship over them? are they not
women?

15 Women have borne the king and all the people that bear
rule by sea and land.

16 Even of them came they: and they nourished them up
that planted the vineyards, from whence the wine cometh.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 These also make garments for men; these bring glory
unto men; and without women cannot men be.

18 Yea, and if men have gathered together gold and silver,
or any other goodly thing, do they not love a woman which
is comely in favour and beauty?

19 And letting all those things go, do they not gape, and
even with open mouth fix their eyes fast on her; and have not
all men more desire unto her than unto silver or gold, or any
goodly thing whatsoever?

20 A man leaveth his own father that brought him up, and
his own country, and cleaveth unto his wife.

21 He sticketh not to spend his life with his wife. and
remembereth neither father, nor mother, nor country.

22 By this also ye must know that women have dominion
over you: do ye not labour and toil, and give and bring all to
the woman?

23 Yea, a man taketh his sword, and goeth his way to rob
and to steal, to sail upon the sea and upon rivers;

24 And looketh upon a lion, and goeth in the darkness; and
when he hath stolen, spoiled, and robbed, he bringeth it to
his love.

25 Wherefore a man loveth his wife better than father or
mother.

26 Yea, many there be that have run out of their wits for
women, and become servants for their sakes.

27 Many also have perished, have erred, and sinned, for
women.

28 And now do ye not believe me? is not the king great in
his power? do not all regions fear to touch him?

29 Yet did I see him and Apame the king's concubine, the
daughter of the admirable Bartacus, sitting at the right hand
of the king,

30 And taking the crown from the king's head, and setting
it upon her own head; she also struck the king with her left
hand.

31 And yet for all this the king gaped and gazed upon her
with open mouth: if she laughed upon him, he laughed also:
but if she took any displeasure at him, the king was fain to
flatter, that she might be reconciled to him again.

32 O ye men, how can it be but women should be strong,
seeing they do thus?

33 Then the king and the princes looked one upon another:
so he began to speak of the truth.

34 O ye men, are not women strong? great is the earth, high
is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he compasseth
the heavens round about, and fetcheth his course again to his
own place in one day.

35 Is he not great that maketh these things? therefore great
is the truth, and stronger than all things.

36 All the earth crieth upon the truth, and the heaven
blesseth it: all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is
no unrighteous thing.

37 Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked,
all the children of men are wicked, and such are all their
wicked works; and there is no truth in them; in their
unrighteousness also they shall perish.

38 As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong; it
liveth and conquereth for evermore.

39 With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards;
but she doeth the things that are just, and refraineth from all
unjust and wicked things; and all men do well like of her
works.

40 Neither in her judgement is any unrighteousness; and
she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages.
Blessed be the God of truth.

41 And with that he held his peace. And all the people then
shouted, and said, Great is Truth, and mighty above all
things.

42 Then said the king unto him, Ask what thou wilt more
than is appointed in the writing, and we will give it thee,
because thou art found wisest; and thou shalt sit next me, and
shalt be called my cousin.

43 Then said he unto the king, Remember thy vow, which
thou hast vowed to build Jerusalem, in the day when thou
camest to thy kingdom,

44 And to send away all the vessels that were taken away
out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart, when he vowed to
destroy Babylon, and to send them again thither.

45 Thou also hast vowed to build up the temple, which the
Edomites burned when Judea was made desolate by the
Chaldees.

46 And now, O lord the king, this is that which I require,
and which I desire of thee, and this is the princely liberality
proceeding from thyself: I desire therefore that thou make
good the vow, the performance whereof with thine own
mouth thou hast vowed to the King of heaven.

47 Then Darius the king stood up, and kissed him, and
wrote letters for him unto all the treasurers and lieutenants
and captains and governors, that they should safely convey
on their way both him, and all those that go up with him to
build Jerusalem.

48 He wrote letters also unto the lieutenants that were in
Celosyria and Phenice, and unto them in Libanus, that they
should bring cedar wood from Libanus unto Jerusalem, and
that they should build the city with him.

49 Moreover he wrote for all the Jews that went out of his
realm up into Jewry, concerning their freedom, that no
officer, no ruler, no lieutenant, nor treasurer, should
forcibly enter into their doors;

50 And that all the country which they hold should be free
without tribute; and that the Edomites should give over the
villages of the Jews which then they held:

51 Yea, that there should be yearly given twenty talents to
the building of the temple, until the time that it were built;

52 And other ten talents yearly, to maintain the burnt
offerings upon the altar every day, as they had a
commandment to offer seventeen:

53 And that all they that went from Babylon to build the
city should have free liberty, as well they as their posterity,
and all the priests that went away.

54 He wrote also concerning. the charges, and the priests'
vestments wherein they minister;

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

55 And likewise for the charges of the Levites, to be given
them until the day that the house were finished, and
Jerusalem builded up.

56 And he commanded to give to all that kept the city
pensions and wages.

57 He sent away also all the vessels from Babylon, that
Cyrus had set apart; and all that Cyrus had given in
commandment, the same charged he also to be done, and sent
unto Jerusalem.

58 Now when this young man was gone forth, he lifted up
his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of
heaven,

59 And said, From thee cometh victory, from thee cometh
wisdom, and thine is the glory, and I am thy servant.

60 Blessed art thou, who hast given me wisdom: for to thee
I give thanks, O Lord of our fathers.

61 And so he took the letters, and went out, and came unto
Babylon, and told it all his brethren.

62 And they praised the God of their fathers, because he
had given them freedom and liberty

63 To go up, and to build Jerusalem, and the temple which
is called by his name: and they feasted with instruments of
musick and gladness seven days.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 5

1 After this were the principal men of the families chosen
according to their tribes, to go up with their wives and sons
and daughters, with their menservants and maidservants, and
their cattle.

2 And Darius sent with them a thousand horsemen, till they
had brought them back to Jerusalem safely, and with musical
instruments tabrets and flutes.

3 And all their brethren played, and he made them go up
together with them.

4 And these are the names of the men which went up,
according to their families among their tribes, after their
several heads.

5 The priests, the sons of Phinees the son of Aaron: Jesus
the son of Josedec, the son of Saraias, and Joacim the son of
Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, of the house of David, out of
the kindred of Phares, of the tribe of Judah;

6 Who spake wise sentences before Darius the king of Persia
in the second year of his reign, in the month Nisan, which is
the first month.

7 And these are they of Jewry that came up from the
captivity, where they dwelt as strangers, whom
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon had carried away unto
Babylon.

8 And they returned unto Jerusalem, and to the other parts
of Jewry, every man to his own city, who came with
Zorobabel, with Jesus, Nehemias, and Zacharias, and
Reesaias, Enenius, Mardocheus. Beelsarus, Aspharasus,
Reelius, Roimus, and Baana, their guides.

9 The number of them of the nation, and their governors,
sons of Phoros, two thousand an hundred seventy and two;
the sons of Saphat, four hundred seventy and two:

10 The sons of Ares, seven hundred fifty and six:

11 The sons of Phaath Moab, two thousand eight hundred
and twelve:

12 The sons of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four:
the sons of Zathul, nine hundred forty and five: the sons of
Corbe, seven hundred and five: the sons of Bani, six hundred
forty and eight:

13 The sons of Bebai, six hundred twenty and three: the
sons of Sadas, three thousand two hundred twenty and two:

14 The sons of Adonikam, six hundred sixty and seven: the
sons of Bagoi, two thousand sixty and six: the sons of Adin,
four hundred fifty and four:

15 The sons of Aterezias, ninety and two: the sons of Ceilan
and Azetas threescore and seven: the sons of Azuran, four
hundred thirty and two:

16 The sons of Ananias, an hundred and one: the sons of
Arom, thirty two: and the sons of Bassa, three hundred
twenty and three: the sons of Azephurith, an hundred and
two:

17 The sons of Meterus, three thousand and five: the sons of
Bethlomon, an hundred twenty and three:

18 They of Netophah, fifty and five: they of Anathoth, an
hundred fifty and eight: they of Bethsamos, forty and two:

19 They of Kiriathiarius, twenty and five: they of Caphira
and Beroth, seven hundred forty and three: they of Pira,
seven hundred:

20 They of Chadias and Ammidoi, four hundred twenty and
two: they of Cirama and Gabdes, six hundred twenty and one:

21 They of Macalon, an hundred twenty and two: they of
Betolius, fifty and two: the sons of Nephis, an hundred fifty
and six:

22 The sons of Calamolalus and Onus, seven hundred
twenty and five: the sons of Jerechus, two hundred forty and
five:

23 The sons of Annas, three thousand three hundred and
thirty.

24 The priests: the sons of Jeddu, the son of Jesus among
the sons of Sanasib, nine hundred seventy and two: the sons
of Meruth, a thousand fifty and two:

25 The sons of Phassaron, a thousand forty and seven: the
sons of Carme, a thousand and seventeen.

26 The Levites: the sons of Jessue, and Cadmiel, and Banuas,
and Sudias, seventy and four.

27 The holy singers: the sons of Asaph, an hundred twenty
and eight.

28 The porters: the sons of Salum, the sons of Jatal, the
sons of Talmon, the sons of Dacobi, the sons of Teta, the sons
of Sami, in all an hundred thirty and nine.

29 The servants of the temple: the sons of Esau, the sons of
Asipha, the sons of Tabaoth, the sons of Ceras, the sons of
Sud, the sons of Phaleas, the sons of Labana, the sons of
Graba,

30 The sons of Acua, the sons of Uta, the sons of Cetab, the
sons of Agaba, the sons of Subai, the sons of Anan, the sons
of Cathua, the sons of Geddur,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 The sons of Airus, the sons of Daisan, the sons of Noeba,
the sons of Chaseba, the sons of Gazera, the sons of Azia, the
sons of Phinees, the sons of Azare, the sons of Bastai, the sons
of Asana, the sons of Meani, the sons of Naphisi, the sons of
Acub, the sons of Acipha, the sons of Assur, the sons of
Pharacim, the sons of Basaloth,

32 The sons of Meeda, the sons of Coutha, the sons of
Charea, the sons of Charcus, the sons of Aserer, the sons of
Thomoi, the sons of Nasith, the sons of Atipha.

33 The sons of the servants of Solomon: the sons of
Azaphion, the sons of Pharira, the sons of Jeeli, the sons of
Lozon, the sons of Israel, the sons of Sapheth,

34 The sons of Hagia, the sons of Pharacareth, the sons of
Sabi, the sons of Sarothie, the sons of Masias, the sons of Gar,
the sons of Addus, the sons of Suba, the sons of Apherra, the
sons of Barodis, the sons of Sabat, the sons of Allom.

35 All the ministers of the temple, and the sons of the
servants of Solomon, were three hundred seventy and two.

36 These came up from Thermeleth and Thelersas,
Charaathalar leading them, and Aalar;

37 Neither could they shew their families, nor their stock,
how they were of Israel: the sons of Ladan, the son of Ban,
the sons of Necodan, six hundred fifty and two.

38 And of the priests that usurped the office of the
priesthood, and were not found: the sons of Obdia, the sons
of Accoz, the sons of Addus, who married Augia one of the
daughters of Barzelus, and was named after his name.

39 And when the description of the kindred of these men
was sought in the register, and was not found, they were
removed from executing the office of the priesthood:

40 For unto them said Nehemias and Atharias, that they
should not be partakers of the holy things, till there arose up
an high priest clothed with doctrine and truth.

Al So of Israel, from them of twelve years old and upward,
they were all in number forty thousand, beside menservants
and womenservants two thousand three hundred and sixty.

42 Their menservants and handmaids were seven thousand
three hundred forty and seven: the singing men and singing
women, two hundred forty and five:

43 Four hundred thirty and five camels, seven thousand
thirty and six horses, two hundred forty and five mules, five
thousand five hundred twenty and five beasts used to the
yoke.

44 And certain of the chief of their families, when they came
to the temple of God that is in Jerusalem, vowed to set up the
house again in his own place according to their ability,

45 And to give into the holy treasury of the works a
thousand pounds of gold, five thousand of silver, and an
hundred priestly vestments.

46 And so dwelt the priests and the Levites and the people
in Jerusalem, and in the country, the singers also and the
porters; and all Israel in their villages.

47 But when the seventh month was at hand, and when the
children of Israel were every man in his own place, they came
all together with one consent into the open place of the first
gate which is toward the east.

48 Then stood up Jesus the son of Josedec, and his brethren
the priests and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and his
brethren, and made ready the altar of the God of Israel,

49 To offer burnt sacrifices upon it, according as it is
expressly commanded in the book of Moses the man of God.

50 And there were gathered unto them out of the other
nations of the land, and they erected the altar upon his own
place, because all the nations of the land were at enmity with
them, and oppressed them; and they offered sacrifices
according to the time, and burnt offerings to the Lord both
morning and evening.

51 Also they held the feast of tabernacles, as it is
commanded in the law, and offered sacrifices daily, as was
meet:

52 And after that, the continual oblations, and the sacrifice
of the sabbaths, and of the new moons, and of all holy feasts.

53 And all they that had made any vow to God began to
offer sacrifices to God from the first day of the seventh month,
although the temple of the Lord was not yet built.

54 And they gave unto the masons and carpenters money,
meat, and drink, with cheerfulness.

55 Unto them of Zidon also and Tyre they gave carrs, that
they should bring cedar trees from Libanus, which should be
brought by floats to the haven of Joppa, according as it was
commanded them by Cyrus king of the Persians.

56 And in the second year and second month after his
coming to the temple of God at Jerusalem began Zorobabel
the son of Salathiel, and Jesus the son of Josedec, and their
brethren, and the priests, and the Levites, and all they that
were come unto Jerusalem out of the captivity:

57 And they laid the foundation of the house of God in the
first day of the second month, in the second year after they
were come to Jewry and Jerusalem.

58 And they appointed the Levites from twenty years old
over the works of the Lord. Then stood up Jesus, and his sons
and brethren, and Cadmiel his brother, and the sons of
Madiabun, with the sons of Joda the son of Eliadun, with
their sons and brethren, all Levites, with one accord setters
forward of the business, labouring to advance the works in
the house of God. So the workmen built the temple of the
Lord.

59 And the priests stood arrayed in their vestments with
musical instruments and trumpets; and the Levites the sons of
Asaph had cymbals,

60 Singing songs of thanksgiving, and praising the Lord,
according as David the king of Israel had ordained.

61 And they sung with loud voices songs to the praise of the
Lord, because his mercy and glory is for ever in all Israel.

62 And all the people sounded trumpets, and shouted with
a loud voice, singing songs of thanksgiving unto the Lord
for the rearing up of the house of the Lord.

63 Also of the priests and Levites, and of the chief of their
families, the ancients who had seen the former house came to
the building of this with weeping and great crying.

64 But many with trumpets and joy shouted with loud
voice,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

65 Insomuch that the trumpets might not be heard for the
weeping of the people: yet the multitude sounded
marvellously, so that it was heard afar off.

66 Wherefore when the enemies of the tribe of Judah and
Benjamin heard it, they came to know what that noise of
trumpets should mean.

67 And they perceived that they that were of the captivity
did build the temple unto the Lord God of Israel.

68 So they went to Zorobabel and Jesus, and to the chief of
the families, and said unto them, We will build together with
you.

69 For we likewise, as ye, do obey your Lord, and do
sacrifice unto him from the days of Azbazareth the king of
the Assyrians, who brought us hither.

70 Then Zorobabel and Jesus and the chief of the families of
Israel said unto them, It is not for us and you to build
together an house unto the Lord our God.

71 We ourselves alone will build unto the Lord of Israel,
according as Cyrus the king of the Persians hath commanded
us.

72 But the heathen of the land lying heavy upon the
inhabitants of Judea, and holding them strait, hindered their
building;

73 And by their secret plots, and popular persuasions and
commotions, they hindered the finishing of the building all
the time that king Cyrus lived: so they were hindered from
building for the space of two years, until the reign of Darius.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 6

1 Now in the second year of the reign of Darius Aggeus and
Zacharias the son of Addo, the prophets, prophesied unto the
Jews in Jewry and Jerusalem in the name of the Lord God of
Israel, which was upon them.

2 Then stood up Zorobabel the son of Salatiel, and Jesus the
son of Josedec, and began to build the house of the Lord at
Jerusalem, the prophets of the Lord being with them, and
helping them.

3 At the same time came unto them Sisinnes the governor of
Syria and Phenice, with Sathrabuzanes and his companions,
and said unto them,

4 By whose appointment do ye build this house and this
roof, and perform all the other things? and who are the
workmen that perform these things?

5 Nevertheless the elders of the Jews obtained favour,
because the Lord had visited the captivity;

6 And they were not hindered from building, until such
time as signification was given unto Darius concerning them,
and an answer received.

7 The copy of the letters which Sisinnes, governor of Syria
and Phenice, and Sathrabuzanes, with their companions,
rulers in Syria and Phenice, wrote and sent unto Darius; To
king Darius, greeting:

8 Let all things be known unto our lord the king, that
being come into the country of Judea, and entered into the
city of Jerusalem we found in the city of Jerusalem the
ancients of the Jews that were of the captivity

9 Building an house unto the Lord, great and new, of hewn
and costly stones, and the timber already laid upon the walls.

10 And those works are done with great speed, and the
work goeth on prosperously in their hands, and with all
glory and diligence is it made.

11 Then asked we these elders, saying, By whose
commandment build ye this house, and lay the foundations of
these works?

12 Therefore to the intent that we might give knowledge
unto thee by writing, we demanded of them who were the
chief doers, and we required of them the names in writing of
their principal men.

13 So they gave us this answer, We are the servants of the
Lord which made heaven and earth.

14 And as for this house, it was builded many years ago by
aking of Israel great and strong, and was finished.

15 But when our fathers provoked God unto wrath, and
sinned against the Lord of Israel which is in heaven, he gave
them over into the power of Nabuchodonosor king of
Babylon, of the Chaldees;

16 Who pulled down the house, and burned it, and carried
away the people captives unto Babylon.

17 But in the first year that king Cyrus reigned over the
country of Babylon Cyrus the king wrote to build up this
house.

18 And the holy vessels of gold and of silver, that
Nabuchodonosor had carried away out of the house at
Jerusalem, and had set them in his own temple those Cyrus
the king brought forth again out of the temple at Babylon,
and they were delivered to Zorobabel and to Sanabassarus
the ruler,

19 With commandment that he should carry away the same
vessels, and put them in the temple at Jerusalem; and that the
temple of the Lord should be built in his place.

20 Then the same Sanabassarus, being come hither, laid the
foundations of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem; and from
that time to this being still a building, it is not yet fully
ended.

21 Now therefore, if it seem good unto the king, let search
be made among the records of king Cyrus:

22 And if it be found that the building of the house of the
Lord at Jerusalem hath been done with the consent of king
Cyrus, and if our lord the king be so minded, let him signify
unto us thereof.

23 Then commanded king Darius to seek among the records
at Babylon: and so at Ecbatane the palace, which is in the
country of Media, there was found a roll wherein these things
were recorded.

24 In the first year of the reign of Cyrus king Cyrus
commanded that the house of the Lord at Jerusalem should
be built again, where they do sacrifice with continual fire:

25 Whose height shall be sixty cubits and the breadth sixty
cubits, with three rows of hewn stones, and one row of new
wood of that country; and the expences thereof to be given
out of the house of king Cyrus:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 And that the holy vessels of the house of the Lord, both
of gold and silver, that Nabuchodonosor took out of the
house at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, should be
restored to the house at Jerusalem, and be set in the place
where they were before.

27 And also he commanded that Sisinnes the governor of
Syria and Phenice, and Sathrabuzanes, and their companions,
and those which were appointed rulers in Syria and Phenice,
should be careful not to meddle with the place, but suffer
Zorobabel, the servant of the Lord, and governor of Judea,
and the elders of the Jews, to build the house of the Lord in
that place.

28 I have commanded also to have it built up whole again;
and that they look diligently to help those that be of the
captivity of the Jews, till the house of the Lord be finished:

29 And out of the tribute of Celosyria and Phenice a
portion carefully to be given these men for the sacrifices of
the Lord, that is, to Zorobabel the governor, for bullocks,
and rams, and lambs;

30 And also corn, salt, wine, and oil, and that continually
every year without further question, according as the priests
that be in Jerusalem shall signify to be daily spent:

31 That offerings may be made to the most high God for
the king and for his children, and that they may pray for
their lives.

32 And he commanded that whosoever should transgress,
yea, or make light of any thing afore spoken or written, out
of his own house should a tree be taken, and he thereon be
hanged, and all his goods seized for the king.

33 The Lord therefore, whose name is there called upon,
utterly destroy every king and nation, that stretcheth out his
hand to hinder or endamage that house of the Lord in
Jerusalem.

34 I Darius the king have ordained that according unto
these things it be done with diligence.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 7

1 Then Sisinnes the governor of Celosyria and Phenice, and
Sathrabuzanes, with their companions following the
commandments of king Darius,

2 Did very carefully oversee the holy works, assisting the
ancients of the Jews and governors of the temple.

3 And so the holy works prospered, when Aggeus and
Zacharias the prophets prophesied.

4 And they finished these things by the commandment of
the Lord God of Israel, and with the consent of Cyrus,
Darius, and Artexerxes, kings of Persia.

5 And thus was the holy house finished in the three and
twentieth day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius
king of the Persians

6 And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites,
and others that were of the captivity, that were added unto
them, did according to the things written in the book of
Moses.

7 And to the dedication of the temple of the Lord they
offered an hundred bullocks two hundred rams, four
hundred lambs;

8 And twelve goats for the sin of all Israel, according to the
number of the chief of the tribes of Israel.

9 The priests also and the Levites stood arrayed in their
vestments, according to their kindreds, in the service of the
Lord God of Israel, according to the book of Moses: and the
porters at every gate.

10 And the children of Israel that were of the captivity held
the passover the fourteenth day of the first month, after that
the priests and the Levites were sanctified.

11 They that were of the captivity were not all sanctified
together: but the Levites were all sanctified together.

12 And so they offered the passover for all them of the
captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for
themselves.

13 And the children of Israel that came out of the captivity
did eat, even all they that had separated themselves from the
abominations of the people of the land, and sought the Lord.

14 And they kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days,
making merry before the Lord,

15 For that he had turned the counsel of the king of Assyria
toward them, to strengthen their hands in the works of the
Lord God of Israel.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 8

1 And after these things, when Artexerxes the king of the
Persians reigned came Esdras the son of Saraias, the son of
Ezerias, the son of Helchiah, the son of Salum,

2 The son of Sadduc, the son of Achitob, the son of Amarias,
the son of Ezias, the son of Meremoth, the son of Zaraias, the
son of Savias, the son of Boccas, the son of Abisum, the son of
Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest.

3 This Esdras went up from Babylon, as a scribe, being very
ready in the law of Moses, that was given by the God of Israel.

4 And the king did him honour: for he found grace in his
sight in all his requests.

5 There went up with him also certain of the children of
Israel, of the priest of the Levites, of the holy singers, porters,
and ministers of the temple, unto Jerusalem,

6 In the seventh year of the reign of Artexerxes, in the fifth
month, this was the king's seventh year; for they went from
Babylon in the first day of the first month, and came to
Jerusalem, according to the prosperous journey which the
Lord gave them.

7 For Esdras had very great skill, so that he omitted
nothing of the law and commandments of the Lord, but
taught all Israel the ordinances and judgements.

8 Now the copy of the commission, which was written from
Artexerxes the king, and came to Esdras the priest and reader
of the law of the Lord, is this that followeth;

9 King Artexerxes unto Esdras the priest and reader of the
law of the Lord sendeth greeting:

10 Having determined to deal graciously, I have given
order, that such of the nation of the Jews, and of the priests

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

and Levites being within our realm, as are willing and
desirous should go with thee unto Jerusalem.

11 As many therefore as have a mind thereunto, let them
depart with thee, as it hath seemed good both to me and my
seven friends the counsellors;

12 That they may look unto the affairs of Judea and
Jerusalem, agreeably to that which is in the law of the Lord;

13 And carry the gifts unto the Lord of Israel to Jerusalem,
which I and my friends have vowed, and all the gold and
silver that in the country of Babylon can be found, to the
Lord in Jerusalem,

14 With that also which is given of the people for the
temple of the Lord their God at Jerusalem: and that silver
and gold may be collected for bullocks, rams, and lambs, and
things thereunto appertaining;

15 To the end that they may offer sacrifices unto the Lord
upon the altar of the Lord their God, which is in Jerusalem.

16 And whatsoever thou and thy brethren will do with the
silver and gold, that do, according to the will of thy God.

17 And the holy vessels of the Lord, which are given thee
for the use of the temple of thy God, which is in Jerusalem,
thou shalt set before thy God in Jerusalem.

18 And whatsoever thing else thou shalt remember for the
use of the temple of thy God, thou shalt give it out of the
king's treasury.

19 And I king Artexerxes have also commanded the keepers
of the treasures in Syria and Phenice, that whatsoever Esdras
the priest and the reader of the law of the most high God
shall send for, they should give it him with speed,

20 To the sum of an hundred talents of silver, likewise also
of wheat even to an hundred cors, and an hundred pieces of
wine, and other things in abundance.

21 Let all things be performed after the law of God
diligently unto the most high God, that wrath come not
upon the kingdom of the king and his sons.

22 I command you also, that ye require no tax, nor any
other imposition, of any of the priests, or Levites, or holy
singers, or porters, or ministers of the temple, or of any that
have doings in this temple, and that no man have authority
to impose any thing upon them.

23 And thou, Esdras, according to the wisdom of God
ordain judges and justices, that they may judge in all Syria
and Phenice all those that know the law of thy God; and
those that know it not thou shalt teach.

24 And whosoever shall transgress the law of thy God, and
of the king, shall be punished diligently, whether it be by
death, or other punishment, by penalty of money, or by
imprisonment.

25 Then said Esdras the scribe, Blessed be the only Lord
God of my fathers, who hath put these things into the heart
of the king, to glorify his house that is in Jerusalem:

26 And hath honoured me in the sight of the king, and his
counsellors, and all his friends and nobles.

27 Therefore was I encouraged by the help of the Lord my
God, and gathered together men of Israel to go up with me.

28 And these are the chief according to their families and
several dignities, that went up with me from Babylon in the
reign of king Artexerxes:

29 Of the sons of Phinees, Gerson: of the sons of Ithamar,
Gamael: of the sons of David, Lettus the son of Sechenias:

30 Of the sons of Pharez, Zacharias; and with him were
counted an hundred and fifty men:

31 Of the sons of Pahath Moab, Eliaonias, the son of
Zaraias, and with him two hundred men:

32 Of the sons of Zathoe, Sechenias the son of Jezelus, and
with him three hundred men: of the sons of Adin, Obeth the
son of Jonathan, and with him two hundred and fifty men:

33 Of the sons of Elam, Josias son of Gotholias, and with
him seventy men:

34 Of the sons of Saphatias, Zaraias son of Michael, and
with him threescore and ten men:

35 Of the sons of Joab, Abadias son of Jezelus, and with him
two hundred and twelve men:

36 Of the sons of Banid, Assalimoth son of Josaphias, and
with him an hundred and threescore men:

37 Of the sons of Babi, Zacharias son of Bebai, and with
him twenty and eight men:

38 Of the sons of Astath, Johannes son of Acatan, and with
him an hundred and ten men:

39 Of the sons of Adonikam the last, and these are the
names of them, Eliphalet, Jewel, and Samaias, and with them
seventy men:

40 Of the sons of Bago, Uthi the son of Istalcurus, and with
him seventy men.

41 And these I gathered together to the river called Theras,
where we pitched our tents three days: and then I surveyed
them.

42 But when I had found there none of the priests and
Levites,

43 Then sent I unto Eleazar, and Iduel, and Masman,

44 And Alnathan, and Mamaias, and Joribas, and Nathan,
Eunatan, Zacharias, and Mosollamon, principal men and
learned.

45 And I bade them that they should go unto Saddeus the
captain, who was in the place of the treasury:

46 And commanded them that they should speak unto
Daddeus, and to his brethren, and to the treasurers in that
place, to send us such men as might execute the priests’ office
in the house of the Lord.

47 And by the mighty hand of our Lord they brought unto
us skilful men of the sons of Moli the son of Levi, the son of
Israel, Asebebia, and his sons, and his brethren, who were
eighteen.

48 And Asebia, and Annus, and Osaias his brother, of the
sons of Channuneus, and their sons, were twenty men.

49 And of the servants of the temple whom David had
ordained, and the principal men for the service of the Levites
to wit, the servants of the temple two hundred and twenty,
the catalogue of whose names were shewed.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

50 And there I vowed a fast unto the young men before our
Lord, to desire of him a prosperous journey both for us and
them that were with us, for our children, and for the cattle:

51 For I was ashamed to ask the king footmen, and
horsemen, and conduct for safeguard against our adversaries.

52 For we had said unto the king, that the power of the
Lord our God should be with them that seek him, to support
them in all ways.

53 And again we besought our Lord as touching these
things, and found him favourable unto us.

54 Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests,
Esebrias, and Assanias, and ten men of their brethren with
them:

55 And I weighed them the gold, and the silver, and the
holy vessels of the house of our Lord, which the king, and his
council, and the princes, and all Israel, had given.

56 And when I had weighed it, I delivered unto them six
hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels of an
hundred talents, and an hundred talents of gold,

57 And twenty golden vessels, and twelve vessels of brass,
even of fine brass, glittering like gold.

58 And I said unto them, Both ye are holy unto the Lord,
and the vessels are holy, and the gold and the silver is a vow
unto the Lord, the Lord of our fathers.

59 Watch ye, and keep them till ye deliver them to the chief
of the priests and Levites, and to the principal men of the
families of Israel, in Jerusalem, into the chambers of the
house of our God.

60 So the priests and the Levites, who had received the
silver and the gold and the vessels, brought them unto
Jerusalem, into the temple of the Lord.

61 And from the river Theras we departed the twelfth day
of the first month, and came to Jerusalem by the mighty hand
of our Lord, which was with us: and from the beginning of
our journey the Lord delivered us from every enemy, and so
we came to Jerusalem.

62 And when we had been there three days, the gold and
silver that was weighed was delivered in the house of our
Lord on the fourth day unto Marmoth the priest the son of
Iri.

63 And with him was Eleazar the son of Phinees, and with
them were Josabad the son of Jesu and Moeth the son of
Sabban, Levites: all was delivered them by number and
weight.

64 And all the weight of them was written up the same hour.

65 Moreover they that were come out of the captivity
offered sacrifice unto the Lord God of Israel, even twelve
bullocks for all Israel, fourscore and sixteen rams,

66 Threescore and twelve lambs, goats for a peace offering,
twelve; all of them a sacrifice to the Lord.

67 And they delivered the king's commandments unto the
king's stewards' and to the governors of Celosyria and
Phenice; and they honoured the people and the temple of
God.

68 Now when these things were done, the rulers came unto
me, and said,

69 The nation of Israel, the princes, the priests and Levites,
have not put away from them the strange people of the land,
nor the pollutions of the Gentiles to wit, of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, and the Moabites, Egyptians,
and Edomites.

70 For both they and their sons have married with their
daughters, and the holy seed is mixed with the strange people
of the land; and from the beginning of this matter the rulers
and the great men have been partakers of this iniquity.

71 And as soon as I had heard these things, I rent my
clothes, and the holy garment, and pulled off the hair from
off my head and beard, and sat me down sad and very heavy.

72 So all they that were then moved at the word of the Lord
God of Israel assembled unto me, whilst I mourned for the
iniquity: but I sat still full of heaviness until the evening
sacrifice.

73 Then rising up from the fast with my clothes and the
holy garment rent, and bowing my knees, and stretching
forth my hands unto the Lord,

74 I said, O Lord, I am confounded and ashamed before thy
face;

75 For our sins are multiplied above our heads, and our
ignorances have reached up unto heaven.

76 For ever since the time of our fathers we have been and
are in great sin, even unto this day.

77 And for our sins and our fathers’ we with our brethren
and our kings and our priests were given up unto the kings of
the earth, to the sword, and to captivity, and for a prey with
shame, unto this day.

78 And now in some measure hath mercy been shewed unto
us from thee, O Lord, that there should be left us a root and
aname in the place of thy sanctuary;

79 And to discover unto us a light in the house of the Lord
our God, and to give us food in the time of our servitude.

80 Yea, when we were in bondage, we were not forsaken of
our Lord; but he made us gracious before the kings of Persia,
so that they gave us food;

81 Yea, and honoured the temple of our Lord, and raised
up the desolate Sion, that they have given us a sure abiding
in Jewry and Jerusalem.

82 And now, O Lord, what shall we say, having these
things? for we have transgressed thy commandments, which
thou gavest by the hand of thy servants the prophets, saying,

83 That the land, which ye enter into to possess as an
heritage, is a land polluted with the pollutions of the
strangers of the land, and they have filled it with their
uncleanness.

84 Therefore now shall ye not join your daughters unto
their sons, neither shall ye take their daughters unto your
sons.

85 Moreover ye shall never seek to have peace with them,
that ye may be strong, and eat the good things of the land,
and that ye may leave the inheritance of the land unto your
children for evermore.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

86 And all that is befallen is done unto us for our wicked
works and great sins; for thou, O Lord, didst make our sins
light,

87 And didst give unto us such a root: but we have turned
back again to transgress thy law, and to mingle ourselves
with the uncleanness of the nations of the land.

88 Mightest not thou be angry with us to destroy us, till
thou hadst left us neither root, seed, nor name?

89 O Lord of Israel, thou art true: for we are left a root this
day.

90 Behold, now are we before thee in our iniquities, for we
cannot stand any longer by reason of these things before thee.

91 And as Esdras in his prayer made his confession,
weeping, and lying flat upon the ground before the temple,
there gathered unto him from Jerusalem a very great
multitude of men and women and children: for there was
great weeping among the multitude.

92 Then Jechonias the son of Jeelus, one of the sons of Israel,
called out, and said, O Esdras, we have sinned against the
Lord God, we have married strange women of the nations of
the land, and now is all Israel aloft.

93 Let us make an oath to the Lord, that we will put away
all our wives, which we have taken of the heathen, with their
children,

94 Like as thou hast decreed, and as many as do obey the
law of the Lord.

95 Arise and put in execution: for to thee doth this matter
appertain, and we will be with thee: do valiantly.

96 So Esdras arose, and took an oath of the chief of the
priests and Levites of all Israel to do after these things; and
so they sware.

3 EZRA CHAPTER 9

1 Then Esdras rising from the court of the temple went to
the chamber of Joanan the son of Eliasib,

2 And remained there, and did eat no meat nor drink water,
mourning for the great iniquities of the multitude.

3 And there was a proclamation in all Jewry and Jerusalem
to all them that were of the captivity, that they should be
gathered together at Jerusalem:

4 And that whosoever met not there within two or three
days according as the elders that bare rule appointed, their
cattle should be seized to the use of the temple, and himself
cast out from them that were of the captivity.

5 And in three days were all they of the tribe of Judah and
Benjamin gathered together at Jerusalem the twentieth day
of the ninth month.

6 And all the multitude sat trembling in the broad court of
the temple because of the present foul weather.

7 So Esdras arose up, and said unto them, Ye have
transgressed the law in marrying strange wives, thereby to
increase the sins of Israel.

8 And now by confessing give glory unto the Lord God of
our fathers,

9 And do his will, and separate yourselves from the heathen
of the land, and from the strange women.

10 Then cried the whole multitude, and said with a loud
voice, Like as thou hast spoken, so will we do.

11 But forasmuch as the people are many, and it is foul
weather, so that we cannot stand without, and this is not a
work of a day or two, seeing our sin in these things is spread
far:

12 Therefore let the rulers of the multitude stay, and let all
them of our habitations that have strange wives come at the
time appointed,

13 And with them the rulers and judges of every place, till
we turn away the wrath of the Lord from us for this matter.

14 Then Jonathan the son of Azael and Ezechias the son of
Theocanus accordingly took this matter upon them: and
Mosollam and Levis and Sabbatheus helped them.

15 And they that were of the captivity did according to all
these things.

16 And Esdras the priest chose unto him the principal men
of their families, all by name: and in the first day of the tenth
month they sat together to examine the matter.

17 So their cause that held strange wives was brought to an
end in the first day of the first month.

18 And of the priests that were come together, and had
strange wives, there were found:

19 Of the sons of Jesus the son of Josedec, and his brethren;
Matthelas and Eleazar, and Joribus and Joadanus.

20 And they gave their hands to put away their wives and
to offer rams to make reconcilement for their errors.

21 And of the sons of Emmer; Ananias, and Zabdeus, and
Eanes, and Sameius, and Hiereel, and Azarias.

22 And of the sons of Phaisur; Elionas, Massias Israel, and
Nathanael, and Ocidelus and Talsas.

23 And of the Levites; Jozabad, and Semis, and Colius, who
was called Calitas, and Patheus, and Judas, and Jonas.

24 Of the holy singers; Eleazurus, Bacchurus.

25 Of the porters; Sallumus, and Tolbanes.

26 Of them of Israel, of the sons of Phoros; Hiermas, and
Eddias, and Melchias, and Maelus, and Eleazar, and Asibias,
and Baanias.

27 Of the sons of Ela; Matthanias, Zacharias, and Hierielus,
and Hieremoth, and Aedias.

28 And of the sons of Zamoth; Eliadas, Elisimus, Othonias,
Jarimoth, and Sabatus, and Sardeus.

29 Of the sons of Babai; Johannes, and Ananias and
Josabad, and Amatheis.

30 Of the sons of Mani; Olamus, Mamuchus, Jedeus,
Jasubus, Jasael, and Hieremoth.

31 And of the sons of Addi; Naathus, and Moosias, Lacunus,
and Naidus, and Mathanias, and Sesthel, Balnuus, and
Manasseas.

32 And of the sons of Annas; Elionas and Aseas, and
Melchias, and Sabbeus, and Simon Chosameus.

33 And of the sons of Asom; Altaneus, and Matthias, and
Baanaia, Eliphalet, and Manasses, and Semei.

34 And of the sons of Maani; Jeremias, Momdis, Omaerus,
Juel, Mabdai, and Pelias, and Anos, Carabasion, and
Enasibus, and Mamnitanaimus, Eliasis, Bannus, Eliali,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Samis, Selemias, Nathanias: and of the sons of Ozora; Sesis,
Esril, Azaelus, Samatus, Zambis, Josephus.

35 And of the sons of Ethma; Mazitias, Zabadaias, Edes,
Juel, Banaias.

36 All these had taken strange wives, and they put them
away with their children.

37 And the priests and Levites, and they that were of Israel,
dwelt in Jerusalem, and in the country, in the first day of the
seventh month: so the children of Israel were in their
habitations.

38 And the whole multitude came together with one accord
into the broad place of the holy porch toward the east:

39 And they spake unto Esdras the priest and reader, that
he would bring the law of Moses, that was given of the Lord
God of Israel.

40 So Esdras the chief priest brought the law unto the
whole multitude from man to woman, and to all the priests,
to hear law in the first day of the seventh month.

41 And he read in the broad court before the holy porch
from morning unto midday, before both men and women;
and the multitude gave heed unto the law.

42 And Esdras the priest and reader of the law stood up
upon a pulpit of wood, which was made for that purpose.

43 And there stood up by him Mattathias, Sammus,
Ananias, Azarias, Urias, Ezecias, Balasamus, upon the right
hand:

44 And upon his left hand stood Phaldaius, Misael,
Melchias, Lothasubus, and Nabarias.

45 Then took Esdras the book of the law before the
multitude: for he sat honourably in the first place in the sight
of them all.

46 And when he opened the law, they stood all straight up.
So Esdras blessed the Lord God most High, the God of hosts,
Almighty.

47 And all the people answered, Amen; and lifting up their
hands they fell to the ground, and worshipped the Lord.

48 Also Jesus, Anus, Sarabias, Adinus, Jacubus, Sabateas,
Auteas, Maianeas, and Calitas, Asrias, and Joazabdus, and
Ananias, Biatas, the Levites, taught the law of the Lord,
making them withal to understand it.

49 Then spake Attharates unto Esdras the chief priest. and
reader, and to the Levites that taught the multitude, even to
all, saying,

50 This day is holy unto the Lord; (for they all wept when
they heard the law:)

51 Go then, and eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send
part to them that have nothing;

52 For this day is holy unto the Lord: and be not sorrowful;
for the Lord will bring you to honour.

53 So the Levites published all things to the people, saying,
This day is holy to the Lord; be not sorrowful.

54 Then went they their way, every one to eat and drink,
and make merry, and to give part to them that had nothing,
and to make great cheer;

55 Because they understood the words wherein they were
instructed, and for the which they had been assembled.

4 EZRA

(2 Esdras; Chapters 1—2 (5 Ezra) Latin;
Chapters 3—14 (4 Ezra) Hebrew; 15—16 (6 Ezra) Latin)
Translation: Douay-Rheims Version, 1609
Estimated Range of Dating: 5th century B.C.

(2 Esdras (also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra)
is the name of an apocalyptic book in many English versions
of the Bible. Its authorship is ascribed to Ezra, a scribe and
priest of the Sth century BC, although modern scholarship
places its composition between 70 and 218 AD. It is
reckoned among the apocrypha by Roman Catholics,
Protestants, and most Eastern Orthodox Christians. 2 Esdras
was excluded by Jerome from his Vulgate version of the Old
Testament, but from the 9th century onwards the Latin text
is sporadically found as an appendix to the Vulgate,
inclusion becoming more general after the 13th century.

Chapters 3—14, or the great bulk of 2 Esdras, is a Jewish
apocalypse, also sometimes known as 4 Ezra or the Jewish
Apocalypse of Ezra. The latter name should not be confused
with a later work called the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra.

The Ethiopian Church considers 4 Ezra to be canonical,
written during the Babylonian captivity, and calls it Izra
Sutuel. It was also often cited by the Fathers of the Church.
In the Eastern Armenian tradition it 1s called 3 Ezra. It was
written in the late Ist century AD following the destruction
of the Second Temple.

Among Greek Fathers of the Church, 4 Ezra 1s generally
cited as "The Prophet Ezra" or "Apocalypse of Ezra". Most
scholars agree that 4 Ezra was composed in Hebrew, which
was translated into Greek, and then to Latin, Armenian,
Ethiopian and Georgian, but the Hebrew and Greek editions
have been lost.

Slightly differing Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic,
Georgian, and Armenian translations have survived; the
Greek version can be reconstructed, though without absolute
certainty, from these different translations, while the Hebrew
text remains more elusive. The modern Slavonic version is
translated from the Latin.

4 Ezra consists of seven visions of Ezra the scribe. Ezra (f1.
480-440 BC), also called Ezra the Scribe (Ezra ha-Sofer)
and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe
(sofer) and priest (kohen). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called
Esdras (in Greek). According to the Hebrew Bible he was a
descendant of Sraya (Ezra 1) the last High Priest to serve in
the First Temple (2 Kings 25:18), and a close relative of
Joshua the first High Priest of the Second Temple (Ezra 3:2).
He returned from Babylonian exile and reintroduced the
Torah in Jerusalem (Ezra 7-10 and Neh 8). According to |
Esdras, a Greek translation of the Book of Ezra still in use in
Eastern Orthodoxy, he was also a High Priest. Rabbinic

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
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tradition holds that he was an ordinary member of the
priesthood. Several traditions have developed over his place
of burial. One tradition says that he is buried in al-Uzayr
near Basra (Iraq), while another tradition alleges that he is
buried in Tadif near Aleppo, in northern Syria. His name
may be an abbreviation of Azaryahu, "Yah helps". In the
Greek Septuagint the name is rendered Esdras, from which
also the Latin name Esdras comes.

The apocalyptic fourth book of Ezra (also sometimes called
the ‘second book of Esdras’ or the ‘third book of Esdras’) was
written c. 100 AD, probably in Hebrew-Aramaic, but now
survives in Latin, Slavonic and Ethiopic. It was one of the
most important sources for Jewish theology at the end of the
Ist century.{cit In this book, Ezra has a seven part prophetic
revelation, converses with an angel of God three times and
has four visions. Ezra, thirty years into the Babylonian Exile
(4 Ezra 3:1 / 2 Esdras 1:1), recounts the siege of Jerusalem
and the destruction of Solomon's Temple. This would place
these revelations in the year 557 BC, a full century before the
date given in the canonical Ezra. The central theological
themes are "the question of theodicy, God's justness in the
face of the triumph of the heathens over the pious, the course
of world history in terms of the teaching of the four
kingdoms, the function of the law, the eschatological
Judgement, the appearance on Earth of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the Messianic Period, at the end of which the
Messiah will die, the end of this world and the coming of the
next, and the Last Judgement." Ezra restores the law that
was destroyed with the burning of the Temple in Jerusalem.
He dictates 24 books for the public (i.e. the Hebrew Bible)
and another 70 for the wise alone (70 unnamed revelatory
works). At the end, he 1s taken up to heaven like Enoch and
Elijah. Ezra is seen as a new Moses in this book.

The last two chapters, also called 6 Ezra by scholars, and
found in the Latin, but not in the Eastern texts, predict wars
and rebuke sinners. Many assume that they probably date
from a much later period (perhaps late third century) and
may be Christian in origin, it 1s possible, though not certain,
that they were added at the same time as the first two
chapters of the Latin version. It is possible that they are
Jewish in origin, however; 15:57-59 have been found in
Greek, which most scholars agree was translated from a
Hebrew original.)

4 EZRA CHAPTER |

(Origin: Latin)

1 The second book of the prophet Esdras, the son of Saraias,
the son of Azarias, the son of Helchias, the son of Sadamias,
the son of Sadoc, the son of Achitob,

2 The son of Achias, the son of Phinees, the son of Heli, the
son of Amarias, the son of Aziei, the son of Marimoth, the
son of Arna, the son of Ozias, the son of Borith, the son of
Abisei, the son of Phinees, the son of Eleazar,

3 The son of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi; which was captive
in the land of the Medes, in the reign of Artexerxes king of
the Persians.

4 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

5 Go thy way, and shew my people their sinful deeds, and
their children their wickedness which they have done against
me; that they may tell their children's children:

6 Because the sins of their fathers are increased in them: for
they have forgotten me, and have offered unto strange gods.

7 Am not I even he that brought them out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage? but they have provoked
me unto wrath, and despised my counsels.

8 Pull thou off then the hair of thy head, and cast all evil
upon them, for they have not been obedient unto my law, but
it is a rebellious people.

9 How long shall I forbear them, into whom I have done so
much good?

10 Many kings have I destroyed for their sakes; Pharaoh
with his servants and all his power have I smitten down.

11 All the nations have I destroyed before them, and in the
east I have scattered the people of two provinces, even of
Tyrus and Sidon, and have slain all their enemies.

12 Speak thou therefore unto them, saying, Thus saith the
Lord,

13 I led you through the sea and in the beginning gave you
a large and safe passage; I gave you Moses for a leader, and
Aaron for a priest.

14 I gave you light in a pillar of fire, and great wonders
have I done among you; yet have ye forgotten me, saith the
Lord.

15 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, The quails were as a
token to you; I gave you tents for your safeguard:
nevertheless ye murmured there,

16 And triumphed not in my name for the destruction of
your enemies, but ever to this day do ye yet murmur.

17 Where are the benefits that I have done for you? when ye
were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, did ye not cry
unto me,

18 Saying, Why hast thou brought us into this wilderness
to kill us? it had been better for us to have served the
Egyptians, than to die in this wilderness.

19 Then had I pity upon your mournings, and gave you
manna to eat; so ye did eat angels’ bread.

20 When ye were thirsty, did I not cleave the rock, and
waters flowed out to your fill? for the heat I covered you
with the leaves of the trees.

21 I divided among you a fruitful land, I cast out the
Canaanites, the Pherezites, and the Philistines, before you:
what shall I yet do more for you? saith the Lord.

22 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, When ye were in the
wilderness, in the river of the Amorites, being athirst, and
blaspheming my name,

23 I gave you not fire for your blasphemies, but cast a tree
in the water, and made the river sweet.

24 What shall I do unto thee, O Jacob? thou, Juda,
wouldest not obey me: I will turn me to other nations, and

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unto those will I give my name, that they may keep my
statutes.

25 Seeing ye have forsaken me, I will forsake you also; when
ye desire me to be gracious unto you, I shall have no mercy
upon you.

26 Whensoever ye shall call upon me, I will not hear you:
for ye have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are
swift to commit manslaughter.

27 Ye have not as it were forsaken me, but your own selves,
saith the Lord.

28 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Have I not prayed you as
a father his sons, as a mother her daughters, and a nurse her
young babes,

29 That ye would be my people, and I should be your God;
that ye would be my children, and I should be your father?

30 I gathered you together, as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings: but now, what shall I do unto you? I will
cast you out from my face.

31 When ye offer unto me, I will turn my face from you: for
your solemn feastdays, your new moons, and your
circumcisions, have I forsaken.

32 I sent unto you my servants the prophets, whom ye have
taken and slain, and torn their bodies in pieces, whose blood
I will require of your hands, saith the Lord.

33 Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Your house is desolate, I
will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.

34 And your children shall not be fruitful; for they have
despised my commandment, and done the thing that is an evil
before me.

35 Your houses will I give to a people that shall come;
which not having heard of me yet shall believe me; to whom I
have shewed no signs, yet they shall do that I have
commanded them.

36 They have seen no prophets, yet they shall call their sins
to remembrance, and acknowledge them.

37 I take to witness the grace of the people to come, whose
little ones rejoice in gladness: and though they have not seen
me with bodily eyes, yet in spirit they believe the thing that I
say.

38 And now, brother, behold what glory; and see the
people that come from the east:

39 Unto whom I will give for leaders, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, Oseas, Amos, and Micheas, Joel, Abdias, and Jonas,

40 Nahum, and Abacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zachary, and
Malachy, which is called also an angel of the Lord.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 2

(Origin: Latin)

1 Thus saith the Lord, I brought this people out of bondage,
and I gave them my commandments by menservants the
prophets; whom they would not hear, but despised my
counsels.

2 The mother that bare them saith unto them, Go your way,
ye children; for I am a widow and forsaken.

3 I brought you up with gladness; but with sorrow and
heaviness have I lost you: for ye have sinned before the Lord
your God, and done that thing that is evil before him.

4 But what shall I now do unto you? I am a widow and
forsaken: go your way, O my children, and ask mercy of the
Lord.

5 As for me, O father, I call upon thee for a witness over the
mother of these children, which would not keep my covenant,

6 That thou bring them to confusion, and their mother to a
spoil, that there may be no offspring of them.

7 Let them be scattered abroad among the heathen, let their
names be put out of the earth: for they have despised my
covenant.

8 Woe be unto thee, Assur, thou that hidest the
unrighteous in thee! O thou wicked people, remember what I
did unto Sodom and Gomorrha;

9 Whose land lieth in clods of pitch and heaps of ashes: even
so also will I do unto them that hear me not, saith the
Almighty Lord.

10 Thus saith the Lord unto Esdras, Tell my people that I
will give them the kingdom of Jerusalem, which I would have
given unto Israel.

11 Their glory also will I take unto me, and give these the
everlasting tabernacles, which I had prepared for them.

12 They shall have the tree of life for an ointment of sweet
savour; they shall neither labour, nor be weary.

13 Go, and ye shall receive: pray for few days unto you,
that they may be shortened: the kingdom is already prepared
for you: watch.

14 Take heaven and earth to witness; for I have broken the
evil in pieces, and created the good: for I live, saith the Lord.

15 Mother, embrace thy children, and bring them up with
gladness, make their feet as fast as a pillar: for I have chosen
thee, saith the Lord.

16 And those that be dead will I raise up again from their
places, and bring them out of the graves: for I have known
my name in Israel.

17 Fear not, thou mother of the children: for I have chosen
thee, saith the Lord.

18 For thy help will I send my servants Esau and Jeremy,
after whose counsel I have sanctified and prepared for thee
twelve trees laden with divers fruits,

19 And as many fountains flowing with milk and honey,
and seven mighty mountains, whereupon there grow roses
and lilies, whereby I will fill thy children with joy.

20 Do right to the widow, judge for the fatherless, give to
the poor, defend the orphan, clothe the naked,

21 Heal the broken and the weak, laugh not a lame man to
scorn, defend the maimed, and let the blind man come into
the sight of my clearness.

22 Keep the old and young within thy walls.

23 Wheresoever thou findest the dead, take them and bury
them, and I will give thee the first place in my resurrection.

24 Abide still, O my people, and take thy rest, for thy
quietness still come.

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25 Nourish thy children, O thou good nurse; stablish their
feet.

26 As for the servants whom I have given thee, there shall
not one of them perish; for I will require them from among
thy number.

27 Be not weary: for when the day of trouble and heaviness
cometh, others shall weep and be sorrowful, but thou shalt
be merry and have abundance.

28 The heathen shall envy thee, but they shall be able to do
nothing against thee, saith the Lord.

29 My hands shall cover thee, so that thy children shall not
see hell.

30 Be joyful, O thou mother, with thy children; for I will
deliver thee, saith the Lord.

31 Remember thy children that sleep, for I shall bring them
out of the sides of the earth, and shew mercy unto them: for I
am merciful, saith the Lord Almighty.

32 Embrace thy children until I come and shew mercy unto
them: for my wells run over, and my grace shall not fail.

33 I Esdras received a charge of the Lord upon the mount
Oreb, that I should go unto Israel; but when I came unto
them, they set me at nought, and despised the commandment
of the Lord.

34 And therefore I say unto you, O ye heathen, that hear
and understand, look for your Shepherd, he shall give you
everlasting rest; for he is nigh at hand, that shall come in the
end of the world.

35 Be ready to the reward of the kingdom, for the
everlasting light shall shine upon you for evermore.

36 Flee the shadow of this world, receive the joyfulness of
your glory: I testify my Saviour openly.

37 O receive the gift that is given you, and be glad, giving
thanks unto him that hath led you to the heavenly kingdom.

38 Arise up and stand, behold the number of those that be
sealed in the feast of the Lord;

39 Which are departed from the shadow of the world, and
have received glorious garments of the Lord.

40 Take thy number, O Sion, and shut up those of thine
that are clothed in white, which have fulfilled the law of the
Lord.

41 The number of thy children, whom thou longedst for, is
fulfilled: beseech the power of the Lord, that thy people,
which have been called from the beginning, may be hallowed.

42 J Esdras saw upon the mount Sion a great people, whom

I could not number, and they all praised the Lord with songs.

43 And in the midst of them there was a young man of a
high stature, taller than all the rest, and upon every one of
their heads he set crowns, and was more exalted; which I
marvelled at greatly.

44 So IL asked the angel, and said, Sir, what are these?

45 He answered and said unto me, These be they that have
put off the mortal clothing, and put on the immortal, and
have confessed the name of God: now are they crowned, and
receive palms.

46 Then said I unto the angel, What young person is it that
crowneth them, and giveth them palms in their hands?

47 So he answered and said unto me, It is the Son of God,
whom they have confessed in the world. Then began I greatly
to commend them that stood so stiffly for the name of the
Lord.

48 Then the angel said unto me, Go thy way, and tell my
people what manner of things, and how great wonders of the
Lord thy God, thou hast seen.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 3

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 In the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city I was in
Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed, and my thoughts
came up over my heart:

2 For I saw the desolation of Sion, and the wealth of them
that dwelt at Babylon.

3 And my spirit was sore moved, so that I began to speak
words full of fear to the most High, and said,

4 0 Lord, who bearest rule, thou spakest at the beginning,
when thou didst plant the earth, and that thyself alone, and
commandedst the people,

5 And gavest a body unto Adam without soul, which was
the workmanship of thine hands, and didst breathe into him
the breath of life, and he was made living before thee.

6 And thou leadest him into paradise, which thy right hand
had planted, before ever the earth came forward.

7 And unto him thou gavest commandment to love thy way:
which he transgressed, and immediately thou appointedst
death in him and in his generations, of whom came nations,
tribes, people, and kindreds, out of number.

8 And every people walked after their own will, and did
wonderful things before thee, and despised thy
commandments.

9 And again in process of time thou broughtest the flood
upon those that dwelt in the world, and destroyedst them.

10 And it came to pass in every of them, that as death was
to Adam, so was the flood to these.

11 Nevertheless one of them thou leftest, namely, Noah
with his household, of whom came all righteous men.

12 And it happened, that when they that dwelt upon the
earth began to multiply, and had gotten them many children,
and were a great people, they began again to be more
ungodly than the first.

13 Now when they lived so wickedly before thee, thou didst
choose thee a man from among them, whose name was
Abraham.

14 Him thou lovedst, and unto him only thou shewedst thy
will:

15 And madest an everlasting covenant with him,
promising him that thou wouldest never forsake his seed.

16 And unto him thou gavest Isaac, and unto Isaac also
thou gavest Jacob and Esau. As for Jacob, thou didst choose
him to thee, and put by Esau: and so Jacob became a great
multitude.

17 And it came to pass, that when thou leadest his seed out
of Egypt, thou broughtest them up to the mount Sinai.

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18 And bowing the heavens, thou didst set fast the earth,
movedst the whole world, and madest the depths to tremble,
and troubledst the men of that age.

19 And thy glory went through four gates, of fire, and of
earthquake, and of wind, and of cold; that thou mightest
give the law unto the seed of Jacob, and diligence unto the
generation of Israel.

20 And yet tookest thou not away from them a wicked
heart, that thy law might bring forth fruit in them.

21 For the first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed,
and was overcome; and so be all they that are born of him.

22 Thus infirmity was made permanent; and the law (also)
in the heart of the people with the malignity of the root; so
that the good departed away, and the evil abode still.

23 So the times passed away, and the years were brought to
an end: then didst thou raise thee up a servant, called David:

24 Whom thou commandedst to build a city unto thy name,
and to offer incense and oblations unto thee therein.

25 When this was done many years, then they that
inhabited the city forsook thee,

26 And in all things did even as Adam and all his
generations had done: for they also had a wicked heart:

27 And so thou gavest thy city over into the hands of thine
enemies.

28 Are their deeds then any better that inhabit Babylon,
that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion?

29 For when I came thither, and had seen impieties without
number, then my soul saw many evildoers in this thirtieth
year, so that my heart failed me.

30 For I have seen how thou sufferest them sinning, and
hast spared wicked doers: and hast destroyed thy people, and
hast preserved thine enemies, and hast not signified it.

31 I do not remember how this way may be left: Are they
then of Babylon better than they of Sion?

32 Or is there any other people that knoweth thee beside
Israel? or what generation hath so believed thy covenants as
Jacob?

33 And yet their reward appeareth not, and their labour
hath no fruit: for I have gone here and there through the
heathen, and I see that they flow in wealth, and think not
upon thy commandments.

34 Weigh thou therefore our wickedness now in the balance,
and their's also that dwell the world; and so shall thy name
no where be found but in Israel.

35 Or when was it that they which dwell upon the earth
have not sinned in thy sight? or what people have so kept thy
commandments?

36 Thou shalt find that Israel by name hath kept thy
precepts; but not the heathen.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 4

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And the angel that was sent unto me, whose name was
Uriel, gave me an answer,

2 And said, Thy heart hath gone to far in this world, and
thinkest thou to comprehend the way of the most High?

3 Then said I, Yea, my lord. And he answered me, and said,
I am sent to shew thee three ways, and to set forth three
similitudes before thee:

4 Whereof if thou canst declare me one, I will shew thee also
the way that thou desirest to see, and I shall shew thee from
whence the wicked heart cometh.

5 And I said, Tell on, my lord. Then said he unto me, Go
thy way, weigh me the weight of the fire, or measure me the
blast of the wind, or call me again the day that is past.

6 Then answered I and said, What man is able to do that,
that thou shouldest ask such things of me?

7 And he said unto me, If I should ask thee how great
dwellings are in the midst of the sea, or how many springs are
in the beginning of the deep, or how many springs are above
the firmament, or which are the outgoings of paradise:

8 Peradventure thou wouldest say unto me, I never went
down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, neither did I ever
climb up into heaven.

9 Nevertheless now have I asked thee but only of the fire
and wind, and of the day wherethrough thou hast passed,
and of things from which thou canst not be separated, and
yet canst thou give me no answer of them.

10 He said moreover unto me, Thine own things, and such
as are grown up with thee, canst thou not know;

11 How should thy vessel then be able to comprehend the
way of the Highest, and, the world being now outwardly
corrupted to understand the corruption that is evident in my
sight?

12 Then said I unto him, It were better that we were not at
all, than that we should live still in wickedness, and to suffer,
and not to know wherefore.

13 He answered me, and said, I went into a forest into a
plain, and the trees took counsel,

14 And said, Come, let us go and make war against the sea
that it may depart away before us, and that we may make us
more woods.

15 The floods of the sea also in like manner took counsel,
and said, Come, let us go up and subdue the woods of the
plain, that there also we may make us another country.

16 The thought of the wood was in vain, for the fire came
and consumed it.

17 The thought of the floods of the sea came likewise to
nought, for the sand stood up and stopped them.

18 If thou wert judge now betwixt these two, whom
wouldest thou begin to justify? or whom wouldest thou
condemn?

19 I answered and said, Verily it is a foolish thought that
they both have devised, for the ground is given unto the
wood, and the sea also hath his place to bear his floods.

20 Then answered he me, and said, Thou hast given a right
judgement, but why judgest thou not thyself also?

21 For like as the ground is given unto the wood, and the
sea to his floods: even so they that dwell upon the earth may
understand nothing but that which is upon the earth: and he
that dwelleth above the heavens may only understand the
things that are above the height of the heavens.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

22 Then answered I and said, I beseech thee, O Lord, let me
have understanding:

23 For it was not my mind to be curious of the high things,
but of such as pass by us daily, namely, wherefore Israel is
given up as a reproach to the heathen, and for what cause the
people whom thou hast loved is given over unto ungodly
nations, and why the law of our forefathers is brought to
nought, and the written covenants come to none effect,

24 And we pass away out of the world as grasshoppers, and
our life is astonishment and fear, and we are not worthy to
obtain mercy.

25 What will he then do unto his name whereby we are
called? of these things have I asked.

26 Then answered he me, and said, The more thou searchest,
the more thou shalt marvel; for the world hasteth fast to pass
away,

27 And cannot comprehend the things that are promised to
the righteous in time to come: for this world is full of
unrighteousness and infirmities.

28 But as concerning the things whereof thou askest me, I
will tell thee; for the evil is sown, but the destruction thereof
is not yet come.

29 If therefore that which is sown be not turned upside
down, and if the place where the evil is sown pass not away,
then cannot it come that is sown with good.

30 For the grain of evil seed hath been sown in the heart of
Adam from the beginning, and how much ungodliness hath
it brought up unto this time? and how much shall it yet
bring forth until the time of threshing come?

31 Ponder now by thyself, how great fruit of wickedness the
grain of evil seed hath brought forth.

32 And when the ears shall be cut down, which are without
number, how great a floor shall they fill?

33 Then I answered and said, How, and when shall these
things come to pass? wherefore are our years few and evil?

34 And he answered me, saying, Do not thou hasten above
the most Highest: for thy haste is in vain to be above him, for
thou hast much exceeded.

35 Did not the souls also of the righteous ask question of
these things in their chambers, saying, How long shall I hope
on this fashion? when cometh the fruit of the floor of our
reward?

36 And unto these things Uriel the archangel gave them
answer, and said, Even when the number of seeds is filled in
you: for he hath weighed the world in the balance.

37 By measure hath he measured the times; and by number
hath he numbered the times; and he doth not move nor stir
them, until the said measure be fulfilled.

38 Then answered I and said, O Lord that bearest rule, even
we all are full of impiety.

39 And for our sakes peradventure it is that the floors of
the righteous are not filled, because of the sins of them that
dwell upon the earth.

40 So he answered me, and said, Go thy way to a woman
with child, and ask of her when she hath fulfilled her nine

months, if her womb may keep the birth any longer within
her.

41 Then said I, No, Lord, that can she not. And he said
unto me, In the grave the chambers of souls are like the
womb of a woman:

42 For like as a woman that travaileth maketh haste to
escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places
haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them.

43 From the beginning, look, what thou desirest to see, it
shall be shewed thee.

44 Then answered I and said, If I have found favour in thy
sight, and if it be possible, and if] be meet therefore,

45 Shew me then whether there be more to come than is
past, or more past than is to come.

46 What is past I know, but what is for to come I know not.

47 And he said unto me, Stand up upon the right side, and I
shall expound the similitude unto thee.

48 So I stood, and saw, and, behold, an hot burning oven
passed by before me: and it happened that when the flame
was gone by I looked, and, behold, the smoke remained still.

49 After this there passed by before me a watery cloud, and
sent down much rain with a storm; and when the stormy rain
was past, the drops remained still.

50 Then said he unto me, Consider with thyself; as the rain
is more than the drops, and as the fire is greater than the
smoke; but the drops and the smoke remain behind: so the
quantity which is past did more exceed.

51 Then I prayed, and said, May I live, thinkest thou, until
that time? or what shall happen in those days?

52 He answered me, and said, As for the tokens whereof
thou askest me, I may tell thee of them in part: but as
touching thy life, I am not sent to shew thee; for I do not
know it.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 5

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 Nevertheless as coming the tokens, behold, the days shall
come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be taken in a
great number, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the
land shall be barren of faith.

2 But iniquity shall be increased above that which now
thou seest, or that thou hast heard long ago.

3 And the land, that thou seest now to have root, shalt thou
see wasted suddenly.

4 But if the most High grant thee to live, thou shalt see
after the third trumpet that the sun shall suddenly shine
again in the night, and the moon thrice in the day:

5 And blood shall drop out of wood, and the stone shall
give his voice, and the people shall be troubled:

6 And even he shall rule, whom they look not for that dwell
upon the earth, and the fowls shall take their flight away
together:

7 And the Sodomitish sea shall cast out fish, and make a
noise in the night, which many have not known: but they
shall all hear the voice thereof.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 There shall be a confusion also in many places, and the
fire shall be oft sent out again, and the wild beasts shall
change their places, and menstruous women shall bring forth
monsters:

9 And salt waters shall be found in the sweet, and all friends
shall destroy one another; then shall wit hide itself, and
understanding withdraw itself into his secret chamber,

10 And shall be sought of many, and yet not be found: then
shall unrighteousness and incontinency be multiplied upon
earth.

11 One land also shall ask another, and say, Is
righteousness that maketh a man righteous gone through
thee? And it shall say, No.

12 At the same time shall men hope, but nothing obtain:
they shall labour, but their ways shall not prosper.

13 To shew thee such tokens I have leave; and if thou wilt
pray again, and weep as now, and fast even days, thou shalt
hear yet greater things.

14 Then I awaked, and an extreme fearfulness went through
all my body, and my mind was troubled, so that it fainted.

15 So the angel that was come to talk with me held me,
comforted me, and set me up upon my feet.

16 And in the second night it came to pass, that Salathiel
the captain of the people came unto me, saying, Where hast
thou been? and why is thy countenance so heavy?

17 Knowest thou not that Israel is committed unto thee in
the land of their captivity?

18 Up then, and eat bread, and forsake us not, as the
shepherd that leaveth his flock in the hands of cruel wolves.

19 Then said I unto him, Go thy ways from me, and come
not nigh me. And he heard what I said, and went from me.

20 And so I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, like
as Uriel the angel commanded me.

21 And after seven days so it was, that the thoughts of my
heart were very grievous unto me again,

22 And my soul recovered the spirit of understanding, and I
began to talk with the most High again,

23 And said, O Lord that bearest rule, of every wood of the
earth, and of all the trees thereof, thou hast chosen thee one
only vine:

24 And of all lands of the whole world thou hast chosen
thee one pit: and of all the flowers thereof one lily:

25 And of all the depths of the sea thou hast filled thee one
river: and of all builded cities thou hast hallowed Sion unto
thyself:

26 And of all the fowls that are created thou hast named
thee one dove: and of all the cattle that are made thou hast
provided thee one sheep:

27 And among all the multitudes of people thou hast gotten
thee one people: and unto this people, whom thou lovedst,
thou gavest a law that is approved of all.

28 And now, O Lord, why hast thou given this one people
over unto many? and upon the one root hast thou prepared
others, and why hast thou scattered thy only one people
among many?

29 And they which did gainsay thy promises, and believed
not thy covenants, have trodden them down.

30 If thou didst so much hate thy people, yet shouldest thou
punish them with thine own hands.

31 Now when I had spoken these words, the angel that
came to me the night afore was sent unto me,

32 And said unto me, Hear me, and I will instruct thee;
hearken to the thing that I say, and I shall tell thee more.

33 And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he unto me,
Thou art sore troubled in mind for Israel's sake: lovest thou
that people better than he that made them?

34 And I said, No, Lord: but of very grief have I spoken:
for my reins pain me every hour, while I labour to
comprehend the way of the most High, and to seek out part
of his judgement.

35 And he said unto me, Thou canst not. And I said,
Wherefore, Lord? whereunto was I born then? or why was
not my mother's womb then my grave, that I might not have
seen the travail of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the stock
of Israel?

36 And he said unto me, Number me the things that are not
yet come, gather me together the dross that are scattered
abroad, make me the flowers green again that are withered,

37 Open me the places that are closed, and bring me forth
the winds that in them are shut up, shew me the image of a
voice: and then I will declare to thee the thing that thou
labourest to know.

38 And I said, O Lord that bearest rule, who may know
these things, but he that hath not his dwelling with men?

39 As for me, I am unwise: how may I then speak of these
things whereof thou askest me?

40 Then said he unto me, Like as thou canst do none of
these things that I have spoken of, even so canst thou not find
out my judgement, or in the end the love that I have
promised unto my people.

41 And I said, Behold, O Lord, yet art thou nigh unto them
that be reserved till the end: and what shall they do that have
been before me, or we that be now, or they that shall come
after us?

42 And he said unto me, I will liken my judgement unto a
ring: like as there is no slackness of the last, even so there is
no swiftness of the first.

43 So I answered and said, Couldest thou not make those
that have been made, and be now, and that are for to come,
at once; that thou mightest shew thy judgement the sooner?

44 Then answered he me, and said, The creature may not
haste above the maker; neither may the world hold them at
once that shall be created therein.

45 And I said, As thou hast said unto thy servant, that thou,
which givest life to all, hast given life at once to the creature
that thou hast created, and the creature bare it: even so it
might now also bear them that now be present at once.

46 And he said unto me, Ask the womb ofa woman, and say
unto her, If thou bringest forth children, why dost thou it
not together, but one after another? pray her therefore to
bring forth ten children at once.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

47 And I said, She cannot: but must do it by distance of
time.

48 Then said he unto me, Even so have I given the womb of
the earth to those that be sown in it in their times.

49 For like as a young child may not bring forth the things
that belong to the aged, even so have I disposed the world
which I created.

50 And I asked, and said, Seeing thou hast now given me
the way, I will proceed to speak before thee: for our mother,
of whom thou hast told me that she is young, draweth now
nigh unto age.

51 He answered me, and said, Ask a woman that beareth
children, and she shall tell thee.

52 Say unto her, Wherefore are unto they whom thou hast
now brought forth like those that were before, but less of
stature?

53 And she shall answer thee, They that be born in the
strength of youth are of one fashion, and they that are born
in the time of age, when the womb faileth, are otherwise.

54 Consider thou therefore also, how that ye are less of
stature than those that were before you.

55 And so are they that come after you less than ye, as the
creatures which now begin to be old, and have passed over
the strength of youth.

56 Then said I, Lord, I beseech thee, if I have found favour
in thy sight, shew thy servant by whom thou visitest thy
creature.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 6

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And he said unto me, In the beginning, when the earth
was made, before the borders of the world stood, or ever the
winds blew,

2 Before it thundered and lightened, or ever the
foundations of paradise were laid,

3 Before the fair flowers were seen, or ever the moveable
powers were established, before the innumerable multitude of
angels were gathered together,

4 Or ever the heights of the air were lifted up, before the
measures of the firmament were named, or ever the chimneys
in Sion were hot,

5 And ere the present years were sought out, and or ever the
inventions of them that now sin were turned, before they
were sealed that have gathered faith for a treasure:

6 Then did I consider these things, and they all were made
through me alone, and through none other: by me also they
shall be ended, and by none other.

7 Then answered I and said, What shall be the parting
asunder of the times? or when shall be the end of the first,
and the beginning of it that followeth?

8 And he said unto me, From Abraham unto Isaac, when
Jacob and Esau were born of him, Jacob's hand held first the
heel of Esau.

9 For Esau is the end of the world, and Jacob is the
beginning of it that followeth.

10 The hand of man is betwixt the heel and the hand: other
question, Esdras, ask thou not.

11 I answered then and said, O Lord that bearest rule, if I
have found favour in thy sight,

12 I beseech thee, shew thy servant the end of thy tokens,
whereof thou shewedst me part the last night.

13 So he answered and said unto me, Stand up upon thy
feet, and hear a mighty sounding voice.

14 And it shall be as it were a great motion; but the place
where thou standest shall not be moved.

15 And therefore when it speaketh be not afraid: for the
word is of the end, and the foundation of the earth is
understood.

16 And why? because the speech of these things trembleth
and is moved: for it knoweth that the end of these things
must be changed.

17 And it happened, that when I had heard it I stood up
upon my feet, and hearkened, and, behold, there was a voice
that spake, and the sound of it was like the sound of many
waters.

18 And it said, Behold, the days come, that I will begin to
draw nigh, and to visit them that dwell upon the earth,

19 And will begin to make inquisition of them, what they
be that have hurt unjustly with their unrighteousness, and
when the affliction of Sion shall be fulfilled;

20 And when the world, that shall begin to vanish away,
shall be finished, then will I shew these tokens: the books
shall be opened before the firmament, and they shall see all
together:

21 And the children of a year old shall speak with their
voices, the women with child shall bring forth untimely
children of three or four months old, and they shall live, and
be raised up.

22 And suddenly shall the sown places appear unsown, the
full storehouses shall suddenly be found empty:

23 And the trumpet shall give a sound, which when every
man heareth, they shall be suddenly afraid.

24 At that time shall friends fight one against another like
enemies, and the earth shall stand in fear with those that
dwell therein, the springs of the fountains shall stand still,
and in three hours they shall not run.

25 Whosoever remaineth from all these that I have told thee
shall escape, and see my salvation, and the end of your world.

26 And the men that are received shall see it, who have not
tasted death from their birth: and the heart of the
inhabitants shall be changed, and turned into another
meaning.

27 For evil shall be put out, and deceit shall be quenched.

28 As for faith, it shall flourish, corruption shall be
overcome, and the truth, which hath been so long without
fruit, shall be declared.

29 And when he talked with me, behold, I looked by little
and little upon him before whom I stood.

30 And these words said he unto me; I am come to shew
thee the time of the night to come.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 If thou wilt pray yet more, and fast seven days again, I
shall tell thee greater things by day than I have heard.

32 For thy voice is heard before the most High: for the
Mighty hath seen thy righteous dealing, he hath seen also thy
chastity, which thou hast had ever since thy youth.

33 And therefore hath he sent me to shew thee all these
things, and to say unto thee, Be of good comfort and fear not

34 And hasten not with the times that are past, to think
vain things, that thou mayest not hasten from the latter
times.

35 And it came to pass after this, that I wept again, and
fasted seven days in like manner, that I might fulfil the three
weeks which he told me.

36 And in the eighth night was my heart vexed within me
again, and I began to speak before the most High.

37 For my spirit was greatly set on fire, and my soul was in
distress.

38 And I said, O Lord, thou spakest from the beginning of
the creation, even the first day, and saidst thus; Let heaven
and earth be made; and thy word was a perfect work.

39 And then was the spirit, and darkness and silence were
on every side; the sound of man's voice was not yet formed.

40 Then commandedst thou a fair light to come forth of thy
treasures, that thy work might appear.

41 Upon the second day thou madest the spirit of the
firmament, and commandedst it to part asunder, and to
make a division betwixt the waters, that the one part might
go up, and the other remain beneath.

42 Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters
should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth: six parts
hast thou dried up, and kept them, to the intent that of these
some being planted of God and tilled might serve thee.

43 For as soon as thy word went forth the work was made.

44 For immediately there was great and innumerable fruit,
and many and divers pleasures for the taste, and flowers of
unchangeable colour, and odours of wonderful smell: and
this was done the third day.

45 Upon the fourth day thou commandedst that the sun
should shine, and the moon give her light, and the stars
should be in order:

46 And gavest them a charge to do service unto man, that
was to be made.

47 Upon the fifth day thou saidst unto the seventh part,
where the waters were gathered that it should bring forth
living creatures, fowls and fishes: and so it came to pass.

48 For the dumb water and without life brought forth
living things at the commandment of God, that all people
might praise thy wondrous works.

49 Then didst thou ordain two living creatures, the one
thou calledst Enoch, and the other Leviathan;

50 And didst separate the one from the other: for the
seventh part, namely, where the water was gathered together,
might not hold them both.

51 Unto Enoch thou gavest one part, which was dried up
the third day, that he should dwell in the same part, wherein
are a thousand hills:

52 But unto Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part,
namely, the moist; and hast kept him to be devoured of
whom thou wilt, and when.

53 Upon the sixth day thou gavest commandment unto the
earth, that before thee it should bring forth beasts, cattle,
and creeping things:

54 And after these, Adam also, whom thou madest lord of
all thy creatures: of him come we all, and the people also
whom thou hast chosen.

55 All this have I spoken before thee, O Lord, because thou
madest the world for our sakes

56 As for the other people, which also come of Adam, thou
hast said that they are nothing, but be like unto spittle: and
hast likened the abundance of them unto a drop that falleth
from a vessel.

57 And now, O Lord, behold, these heathen, which have
ever been reputed as nothing, have begun to be lords over us,
and to devour us.

58 But we thy people, whom thou hast called thy firstborn,
thy only begotten, and thy fervent lover, are given into their
hands.

59 If the world now be made for our sakes, why do we not
possess an inheritance with the world? how long shall this
endure?

4 EZRA CHAPTER 7

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And when I had made an end of speaking these words,
there was sent unto me the angel which had been sent unto
me the nights afore:

2 And he said unto me, Up, Esdras, and hear the words that
Iam come to tell thee.

3 And I said, Speak on, my God. Then said he unto me, The
sea is set in a wide place, that it might be deep and great.

4 But put the case the entrance were narrow, and like a
river;

5 Who then could go into the sea to look upon it, and to
rule it? if he went not through the narrow, how could he
come into the broad?

6 There is also another thing; A city is builded, and set
upon a broad field, and is full of all good things:

7 The entrance thereof is narrow, and is set in a dangerous
place to fall, like as if there were a fire on the right hand, and
on the left a deep water:

8 And one only path between them both, even between the
fire and the water, so small that there could but one man go
there at once.

9 If this city now were given unto a man for an inheritance,
if he never shall pass the danger set before it, how shall he
receive this inheritance?

10 And I said, It is so, Lord. Then said he unto me, Even so
also 1s Israel's portion.

11 Because for their sakes I made the world: and when
Adam transgressed my statutes, then was decreed that now is
done.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full

of sorrow and travail: they are but few and evil, full of perils,:

and very painful.

13 For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure,
and brought immortal fruit.

14 If then they that live labour not to enter these strait and
vain things, they can never receive those that are laid up for
them.

15 Now therefore why disquietest thou thyself, seeing thou
art but a corruptible man? and why art thou moved, whereas
thou art but mortal?

16 Why hast thou not considered in thy mind this thing
that is to come, rather than that which is present?

17 Then answered I and said, O Lord that bearest rule,
thou hast ordained in thy law, that the righteous should
inherit these things, but that the ungodly should perish.

18 Nevertheless the righteous shall suffer strait things, and
hope for wide: for they that have done wickedly have suffered
the strait things, and yet shall not see the wide.

19 And he said unto me. There is no judge above God, and
none that hath understanding above the Highest.

20 For there be many that perish in this life, because they
despise the law of God that is set before them.

21 For God hath given strait commandment to such as
came, what they should do to live, even as they came, and
what they should observe to avoid punishment.

22 Nevertheless they were not obedient unto him; but spake
against him, and imagined vain things;

23 And deceived themselves by their wicked deeds; and said
of the most High, that he is not; and knew not his ways:

24 But his law have they despised, and denied his covenants;
in his statutes have they not been faithful, and have not
performed his works.

25 And therefore, Esdras, for the empty are empty things,
and for the full are the full things.

26 Behold, the time shall come, that these tokens which I
have told thee shall come to pass, and the bride shall appear,
and she coming forth shall be seen, that now is withdrawn
from the earth.

27 And whosoever is delivered from the foresaid evils shall
see my wonders.

28 For my son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be
with him, and they that remain shall rejoice within four
hundred years.

29 After these years shall my son Christ die, and all men
that have life.

30 And the world shall be turned into the old silence seven
days, like as in the former judgements: so that no man shall
remain.

31 And after seven days the world, that yet awaketh not,
shall be raised up, and that shall die that is corrupt

32 And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her,
and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence, and the
secret places shall deliver those souls that were committed
unto them.

33 And the most High shall appear upon the seat of
judgement, and misery shall pass away, and the long
suffering shall have an end:

34 But judgement only shall remain, truth shall stand, and
faith shall wax strong:

35 And the work shall follow, and the reward shall be
shewed, and the good deeds shall be of force, and wicked
deeds shall bear no rule.

36 Then said I, Abraham prayed first for the Sodomites,
and Moses for the fathers that sinned in the wilderness:

37 And Jesus after him for Israel in the time of Achan:

38 And Samuel and David for the destruction: and
Solomon for them that should come to the sanctuary:

39 And Helias for those that received rain; and for the dead,
that he might live:

40 And Ezechias for the people in the time of Sennacherib:
and many for many.

41 Even so now, seeing corruption is grown up, and
wickedness increased, and the righteous have prayed for the
ungodly: wherefore shall it not be so now also?

42 He answered me, and said, This present life is not the
end where much glory doth abide; therefore have they prayed
for the weak.

43 But the day of doom shall be the end of this time, and
the beginning of the immortality for to come, wherein
corruption is past,

44 Intemperance is at an end, infidelity is cut off,
righteousness is grown, and truth is sprung up.

45 Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed,
nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory.

46 I answered then and said, This is my first and last saying,
that it had been better not to have given the earth unto
Adam: or else, when it was given him, to have restrained him
from sinning.

47 For what profit is it for men now in this present time to
live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment?

48 O thou Adam, what hast thou done? for though it was
thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that
come of thee.

49 For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an
immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring
death?

50 And that there is promised us an everlasting hope,
whereas ourselves being most wicked are made vain?

51 And that there are laid up for us dwellings of health and
safety, whereas we have lived wickedly?

52 And that the glory of the most High is kept to defend
them which have led a wary life, whereas we have walked in
the most wicked ways of all?

53 And that there should be shewed a paradise, whose fruit
endureth for ever, wherein is security and medicine, since we
shall not enter into it?

54 (For we have walked in unpleasant places.)

55 And that the faces of them which have used abstinence
shall shine above the stars, whereas our faces shall be blacker
than darkness?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

56 For while we lived and committed iniquity, we
considered not that we should begin to suffer for it after
death.

57 Then answered he me, and said, This is the condition of
the battle, which man that is born upon the earth shall fight;

58 That, if he be overcome, he shall suffer as thou hast said:
but ifhe get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say.

59 For this is the life whereof Moses spake unto the people
while he lived, saying, Choose thee life, that thou mayest live.

60 Nevertheless they believed not him, nor yet the prophets
after him, no nor me which have spoken unto them,

61 That there should not be such heaviness in their
destruction, as shall be joy over them that are persuaded to
salvation.

62 I answered then, and said, I know, Lord, that the most
High is called merciful, in that he hath mercy upon them
which are not yet come into the world,

63 And upon those also that turn to his law;

64 And that he is patient, and long suffereth those that
have sinned, as his creatures;

65 And that he is bountiful, for he is ready to give where it
needeth;

66 And that he is of great mercy, for he multiplieth more
and more mercies to them that are present, and that are past,
and also to them which are to come.

67 For if he shall not multiply his mercies, the world would
not continue with them that inherit therein.

68 And he pardoneth; for if he did not so of his goodness,
that they which have committed iniquities might be eased of
them, the ten thousandth part of men should not remain
living.

69 And being judge, if he should not forgive them that are
cured with his word, and put out the multitude of
contentions,

70 There should be very few left peradventure in an
innumerable multitude.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 8

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And he answered me, saying, The most High hath made
this world for many, but the world to come for few.

2 I will tell thee a similitude, Esdras; As when thou askest
the earth, it shall say unto thee, that it giveth much mould
whereof earthen vessels are made, but little dust that gold
cometh of: even so is the course of this present world.

3 There be many created, but few shall be saved.

4 So answered I and said, Swallow then down, O my soul,
understanding, and devour wisdom.

5 For thou hast agreed to give ear, and art willing to
prophesy: for thou hast no longer space than only to live.

6 O Lord, if thou suffer not thy servant, that we may pray
before thee, and thou give us seed unto our heart, and culture
to our understanding, that there may come fruit of it; how
shall each man live that is corrupt, who beareth the place ofa
man?

7 For thou art alone, and we all one workmanship of thine
hands, like as thou hast said.

8 For when the body is fashioned now in the mother's
womb, and thou givest it members, thy creature is preserved
in fire and water, and nine months doth thy workmanship
endure thy creature which is created in her.

9 But that which keepeth and is kept shall both be
preserved: and when the time cometh, the womb preserved
delivereth up the things that grew in it.

10 For thou hast commanded out of the parts of the body,
that is to say, out of the breasts, milk to be given, which is
the fruit of the breasts,

11 That the thing which is fashioned may be nourished for a
time, till thou disposest it to thy mercy.

12 Thou broughtest it up with thy righteousness, and
nurturedst it in thy law, and reformedst it with thy
judgement.

13 And thou shalt mortify it as thy creature, and quicken it
as thy work.

14 If therefore thou shalt destroy him which with so great
labour was fashioned, it is an easy thing to be ordained by
thy commandment, that the thing which was made might be
preserved.

15 Now therefore, Lord, I will speak; touching man in
general, thou knowest best; but touching thy people, for
whose sake I am sorry;

16 And for thine inheritance, for whose cause I mourn; and
for Israel, for whom I am heavy; and for Jacob, for whose
sake I am troubled;

17 Therefore will I begin to pray before thee for myself and
for them: for I see the falls of us that dwell in the land.

18 But I have heard the swiftness of the judge which is to
come.

19 Therefore hear my voice, and understand my words, and
I shall speak before thee. This is the beginning of the words
of Esdras, before he was taken up: and I said,

20 O Lord, thou that dwellest in everlastingness which
beholdest from above things in the heaven and in the air;

21 Whose throne is inestimable; whose glory may not be
comprehended; before whom the hosts of angels stand with
trembling,

22 Whose service is conversant in wind and fire; whose
word is true, and sayings constant; whose commandment is
strong, and ordinance fearful;

23 Whose look drieth up the depths, and indignation
maketh the mountains to melt away; which the truth
witnesseth:

24 O hear the prayer of thy servant, and give ear to the
petition of thy creature.

25 For while I live I will speak, and so long as I have
understanding I will answer.

26 O look not upon the sins of thy people; but on them
which serve thee in truth.

27 Regard not the wicked inventions of the heathen, but
the desire of those that keep thy testimonies in afflictions.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 Think not upon those that have walked feignedly before
thee: but remember them, which according to thy will have
known thy fear.

29 Let it not be thy will to destroy them which have lived
like beasts; but to look upon them that have clearly taught
thy law.

30 Take thou no indignation at them which are deemed
worse than beasts; but love them that always put their trust
in thy righteousness and glory.

31 For we and our fathers do languish of such diseases: but
because of us sinners thou shalt be called merciful.

32 For if thou hast a desire to have mercy upon us, thou
shalt be called merciful, to us namely, that have no works of
righteousness.

33 For the just, which have many good works laid up with
thee, shall out of their own deeds receive reward.

34 For what is man, that thou shouldest take displeasure at
him? or what is a corruptible generation, that thou shouldest
be so bitter toward it?

35 For in truth them is no man among them that be born,
but he hath dealt wickedly; and among the faithful there is
none which hath not done amiss.

36 For in this, O Lord, thy righteousness and thy goodness
shall be declared, if thou be merciful unto them which have
not the confidence of good works.

37 Then answered he me, and said, Some things hast thou
spoken aright, and according unto thy words it shall be.

38 For indeed I will not think on the disposition of them
which have sinned before death, before judgement, before
destruction:

39 But I will rejoice over the disposition of the righteous,
and I will remember also their pilgrimage, and the salvation,
and the reward, that they shall have.

40 Like as I have spoken now, so shall it come to pass.

41 For as the husbandman soweth much seed upon the
ground, and planteth many trees, and yet the thing that is
sown good in his season cometh not up, neither doth all that
is planted take root: even so is it of them that are sown in the
world; they shall not all be saved.

42 I answered then and said, If I have found grace, let me
speak.

43 Like as the husbandman's seed perisheth, if it come not
up, and receive not thy rain in due season; or if there come
too much rain, and corrupt it:

44 Even so perisheth man also, which is formed with thy
hands, and is called thine own image, because thou art like
unto him, for whose sake thou hast made all things, and
likened him unto the husbandman's seed.

45 Be not wroth with us but spare thy people, and have
mercy upon thine own inheritance: for thou art merciful
unto thy creature.

46 Then answered he me, and said, Things present are for
the present, and things to cometh for such as be to come.

47 For thou comest far short that thou shouldest be able to
love my creature more than I: but I have ofttimes drawn nigh
unto thee, and unto it, but never to the unrighteous.

48 In this also thou art marvellous before the most High:

49 In that thou hast humbled thyself, as it becometh thee,
and hast not judged thyself worthy to be much glorified
among the righteous.

50 For many great miseries shall be done to them that in
the latter time shall dwell in the world, because they have
walked in great pride.

51 But understand thou for thyself, and seek out the glory
for such as be like thee.

52 For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is
planted, the time to come is prepared, plenteousness is made
ready, a city is builded, and rest is allowed, yea, perfect
goodness and wisdom.

53 The root of evil is sealed up from you, weakness and the
moth is hid from you, and corruption is fled into hell to be
forgotten:

54 Sorrows are passed, and in the end is shewed the treasure
of immortality.

55 And therefore ask thou no more questions concerning
the multitude of them that perish.

56 For when they had taken liberty, they despised the most
High, thought scorn of his law, and forsook his ways.

57 Moreover they have trodden down his righteous,

58 And said in their heart, that there is no God; yea, and
that knowing they must die.

59 For as the things aforesaid shalt receive you, so thirst
and pain are prepared for them: for it was not his will that
men should come to nought:

60 But they which be created have defiled the name of him
that made them, and were unthankful unto him which
prepared life for them.

61 And therefore is my judgement now at hand.

62 These things have I not shewed unto all men, but unto
thee, and a few like thee. Then answered I and said,

63 Behold, O Lord, now hast thou shewed me the multitude
of the wonders, which thou wilt begin to do in the last times:
but at what time, thou hast not shewed me.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 9

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 He answered me then, and said, Measure thou the time
diligently in itself: and when thou seest part of the signs past,
which I have told thee before,

2 Then shalt thou understand, that it is the very same time,
wherein the Highest will begin to visit the world which he
made.

3 Therefore when there shall be seen earthquakes and
uproars of the people in the world:

4 Then shalt thou well understand, that the most High
spake of those things from the days that were before thee,
even from the beginning.

5 For like as all that is made in the world hath a beginning
and an end, and the end is manifest:

6 Even so the times also of the Highest have plain
beginnings in wonder and powerful works, and endings in
effects and signs.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 And every one that shall be saved, and shall be able to
escape by his works, and by faith, whereby ye have believed,

8 Shall be preserved from the said perils, and shall see my
salvation in my land, and within my borders: for I have
sanctified them for me from the beginning.

9 Then shall they be in pitiful case, which now have abused
my ways: and they that have cast them away despitefully shall
dwell in torments.

10 For such as in their life have received benefits, and have
not known me;

11 And they that have loathed my law, while they had yet
liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was open unto
them, understood not, but despised it;

12 The same must know it after death by pain.

13 And therefore be thou not curious how the ungodly
shall be punished, and when: but enquire how the righteous
shall be saved, whose the world is, and for whom the world is
created.

14 Then answered I and said,

15 I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it
also hereafter, that there be many more of them which perish,
than of them which shall be saved:

16 Like as a wave is greater than a drop.

17 And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is
also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the colours also; such
as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the
husbandman is himself, so is his husbandry also: for it was
the time of the world.

18 And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet
made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spake
against me.

19 For then every one obeyed: but now the manners of them
which are created in this world that is made are corrupted by
a perpetual seed, and by a law which is unsearchable rid
themselves.

20 So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril
because of the devices that were come into it.

21 And I saw, and spared it greatly, and have kept me a
grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people.

22 Let the multitude perish then, which was born in vain;
and let my grape be kept, and my plant; for with great
labour have I made it perfect.

23 Nevertheless, if thou wilt cease yet seven days more, (but
thou shalt not fast in them,

24 But go into a field of flowers, where no house is builded,
and eat only the flowers of the field; taste no flesh, drink no
wine, but eat flowers only;)

25 And pray unto the Highest continually, then will I come
and talk with thee.

26 So I went my way into the field which is called Ardath,
like as he commanded me; and there I sat among the flowers,
and did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of the same
satisfied me.

27 After seven days I sat upon the grass, and my heart was
vexed within me, like as before:

28 And I opened my mouth, and began to talk before the
most High, and said,

29 O Lord, thou that shewest thyself unto us, thou wast
shewed unto our fathers in the wilderness, in a place where
no man treadeth, in a barren place, when they came out of
Egypt.

30 And thou spakest saying, Hear me, O Israel; and mark
my words, thou seed of Jacob.

31 For, behold, I sow my law in you, and it shall bring fruit
in you, and ye shall be honoured in it for ever.

32 But our fathers, which received the law, kept it not, and
observed not thy ordinances: and though the fruit of thy law
did not perish, neither could it, for it was thine;

33 Yet they that received it perished, because they kept not
the thing that was sown in them.

34 And, lo, it is a custom, when the ground hath received
seed, or the sea a ship, or any vessel meat or drink, that, that
being perished wherein it was sown or cast into,

35 That thing also which was sown, or cast therein, or
received, doth perish, and remaineth not with us: but with us
it hath not happened so.

36 For we that have received the law perish by sin, and our
heart also which received it

37 Notwithstanding the law perisheth not, but remaineth
in his force.

38 And when I spake these things in my heart, I looked
back with mine eyes, and upon the right side I saw a woman,
and, behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice, and
was much grieved in heart, and her clothes were rent, and she
had ashes upon her head.

39 Then let I my thoughts go that I was in, and turned me
unto her,

40 And said unto her, Wherefore weepest thou? why art
thou so grieved in thy mind?

41 And she said unto me, Sir, let me alone, that I may
bewail myself, and add unto my sorrow, for I am sore vexed
in my mind, and brought very low.

42 And I said unto her, What aileth thee? tell me.

43 She said unto me, I thy servant have been barren, and
had no child, though I had an husband thirty years,

44 And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night,
and every hour, but make my, prayer to the Highest.

45 After thirty years God heard me thine handmaid, looked
upon my misery, considered my trouble, and gave me a son:
and I was very glad of him, so was my husband also, and all
my neighbours: and we gave great honour unto the Almighty.

46 And I nourished him with great travail.

47 So when he grew up, and came to the time that he should
have a wife, I made a feast.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 10

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And it so came to pass, that when my son was entered into
his wedding chamber, he fell down, and died.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

2 Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbours
rose up to comfort me: so I took my rest unto the second day
at night.

3 And it came to pass, when they had all left off to comfort
me, to the end I might be quiet; then rose I up by night and
fled, and came hither into this field, as thou seest.

4 And I do now purpose not to return into the city, but
here to stay, and neither to eat nor drink, but continually to
mourn and to fast until I die.

5 Then left I the meditations wherein I was, and spake to
her in anger, saying,

6 Thou foolish woman above all other, seest thou not our
mourning, and what happeneth unto us?

7 How that Sion our mother is full of all heaviness, and
much humbled, mourning very sore?

8 And now, seeing we all mourn and are sad, for we are all
in heaviness, art thou grieved for one son?

9 For ask the earth, and she shall tell thee, that it is she
which ought to mourn for the fall of so many that grow upon
her.

10 For out of her came all at the first, and out of her shall
all others come, and, behold, they walk almost all into
destruction, and a multitude of them is utterly rooted out.

11 Who then should make more mourning than she, that
hath lost so great a multitude; and not thou, which art sorry
but for one?

12 But if thou sayest unto me, My lamentation is not like
the earth's, because I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I
brought forth with pains, and bare with sorrows;

13 But the earth not so: for the multitude present in it
according to the course of the earth is gone, as it came:

14 Then say I unto thee, Like as thou hast brought forth
with labour; even so the earth also hath given her fruit,
namely, man, ever since the beginning unto him that made
her.

15 Now therefore keep thy sorrow to thyself, and bear with
a good courage that which hath befallen thee.

16 For if thou shalt acknowledge the determination of God
to be just, thou shalt both receive thy son in time, and shalt
be commended among women.

17 Go thy way then into the city to thine husband.

18 And she said unto me, That will I not do: I will not go
into the city, but here will I die.

19 So I proceeded to speak further unto her, and said,

20 Do not so, but be counselled. by me: for how many are
the adversities of Sion? be comforted in regard of the sorrow
of Jerusalem.

21 For thou seest that our sanctuary is laid waste, our altar
broken down, our temple destroyed;

22 Our psaltery is laid on the ground, our song is put to
silence, our rejoicing is at an end, the light of our candlestick
is put out, the ark of our covenant is spoiled, our holy things
are defiled, and the name that is called upon us is almost
profaned: our children are put to shame, our priests are
burnt, our Levites are gone into captivity, our virgins are
defiled, and our wives ravished; our righteous men carried

away, our little ones destroyed, our young men are brought
in bondage, and our strong men are become weak;

23 And, which is the greatest of all, the seal of Sion hath
now lost her honour; for she is delivered into the hands of
them that hate us.

24 And therefore shake off thy great heaviness, and put
away the multitude of sorrows, that the Mighty may be
merciful unto thee again, and the Highest shall give thee rest
and ease from thy labour.

25 And it came to pass while I was talking with her, behold,
her face upon a sudden shined exceedingly, and her
countenance glistered, so that I was afraid of her, and mused
what it might be.

26 And, behold, suddenly she made a great cry very fearful:
so that the earth shook at the noise of the woman.

27 And I looked, and, behold, the woman appeared unto
me no more, but there was a city builded, and a large place
shewed itself from the foundations: then was I afraid, and
cried with a loud voice, and said,

28 Where is Uriel the angel, who came unto me at the first?
for he hath caused me to fall into many trances, and mine end
is turned into corruption, and my prayer to rebuke.

29 And as I was speaking these words behold, he came unto
me, and looked upon me.

30 And, lo, I lay as one that had been dead, and mine
understanding was taken from me: and he took me by the
right hand, and comforted me, and set me upon my feet, and
said unto me,

31 What aileth thee? and why art thou so disquieted? and
why is thine understanding troubled, and the thoughts of
thine heart?

32 And I said, Because thou hast forsaken me, and yet I did
according to thy words, and I went into the field, and, lo, I
have seen, and yet see, that I am not able to express.

33 And he said unto me, Stand up manfully, and I will
advise thee.

34 Then said I, Speak on, my lord, in me; only forsake me
not, lest I die frustrate of my hope.

35 For I have seen that I knew not, and hear that I do not
know.

36 Or is my sense deceived, or my soul in a dream?

37 Now therefore I beseech thee that thou wilt shew thy
servant of this vision.

38 He answered me then, and said, Hear me, and I shall
inform thee, and tell thee wherefore thou art afraid: for the
Highest will reveal many secret things unto thee.

39 He hath seen that thy way is right: for that thou
sorrowest continually for thy people, and makest great
lamentation for Sion.

40 This therefore is the meaning of the vision which thou
lately sawest:

41 Thou sawest a woman mourning, and thou begannest to
comfort her:

42 But now seest thou the likeness of the woman no more,
but there appeared unto thee a city builded.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

43 And whereas she told thee of the death of her son, this is
the solution:

44 This woman, whom thou sawest is Sion: and whereas she
said unto thee, even she whom thou seest as a city builded,

45 Whereas, I say, she said unto thee, that she hath been
thirty years barren: those are the thirty years wherein there
was no offering made in her.

46 But after thirty years Solomon builded the city and
offered offerings: and then bare the barren a son.

47 And whereas she told thee that she nourished him with
labour: that was the dwelling in Jerusalem.

48 But whereas she said unto thee, That my son coming
into his marriage chamber happened to have a fail, and died:
this was the destruction that came to Jerusalem.

49 And, behold, thou sawest her likeness, and because she
mourned for her son, thou begannest to comfort her: and of
these things which have chanced, these are to be opened unto
thee.

50 For now the most High seeth that thou art grieved
unfeignedly, and sufferest from thy whole heart for her, so
hath he shewed thee the brightness of her glory, and the
comeliness of her beauty:

51 And therefore I bade thee remain in the field where no
house was builded:

52 For I knew that the Highest would shew this unto thee.

53 Therefore I commanded thee to go into the field, where
no foundation of any building was.

54 For in the place wherein the Highest beginneth to shew
his city, there can no man's building be able to stand.

55 And therefore fear not, let not thine heart be affrighted,
but go thy way in, and see the beauty and greatness of the
building, as much as thine eyes be able to see:

56 And then shalt thou hear as much as thine ears may
comprehend.

57 For thou art blessed above many other, and art called
with the Highest; and so are but few.

58 But to morrow at night thou shalt remain here;

59 And so shall the Highest shew thee visions of the high
things, which the most High will do unto them that dwell
upon the earth in the last days. So I slept that night and
another, like as he commanded me.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 11

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 Then saw I a dream, and, behold, there came up from the
sea an eagle, which had twelve feathered wings, and three
heads.

2 And I saw, and, behold, she spread her wings over all the
earth, and all the winds of the air blew on her, and were
gathered together.

3 And I beheld, and out of her feathers there grew other
contrary feathers; and they became little feathers and small.

4 But her heads were at rest: the head in the midst was
greater than the other, yet rested it with the residue.

5 Moreover I beheld, and, lo, the eagle flew with her
feathers, and reigned upon earth, and over them that dwelt
therein.

6 And I saw that all things under heaven were subject unto
her, and no man spake against her, no, not one creature upon
earth.

7 And I beheld, and, lo, the eagle rose upon her talons, and
spake to her feathers, saying,

8 Watch not all at once: sleep every one in his own place,
and watch by course:

9 But let the heads be preserved for the last.

10 And I beheld, and, lo, the voice went not out of her
heads, but from the midst of her body.

11 And I numbered her contrary feathers, and, behold,
there were eight of them.

12 And I looked, and, behold, on the right side there arose
one feather, and reigned over all the earth;

13 And so it was, that when it reigned, the end of it came,
and the place thereof appeared no more: so the next
following stood up. and reigned, and had a great time;

14 And it happened, that when it reigned, the end of it
came also, like as the first, so that it appeared no more.

15 Then came there a voice unto it, and said,

16 Hear thou that hast borne rule over the earth so long:
this I say unto thee, before thou beginnest to appear no more,

17 There shall none after thee attain unto thy time, neither
unto the half thereof.

18 Then arose the third, and reigned as the other before,
and appeared no more also.

19 So went it with all the residue one after another, as that
every one reigned, and then appeared no more.

20 Then I beheld, and, lo, in process of time the feathers
that followed stood up upon the right side, that they might
rule also; and some of them ruled, but within a while they
appeared no more:

21 For some of them were set up, but ruled not.

22 After this I looked, and, behold, the twelve feathers
appeared no more, nor the two little feathers:

23 And there was no more upon the eagle's body, but three
heads that rested, and six little wings.

24 Then saw I also that two little feathers divided
themselves from the six, and remained under the head that
was upon the right side: for the four continued in their place.

25 And I beheld, and, lo, the feathers that were under the
wing thought to set up themselves and to have the rule.

26 And I beheld, and, lo, there was one set up, but shortly
it appeared no more.

27 And the second was sooner away than the first.

28 And I beheld, and, lo, the two that remained thought
also in themselves to reign:

29 And when they so thought, behold, there awaked one of
the heads that were at rest, namely, it that was in the midst;
for that was greater than the two other heads.

30 And then I saw that the two other heads were joined
with it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 And, behold, the head was turned with them that were
with it, and did eat up the two feathers under the wing that
would have reigned.

32 But this head put the whole earth in fear, and bare rule
in it over all those that dwelt upon the earth with much
oppression; and it had the governance of the world more
than all the wings that had been.

33 And after this I beheld, and, lo, the head that was in the
midst suddenly appeared no more, like as the wings.

34 But there remained the two heads, which also in like sort
ruled upon the earth, and over those that dwelt therein.

35 And I beheld, and, lo, the head upon the right side
devoured it that was upon the left side.

36 Then I head a voice, which said unto me, Look before
thee, and consider the thing that thou seest.

37 And I beheld, and lo, as it were a roaring lion chased out
of the wood: and I saw that he sent out a man's voice unto the
eagle, and said,

38 Hear thou, I will talk with thee, and the Highest shall
say unto thee,

39 Art not thou it that remainest of the four beasts, whom I
made to reign in my world, that the end of their times might
come through them?

40 And the fourth came, and overcame all the beasts that
were past, and had power over the world with great
fearfulness, and over the whole compass of the earth with
much wicked oppression; and so long time dwelt he upon the
earth with deceit.

41 For the earth hast thou not judged with truth.

42 For thou hast afflicted the meek, thou hast hurt the
peaceable, thou hast loved liars, and destroyed the dwellings
of them that brought forth fruit, and hast cast down the
walls of such as did thee no harm.

43 Therefore is thy wrongful dealing come up unto the
Highest, and thy pride unto the Mighty.

44 The Highest also hath looked upon the proud times, and,
behold, they are ended, and his abominations are fulfilled.

45 And therefore appear no more, thou eagle, nor thy
horrible wings, nor thy wicked feathers nor thy malicious
heads, nor thy hurtful claws, nor all thy vain body:

46 That all the earth may be refreshed, and may return,
being delivered from thy violence, and that she may hope for
the judgement and mercy of him that made her.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 12

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And it came to pass, whiles the lion spake these words
unto the eagle, I saw,

2 And, behold, the head that remained and the four wings
appeared no more, and the two went unto it and set
themselves up to reign, and their kingdom was small, and fill
of uproar.

3 And I saw, and, behold, they appeared no more, and the
whole body of the eagle was burnt so that the earth was in
great fear: then awaked I out of the trouble and trance of my
mind, and from great fear, and said unto my spirit,

4 Lo, this hast thou done unto me, in that thou searchest
out the ways of the Highest.

5 Lo, yet am I weary in my mind, and very weak in my
spirit; and little strength is there in me, for the great fear
wherewith I was afflicted this night.

6 Therefore will I now beseech the Highest, that he will
comfort me unto the end.

7 And I said, Lord that bearest rule, if I have found grace
before thy sight, and if I am justified with thee before many
others, and if my prayer indeed be come up before thy face;

8 Comfort me then, and shew me thy servant the
interpretation and plain difference of this fearful vision, that
thou mayest perfectly comfort my soul.

9 For thou hast judged me worthy to shew me the last times.

10 And he said unto me, This is the interpretation of the
vision:

11 The eagle, whom thou sawest come up from the sea, is
the kingdom which was seen in the vision of thy brother
Daniel.

12 But it was not expounded unto him, therefore now I
declare it unto thee.

13 Behold, the days will come, that there shall rise up a
kingdom upon earth, and it shall be feared above all the
kingdoms that were before it.

14 In the same shall twelve kings reign, one after another:

15 Whereof the second shall begin to reign, and shall have
more time than any of the twelve.

16 And this do the twelve wings signify, which thou sawest.

17 As for the voice which thou heardest speak, and that
thou sawest not to go out from the heads but from the midst
of the body thereof, this is the interpretation:

18 That after the time of that kingdom there shall arise
great strivings, and it shall stand in peril of failing:
nevertheless it shall not then fall, but shall be restored again
to his beginning.

19 And whereas thou sawest the eight small under feathers
sticking to her wings, this is the interpretation:

20 That in him there shall arise eight kings, whose times
shall be but small, and their years swift.

21 And two of them shall perish, the middle time
approaching: four shall be kept until their end begin to
approach: but two shall be kept unto the end.

22 And whereas thou sawest three heads resting, this is the
interpretation:

23 In his last days shall the most High raise up three
kingdoms, and renew many things therein, and they shall
have the dominion of the earth,

24 And of those that dwell therein, with much oppression,
above all those that were before them: therefore are they
called the heads of the eagle.

25 For these are they that shall accomplish his wickedness,
and that shall finish his last end.

26 And whereas thou sawest that the great head appeared
no more, it signifieth that one of them shall die upon his bed,
and yet with pain.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 For the two that remain shall be slain with the sword.

28 For the sword of the one shall devour the other: but at
the last shall he fall through the sword himself.

29 And whereas thou sawest two feathers under the wings
passing over the head that is on the right side;

30 It signifieth that these are they, whom the Highest hath
kept unto their end: this is the small kingdom and full of
trouble, as thou sawest.

31 And the lion, whom thou sawest rising up out of the
wood, and roaring, and speaking to the eagle, and rebuking
her for her unrighteousness with all the words which thou
hast heard;

32 This is the anointed, which the Highest hath kept for
them and for their wickedness unto the end: he shall reprove
them, and shall upbraid them with their cruelty.

33 For he shall set them before him alive in judgement, and
shall rebuke them, and correct them.

34 For the rest of my people shall he deliver with mercy,
those that have been pressed upon my borders, and he shall
make them joyful until the coming of the day of judgement,
whereof I have spoken unto thee from the beginning.

35 This is the dream that thou sawest, and these are the
interpretations.

36 Thou only hast been meet to know this secret of the
Highest.

37 Therefore write all these things that thou hast seen in a
book, and hide them:

38 And teach them to the wise of the people, whose hearts
thou knowest may comprehend and keep these secrets.

39 But wait thou here thyself yet seven days more, that it
may be shewed thee, whatsoever it pleaseth the Highest to
declare unto thee. And with that he went his way.

40 And it came to pass, when all the people saw that the
seven days were past, and I not come again into the city, they
gathered them all together, from the least unto the greatest,
and came unto me, and said,

41 What have we offended thee? and what evil have we done
against thee, that thou forsakest us, and sittest here in this
place?

42 For of all the prophets thou only art left us, as a cluster
of the vintage, and as a candle in a dark place, and as a haven
or ship preserved from the tempest.

43 Are not the evils which are come to us sufficient?

44 If thou shalt forsake us, how much better had it been for
us, if we also had been burned in the midst of Sion?

45 For we are not better than they that died there. And
they wept with a loud voice. Then answered I them, and said,

46 Be of good comfort, O Israel; and be not heavy, thou
house of Jacob:

47 For the Highest hath you in remembrance, and the
Mighty hath not forgotten you in temptation.

48 As for me, I have not forsaken you, neither am I
departed from you: but am come into this place, to pray for
the desolation of Sion, and that I might seek mercy for the
low estate of your sanctuary.

49 And now go your way home every man, and after these
days will I come unto you.

50 So the people went their way into the city, like as I
commanded them:

51 But I remained still in the field seven days, as the angel
commanded me; and did eat only in those days of the flowers
of the field, and had my meat of the herbs

4 EZRA CHAPTER 13

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And it came to pass after seven days, I dreamed a dream
by night:

2 And, lo, there arose a wind from the sea, that it moved all
the waves thereof.

3 And I beheld, and, lo, that man waxed strong with the
thousands of heaven: and when he turned his countenance to
look, all the things trembled that were seen under him.

4 And whensoever the voice went out of his mouth, all they
burned that heard his voice, like as the earth faileth when it
feeleth the fire.

5 And after this I beheld, and, lo, there was gathered
together a multitude of men, out of number, from the four
winds of the heaven, to subdue the man that came out of the
sea

6 But I beheld, and, lo, he had graved himself a great
mountain, and flew up upon it.

7 But I would have seen the region or place whereout the
hill was graven, and I could not.

8 And after this I beheld, and, lo, all they which were
gathered together to subdue him were sore afraid, and yet
durst fight.

9 And, lo, as he saw the violence of the multitude that came,
he neither lifted up his hand, nor held sword, nor any
instrument of war:

10 But only I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had
been a blast of fire, and out of his lips a flaming breath, and
out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempests.

11 And they were all mixed together; the blast of fire, the
flaming breath, and the great tempest; and fell with violence
upon the multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned
them up every one, so that upon a sudden of an innumerable
multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust and
smell of smoke: when I saw this I was afraid.

12 Afterward saw I the same man come down from the
mountain, and call unto him another peaceable Multitude.

13 And there came much people unto him, whereof some
were glad, some were sorry, and some of them were bound,
and other some brought of them that were offered: then was I
sick through great fear, and I awaked, and said,

14 Thou hast shewed thy servant these wonders from the
beginning, and hast counted me worthy that thou shouldest
receive my prayer:

15 Shew me now yet the interpretation of this dream.

16 For as I conceive in mine understanding, woe unto them
that shall be left in those days and much more woe unto them
that are not left behind!

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 For they that were not left were in heaviness.

18 Now understand I the things that are laid up in the
latter days, which shall happen unto them, and to those that
are left behind.

19 Therefore are they come into great perils and many
necessities, like as these dreams declare.

20 Yet is it easier for him that is in danger to come into
these things, than to pass away as a cloud out of the world,
and not to see the things that happen in the last days. And he
answered unto me, and said,

21 The interpretation of the vision shall I shew thee, and I
will open unto thee the thing that thou hast required.

22 Whereas thou hast spoken of them that are left behind,
this is the interpretation:

23 He that shall endure the peril in that time hath kept
himself: they that be fallen into danger are such as have
works, and faith toward the Almighty.

24 Know this therefore, that they which be left behind are
more blessed than they that be dead.

25 This is the meaning of the vision: Whereas thou sawest a
man coming up from the midst of the sea:

26 The same is he whom God the Highest hath kept a great
season, which by his own self shall deliver his creature: and
he shall order them that are left behind.

27 And whereas thou sawest, that out of his mouth there
came as a blast of wind, and fire, and storm;

28 And that he held neither sword, nor any instrument of
war, but that the rushing in of him destroyed the whole
multitude that came to subdue him; this is the interpretation:

29 Behold, the days come, when the most High will begin
to deliver them that are upon the earth.

30 And he shall come to the astonishment of them that
dwell on the earth.

31 And one shall undertake to fight against another, one
city against another, one place against another, one people
against another, and one realm against another.

32 And the time shall be when these things shall come to
pass, and the signs shall happen which I shewed thee before,
and then shall my Son be declared, whom thou sawest as a
man ascending.

33 And when all the people hear his voice, every man shall
in their own land leave the battle they have one against
another.

34 And an innumerable multitude shall be gathered
together, as thou sawest them, willing to come, and to
overcome him by fighting.

35 But he shall stand upon the top of the mount Sion.

36 And Sion shall come, and shall be shewed to all men,
being prepared and builded, like as thou sawest the hill
graven without hands.

37 And this my Son shall rebuke the wicked inventions of
those nations, which for their wicked life are fallen into the
tempest;

38 And shall lay before them their evil thoughts, and the
torments wherewith they shall begin to be tormented, which
are like unto a flame: and he shall destroy them without
labour by the law which is like unto me.

39 And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another
peaceable multitude unto him;

40 Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away
prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king,
whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and
he carried them over the waters, and so came they into
another land.

41 But they took this counsel among themselves, that they
would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a
further country, where never mankind dwelt,

42 That they might there keep their statutes, which they
never kept in their own land.

43 And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow places of
the river.

44 For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held
still the flood, till they were passed over.

45 For through that country there was a great way to go,
namely, of a year and a half: and the same region is called
Arsareth.

46 Then dwelt they there until the latter time; and now
when they shall begin to come,

47 The Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again,
that they may go through: therefore sawest thou the
multitude with peace.

48 But those that be left behind of thy people are they that
are found within my borders.

49 Now when he destroyeth the multitude of the nations
that are gathered together, he shall defend his people that
remain.

50 And then shall he shew them great wonders.

51 Then said I, O Lord that bearest rule, shew me this:
Wherefore have I seen the man coming up from the midst of
the sea?

52 And he said unto me, Like as thou canst neither seek out
nor know the things that are in the deep of the sea: even so
can no man upon earth see my Son, or those that be with him,
but in the day time.

53 This is the interpretation of the dream which thou
sawest, and whereby thou only art here lightened.

54 For thou hast forsaken thine own way, and applied thy
diligence unto my law, and sought it.

55 Thy life hast thou ordered in wisdom, and hast called
understanding thy mother.

56 And therefore have I shewed thee the treasures of the
Highest: after other three days I will speak other things unto
thee, and declare unto thee mighty and wondrous things.

57 Then went I forth into the field, giving praise and
thanks greatly unto the most High because of his wonders
which he did in time;

58 And because he governeth the same, and such things as
fall in their seasons: and there I sat three days.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 EZRA CHAPTER 14

(Origin: Hebrew)

1 And it came to pass upon the third day, I sat under an oak,
and, behold, there came a voice out of a bush over against me,
and said, Esdras, Esdras.

2 And I said, Here am I, Lord And I stood up upon my feet.

3 Then said he unto me, In the bush I did manifestly reveal
myself unto Moses, and talked with him, when my people
served in Egypt:

4 And I sent him and led my people out of Egypt, and
brought him up to the mount of where I held him by me a
long season,

5 And told him many wondrous things, and shewed him the
secrets of the times, and the end; and commanded him, saying,

6 These words shalt thou declare, and these shalt thou hide.

7 And now I say unto thee,

8 That thou lay up in thy heart the signs that I have shewed,
and the dreams that thou hast seen, and the interpretations
which thou hast heard:

9 For thou shalt be taken away from all, and from
henceforth thou shalt remain with my Son, and with such as
be like thee, until the times be ended.

10 For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin
to wax old.

11 For the world is divided into twelve parts, and the ten
parts of it are gone already, and half of a tenth part:

12 And there remaineth that which is after the half of the
tenth part.

13 Now therefore set thine house in order, and reprove thy
people, comfort such of them as be in trouble, and now
renounce corruption,

14 Let go from thee mortal thoughts, cast away the
burdens of man, put off now the weak nature,

15 And set aside the thoughts that are most heavy unto thee,
and haste thee to flee from these times.

16 For yet greater evils than those which thou hast seen
happen shall be done hereafter.

17 For look how much the world shall be weaker through
age, so much the more shall evils increase upon them that
dwell therein.

18 For the time is fled far away, and leasing is hard at hand:
for now hasteth the vision to come, which thou hast seen.

19 Then answered I before thee, and said,

20 Behold, Lord, I will go, as thou hast commanded me,
and reprove the people which are present: but they that shall
be born afterward, who shall admonish them? thus the world
is set in darkness, and they that dwell therein are without
light.

21 For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the
things that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin.

22 But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy
Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in
the world since the beginning, which were written in thy law,
that men may find thy path, and that they which will live in
the latter days may live.

23 And he answered me, saying, Go thy way, gather the
people together, and say unto them, that they seek thee not
for forty days.

24 But look thou prepare thee many box trees, and take
with thee Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, these
five which are ready to write swiftly;

25 And come hither, and I shall light a candle of
understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out, till
the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write.

26 And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou
publish, and some things shalt thou shew secretly to the wise:
to morrow this hour shalt thou begin to write.

27 Then went I forth, as he commanded, and gathered all
the people together, and said,

28 Hear these words, O Israel.

29 Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt,
from whence they were delivered:

30 And received the law of life, which they kept not, which
ye also have transgressed after them.

31 Then was the land, even the land of Sion, parted among
you by lot: but your fathers, and ye yourselves, have done
unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the
Highest commanded you.

32 And forasmuch as he is a righteous judge, he took from
you in time the thing that he had given you.

33 And now are ye here, and your brethren among you.

34 Therefore if so be that ye will subdue your own
understanding, and reform your hearts, ye shall be kept alive
and after death ye shall obtain mercy.

35 For after death shall the judgement come, when we shall
live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be
manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.

36 Let no man therefore come unto me now, nor seek after
me these forty days.

37 So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we
went into the field, and remained there.

38 And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying,
Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink.

39 Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, he reached me a
full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour
of it was like fire.

40 And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it,
my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my
breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory:

41 And my mouth was opened, and shut no more.

42 The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and
they wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told,
which they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote
in the day, and at night they ate bread.

43 As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue
by night.

44 In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.

45 And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that
the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written
publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

46 But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them
only to such as be wise among the people:

47 For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain
of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.

48 And I did so.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 15

(Origin: Latin)

1 Behold, speak thou in the ears of my people the words of
prophecy, which J will put in thy mouth, saith the Lord:

2 And cause them to be written in paper: for they are
faithful and true.

3 Fear not the imaginations against thee, let not the
incredulity of them trouble thee, that speak against thee.

4 For all the unfaithful shall die in their unfaithfulness.

5 Behold, saith the Lord, I will bring plagues upon the
world; the sword, famine, death, and destruction.

6 For wickedness hath exceedingly polluted the whole earth,
and their hurtful works are fulfilled.

7 Therefore saith the Lord,

8 I will hold my tongue no more as touching their
wickedness, which they profanely commit, neither will I
suffer them in those things, in which they wickedly exercise
themselves: behold, the innocent and righteous blood crieth
unto me, and the souls of the just complain continually.

9 And therefore, saith the Lord, I will surely avenge them,
and receive unto me all the innocent blood from among them.

10 Behold, my people is led as a flock to the slaughter: I
will not suffer them now to dwell in the land of Egypt:

11 But I will bring them with a mighty hand and a
stretched out arm, and smite Egypt with plagues, as before,
and will destroy all the land thereof.

12 Egypt shall mourn, and the foundation of it shall be
smitten with the plague and punishment that God shall bring
upon it.

13 They that till the ground shall mourn: for their seeds
shall fail through the blasting and hail, and with a fearful
constellation.

14 Woe to the world and them that dwell therein!

15 For the sword and their destruction draweth nigh, and
one people shall stand up and fight against another, and
swords in their hands.

16 For there shall be sedition among men, and invading
one another; they shall not regard their kings nor princes,
and the course of their actions shall stand in their power.

17 A man shall desire to go into a city, and shall not be able.

18 For because of their pride the cities shall be troubled,
the houses shall be destroyed, and men shall be afraid.

19 A man shall have no pity upon his neighbour, but shall
destroy their houses with the sword, and spoil their goods,
because of the lack of bread, and for great tribulation.

20 Behold, saith God, I will call together all the kings of
the earth to reverence me, which are from the rising of the
sun, from the south, from the east, and Libanus; to turn
themselves one against another, and repay the things that
they have done to them.

21 Like as they do yet this day unto my chosen, so will I do
also, and recompense in their bosom. Thus saith the Lord
God;

22 My right hand shall not spare the sinners, and my sword
shall not cease over them that shed innocent blood upon the
earth.

23 The fire is gone forth from his wrath, and hath
consumed the foundations of the earth, and the sinners, like
the straw that is kindled.

24 Woe to them that sin, and keep not my commandments!
saith the Lord.

25 I will not spare them: go your way, ye children, from the
power, defile not my sanctuary.

26 For the Lord knoweth all them that sin against him, and
therefore delivereth he them unto death and destruction.

27 For now are the plagues come upon the whole earth and
ye shall remain in them: for God shall not deliver you,
because ye have sinned against him.

28 Behold an horrible vision, and the appearance thereof
from the east:

29 Where the nations of the dragons of Arabia shall come
out with many chariots, and the multitude of them shall be
carried as the wind upon earth, that all they which hear them
may fear and tremble.

30 Also the Carmanians raging in wrath shall go forth as
the wild boars of the wood, and with great power shall they
come, and join battle with them, and shall waste a portion of
the land of the Assyrians.

31 And then shall the dragons have the upper hand,
remembering their nature; and if they shall turn themselves,
conspiring together in great power to persecute them,

32 Then these shall be troubled bled, and keep silence
through their power, and shall flee.

33 And from the land of the Assyrians shall the enemy
besiege them, and consume some of them, and in their host
shall be fear and dread, and strife among their kings.

34 Behold clouds from the east and from the north unto the
south, and they are very horrible to look upon, full of wrath
and storm.

35 They shall smite one upon another, and they shall smite
down a great multitude of stars upon the earth, even their
own star; and blood shall be from the sword unto the belly,

36 And dung of men unto the camel's hough.

37 And there shall be great fearfulness and trembling upon
earth: and they that see the wrath shall be afraid, and
trembling shall come upon them.

38 And then shall there come great storms from the south,
and from the north, and another part from the west.

39 And strong winds shall arise from the east, and shall
open it; and the cloud which he raised up in wrath, and the
star stirred to cause fear toward the east and west wind, shall
be destroyed.

40 The great and mighty clouds shall be puffed up full of
wrath, and the star, that they may make all the earth afraid,
and them that dwell therein; and they shall pour out over
every high and eminent place an horrible star,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Al Fire, and hail, and flying swords, and many waters, that
all fields may be full, and all rivers, with the abundance of
great waters.

42 And they shall break down the cities and walls,
mountains and hills, trees of the wood, and grass of the
meadows, and their corn.

43 And they shall go stedfastly unto Babylon, and make her
afraid.

44 They shall come to her, and besiege her, the star and all
wrath shall they pour out upon her: then shall the dust and
smoke go up unto the heaven, and all they that be about her
shall bewail her.

45 And they that remain under her shall do service unto
them that have put her in fear.

46 And thou, Asia, that art partaker of the hope of
Babylon, and art the glory of her person:

47 Woe be unto thee, thou wretch, because thou hast made
thyself like unto her; and hast decked thy daughters in
whoredom, that they might please and glory in thy lovers,
which have always desired to commit whoredom with thee.

48 Thou hast followed her that is hated in all her works and
inventions: therefore saith God,

49 I will send plagues upon thee; widowhood, poverty,
famine, sword, and pestilence, to waste thy houses with
destruction and death.

50 And the glory of thy Power shall be dried up as a flower,
the heat shall arise that is sent over thee.

51 Thou shalt be weakened as a poor woman with stripes,
and as one chastised with wounds, so that the mighty and
lovers shall not be able to receive thee.

52 Would I with jealousy have so proceeded against thee,
saith the Lord,

53 If thou hadst not always slain my chosen, exalting the
stroke of thine hands, and saying over their dead, when thou
wast drunken,

54 Set forth the beauty of thy countenance?

55 The reward of thy whoredom shall be in thy bosom,
therefore shalt thou receive recompence.

56 Like as thou hast done unto my chosen, saith the Lord,
even so shall God do unto thee, and shall deliver thee into
mischief

57 Thy children shall die of hunger, and thou shalt fall
through the sword: thy cities shall be broken down, and all
thine shall perish with the sword in the field.

58 They that be in the mountains shall die of hunger, and
eat their own flesh, and drink their own blood, for very
hunger of bread, and thirst of water.

59 Thou as unhappy shalt come through the sea, and
receive plagues again.

60 And in the passage they shall rush on the idle city, and
shall destroy some portion of thy land, and consume part of
thy glory, and shall return to Babylon that was destroyed.

61 And thou shalt be cast down by them as stubble, and
they shall be unto thee as fire;

62 And shall consume thee, and thy cities, thy land, and thy
mountains; all thy woods and thy fruitful trees shall they
burn up with fire.

63 Thy children shall they carry away captive, and, look,
what thou hast, they shall spoil it, and mar the beauty of thy
face.

4 EZRA CHAPTER 16

(Origin: Latin)

1 Woe be unto thee, Babylon, and Asia! woe be unto thee,
Egypt and Syria!

2 Gird up yourselves with cloths of sack and hair, bewail
your children, and be sorry; for your destruction is at hand.

3 A sword is sent upon you, and who may turn it back?

4 A fire is sent among you, and who may quench it?

5 Plagues are sent unto you, and what is he that may drive
them away?

6 May any man drive away an hungry lion in the wood? or
may any one quench the fire in stubble, when it hath begun
to burn?

7 May one turn again the arrow that is shot of a strong
archer?

8 The mighty Lord sendeth the plagues and who is he that
can drive them away?

9 A fire shall go forth from his wrath, and who is he that
may quench it?

10 He shall cast lightnings, and who shall not fear? he shall
thunder, and who shall not be afraid?

11 The Lord shall threaten, and who shall not be utterly
beaten to powder at his presence?

12 The earth quaketh, and the foundations thereof; the sea
ariseth up with waves from the deep, and the waves of it are
troubled, and the fishes thereof also, before the Lord, and
before the glory of his power:

13 For strong is his right hand that bendeth the bow, his
arrows that he shooteth are sharp, and shall not miss, when
they begin to be shot into the ends of the world.

14 Behold, the plagues are sent, and shall not return again,
until they come upon the earth.

15 The fire is kindled, and shall not be put out, till it
consume the foundation of the earth.

16 Like as an arrow which is shot of a mighty archer
returneth not backward: even so the plagues that shall be
sent upon earth shall not return again.

17 Woe is me! woe is me! who will deliver me in those days?

18 The beginning of sorrows and great mournings; the
beginning of famine and great death; the beginning of wars,
and the powers shall stand in fear; the beginning of evils!
what shall I do when these evils shall come?

19 Behold, famine and plague, tribulation and anguish, are
sent as scourges for amendment.

20 But for all these things they shall not turn from their
wickedness, nor be always mindful of the scourges.

21 Behold, victuals shall be so good cheap upon earth, that
they shall think themselves to be in good case, and even then

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

shall evils grow upon earth, sword, famine, and great
confusion.

22 For many of them that dwell upon earth shall perish of
famine; and the other, that escape the hunger, shall the
sword destroy.

23 And the dead shall be cast out as dung, and there shall
be no man to comfort them: for the earth shall be wasted,
and the cities shall be cast down.

24 There shall be no man left to till the earth, and to sow it

25 The trees shall give fruit, and who shall gather them?

26 The grapes shall ripen, and who shall tread them? for all
places shall be desolate of men:

27 So that one man shall desire to see another, and to hear
his voice.

28 For of a city there shall be ten left, and two of the field,
which shall hide themselves in the thick groves, and in the
clefts of the rocks.

29 As in an orchard of Olives upon every tree there are left
three or four olives;

30 Or as when a vineyard is gathered, there are left some
clusters of them that diligently seek through the vineyard:

31 Even so in those days there shall be three or four left by
them that search their houses with the sword.

32 And the earth shall be laid waste, and the fields thereof
shall wax old, and her ways and all her paths shall grow full
of thorns, because no man shall travel therethrough.

33 The virgins shall mourn, having no bridegrooms; the
women shall mourn, having no husbands; their daughters
shall mourn, having no helpers.

34 In the wars shall their bridegrooms be destroyed, and
their husbands shall perish of famine.

35 Hear now these things and understand them, ye servants
of the Lord.

36 Behold, the word of the Lord, receive it: believe not the
gods of whom the Lord spake.

37 Behold, the plagues draw nigh, and are not slack.

38 As when a woman with child in the ninth month
bringeth forth her son, with two or three hours of her birth
great pains compass her womb, which pains, when the child
cometh forth, they slack not a moment:

39 Even so shall not the plagues be slack to come upon the
earth, and the world shall mourn, and sorrows shall come
upon it on every side.

40 O my people, hear my word: make you ready to thy
battle, and in those evils be even as pilgrims upon the earth.

41 He that selleth, let him be as he that fleeth away: and he
that buyeth, as one that will lose:

42 He that occupieth merchandise, as he that hath no profit
by it: and he that buildeth, as he that shall not dwell therein:

43 He that soweth, as if he should not reap: so also he that
planteth the vineyard, as he that shall not gather the grapes:

44 They that marry, as they that shall get no children; and
they that marry not, as the widowers.

45 And therefore they that labour labour in vain:

46 For strangers shall reap their fruits, and spoil their
goods, overthrow their houses, and take their children
captives, for in captivity and famine shall they get children.

47 And they that occupy their merchandise with robbery,
the more they deck their cities, their houses, their possessions,
and their own persons:

48 The more will I be angry with them for their sin, saith
the Lord.

49 Like as a whore envieth a right honest and virtuous
woman:

50 So shall righteousness hate iniquity, when she decketh
herself, and shall accuse her to her face, when he cometh that
shall defend him that diligently searcheth out every sin upon
earth.

51 And therefore be ye not like thereunto, nor to the works
thereof.

52 For yet a little, and iniquity shall be taken away out of
the earth, and righteousness shall reign among you.

53 Let not the sinner say that he hath not sinned: for God
shall burn coals of fire upon his head, which saith before the
Lord God and his glory, I have not sinned.

54 Behold, the Lord knoweth all the works of men, their
imaginations, their thoughts, and their hearts:

55 Which spake but the word, Let the earth be made; and it
was made: Let the heaven be made; and it was created.

56 In his word were the stars made, and he knoweth the
number of them.

57 He searcheth the deep, and the treasures thereof; he hath
measured the sea, and what it containeth.

58 He hath shut the sea in the midst of the waters, and with
his word hath he hanged the earth upon the waters.

59 He spreadeth out the heavens like a vault; upon the
waters hath he founded it.

60 In the desert hath he made springs of water, and pools
upon the tops of the mountains, that the floods might pour
down from the high rocks to water the earth.

61 He made man, and put his heart in the midst of the body,
and gave him breath, life, and understanding.

62 Yea and the Spirit of Almighty God, which made all
things, and searcheth out all hidden things in the secrets of
the earth,

63 Surely he knoweth your inventions, and what ye think in
your hearts, even them that sin, and would hide their sin.

64 Therefore hath the Lord exactly searched out all your
works, and he will put you all to shame.

65 And when your sins are brought forth, ye shall be
ashamed before men, and your own sins shall be your
accusers in that day.

66 What will ye do? or how will ye hide your sins before
God and his angels?

67 Behold, God himself is the judge, fear him: leave off
from your sins, and forget your iniquities, to meddle no more
with them for ever: so shall God lead you forth, and deliver
you from all trouble.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

68 For, behold, the burning wrath of a great multitude is
kindled over you, and they shall take away certain of you,
and feed you, being idle, with things offered unto idols.

69 And they that consent unto them shall be had in derision
and in reproach, and trodden under foot.

70 For there shall be in every place, and in the next cities, a
great insurrection upon those that fear the Lord.

71 They shall be like mad men, sparing none, but still
spoiling and destroying those that fear the Lord.

72 For they shall waste and take away their goods, and cast
them out of their houses.

73 Then shall they be known, who are my chosen; and they
shall be tried as the gold in the fire.

74 Hear, O ye my beloved, saith the Lord: behold, the days
of trouble are at hand, but I will deliver you from the same.

75 Be ye not afraid neither doubt; for God 1s your guide,

76 And the guide of them who keep my commandments and
precepts, saith the Lord God: let not your sins weigh you
down, and let not your iniquities lift up themselves.

77 Woe be unto them that are bound with their sins, and
covered with their iniquities like as a field is covered over
with bushes, and the path thereof covered with thorns, that
no man may travel through!

78 It is left undressed, and is cast into the fire to be
consumed therewith.

OR /EN OR

eS
oe Sore.

THE BOOK OF TOBIT
(in Greek and Latin also known as Tobias)
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 100 B.C.

(The Book of Tobit is a book of scripture that is part of the
Catholic and Orthodox biblical canons. It was recognised as
canonical by the Council of Hippo (in 393), the Councils of
Carthage of 397 and 417, and the Council of Florence (in
1442), and confirmed in the Counter-Reformation by the
Council of Trent (1546). Many Anglicans, Lutherans, and
Methodists have it in their canon of scripture.

The Book of Tobit (Greek: Tobias) 1s listed as a canonical
book by the Council of Rome (382 AD), the Council of
Hippo (393 AD), the Council of Carthage (397) and (419
AD), the Council of Florence (1442) and finally the Council
of Trent (1546), and is part of the canon of both the Catholic
Church and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Catholics refer to 1t
as deuterocanonical.

Augustine (c. 397 AD) and Pope Innocent I (405 AD)
affirmed Tobit as part of the Old Testament Canon.
Athanasius (367 AD) mentioned that certain other books,
including the book of Tobit, while not being part of the
Canon, "were appointed by the Fathers to be read".

According to Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 400 AD) the book of
Tobit and other deuterocanonical books were not called
Canonical but Ecclesiastical books.

Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of
England lists it as a book of the "Apocrypha". Historically
evangelical Anglicans viewed it as worthy to be read and It 1s
still read in churches. Many high church Anglicans view it as
part of the canon of scripture.

In Judaism: Before the 1952 discovery of Aramaic and
Hebrew fragments of Tobit among the Dead Sea Scrolls in a
cave at Qumran, scholars believed Tobit was not included in
the Jewish canon because of late authorship, estimated to 100
AD. Qumran fragments of the text, which were copied
between 100 BC to 25 AD, evidence a much earlier origin
than previously thought. These fragments evidence
authorship no later than the 2nd century BC and, likely,
contemporary with the date ascribed, by modern scholars, to
the final compilation of the Book of Daniel, which did attain
canonical status.

Other scholars have postulated that Tobit was excluded
from the Jewish Scriptures for a halakhic reason because
Raguel, the bride's father, wrote the marriage document
discussed in Tobit 13, instead of the bridegroom, as required
by Jewish rabbinical law.

However, some ancient Jewish rabbinic scholars possibly
considered Tobit to be canonical. Midrash Bereishit Rabbah,
an aggadic commentary on the Book of Genesis compiled

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

circa 400-600 AD, includes a truncated Aramaic version of
Tobit. Tobit was also part of the Septuagint, the first Greek
translation of the Bible. In more contemporary times, a
number of Jews in Israel have sought to reclaim Tobit as part
of the canon.

This book tells the story of Tobit, a righteous Israelite of
the tribe of Naphtali, living in Nineveh after Sargon IT had
deported the northern tribes of Israel to Assyria in 721 BC.
In the two Greek versions, the first two and a half chapters
are written in the first person; in the Vulgate version, they
are written in the third person. Tobit, raised by his paternal
grandmother, Deborah, remains loyal to the worship of God
at the temple in Jerusalem, refusing the cult of the golden
calves that Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom of Israel,
set up at Dan. He 1s particularly noted for his diligence in
attempting to provide proper burials for fallen Israelites
whom Sargon's successor, Sennacherib, has slain. For this
behavior the king seizes his property and exiles him. After
Sennacherib's death, Tobit is allowed to return to Nineveh,
where he buries a man who has been murdered on the street.
That night, he sleeps in the open and 1s blinded by bird
droppings which fall into his eyes. His blindness subsequently
leads him to falsely accuse his wife, Anna, of stealing a baby
goat she had received as partial payment for work she had
done. This strains his marriage and, ultimately, he prays for
death.

Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a young woman named
Sarah has prayed for death in despair. The demon of lust,
Asmodeus ("the worst of demons"), abducts and kills every
man Sarah marries on their wedding night before the
marriage can be consummated. God sends the angel Raphael,
disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and free Sarah from the
demon.

The main narrative 1s dedicated to Tobit's son, Tobiah or
Tobiyah (Greek: TwBiac Tobias), who is sent by his father
to collect money that the elder has deposited in distant Media.
Raphael presents himself as Tobit’s kinsman, Azariah, and
offers to aid and protect Tobias. Under Raphael's guidance,
Tobias journeys to Media with his dog.

Along the way, while washing his feet in the river Tigris, a
fish tries to swallow his foot. By the angel's order, he
captures it and removes its heart, liver and gall bladder.

Upon arriving in Media, Raphael tells Tobias of the
beautiful Sarah, whom Tobias has the right to marry because
he is her cousin and closest relative. The angel instructs the
young man to burn the fish's liver and heart to drive away
the demon when he attacks on the wedding night. The two
marry, and the fumes of the burning organs drive the demon
to Upper Egypt, where Raphael follows and binds him.
Sarah's father had been digging a grave to secretly bury
Tobias under the assumption that he would be killed.
Surprised to find his son-in-law alive and well, he orders a
double-length wedding feast and has the grave secretly filled.
Since the feast prevents him from leaving, Tobias sends
Raphael to recover his father's money.

After the feast, Tobias and Sarah return to Nineveh. There,
Raphael tells the youth to use the fish's gall to cure his
father's blindness. Raphael then reveals his identity and
returns to heaven, and Tobit sings a hymn of praise.

Tobit tells his son to leave Nineveh before God destroys it
according to prophecy (compare the Book of Nahum). After
the prayer, Tobit dies at an advanced age. After burying his
father and mother, Tobias returns to Media with his family.)

TOBIT CHAPTER |

1 The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of
Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, a descendent of
Asael, of the tribe of Naphtali,

2 who, in the time of Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians,
was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of
that city, which is properly called Naphtali, in Galilee above
Asher.

3 I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life in the ways of
truth and justice, and I performed many charitable deeds for
my brethren and my nation, who came with me to Nineveh
into the land of the Assyrians.

4 And when I was in my own country, in the land of Israel,
in my youth, with all the tribe of Naphtali, my father fell
away from the house of Jerusalem, which was chosen out of
all the tribes of Israel so that all the tribes should sacrifice
there, where the Temple of the dwelling place of the most
High was consecrated and built for all ages.

5 Now all the tribes which revolted together, and the house
of my father Naphtali, sacrificed to the heifer Baal.

6 But I alone went often to Jerusalem at the feasts, as it was
ordained for all the people of Israel by an everlasting decree,
bringing the first fruits and tenths of increase, with the first-
shorn sheep, and these I gave at the altar to the priests, the
children of Aaron.

7 The first tenth part of all increase I gave to the sons of
Aaron, who ministered at Jerusalem; another tenth part I
sold, and went, and spent it every year at Jerusalem;

8 and the third I gave to those who were in need, as
Deborah my father's mother had commanded me, because I
was left an orphan by my father.

9 Furthermore, when I had reached the age of a man, I
married Anna of my own kindred, and of her, I fathered
Tobias.

10 And when we were carried away captives to Nineveh, all
my brethren and those who were of my kindred ate of the
bread of the Gentiles.

11 But I kept myself from eating,

12 because I remembered God with all my heart.

13 And the most High gave me grace and favor before
Shalmaneser, so that I was his purveyor.

14 And I went into Media, and I left in trust with Gabael,
the brother of Gabrias, at Rages a city of Media, ten talents
of silver.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Now when Shalmaneser was dead, Sennacherib his son
reigned in his place; but his reign was troubled so that I
could not go into Media.

16 And in the time of Shalmaneser I gave many alms to my
brethren and gave my bread to the hungry,

17 and my clothes to the naked; and if I saw any of my
nation dead, or cast out around the walls of Nineveh, I
buried him.

18 And if the king Sennacherib had slain anyone, when he
arrived and fled from Judea, I buried them privately; for in
his wrath he killed many, but the bodies were not found
when they were sought by the king.

19 And when one of the Ninevites went and complained to
the king about me, that I buried them and hid myself, I
understood that I was sought to be put to death, so I
withdrew myself out of fear.

20 Then all my goods were forcibly taken away, neither was
there anything left for me, except my wife Anna and my son
Tobias.

21 And before fifty-five days had passed, two of his sons
killed him and they fled into the mountains of Ararath; and
Sarchedonus his son reigned in his place; he appointed, over
his father's accounts and over all his affairs, Achiacharus, my
brother Anael's son.

22 And since Achiacharus petitioned for me, I returned to
Nineveh. Now Achiacharus was cupbearer and keeper of the
signet and steward and overseer of the accounts; and
Sarchedonus appointed him next to him; and he was my
brother's son.

TOBIT CHAPTER 2

1 Now when I arrived home again, and my wife Anna was
restored to me with my son Tobias, at the feast of Pentecost,
which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, a good dinner was
prepared for me, which I sat down to eat.

2 And when I saw the abundance of meat, I said to my son,
"Go and bring whatsoever poor man you find among our
brethren, who is mindful of the Lord, and, see, I will wait for
you."

3 But he returned and said, "Father, one of our nation was
strangled and cast out in the marketplace."

4 Then, before I had tasted any of the meat, I went out, and
took him up into a room until sundown.

5 Then I returned, and washed myself, and ate my meat in
sadness,

6 remembering the prophecy of Amos, as he said, "Your
feasts shall be turned into mourning and all your mirth into
lamentation."

7 Therefore I wept, and after sundown I went and made a
grave and buried him.

8 But my neighbors mocked me and said, "This man is still
not afraid to be put to death for this matter; and, see, though
he fled away before, he now buries the dead again."

9 That same night, I returned from the burial and slept by
the wall of my courtyard, because I was polluted. And my
face was uncovered,

10 and I did not know that there were sparrows in the wall.
And, since my eyes were open, the sparrows emitted warm
dung into my eyes, and a whiteness fell into my eyes. And I
went to the physicians, but they did not help me. Moreover,
Achiacharus had to nourish me, until I went into Elymais.

11 And my wife Anna took in women's work.

12 And when she had sent these home again to the owners,
they paid her her wages and gave her in addition a young
goat.

13 And when it was in my house, and began to call out, I
said to her, "Where did this young goat come from? Is it not
stolen? Return it to the owners, for it is not lawful to eat
anything which is stolen."

14 But she replied to me, "It was given as a gift, over and
above my wages." However, I did not believe her, but
directed her to return it to the owners, and I was ashamed at
her. But she replied to me, "Where are your alms and your
righteous deeds? See now, you and all your works are
known."

TOBIT CHAPTER 3

| Then I was grieved and I wept, and in my sorrow I prayed,
saying,

20 Lord, you are just, and all your works and all your
ways are mercy and truth, and you judge truly and justly for
ever.

3 Remember me and look upon me, do not punish me for
my sins and my ignorance, nor for the sins of my fathers, who
sinned before you,

4 for they did not obey your commandments. Therefore you
have delivered us as spoil, and into captivity, and to death,
and as a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom
we are dispersed.

5 And now your judgments are many and true. Deal with
me according to my sins and my fathers’ sins, because we have
not kept your commandments, nor have we walked in truth
before you.

6 Now therefore deal with me as it seems best to you, and
command my spirit to be taken from me, so that I may be
dissolved and become earth; for it is better for me to die than
to live, because I have heard false reproaches and have much
sorrow. Command therefore that I may now be delivered out
of this distress and go into the everlasting place. Do not turn
your face away from me."

7 It happened the same day, in Ecbatane a city of Media,
that Sarah the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by
her father's maids;

8 because she had been married to seven husbands, whom
Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed, before they had lain with
her. "Do you not know," they said, "that you have strangled
your husbands? You have already had seven husbands, yet
you have not taken the name of any of them.

9 So then, do you beat us because of them? If they are dead,
go your way after them; let us never see either son or
daughter from you."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 When she heard these things, she was very sorrowful, so
that she thought about strangling herself; but she said, "I am
the only daughter of my father, and if I do this, it shall be a
reproach to him, and I shall bring his old age with sorrow to
the grave."

11 Then she prayed toward the window and said, "Blessed
are you, O Lord my God, and your holy and glorious name is
blessed and honorable for ever; let all your works praise you
for ever.

12 And now, O Lord, I set my eyes and my face toward you,

13 and say, "Take me out of the earth, so that I may no
longer hear this reproach.

14 You know, Lord, that I am pure, free from all sin with
man,

15 and that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my
father, in the land of my captivity. I am the only daughter of
my father, and he has no child to be his heir; nor does he have
any near kinsman, nor any son of a near kinsman alive, to
whom I might give myself as a wife. My seven husbands are
already dead and so why should I live? But if it does not
please you that I should die, then command some regard to
be given to me and pity to be taken on me, so that I will no
longer hear reproach."

16 So the prayers of them both were heard before the
majesty of the great God.

17 And Raphael was sent to heal them both, that is, to scale
away the whiteness of Tobit's eyes, and to give Sarah the
daughter of Raguel as a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and
to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit, because she belonged to
Tobias by right of inheritance. At the very same time, Tobit
came home and entered into his house, and Sarah the
daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.

TOBIT CHAPTER 4

1 On that day Tobit remembered the money which he had
committed to Gabael in Rages of Media,

2 and he said to himself, "I have wished for death; therefore
should I not call for my son Tobias so that I may transfer the
money to him before I die?"

3 And when he had called him, he said, "My son, when I am
dead, bury me; and do not despise your mother, but honor
her all the days of your life, and do what pleases her, and do
not grieve her.

4 Remember, my son, that she endured many dangers for
you, when you were in her womb; and when she is dead, bury
her next to me in one grave.

5 My son, be mindful of the Lord our God all your days,
and do not let your will be set to sin, nor to transgress his
commandments; act uprightly all your life long, and do not
follow the ways of the unrighteousness.

6 For if you deal truly, your actions shall bring prosperity
to you and to all those who live justly.

7 "Give alms from your resources; and when you give alms,
do not let your eye be envious, nor turn your face from any of
the poor, and then the face of God shall not be turned away
from you.

8 If you have abundance, give alms accordingly; if you have
only a little, do not be afraid to give according to that little;

9 for you will store up a good treasure for yourself against
the day of necessity,

10 because alms deliver from death and preserve from
falling into darkness.

11 For alms is a good gift, for all those who give it, in the
sight of the most High.

12 Beware of all whoredom, my son, and prefer to take a
wife from the posterity of your forefathers, and do not take a
strange woman to wife, who is not of your father's tribe; for
we are the children of the prophets, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. Remember, my son, that our fathers from the
beginning, all of them married wives of their own kindred,
and were blessed in their children, and their posterity shall
inherit the land.

13 Now therefore, my son, love your brethren, and do not
despise in your heart your brethren, the sons and daughters
of your people, by not taking a wife from among them; for in
pride is destruction and much trouble, and in lewdness is
decay and great want; for lewdness is the mother of famine.

14 "Do not let the wages of any man, who has worked for
you, be delayed by you, but give it to him promptly; for if
you serve God, he will also repay you. Be prudent, my son, in
all things you do, and be wise in all your conversation.

15 Do not do to any man the things which you yourself
hate. Do not drink wine to make you drunken; neither let
drunkenness go with you on your journey.

16 Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments
to those who are naked; and according to your abundance
give alms; and do not let your eye be envious, when you give
alms.

17 Pour out your bread on the burial of the just, but give
nothing to the wicked.

18 Ask counsel of all who are wise, and despise not any
counsel which is beneficial.

19 "Bless the Lord your God always, and desire of him that
your ways may be purposeful, and that all your paths and
counsels may prosper; for not every nation has counsel; but
the Lord himself gives all good things, and he humbles whom
he will, as he will; now therefore, my son, remember my
commandments, neither let them be put out of your mind.

20 And now I signify this to those who I committed ten
talents, to Gabael the son of Gabrias at Rages in Media.

21 And do not be afraid, my son, that we might become
poor; for you have much wealth, if you fear God and depart
from all sin and do what is pleasing in his sight."

TOBIT CHAPTER 5

1 Tobias then answered and said, "Father, I will do all
things which you have commanded me;

2 but how can I receive the money, since I do not know
him?"

3 Then he gave him the handwriting, and said to him,
"Seek a man to go with you, while I yet live, and I will give
him wages; then go and receive the money."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 Therefore, when he went to seek a man, he found Raphael
who was an angel,

5 but he did not know it; and so he said to him, "Can you
go with me to Rages? And do you know those places well?"

6 The angel said to him, "I will go with you, and I know the
way well, for I have stayed with our brother Gabael."

7 Then Tobias said to him, "Wait for me, while I tell my
father."

8 Then he said to him, "Go and do not delay." So he went
in and said to his father, "See now, I have found one who will
go with me." Then he said, "Call him to me, so that I may
learn what tribe he is from and whether he is a trustworthy
man to go with you."

9 So he called him, and he came in, and they greeted one
another.

10 Then Tobit said to him, "Brother, tell me what tribe
and family you are from."

11 He said to him, "Do you seek for a tribe or family, or for
a hired man to go with your son?” Then Tobit said to him, "I
would know, brother, your kindred and name."

12 Then he said, "I am Azariah, the son of Ananiah the
great and of your brethren."

13 Then Tobit said, "You are welcome, brother; do not be
angry with me now, because I asked about your tribe and
your family; for you are my brother, of an honest and good
stock. For I know Ananiah and Jonathan, sons of that great
Samaiah, because we went together to Jerusalem to worship,
and offered the firstborn, and the tenths of the fruits; and
they were not seduced with the error of our brethren. My
brother, you are of good stock.

14 But tell me, what wages shall I give you? Will you accept
a drachma a day, plus whatever is needed for my own son?

15 Fine, but moreover, if you return safe, I will add
something to your wages."

16 So they were well pleased. Then he said to Tobias,
"Prepare yourself for the journey, and may God give you a
good journey." And when his son had prepared everything
for the journey, his father said, "Go with this man; and may
God who dwells in heaven prosper your journey, and may the
angel of God keep you company." So they both went forth,
and the young man's dog with them.

17 But Anna his mother wept and said to Tobit, "Why have
you sent our son away? Is he not the staff of our hand, in
going in and out before us?

18 Do not be greedy to add money to money, but consider
it as refuse compared to our child.

19 For what the Lord has given us to live on should be
sufficient for us."

20 Then Tobit said to her, "Do not worry, my sister; he
will return in safety, and your eyes will see him.

21 For the good angel will keep him company, and his
journey will be prosperous, and he will return safe."

22 Then she ended her weeping.

TOBIT CHAPTER 6

1 And as they went on their journey, they arrived in the
evening at the river Tigris, and they lodged there.

2 And when the young man went down to wash himself, a
fish leaped out of the river and would have devoured him.

3 Then the angel said to him, "Take the fish." And the
young man took hold of the fish, and drew it to land.

4 The angel said to him, "Open the fish, and take the heart
and the liver and the gall, and store them well."

5 So the young man did as the angel commanded him. And
when they had roasted the fish, they ate it. Then they both
went on their way, until they drew near to Ecbatane.

6 Then the young man said to the angel, "Brother Azariah,
of what use is the heart and the liver and the gall of the fish?"

7 And he said to him, "Concerning the heart and the liver,
if a devil or an evil spirit troubles anyone, we must make a
smoke of these in front of the man or the woman, and then
the person will no longer be troubled.

8 As for the gall, it is used to anoint a man who has
whiteness in his eyes, so he shall be healed.”

9 And when they had arrived near Rages,

10 the angel said to the young man, "Brother, today we
will stay with Raguel, who is your cousin; he also has only
one daughter, named Sarah; I will speak on her behalf, so
that she may be given to you as a wife,

11 for the rights concerning her belong to you, because you
are her only kindred.

12 And the maiden is fair and wise; therefore listen to me
now, and I will speak to her father. And when we return
from Rages, we will celebrate the marriage, for I know that
Raguel cannot give her in marriage to another, according to
the Law of Moses, or he would be liable to death, because the
right of inheritance belongs to you more than to any other."

13 Then the young man answered the angel, "I have heard,
brother Azariah, that this maiden has been given to seven
men, who each died in the marriage room.

14 And now, I am the only son of my father and I am afraid
that if I go in to her, I may die, as the others before me, for a
wicked spirit loves her, and he hurts no one except those who
come to her. Therefore, I also fear that I may die, and bring
my father's life and my mother's life because of me to the
grave with sorrow; for they have no other son to bury them."

15 Then the angel said to him, "Do you not remember the
precepts which your father gave you, that you should marry
a wife of your own kindred? Therefore hear me, O my
brother; for she shall be given to you as a wife; and have no
regard for the evil spirit; for this same night she shall be
given to you in marriage.

16 And when you come into the marriage room, you shall
take the ashes of perfume, and shall lay upon them some of
the heart and liver of the fish, and shall make a smoke with it.

17 And the devil will smell it, and flee away, and never
again return. But when you come to her, rise up both of you
and pray to God, who is merciful, who will have pity on you
and save you. Fear not, for she is appointed to you from the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

beginning; and you will keep her, and she will accompany
you. Moreover, I suppose that she will bear you children."
Now, when Tobias had heard these things, he loved her, and
his heart was ready to be joined to her.

TOBIT CHAPTER 7

1 And when they arrived at Ecbatane, they came to the
house of Raguel, and Sarah met them. And after they had
greeted one another, she brought them into the house.

2 Then Raguel said to Edna his wife, "How much this
young man is like Tobit my kinsman!"

3 And Raguel asked them, "Where do you come from,
brethren?" They said to him, "We are of the sons of Naphtali,
who are captives in Nineveh."

4 Then he said to them, "Do you know Tobit our
kinsman?" And they said, "We know him." Then he said, "Is
he in good health?"

5 And they said, "He is both alive and in good health." And
Tobias said, "He is my father."

6 Then Raguel leaped up and kissed him and wept.

7 And he blessed him and said to him, "You are the son of
an honest and good man." But when he heard that Tobit was
blind, he was sorrowful and wept.

8 And likewise Edna his wife and Sarah his daughter wept.
Yet still they entertained them cheerfully, and afterwards
they had a ram of the flock killed, and they set a supply of
meat on the table. Then Tobias said to Raphael, "Brother
Azariah, speak about those things which you spoke about on
the way here, and let this matter be completed."

9 So he communicated the matter to Raguel. And Raguel
said to Tobias, "Eat and drink, and make merry,

10 for it is fitting that you should marry my daughter.
Nevertheless I will declare to you the truth.

11 I have given my daughter in marriage to seven men, who
each died on the night that they came in to her. Nevertheless
be merry for now." But Tobias said, "I will eat nothing here
until we agree and swear one to another."

12 Raguel said, "Then take her from this time forward,
according to the custom, for you are her kinsman, and she is
yours, and may the merciful God give you good success in all
things."

13 Then he called his daughter Sarah, and she came to her
father, and he took her by the hand and gave her to be wife
to Tobias, saying, "Behold, take her after the Law of Moses,
and lead her away to your father." And he blessed them.

14 And he called Edna his wife, and took paper and wrote
an instrument of covenants and sealed it.

15 Then they began to eat.

16 Afterwards Raguel called his wife Edna and said to her,
"Sister, prepare another room and bring her into it."

17 Then, when she had done as he had asked her, she
brought her into it. And she wept and received the tears of
her daughter, and she said to her,

18 "Be of good comfort, my daughter. May the Lord of
heaven and earth give you joy in place of this your sorrow.
Be of good comfort, my daughter."

TOBIT CHAPTER 8

1 And when they had dined, they brought Tobias in to her.

2 And as he went, he remembered the words of Raphael.
And he took the ashes of the perfumes, and put the heart and
the liver of the fish on them, and made a smoke with them.

3 When the evil spirit had smelled this odor, he fled into the
utmost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him.

4 And afterwards, when they were both secluded together,
Tobias rose out of the bed and said, "Sister, arise, and let us
pray that God will have pity on us."

5 Then Tobias began to say, "Blessed are you, O God of our
fathers, and blessed is your holy and glorious name for ever;
let the heavens bless you, and all your creatures.

6 You made Adam, and gave him Eve his wife as a helper
and support; of them came mankind, for you have said, 'It is
not good that man should be alone; let us make him a helper
like himself."

7 And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for pleasure,
but in righteousness; therefore mercifully ordain that we may
grow old together."

8 And she said with him, "Amen."

9 So they both slept that night. And Raguel arose, and
went and made a grave,

10 saying, "I am afraid that he too is dead."

11 But when Raguel returned to his house,

12 he said to his wife Edna, "Send one of the maids, and let
her see if he is alive. If he is not, then we can bury him, and
no one will know of it."

13 So the maid opened the door and went in and found
them both asleep.

14 And she came forth and told them that he was alive.

15 Then Raguel praised God and said, "O God, you are
worthy to be praised with all pure and holy praise; therefore
let your saints praise you with all your creatures, and let all
your angels and your elect praise you for ever.

16 You are to be praised, for you have made me joyful; and
what I feared has not happened, but you have dealt with us
according to your great mercy.

17 You are to be praised because you had mercy on two
who were each the only begotten children of their fathers;
grant them mercy, O Lord, and finish their life in health with
joy and mercy."

18 Then Raguel directed his servants to fill the grave.

19 And he kept the wedding feast for fourteen days.

20 For before the days of the marriage were finished,
Raguel had said to him by an oath, that he should not depart
until the fourteen days of the marriage were fulfilled,

21 and that then he should take half of his goods and go in
safety to his father, and that he would have the rest "when I
and my wife are dead."

TOBIT CHAPTER 9

1 Then Tobias called Raphael and said to him,

2"Brother Azariah, take a servant and two camels with you,
and go to Rages of Media to Gabael, and bring me the money
and bring him to the wedding.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 For Raguel has sworn that I shall not depart,

4 but my father counts the days, and if I delay for long, he
will be very sorrowful."

5 So Raphael went out and lodged with Gabael and gave
him the handwriting, so he brought out bags which were
sealed up and gave them to him.

6 And early in the morning they both went forth together,
and they arrived at the wedding; and Tobias blessed his wife.

TOBIT CHAPTER 10

1 Now Tobit his father counted every day; and when the
days for the journey were completed, and they had not
returned,

2 then Tobit said, "Are they detained? Or is Gabael dead
and there is no man to give him the money?"

3 Therefore he was very sorrowful.

4 Then his wife said to him, "My son must be dead, since he
has been gone so long." And she began to wail him and said,

5 "Now I care for nothing, my son, since I have let go of
you, who is the light of my eyes."

6 Tobit said to her, "Hold your peace; do not worry, for he
is safe."

7 But she said, "Hold your peace and deceive me not; my
son is dead." And she went out every day into the way, by
which they had departed, and she ate no meat in the daytime,
and she did not cease throughout the nights to bewail her son
Tobias, until the fourteen days of the wedding were
completed, which Raguel had sworn that he should spend
there. Then Tobias said to Raguel, "Let me go, for my father
and my mother must have stopped looking for me."

8 But his father-in-law said to him, "Remain with me, and |
will send messengers to your father, and they will declare to
him how things go with you."

9 But Tobias said, "No. But let me go to my father."

10 Then Raguel arose, and gave him Sarah his wife, and
half his goods, servants, and cattle, and money.

11 And he blessed them and sent them away, saying, "May
the God of heaven give you a prosperous journey, my
children."

12 And he said to his daughter, "Honor your father and
your mother-in-law, who are now your parents, so that I
may hear a good report about you.” And he kissed her. Edna
also said to Tobias, "May the Lord of heaven return you, my
dear brother, and grant that I may see your children of my
daughter Sarah before I die, so that I may rejoice before the
Lord. See now, I commit my daughter to you with a special
trust; therefore do not lead her into evil."

TOBIT CHAPTER 11

1 After these things Tobias went his way praising God
because he had given him a prosperous journey, and he
blessed Raguel and Edna his wife, and went on his way until
they drew near to Nineveh.

2 Then Raphael said to Tobias, "You know, brother, how
you left your father;

3 let us hurry ahead, before your wife, and prepare the
house;

4 and you should carry in your hand the gall of the fish."
So they went their way, and the dog went after them.

5 Now Anna sat looking around, toward the way, for her
son.

6 And when she spotted him arriving, she said to his father,
"See now, your son arrives, and the man who went with
him."

7 Then Raphael said, "I know, Tobias, that your father will
open his eyes.

8 Therefore anoint his eyes with the gall, and being
irritated by it, he will rub his eyes and the whiteness will fall
away, and then he will see you."

9 Then Anna ran forth, and fell upon the neck of her son,
and said to him, "Since I have seen you, my son, from now on
Tam content to die." And they both wept.

10 Tobit also went forth toward the door, and stumbled,
but his son ran to him.

11 And he took hold of his father and struck his fathers'
eyes with the gall, saying, "Be of good hope, my father."

12 And when his eyes began to sting, he rubbed them;

13 and the whiteness pealed away from the corners of his
eyes; and when he saw his son, he fell upon his neck.

14 And he wept and said, "Blessed are you, O God, and
blessed is your name for ever; and blessed are all your holy
angels.

15 For you have scourged me, and have taken pity on me;
for, behold, I see my son Tobias.” And his son went in
rejoicing, and he told his father the great things which had
happened to him in Media.

16 Then Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the
gate of Nineveh, rejoicing and praising God; and those who
saw him go marveled because he had received his sight.

17 But Tobit gave thanks before them, because God had
mercy on him. And when he came near to Sarah his
daughter-in-law, he blessed her, saying, "You are welcome,
daughter. May God be blessed, who brought you to us, and
blessed be your father and your mother." And there was joy
among all his brethren who were at Nineveh.

18 And Achiacharus, and Nasbas his brother's son, came.

19 And Tobias’ wedding was kept for seven days with great

joy.

TOBIT CHAPTER 12

1 Then Tobit called his son Tobias and said to him, "My
son, see that the man who went with you has his wages and
you must give him more."

2 And Tobias said to him, "O father, it is no harm to me to
give him half of those things which I have brought,

3 for he has returned me to you in safety, and made my wife
whole, and brought me the money, and likewise healed you."

4 Then the old man said, "It is due to him."

5 So he called the angel and he said to him, "Take half of all
that you have brought and go away in safety."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 Then the angel took them both aside and said to them,
"Bless God, praise him, and magnify him, and praise him for
all the things which he has done for you in the sight of all
who live. It is good to praise God and exalt his name and to
honorably show forth the works of God; therefore do not be
negligent in praising him.

7 It is good to keep close the secret of a king, but it is
honorable to reveal the works of God. Do what is good and
no evil shall touch you.

8 Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A
little with righteousness is better than much with
unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to store up
gold,

9 for alms can deliver from death and will purge away all
sin. Those who practice almsgiving and righteousness shall
be filled with life;

10 but those who sin are enemies to their own life.

11 Surely I will withhold nothing from you, for I said that
it is good to keep close the secret of a king, but that it is
honorable to reveal the works of God.

12 Now therefore, when you pray, and when Sarah your
daughter-in-law prays, I will bring the remembrance of your
prayers before the Holy One. And when you buried the dead,
I was with you likewise.

13 And when you did not delay to rise up and leave your
dinner, to go and cover the dead, your good deed was not
hidden from me, but I was with you.

14 And now God has sent me to heal you and Sarah your
daughter-in-law.

15 Tam Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, who present
the prayers of the saints, and who go in and out before the
glory of the Holy One."

16 Then they were both troubled and fell upon their faces,
for they were afraid.

17 But he said to them, "Fear not, for it shall go well with
you; therefore praise God.

18 For I came, not by any favor of mine, but by the will of
our God; therefore praise him for ever.

19 All these days I appeared to you, yet I neither ate nor
drank, but you saw a vision.

20 Now therefore give God thanks, for I go up to him who
sent me; but write all these things which have happened in a
book."

21 And when they arose, they saw him no more.

22 Then they confessed the great and wonderful works of
God, and how the angel of the Lord had appeared to them.

TOBIT CHAPTER 13

11 Then Tobit wrote a prayer of rejoicing and said,
"Blessed be God who lives for ever and blessed be his
kingdom.

12 For he scourges and has mercy; he leads down to hell
and brings up again; neither is there any who can avoid his
hand.

13 Confess him before the Gentiles, you children of Israel,
for he has scattered us among them.

14 There declare his greatness and extol him before all the
living, for he is our Lord and he is the God our Father for
ever.

15 And he will scourge us for our iniquities, and will have
mercy again, and will gather us out of all the nations among
whom he has scattered us.

16 If you turn to him with your whole heart and with your
whole mind and deal uprightly before him, then he will turn
to you and will not hide his face from you. Therefore see
what he will do with you, and confess him with your whole
mouth, and praise the Lord of might, and extol the
everlasting King. In the land of my captivity, I praise him
and declare his might and majesty to a sinful nation. O you
sinners, turn and do justice before him; who can tell ifhe will
accept you and have mercy on you?

17 "I will extol my God and my soul shall praise the King
of heaven and shall rejoice in his greatness.

18 Let all men speak and let all praise him for his
righteousness.

19 O Jerusalem, the holy city, he will scourge you for your
children's works and will have mercy again on the sons of the
righteous.

110 Give praise to the Lord, for he is good, and praise the
everlasting King, so that his tabernacle may be built in you
again with joy; and there let him make joyful in you those
who are captives, and love in you for ever those who are
miserable.

111 Many nations shall come from far to the name of the
Lord God with gifts in their hands, with gifts to the King of
heaven; all generations shall praise you with great joy.

112 Cursed are all those who hate you and blessed shall be
all those who love you for ever.

113 Rejoice and be glad for the children of the just, for they
shall be gathered together and shall bless the Lord of the just.

114 O blessed are those who love you, for they shall rejoice
in your peace. Blessed are those who have been sorrowful for
all your scourges, for they shall rejoice for you, when they
have seen all your glory, and shall be glad for ever.

115 Let my soul bless God the great King.

116 For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires and
emeralds and precious stone, your walls and towers and
battlements with pure gold.

117 And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl
and carbuncle and stones of Ophir.

118 And all her streets shall say, ‘Alleluia,’ and they shall
praise him, saying, 'Blessed be God, who has extolled it for
ever.""

TOBIT CHAPTER 14

11 So Tobit ended his prayer praising God.

12 And he was fifty-eight years old when he lost his sight,
which was restored to him after eight years; and he gave alms,
and he increased in the fear of the Lord God and praised him.

13 And when he was very aged, he called his son, and the
sons of his son, and said to him, "My son, take your children,
for see now I am aged and ready to depart out of this life.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 Go into Media, my son, for I surely believe those things
which Jonah the prophet spoke about Nineveh, that it shall
be overthrown, and that for a time peace shall rest in Media
instead, and that our brethren shall lie scattered across the
earth from that good land, and Jerusalem shall be desolate,
and the house of God in it shall be burned and shall be
desolate for a time.

15 And again God will have mercy on them and bring them
again into the land, where they shall build a temple, but not
like the first, until the time of that age is fulfilled; and
afterward they shall return from all the places of their
captivity and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of
God shall be built in it for ever with a glorious building, just
as the prophets have spoken.

16 And all nations shall turn and fear the Lord God truly,
and shall bury their idols.

17 So shall all nations praise the Lord, and his people shall
confess God, and the Lord will exalt his people; and all those
who love the Lord God in truth and justice shall rejoice,
showing mercy to our brethren.

18 "And now, my son, depart out of Nineveh, because those
things of which the prophet Jonah spoke will surely come to
pass.

19 But you, keep the law and the commandments and show
yourself to be merciful and just, so that it may go well with
you.

20 And bury me decently, and your mother with me; but
delay no longer at Nineveh. Remember, my son, how Aman
handled Achiacharus, who brought him up; how out of light
he brought him into darkness, and how he took notice of him
again; yet Achiacharus was saved, but the other had his just
reward, for he went down into darkness. Manasseh gave alms
and escaped the snares of death which they had set for him,
but Aman fell into the snare and perished.

21 Therefore now, my son, consider what alms can do and
how righteousness can deliver." When he had said these
things, he gave up his spirit in the bed, when he was one
hundred fifty-eight years old; and he buried him honorably.

22 And when Anna his mother was dead, he buried her with
his father. But Tobias departed with his wife and children to
Ecbatane, to Raguel his father-in-law.

23 There he became old with honor, and he buried his
father-in-law and mother-in-law honorably, and he inherited
their belongings and his father Tobit's belongings.

24 And he died at Ecbatane in Media, when he was one
hundred twenty-seven years old.

25 But before he died, he heard of the destruction of

Nineveh, which was taken by Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus;

and before his death he rejoiced over Nineveh.

OR /EN OR

SS
oe Sore.

THE BOOK OF JUDITH

(A parable or analogy, often called
"the first historical novel")
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 200 B.C. - 200 A.D.

(The name Judith (Hebrew: Yehudit, "Jewess" or "Pratsed")
is the feminine form of Judah, Judas, Jude, etc. meaning
"Jew". So, the name Judith simply can mean any Jewish
woman. The Book of Judith is a book in the Hebrew
Deuterocanon or Second Canon. It 1s included in the
Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian
Old Testament of the Bible, and assigned by Protestants to
their Apocrypha. It tells of a Jewish widow, Judith, who uses
her beauty and charm to destroy an Assyrian general and
save Israel from oppression. The surviving Greek
manuscripts contain several historical anachronisms, which
is why some scholars now consider the book non-historical: a
parable, a theological novel, or perhaps the first historical
novel.

It 1s not clear whether the Book of Judith was originally
written in Hebrew or in Greek. The oldest existing version 1s
the Septuagint and might either be a translation from
Hebrew or composed in Greek. Details of vocabulary and
phrasing point to a Greek text written in a language
modeled on the Greek developed through translating the
other books in the Septuagint. The extant Hebrew language
versions, whether identical to the Greek, or in the shorter
Hebrew version, date to the Middle Ages. The Hebrew
versions name important figures directly such as the Seleucid
king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, thus placing the events in the
Hellenistic period when the Maccabees battled the Seleucid
monarchs. The Greek version uses deliberately cryptic and
anachronistic references such as "Nebuchadnezzar", a "King
of Assyria", who "reigns in Nineveh", for the same king. The
adoption of that name, though ‘inbistorical has been
sometimes explained either as a copyist's addition, or an
arbitrary name assigned to the ruler of Babylon.

Although the author was likely Jewish, there is no evidence
that the Book of Judith was ever considered authoritative or
a candidate for canonicity by any Jewish group.

The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible does not contain It,
nor was it found among the Dead Sea Scrolls or referred to
in any early Rabbinic literature.

Reasons for its exclusion include the lateness of its
composition, possible Greek origin, open support of the
Hasmonean dynasty (to which the early rabbinate was
opposed), and perhaps the brash and seductive character of
Judith herself.

However, after disappearing from circulation among Jews
for over a millennium, references to the Book of Judith, and

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

the figure of Judith herself, resurfaced in the religious
literature of crypto-Jews who escaped capitulation by the
Caliphate of Cordoba. The renewed interest took the form of
"tales of the heroine, liturgical poems, commentaries on the
Talmud, and passages in Jewish legal codes."

Ithough the text itself does not mention Hanukkah, it
became customary for a Hebrew midrashic variant of the
Judith story to be read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah as the
story of Hanukkah takes place during the time of the
Hasmonean dynasty.

That midrash, whose heroine 1s portrayed as gorging the
enemy on cheese and wine before cutting off his head, may
have formed the basis of the minor Jewish tradition to eat
dairy products during Hanukkah.

In that respect, Medieval Jewry appears to have viewed
Judith as the Hasmonean counterpart to Queen Esther, the
heroine of the holiday of Purim. The textual reliability of the
Book of Judith was also taken for granted, to the extent that
Biblical commentator Nachmanides (Ramban) quoted
several passages from a Peshitta (Syriac version) of Judith in
support of his rendering of Deuteronomy 21:14.

Judith is also made reference to in chapter 28 of 1
Megabyan, a book considered canonical in the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful
widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not
trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors.
She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy
general, Holofernes, with whom she slowly ingratiates
herself, promusing him information on the Israelites. Gaining
his trust, she 1s allowed access to his tent one night as he lies
ina drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head
back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians, having lost
their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. Though she is
courted by many, Judith remains unmarried for the rest of
her life.

Literary structure

The Book of Judith can be split into two parts or "acts" of
approximately equal length. Chapters 1—7 describe the rise
of the threat to Israel, led by the evil king Nebuchadnezzar
and his sycophantic general Holofernes, and 1s concluded as
Holofernes' worldwide campaign has converged at the
mountain pass where Judith’s village, Bethulia, 1s located.
Chapters 8—16 then introduce Judith and depict her heroic
actions to save her people. Part I, although at times tedious
in its description of the military developments, develops
important themes by alternating battles with reflections and
rousing action with rest. In contrast, the second half is
devoted mainly to Judith's strength of character and the
beheading scene.)

JUDITH CHAPTER |

1 In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who
reigned in Nineveh, the great city, in the days of Arphaxad,
who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatane

2 and who built walls around Ecbatane out of stones hewn
three cubits wide and six cubits long, and made the height of
the wall seventy cubits and its width fifty cubits,

3 and set the towers of its gates a hundred cubits high and
at the foundation sixty cubits wide,

4 and made its gates so that they were raised to a height of
seventy cubits and a width of forty cubits, for the going forth
of his mighty armies and for the setting in array of his foot
soldiers,

5 in those very days, king Nebuchadnezzar made war with
king Arphaxad on the great plain, which is the plain on the
borders of Ragau.

6 And all those who lived in the hill country came to him
there; and all who lived by the Euphrates and the Tigris and
the Hydaspes, and on the plain of Arioch the king of the
Elymeans, and very many nations of the sons of Chelod
assembled themselves for the battle.

7 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent to all
who lived in Persia, and to all who lived westward, and to
those who lived in Cilicia and Damascus and Libanus and
Antilibanus, and to all who lived upon the sea coast,

8 and to those among the nations who were from Carmel
and Galaad and the higher Galilee and the great plain of
Esdrelom,

9 and to all who were in Samaria and its cities, and beyond
the Jordan to Jerusalem and Bethany and Chelus and Kadesh,
and the river of Egypt, and Taphnes and Ramesse, and all the
land of Gesem,

10 and even to beyond Tanis and Memphis, and to all the
inhabitants of Egypt, all the way to borders of Ethiopia.

11 But all the inhabitants of the land made light of the
commandment of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians;
neither did they go into the battle with him, for they were
not afraid of him. Yes, they considered him to be only one
man; and they sent his ambassadors away from them with
nothing to show except disgrace.

12 Therefore Nebuchadnezzar was very angry with all this
country; and he swore by his throne and kingdom that he
would surely be avenged upon all those coasts of Cilicia and
Damascus and Syria, and that he would slay with the sword
all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, and the children of
Ammon, and all Judea, and all who were in Egypt, up to the
very borders of the two seas.

13 Then he marched in battle array with his power against
king Arphaxad in the seventeenth year, and he prevailed in
his battle, for he overthrew all the power of Arphaxad and
all his horsemen and all his chariots,

14 and became lord of his cities. And he came to Ecbatane
and took the towers and pillaged its streets and turned its
beauty into shame.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 He also overpowered Arphaxad at the mountains of
Ragau and struck him through with his darts, and destroyed
him utterly on that day.

16 So he returned afterward to Nineveh, both he and all his
company of diverse nations, who were a very great multitude
of men of war; and there he took his ease and banqueted,
both he and his army, for one hundred twenty days.

JUDITH CHAPTER 2

1 And in the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of
the first month, there was talk in the house of
Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians that he should, as he
had said, avenge himself upon all the earth.

2 So he called all his officers to him, and all his nobles, and
discussed with them his secret plan, and, with his own mouth,
he ensured the scourging of the whole earth.

3 Then they decreed the destruction of all flesh, of all who
did not obey the commandment of his mouth.

4 And when he had ended his counsel, Nebuchadnezzar king
of the Assyrians called Holofernes the chief captain of his
army, who was next to him, and said to him:

5 "Thus says the great king, the lord of the whole earth,
"Behold, you will go forth from my presence and take with
you men who trust in their own strength, one hundred
twenty thousand foot soldiers; and the number of horses with
their riders, twelve thousand.

6 And you will go against all the west country, because they
disobeyed my commandment.

7 And you will declare to them that they should prepare for
me earth and water, for I will go forth in my wrath against
them and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet
of my army, and I will give them as prey to them,

8 so that their slain will fill their valleys, and brooks and
the river will be filled with their dead until it overflows,

9 and I will lead them as captives to the utmost parts of all
the earth.

10 You therefore will go forth and capture for me
beforehand all their coasts; and if they will yield themselves
to you, you will reserve them for me until the day of their
punishment.

11 But concerning those who rebel, do not allow your eyes
to pity them, but slaughter them and plunder them wherever
you go.

12 For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom,
whatsoever I have spoken, I will do by my own hand.

13 And take heed that you transgress none of the
commandments of your lord, but accomplish them fully, as I
have commanded you, and do not defer to them.'"

14 Then Holofernes went forth from the presence of his lord,
and called all the governors and captains, and the officers of
the army of Assur.

15 And he mustered the chosen men for the battle, as his
lord had commanded him, to a force of one hundred twenty
thousand, plus twelve thousand archers on horseback;

16 and he arrayed them just as a great army is ordered for
war.

17 And he took camels and asses for their carriages, a very
great number; and sheep and oxen and goats without number
for their provision,

18 and plenty of rations for every man of the army, and
very much gold and silver from the king's house.

19 Then he went forth with all his power to precede king
Nebuchadnezzar on the journey, and to cover all the face of
the earth westward with their chariots and horsemen, and
their chosen foot soldiers.

20 Also a great number of diverse countries came with them,
like locusts and like the sand of the earth, for their multitude
was without number.

21 And they went forth from Nineveh for three days'
journey toward the plain of Bectileth, and pitched camp
outside Bectileth, near the mountain which is at the left hand
of upper Cilicia.

22 Then he took all his army, his foot soldiers, and
horsemen and chariots, and went from there into the hill
country;

23 and he destroyed Phud and Lud, and pillaged all the
children of Rasses, and the children of Israel who were
toward the wilderness at the south of the land of the
Chellians.

24 Then he went over the Euphrates, and went through
Mesopotamia, and destroyed all the high cities along the
river Arbonai, all the way to the sea.

25 And he captured the borders of Cilicia, and killed all
who resisted him, and came to the borders of Japheth,
toward the south, opposite Arabia.

26 He also encircled all the children of Madian, and burned
up their tabernacles, and plundered their sheep pens.

27 Then he went down into the plain of Damascus, at the
time of the wheat harvest, and burnt up all their fields, and
destroyed their flocks and herds; he also pillaged their cities,
and utterly laid waste to their countries, and struck down all
their young men with the edge of the sword.

28 Therefore the fear and dread of him fell upon all the
inhabitants of the sea coasts, who were in Sidon and Tyrus,
and those who lived in Sur and Ocina, and all who lived in
Jemnaan. And those who lived in Azotus and Ascalon feared
him greatly.

JUDITH CHAPTER 3

1 So they sent ambassadors to him to entreat him for peace,
saying,

2 "Behold, we, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great
king, lie before you; use us as it seems good in your sight.

3 Behold, our houses and all our places, and all our fields of
wheat, and flocks and herds, and all the lodges of our tents
lie before your face; use them as it pleases you.

4 Behold, even our cities and their inhabitants are your
servants; come and deal with them as it seems good to you."

5 So the men came to Holofernes and made declaration
before him in this way.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 Then he came down toward the sea coast, both he and his
army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of
them chosen men to assist them.

7 So they and all the surrounding country received them
with garlands, with dances, and with timbrels.

8 Yet he cast down their barriers and cut down their sacred
groves; for he had decreed the destruction of all the gods of
the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar
only, and so that all tongues and tribes should call upon him
as god.

9 He also came across Esdraelon near Dothaim, across the
great strait of Judea.

10 And he pitched camp between Geba and Scythopolis,
and he delayed there a whole month, so that he could gather
together all the carriages of his army.

JUDITH CHAPTER 4

1 Now the children of Israel, who lived in Judea, heard all
that Holofernes the chief captain of Nebuchadnezzar king of
the Assyrians had done to the nations, and in what way he
had pillaged all their temples and brought them to nothing.

2 Therefore they were exceedingly afraid of him, and were
troubled for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their
God.

3 For they were newly-returned from the captivity, and all
the people of Judea had only recently gathered together; and
the vessels and the altar and the house had been sanctified
after the profanation.

4 Therefore they sent into all the coasts of Samaria and the
villages, and to Bethoron and Belmen and Jericho, and to
Choba and Esora, and to the valley of Salem;

5 and they captured for themselves in advance all the tops of
the high mountains, and fortified the villages which were in
them, and stored up food as provisions for war, for their
fields had been recently reaped.

6 Also, Joacim the high priest, who was in those days in
Jerusalem, wrote to those who lived in Bethulia and
Betomestham, which is opposite Esdraelon toward the open
country near Dothaim,

7 charging them to hold the passages of the hill country;
for through them there was an entrance into Judea, and it
was easy to stop those who would come up, because the
passage was narrow, for two men at the most.

8 And the children of Israel did as Joacim the high priest
had commanded them, with the elders of all the people of
Israel, who lived at Jerusalem.

9 Then every man cried to God with great fervor, and they
humbled their souls with great vehemence,

10 and both they and their wives and their children, and
their cattle, and every stranger and hired hand, and their
servants bought with money, put sackcloth on their loins.

11 Thus every man, and the women and little children, and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, fell before the temple and cast
ashes upon their heads and spread out their sackcloth before
the face of the Lord; they also put sackcloth around the altar.

12 And they cried to the God of Israel, all with one consent
earnestly, so that he would not give over their children as
prey and their wives for a spoil and the cities of their
inheritance to destruction and the sanctuary to profanation
and reproach, for the nations to rejoice over them.

13 So God heard their prayers and looked upon their
afflictions; for the people fasted many days in all Judea and
Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.

14 And Joacim the high priest, and all the priests who
stood before the Lord and those who ministered to the Lord,
had their loins dressed with sackcloth, and offered the daily
burnt offerings with the vows and free gifts of the people,

15 and had ashes on their liturgical headdresses; and they
cried to the Lord with all their power, so that he would look
upon all the house of Israel graciously.

JUDITH CHAPTER 5

1 Then was it declared to Holofernes, the chief captain of
the army of Assur, that the children of Israel had prepared
for war and had shut up the passages of the hill country and
had fortified all the tops of the high hills and had laid
impediments in the open plains.

2 Because of this, he was very angry, and he called all the
princes of Moab and the captains of Ammon and all the
governors of the sea coast,

3 and he said to them, "Tell me now, you sons of Canaan,
who is this people, who dwell in the hill country, and which
cities do they inhabit, and what is the multitude of their
army, and wherein is their power and strength, and what
king or captain of their army is set over them,

4 and why are they resolved not to come and meet me, more
so than all the inhabitants of the west?"

5 Then Achior, the captain of all the sons of Ammon, said,
"Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your
servant and I will declare to you the truth concerning this
people, who dwell near you and inhabit the hill countries,
and no lie will come out of the mouth of your servant.

6 This people is descended from the Chaldeans,

7 and they resided temporarily and until recently in
Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of
their fathers, who were in the land of Chaldea.

8 For they left the way of their ancestors and worshipped
the God of heaven, the God they knew; so they cast them out
from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia
and lodged there for many days.

9 Then their God commanded them to depart from the
place where they lived and to go into the land of Canaan;
there they lived and were increased with gold and silver and
with very much cattle.

10 But when a famine covered all the land of Canaan, they
went down into Egypt and lodged there; meanwhile they
were nourished and became a great multitude there, so that
one could not number their nation.

11 Therefore the king of Egypt rose up against them, and
he dealt subtly with them and brought them low with labor
in brick and made them slaves.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Then they cried to their God and he smote all the land of
Egypt with incurable plagues, so the Egyptians cast them out
of their sight.

13 And God dried the Red Sea before them

14 and brought them to mount Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea,
and cast out all who lived in the wilderness.

15 So they lived in the land of the Amorites, and by their
strength they destroyed all those who were of Esebon, and
passing over the Jordan they possessed all the hill country.

16 And they cast out before them the Canaanite, the
Pherezite, the Jebusite, and the Sychemite, and all the
Gergesites, and they lived in that country for many days.

17 "While they did not sin before their God, they prospered,
because the God who hates iniquity was with them.

18 But when they departed from the way which he
appointed for them, they were destroyed in many battles very
badly and were led captive into a land which was not their
own, and the temple of their God was cast to the ground, and
their cities were taken by the enemies.

19 But now are they returned to their God and have
returned from the places where they were scattered and have
possessed Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and are seated
in the hill country, for it had been desolate.

20 Now therefore, my lord and governor, if there is any
ignorance in this people and they sin against their God, let us
consider that this will be their ruin, and let us go up and we
will overcome them.

21 But if there is no iniquity in their nation, let my lord
now pass by, lest their Lord defend them and their God be
for them, and we become a reproach before all the world."

22 And when Achior had finished these sayings, all the
people standing around the tent murmured; and the chief
men of Holofernes, and all who lived by the seaside and in
Moab, were saying that he should kill him.

23 For they said, "We will not be afraid of the faces of the
children of Israel, for we see that they are a people who have
no strength or power for a strong battle.

24 Now therefore, lord Holofernes, we will go up and they
will be a prey to be devoured by all your army."

JUDITH CHAPTER 6

1 And when the tumult of men who were around the
council were quiet, Holofernes, the chief captain of the army
of Assur, said to Achior and all the Moabites in front of all
the company of the other nations:

2 "And who are you, Achior and the hired hands of
Ephraim, that you would prophesy against us as today and
would say that we should not make war with the people of
Israel because their God will defend them? And who is God
but Nebuchadnezzar?

3 He will send his power and will destroy them from the
face of the earth and their God will not deliver them; but we,
his servants, will destroy them as if they were one man; for
they are not able to withstand the power of our horses.

4 For with them, we will tread them under foot, and their
mountains will be drunken with their blood and their fields
will be filled with their dead bodies and their footsteps will
not be able to stand before us, for they will utterly perish, as
king Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth, has said. And he
said, 'None of my words will be in vain.'

5 "And you, Achior, a hired hand of Ammon, who has
spoken these words on the day of your iniquity, will see my
face no more from this day forward, until I take vengeance
on this nation which came out of Egypt.

6 And then the sword of my army and the multitude of
those who serve me will pass through your sides, and you will
fall among their slain, when I return.

7 Now therefore, my servants will bring you back into the
hill country and will set you in one of the cities of the
passages;

8 and you will not perish, until you are destroyed with
them.

9 And if you persuade yourself in your mind that they will
be taken, do not let your countenance fall; I have spoken it
and none of my words will be in vain."

10 Then Holofernes commanded his servants, who served in
his tent, to take Achior and bring him to Bethulia and
deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel.

11 So his servants took him and brought him out of the
camp into the plain, and they went from the midst of the
plain into the hill country, and they came to the fountains
which were under Bethulia.

12 And when the men of the city saw them, they took up
their weapons and went out of the city to the top of the hill,
and every man who was armed with a sling kept them from
coming up by casting stones against them.

13 Nevertheless, having gotten secretly under the hill, they
bound Achior and threw him down, and they left him at the
foot of the hill and returned to their lord.

14 But the Israelites descended from their city and came to
him, and they freed him and brought him to Bethulia, and
presented him to the governors of the city,

15 who were in those days Uzziah the son of Micah of the
tribe of Simeon, and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and
Charmis the son of Melchiel.

16 And they called together all the elders of the city, and all
their youth ran together, and their women, to the assembly,
and they set Achior in the midst of all their people. Then
Uzziah asked him what had happened.

17 And he answered and declared to them the words of the
council of Holofernes, and all the words which he had spoken
in the midst of the princes of Assur, and whatsoever
Holofernes had spoken proudly against the house of Israel.

18 Then the people fell down and worshipped God, and
cried to God saying,

19 "O Lord God of heaven, behold their pride and pity the
low estate of our nation and look upon the face of those who
are sanctified for you this day."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 Then they comforted Achior and praised him greatly.

21 And Uzziah took him out of the assembly to his house
and made a feast for the elders. And they called on the God of
Israel all that night for help.

JUDITH CHAPTER 7

| The next day Holofernes commanded all his army and all
his people who had arrived take his side that they should
remove their camp from opposite Bethulia and capture in
advance the ascents of the hill country in order to make war
against the children of Israel.

2 Then their strong men removed their camps on that day;
and the army of the men of war was one hundred seventy
thousand foot soldiers, and twelve thousand horsemen,
besides the baggage and the other men who were afoot
among them, a very great multitude.

3 And they camped in the valley near Bethulia, by the
spring, and they spread themselves in width across Dothaim
even to Belmaim, and in length from Bethulia to Cynamon,
which is opposite Esdraelon.

4 Now the children of Israel, when they saw the multitude
of them, were greatly troubled, and everyone said to his
neighbor, "Now these men will wipe clean the face of the
earth, for neither the high mountains, nor the valleys, nor
the hills, are able to bear their weight."

5 Then every man took up his weapons of war, and when
they had kindled fires on their towers, they remained and
watched all that night.

6 But on the second day, Holofernes brought forth all his
horsemen in the sight of the children of Israel, who were in
Bethulia,

7 and viewed the passages up to the city; and he went to the
origins of their waters and captured them, and he set
garrisons of men of war over them, and he himself returned
toward his people.

8 Then they came to him, all the chiefs of the children of
Esau and all the governors of the people of Moab and the
captains of the sea coast, and they said,

9 "Let our lord now hear a word, so that there will not be a
loss among your army.

10 For this people of the children of Israel do not trust in
their spears, but in the height of the mountains where they
dwell, for it is not easy to come up to the tops of their
mountains.

11 Now therefore, my lord, do not fight against them in
battle array and not so much as one man among your people
will perish.

12 Remain in your camp and keep all the men of your army
there, and let us your servants take hold of the springs of
water, which issue forth at the foot of the mountain.

13 For all the inhabitants of Bethulia have their water
there; so thirst will kill them and they will give up their city,
and we and our people will go up to the tops of the
mountains nearby and will camp on them to watch so that
none can go out of the city.

14 So they and their wives and their children will be
consumed with fiery thirst, as if it were a sword brought
against them, and so they will be overthrown in the streets
where they dwell.

15 Thus will you render them an evil reward, because they
rebelled and did not meet your person peaceably."

16 And these words pleased Holofernes and all his servants,
and he decided to do as they had said.

17 So the camp of the children of Ammon departed, and
with them five thousand of the Assyrians, and they pitched
camp in the valley and captured the waters and the origins of
the waters of the children of Israel.

18 Then the children of Esau went up with the children of
Ammon and camped in the hill country opposite Dothaim.
And they sent some of them toward the south and toward the
east opposite Ekrebel, near Chusi upon the brook Mochmur;
and the rest of the army of the Assyrians camped in the plain
and covered the face of the whole land; and their tents and
carriages were pitched for a very great multitude.

19 Then the children of Israel cried to the Lord their God,
because their heart failed, for all their enemies had
surrounded them and there was no way to escape out from
among them.

20 Thus all the company of Assur remained around them,
both their foot soldiers, chariots, and horsemen, for thirty-
four days, so that all their vessels of water ran dry for all the
inhabitants of Bethulia

21 and the cisterns were emptied. And they did not have
enough water to drink their fill for even one day, for they
rationed their water.

22 Therefore their young children lost heart, and their
women and young men fainted for thirst and fell down in the
streets of the city and by the passageways of the gates; and
there was no longer any strength in them.

23 Then all the people assembled before Uzziah and the
chiefs of the city, including young men and women and
children, and they cried with a loud voice and said before all
the elders,

24 "God be judge between us and you, for you have done us
great injury in that you have not made peace with the
children of Assur.

25 For now we have no helper, but God has sold us into
their hands, so that we should be thrown down before them
with thirst and great destruction.

26 Now therefore call them to you and deliver the whole
city for a spoil to the people of Holofernes and to all his army.

27 For it is better for us to be made a spoil for them than to
die of thirst; for we will be his servants, so that our souls may
live and we will not see the death of our infants before our
eyes, nor the dying of our wives or our children.

28 We present as witness against you: the heaven and the
earth, and our God and Lord of our fathers, who punishes us
according to our sins and the sins of our fathers, so that he
will not allow what we have described to happen on this
day."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

29 Then there was great weeping in the midst of the
assembly, all with one consent; and they cried to the Lord
God with a loud voice.

30 Then Uzziah said to them, "Brethren, be courageous.
Let us endure yet five days, in that period of time the Lord
our God may turn his mercy toward us, for he will not
forsake us utterly.

31 And if these days pass and no help comes to us, I will do
according to your word."

32 And he dispersed the people, each to their own posts;
and they went to the walls and towers of their city, and sent
the women and children into their houses; and they were
brought very low in the city.

JUDITH CHAPTER 8

1 Now at that time Judith heard about this; she was the
daughter of Merari, the son of Ox, the son of Joseph, the son
of Ozel, the son of Elcia, the son of Ananiah, the son of
Gedeon, the son of Raphaim, the son of Acitho, the son of
Eliu, the son of Eliab, the son of Nathanael, the son of
Samael, the son of Salasadal, the son of Israel.

2 And Manasseh was her husband, of her tribe and kindred,
who died during the barley harvest.

3 For as he stood overseeing those who bound sheaves in
the field, the heat affected his head, and he fell on his bed,
and died in the city of Bethulia; and they buried him with his
fathers in the field between Dothaim and Balamo.

4 So Judith was a widow in her house three years and four
months.

5 And she made her a tent on the top of her house; and she
put sackcloth on her loins and wore her widow's clothing.

6 And she fasted all the days of her widowhood, except for
the eves of the sabbaths and the sabbaths, and the eves of the
new moons and the new moons, and the feasts and solemn
days of the house of Israel.

7 She also had a graceful temperament and was very
beautiful to behold. And her husband Manasseh had left her
gold and silver, and menservants and maidservants, and
cattle and lands, and she remained with them.

8 And there was no one who spoke an ill word about her,
for she feared God greatly.

9 Now she heard the evil words of the people against the
governor and that they fainted for lack of water; for Judith
had heard all the words that Uzziah had spoken to them and
that he had sworn to deliver the city to the Assyrians after
five days.

10 So then she sent her woman servant, who was in charge
of everything that she had, to call Uzziah and Chabris and
Charmis, the elders of the city.

11 And they came to her, and she said to them, "Hear me
now, you governors of the inhabitants of Bethulia; for your
words which you spoke before the people this day are not
right, concerning this oath which you made and pronounced
between God and yourselves, and your promise to deliver the
city to our enemies, unless within these days the Lord turns
to help you.

12 And now who are you to have tempted God this day,
and to stand among the children of men instead of God?

13 And now test the Lord Almighty, but you will never
know anything.

14 For you cannot find the depth of the heart of man,
neither can you perceive the things which he thinks; so then
how can you search out God, who has made all these things,
and know his mind or comprehend his purpose? No, my
brethren, do not provoke the Lord our God to anger.

15 "For ifhe will not help us within these five days, he has
power to defend us when he will, even every day, or to
destroy us before our enemies.

16 Do not bind the plans of the Lord our God; for God is
not like man as if he could be threatened; neither is he like
the son of man so that he would be wavering.

17 Therefore let us wait for salvation from him and call
upon him to help us, and he will hear our voice, if it pleases
him.

18 For there arose none in our age, neither is there any now
in these days, neither tribe, nor family, nor people, nor city
among us, who worship gods made with hands, as has
happened in past times.

19 For this reason our fathers were given to the sword and
as a spoil and had a great fall before our enemies.

20 But we know no other God, therefore we trust that he
will not despise us, nor any of our nation.

21 "For if we are overcome, then all Judea will lie waste
and our sanctuary will be pillaged; and he will place the
blame for the profanation of it at our mouth;

22 and the slaughter of our brethren and the captivity of
the country and the desolation of our inheritance, he will
blame on our heads among the Gentiles, wherever we will be
in captivity; and we will be an offence and a reproach to all
those who possess us.

23 For our servitude will not be directed towards our
benefit, but the Lord our God will turn it to our dishonor.

24 Now therefore, O brethren, let us show an example to
our brethren, because their hearts depend on us, and the
sanctuary and the house and the altar rest on us.

25 Moreover, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who
tests us, even as he did our fathers.

26 Remember the things he did to Abraham, and how he
tested Isaac, and what happened to Jacob in Mesopotamia of
Syria, when he kept the sheep of Laban his mother's brother.

27 For he has not tested us in the fire, as he did them for the
examination of their hearts, neither has he taken vengeance
on us; but the Lord does scourge those who come near to him,
to admonish them."

28 Then Uzziah said to her, "All that you have spoken, you
have spoken with a good heart and there is no one who can
refute your words.

29 For this is not the first day that your wisdom has been
manifested; but from the beginning of your days all the
people have known your understanding, because the
disposition of your heart has been good.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

30 But the people were very thirsty; and they compelled us
to do to them as we have spoken and to bring an oath on
ourselves, which we will not break.

31 Now therefore pray for us, because you are a godly
woman, and then the Lord will send us rain to fill our
cisterns and we will faint no more."

32 Then Judith said to them, "Listen to me and I will do
something which will be remembered throughout all
generations among the children of our nation.

33 You will watch this night at the gate, and I will go forth
with my woman servant; and, within the days that you have
promised to deliver the city to our enemies, the Lord will
visit Israel by my hand.

34 But do not ask me what I will do, for I will not reveal it
to you until the things that I do are completed."

35 Then Uzziah and the princes said to her, "Go in peace,
and may the Lord God go before you to take vengeance on
our enemies."

36 So they returned from the tent and went to their posts.

JUDITH CHAPTER 9

1 Judith fell upon her face and put ashes on her head and
uncovered the sackcloth she was wearing; and, about the
time that the incense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem
in the house of the Lord, Judith cried with a loud voice, and
said,

2"O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom you gave a
sword to take vengeance on the strangers, who loosened the
girdle of a maid to defile her, and uncovered the thigh to her
shame, and polluted her virginity to her reproach; for you
said, ‘It will not be so," and yet they did so.

3 Therefore you gave their rulers to be slain, so that they
dyed their bed in blood, being deceived, and you struck the
servants with their lords and the lords upon their thrones;

4 and you have given their wives for a prey and their
daughters to be captives and all their spoils to be divided
among your dear children, who were moved with your zeal
and abhorred the pollution of their blood and called upon
you for aid. O God, my God, hear me also for I am a widow.

5 "And you have wrought not only those things, but also
the things which happened before and which followed
afterwards; you have thought about the things which are
now and which are to come.

6 Yes, the things you established were ready at hand, and
they said, 'Lo, we are here,' for all your ways are prepared
and your judgments are in your foreknowledge.

7 For, behold, the Assyrians are multiplied in their power;
they are exalted with horse and man; they glory in the
strength of their foot soldiers; they trust in shield and spear
and bow and sling; and they do not know that you are the
Lord who breaks the battles: the Lord is your name.

8 Throw down their strength in your power and bring
down their force in your wrath; for they have resolved to
defile your sanctuary and to pollute the tabernacle where
your glorious name rests and to cast down with sword the
horn of your altar.

9 Behold their pride and send your wrath upon their heads;
give into my hand, the hand of a widow, the power that I
have conceived.

10 Strike, by the deceit of my lips, the servant with the
prince, and the prince with the servant; break down their
stateliness by the hand of a woman.

11 For your power is not found in numbers, nor your
might in strong men; for you are a God of the afflicted, a
helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector
of the forlorn, a savior of those who are without hope.

12 "I pray to you, I beg you, O God of my father and God
of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of the heavens and the earth,
Creator of the waters, King of every creature, hear my prayer;

13 and make my speech and deceit to be their wound and
stripe, who have resolved cruel things against your covenant
and your hallowed house, and against the top of Zion and the
house of the possession of your children;

14 and so make every nation and tribe acknowledge that
you are the God of all power and might, and that there is no
other who protects the people of Israel but you."

JUDITH CHAPTER 10

1 Now after this, she ceased to cry to the God of Israel, and
she completed all these words.

2 She rose where she had fallen down and called her maid;
and she went down into the house in which she lived on the
sabbath days and on her feast days,

3 and she pulled off the sackcloth which she had on, and put
off the garments of her widowhood, and washed her body all
over with water, and anointed herself with precious ointment,
and braided the hair of her head and put a headdress on it,
and put on her garments of gladness, which she used to wear
during the life of Manasseh her husband.

4 And she put sandals on her feet, and she put on her
bracelets and her chains and her rings and her earrings and
all her ornaments, and she decked herself out boldly, to
allure the eyes of all men who might see her.

5 Then she gave her maid a bottle of wine and a cruse of oil,
and filled a bag with parched grain and lumps of figs and
with fine bread; so she folded all these things together and
laid them upon her.

6 Thus they went forth to the gate of the city of Bethulia,
and they found standing there Uzziah and the elders of the
city, Chabris and Charmis.

7 And when they saw her, that her countenance was altered
and her apparel was changed, they wondered at her beauty
very greatly and said to her,

8 "May God, the God of our fathers, give you favor and
accomplish your endeavors to the glory of the children of
Israel and to the exaltation of Jerusalem." Then they
worshipped God.

9 And she said to them, "Command the gates of the city to
be opened for me, so that I may go forth to accomplish the
things that you have discussed with me." So they commanded
the young men to open it for her, as she had said.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 And when they had done so, Judith went out, she and
her maid with her; and the men of the city looked after her,
until she had gone down the mountain and had passed the
valley and they could see her no more.

11 Thus they went straight ahead in the valley, and the first
watch of the Assyrians met her

12 and captured her; and they asked her, "Of what people
are you? And where have you come from? And where are you
going?" And she said, "I am a woman of the Hebrews, and I
have fled from them, for they will be given over to you to be
consumed.

13 And I am going before Holofernes the chief captain of
your army, to declare words of truth; and I will show him a
way, by which he can go and win all the hill country, without
losing the body or life of any of his men."

14 Now when the men heard her words and beheld her
countenance, they wondered greatly at her beauty and said to
her,

15 "You have saved your life because you have hurried to
come down to the presence of our lord. Now therefore come
to his tent, and some of us will conduct you, until they have
delivered you to his hands.

16 And when you stand before him, do not be afraid in
your heart, but reveal to him what you have said, and he will
treat you well."

17 Then they chose from among them a hundred men to
accompany her and her maid; and they brought her to the
tent of Holofernes.

18 Then a crowd began to assemble from throughout all
the camp, for the news of her arrival had spread among the
tents, and they gathered around her as she stood outside the
tent of Holofernes, until they had told him about her.

19 And they wondered at her beauty and admired the
children of Israel because of her, and each one said to his
neighbor, "Who could despise this people, who have such
women among them? Surely it is not good for one man
among them to be left, who, being set free, might deceive the
whole earth."

20 And those who lay near Holofernes went out, and they
and all his servants brought her into the tent.

21 Now Holofernes rested on his bed under a canopy, which
was woven with purple and gold and emeralds and precious
stones.

22 So they informed him about her; and he came out in
front of his tent with silver lamps going before him.

23 And when Judith was presented before him and his
servants, they all marveled at the beauty of her countenance;
and she fell down upon her face and did him reverence, and
his servants lifted her up.

JUDITH CHAPTER 11

1 Then Holofernes said to her, "Woman, be of good
comfort; fear not in your heart. For I have never hurt any
who were willing to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all
the earth.

2 Now therefore, if your people who dwell in the mountains
had not treated me heedlessly, I would not have lifted up my
spear against them, but they have done these things to
themselves.

3 But now tell me how you have fled from them and come to
us; for you have reached safety, so be of good comfort; you
will live this night and hereafter.

4 For none will hurt you, but they will treat you well, as
they do the servants of king Nebuchadnezzar my lord."

5 Then Judith said to him, "Receive the words of your
servant and permit your handmaid to speak in your presence,
and I will declare no lie to my lord this night.

6 And if you will follow the words of your handmaid, God
will bring something perfectly to pass by you, and my lord
will not fail in his purposes.

7 As Nebuchadnezzar king of all the earth lives, and as his
power lives, he has sent you for the upholding of every living
thing; for not only men will serve him by you, but also the
beasts of the field, and the cattle and the birds of the air, will
live by your power under Nebuchadnezzar and all his house.

8 For we have heard of your wisdom and your policies, and
it is reported across all the earth, that you alone are excellent
in all the kingdom, and mighty in knowledge, and wonderful
in feats of war.

9 "Now as concerning the matter which Achior spoke
about in your council, we have heard his words; for the men
of Bethulia saved him, and he declared to them all that he
had spoken to you.

10 Therefore, O lord and governor, respect not his word,
but store it in your heart, for it is true; for our nation will
not be punished, nor can sword prevail against them, unless
they sin against their God.

11 And now, so that my lord will not be defeated and
frustrated in his purpose, even death has now fallen upon
them and their sin has overtaken them, and therefore they
will provoke their God to anger whenever they do what is
not right to be done.

12 For their food stores fail them and their water supply is
scant, and they have decided to lay hands on their cattle, and
have resolved to consume all those things which God has
forbidden them to eat by his laws.

13 And they are resolved to use up the first fruits and the
tenths of wine and oil, which they had sanctified and which
are reserved for the priests who serve in Jerusalem before the
face of our God, the things it is not lawful for any of the
people so much as to touch with their hands.

14 For they have sent an envoy to Jerusalem, because those
who dwell there have also done the same, to bring them a
license from the senate.

15 Now when they bring them word, they will immediately
do it, and they will be given to you to be destroyed the same
day.

16 "Therefore I, your handmaid, knowing all this, have fled
from their presence; and God has sent me to work things
with you, things at which all the earth will be astonished,
whosoever hears it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 For your servant is religious and serves the God of
heaven day and night. Therefore, my lord, I will remain with
you now, and your servant will go out by night into the
valley, and I will pray to God, and he will tell me when they
have committed their sins.

18 And I will return and reveal it to you. Then you will go
forth with all your army, and there will be none among them
who will withstand you.

19 And I will lead you through the midst of Judea, until
you come against Jerusalem, and I will set your throne in the
midst thereof; and you will drive them as sheep which have
no shepherd, and a dog will not so much as open his mouth
at you; for these things were told to me according to my
foreknowledge, and they were declared to me, and I am sent
to tell you."

20 Then her words pleased Holofernes and all his servants;
and they marveled at her wisdom and said,

21 "There is no other such woman from one end of the
earth to the other, both for beauty of face and wisdom of
words."

22 Likewise Holofernes said to her, "God has done well to
send you before the sons of your people, so that strength
might be in our hands and destruction be on those who
regard my lord lightly.

23 And now you are both beautiful in your countenance
and clever in your words; surely if you do as you have spoken,
your God will be my God, and you will dwell in the house of
king Nebuchadnezzar and will be renowned throughout the
whole earth."

JUDITH CHAPTER 12

1 Then he commanded them to bring her in to where his
plate was set; and he directed them to prepare for her from
his own meats and that she should drink from his own wine.

2 And Judith said, "I will not eat of it, lest there be an
offence, but provision will be made for me from the things
which I have brought."

3 Then Holofernes said to her, "If your provisions should
fail, how should we give you the like? For there are none
among us from your nation."

4 Then Judith said to him, "As your soul lives, my lord,
your handmaid will not use up those things which I have
before the Lord works by my hand the things he has
determined."

5 Then the servants of Holofernes brought her into the tent,
and she slept until midnight, and she arose when it was
toward the morning watch.

6 And she sent to Holofernes, saying, "Let my lord now
command that your handmaid may go forth to prayer."

7 Then Holofernes commanded his guard not to prevent her;
thus she resided in the camp for three days, and went out in
the night into the valley of Bethulia and washed herself in a
spring of water by the camp.

8 And when she came out, she beseeched the Lord God of
Israel to direct her way in order to accomplish the raising up
of the children of her people.

9 So she came in clean and remained in the tent until she ate
her meat in the evening.

10 And on the fourth day, Holofernes made a feast for his
own servants only, and he called none of the officers to the
banquet.

11 Then he said to Bagoas the eunuch, who was in charge of
all that he had, "Go now and persuade this Hebrew woman
who is with you that she should come to us, and eat and
drink with us.

12 For, see, it will be a shame upon our person, if we let
such a woman go without having had her company; for if we
do not draw her to us, she will laugh at us in scorn."

13 Then Bagoas went from the presence of Holofernes, and
he came to her and said, "Let not this fair gentlewoman fear
to approach my lord and to be honored in his presence, and
to drink wine and be merry with us, and to become this day
like one of the daughters of the Assyrians, who serve in the
house of Nebuchadnezzar."

14 Then Judith said to him, "Who am I now, that I should
contradict my lord? Surely whatever pleases him I will do
without hesitation, and it will be my joy until the day of my
death."

15 So she arose, and she decked herself out with her apparel
and all her woman's attire. And her maid went and laid soft
skins on the ground for her opposite Holofernes, which she
had received from Bagoas for her daily use, so that she might
sit and eat upon them.

16 Now when Judith came in and sat down with Holofernes,
his heart was inflamed with her, and his mind was stirred up,
and he greatly desired her company; for he had been waiting
for sometime to deceive her, even from the day that he had
first seen her.

17 Then Holofernes said to her, "Drink now and be merry
with us."

18 So Judith said, "I will drink now, my lord, because my
life is exalted in me this day more than all the days since I was
born."

19 Then she took and ate and drank before him the things
which her maid had prepared.

20 And Holofernes took great delight in her, and he drank
more wine than he had drunk at any time in one day since he
was born.

JUDITH CHAPTER 13

11 Now when evening had arrived, his servants hurried to
depart, and Bagoas shut his tent from the outside and
dismissed the waiters from the presence of his lord; and they
went to their beds, for they were all weary because the feast
had been long.

12 And Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes
lying by himself on his bed, for he was filled with wine.

13 Now Judith had commanded her maid to stand outside
her bedroom and to wait for her to go forth, as she did daily;
for she said she would go forth to her prayers, and she spoke
to Bagoas towards the same purpose.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 So everyone left and no one was left in the bedroom,
neither little nor great. Then Judith, standing by his bed,
said in her heart: "O Lord God of all power, look at this time
upon the works of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem.

15 For now is the time to help your inheritance and to
execute your purposes for the destruction of the enemies who
have risen against us."

16 Then she went to the pillar of the bed, which was at
Holofernes' head, and took down his broadsword from there.

17 And she approached his bed, and took hold of the hair
of his head, and said, "Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel,
this day."

18 And she twice struck his neck with all her might, and she
took his head away from him.

19 And she tumbled his body down from the bed, and
pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and, soon after, she
went out and gave the head of Holofernes to her maid.

110 And she put it in her bag of meat, so these two went
together, according to their custom, to prayer; and when
they passed the camp, they circled the valley and went up the
mountain of Bethulia and came to its gates.

111 Then Judith said, from far off to the watchmen at the
gate, "Open, open the gate now! God, our God, is with us to
show his power yet in Jerusalem and his forces against the
enemy, as he has truly done on this day!"

112 Now when the men of her city heard her voice, they
hurried down to the gate of their city and they called the
elders of the city.

113 And then they ran all together, both small and great,
for it was surprising to them that she had returned. So they
opened the gate and received them; and they made a fire for a
light, and they stood all around them.

114 Then she said to them with a loud voice, "Praise, praise
God, praise God, I say, for he has not taken away his mercy
from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my
hands this night."

115 So she took the head out of the bag and showed it and
said to them, "Behold the head of Holofernes, the chief
captain of the army of Assur, and behold the canopy where
he had lain in his drunkenness; and the Lord has struck him
by the hand ofa woman.

116 As the Lord lives, who has preserved me in the path
that I took, my attractiveness has deceived him to his
destruction, and yet he did not commit sin with me, to defile
and shame me."

117 Then all the people were wonderfully astonished, and
bowed themselves and worshipped God, and said with one
accord, "Blessed are you, O our God, who has this day
brought to nothing the enemies of your people!"

118 Then Uzziah said to her, "O daughter, blessed are you
of the most high God above all the women upon the earth;
and blessed is the Lord God, who has created the heavens and
the earth, who guided you in cutting off the head of the chief
of our enemies.

119 Because of this, your resoluteness will not depart from
the heart of men, who will remember the power of God for
ever.

120 And may God turn these things to your benefit as a
perpetual praise, to assist you in good things because you
have not withheld your life during the affliction of our
nation, but have revenged our ruin, walking a straight path
before our God." And all the people said, "Amen! Amen!"

JUDITH CHAPTER 14

11 Then Judith said to them, "Hear me now, my brethren!
Take this head and hang it on the highest place of your walls!

12 And so, as soon as morning appears and the sun shines
upon the earth, everyone must take his weapons and go forth,
every valiant man out of the city, and with a captain set over
them, as though you were going down into the field toward
the watch of the Assyrians; but do not go down.

13 Then they will take their amour and go into their camp
and call for the captains of the army of Assur; and they will
run to the tent of Holofernes, but will not find him; then fear
will fall upon them, and they will flee before your face.

14 So then you, and all who inhabit the coast of Israel, will
pursue them and overthrow them as they go.

15 But before you do these things, call Achior the
Ammonite to me, so that he may see and know him who
despised the house of Israel and who sent him to us as if to his
death."

16 Then they called Achior out of the house of Uzziah; and
when he arrived and saw the head of Holofernes in a man's
hand in the assembly of the people, he fell down on his face
and fainted.

17 But when they had revived him, he fell at Judith's feet
and reverenced her and said, "Blessed are you in all the tents
of Judah and in all nations, who when they hear your name
will be astonished.

18 Now therefore tell me all the things which you have
done in these days." Then Judith declared to him in the midst
of the people all that she had done, from the day that she
went forth until that hour when she spoke to them.

19 And when she had finished speaking, the people shouted
with a loud voice and made a joyful noise in their city.

110 And when Achior had seen all that the God of Israel
had done, he believed in God greatly; and he circumcised the
flesh of his foreskin and was joined to the house of Israel unto
this day.

111 And as soon as morning arose, they hung the head of
Holofernes on the wall, and every man took his weapons, and
they went forth by bands to the straits of the mountain.

112 But when the Assyrians saw them, they sent word to
their leaders, who went to their captains and tribunes, and to
every one of their rulers.

113 So they came to Holofernes' tent, and said to him who
had the charge of all his things, "Awaken our lord now, for
the slaves have been so bold as to come down against us in
battle, so that they may be utterly destroyed."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

114 Then Bagoas went in and knocked at the door of the
tent; for he thought that he had slept with Judith.

115 But, because no one answered, he opened it and went
into the bedroom; and he found him cast upon the floor dead,
and his head had been taken from him.

116 Therefore he cried with a loud voice, with weeping and
sighing and a mighty cry, and he tore his garments.

117 After this, he went into the tent where Judith lodged,
and when he did not find her, he dashed out to the people
and cried,

118 "These slaves have dealt treacherously; one woman of
the Hebrews has brought shame on the house of king
Nebuchadnezzar; for, behold, Holofernes lies on the ground
without a head!"

119 When the captains of the Assyrians' army heard these
words, they tore their coats, and their minds were
exceptionally troubled; and there was a cry and a very great
noise throughout the camp.

JUDITH CHAPTER 15

1 And when those who were in the tents heard, they were
astonished at what had happened.

2 And fear and trembling fell upon them, so that there was
no man who dared to remain in the sight of his neighbor, but
rushing out all together, they fled in every direction of the
plain and of the hill country.

3 Those who had camped in the mountains surrounding
Bethulia also fled away. Then the children of Israel, every
one who was a warrior among them, rushed out upon them.

4 Then Uzziah sent to Betomasthem and to Bebai and
Chobai and Cola and to all the coasts of Israel, to declare all
that had happened and to tell them that all should rush forth
upon their enemies to destroy them.

5 Now when the children of Israel heard it, they all fell
upon them with one consent and slew them all the way to
Chobai; and those who came from Jerusalem and from all the
hill country did likewise, for men had told them what had
happened in the camp of their enemies, and those who were
in Galaad and in Galilee chased them with a great slaughter,
until they were past Damascus and its borders.

6 And the remnant who lived at Bethulia fell upon the camp
of Assur and pillaged them, and they were greatly enriched.

7 And the children of Israel who had returned from the
slaughter took what remained; and the villages and the cities,
which were in the mountains and on the plain, obtained
many spoils, for their number was very great.

8 Then Joacim the high priest and the elders of the children
of Israel who lived in Jerusalem came to behold the good
things that God had done for Israel, and to see Judith and
greet her.

9 And when they came to her, they blessed her with one
accord and said to her, "You are the exaltation of Jerusalem,
you are the great glory of Israel, you are the great rejoicing
of our nation.

10 You have done all these things by your hand. You have
done much good to Israel, and God is pleased with it; you

will be blessed by the Almighty Lord for evermore." And all
the people said, "Amen!"

11 And the people despoiled the camp for the space of thirty
days. And they gave the tent of Holofernes to Judith, and all
his plates and beds and vessels and all his belongings; and she
took it and laid it on her mule; and she prepared her cart and
laid them on it.

12 Then all the women of Israel ran together to see her, and
they blessed her and made a dance among them for her; and
she took branches in her hand and gave some also to the
women who were with her.

13 And they put a garland of olive upon her and on her
maid who was with her; and she went before all the people in
the dance, leading all the women; and all the men of Israel
followed in their amour with garlands, and with songs in
their mouths.

JUDITH CHAPTER 16

1 Then Judith began to sing this thanksgiving for all Israel,
and all the people sang after her this song of praise.

2 And Judith said, "Begin to my God with timbrels; sing to
my Lord with cymbals; tune to him a new psalm; exalt him
and call upon his name.

3 For God breaks the battles. For among the camps, in the
midst of the people, he has delivered me out of the hands of
those who persecuted me.

4 Assur came out of the mountains from the north, he came
with ten thousands of his army, their great number stopped
the torrents and their horsemen covered the hills.

5 He bragged that he would burn up my borders, and kill
my young men with the sword, and dash the infants against
the ground, and make my young children as a prey, and my
virgins as a spoil.

6 But the Almighty Lord has disappointed them by the
hand of a woman.

7 For the mighty one did not fall by the young men, neither
did the sons of the Titans strike him, nor did lofty giants set
upon him; but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him
with the beauty of her countenance.

8 For she put off the garment of her widowhood, for the
exaltation of those who were oppressed in Israel, and
anointed her face with ointment, and bound her hair in a
headdress, and put on a linen garment, to deceive him.

9 Her sandals ravished his eyes; her beauty took his mind
prisoner; and the broadsword passed through his neck.

10 The Persians quaked at her boldness; and the Medes
were daunted by her hardiness.

11 Then my afflicted shouted for joy and my weak ones
cried aloud. But they were astonished; these lifted up their
voices, but they were overthrown.

12 The sons of the gentlewomen have pierced them through
and wounded them as fugitives’ children; they perished by the
battle of the Lord.

13 I will sing to the Lord a new song. O Lord, you are
great and glorious, wonderful in strength, and invincible.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 Let all creatures serve you. For you spoke and they were
made; you sent forth your spirit and it created them; and
there is none who can resist your voice.

15 For the mountains will be moved from their foundations
with the waters; the rocks will melt like wax at your presence.
Yet you are merciful to those who fear you.

16 For all sacrifice is too little to be a sweet fragrance for
you and all the fat is not sufficient for your burnt offering,
but he who fears the Lord is great at all times.

17 Woe to the nations who rise up against my kindred! The
Lord Almighty will take vengeance upon them on the Day of
Judgment by putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they
will feel them and will weep for ever."

18 Now as soon as they entered into Jerusalem, they
worshipped the Lord; and as soon as the people were purified,
they offered their burnt offerings and their free offerings and
their gifts.

19 Judith also dedicated all the belongings of Holofernes,
which the people had given her, and she gave the canopy,
which she had taken out of his bedroom, as a gift to the Lord.

20 So the people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the
sanctuary for the space of three months; and Judith remained
with them.

21 After this time, every one returned to his own
inheritance. And Judith went to Bethulia and remained in
her own possession; and during her time she was held in
honor throughout the country.

22 And many desired her, but none knew her all the days of
her life, after Manasseh her husband was dead and was
gathered to his people.

23 But she increased more and more in honor; and she grew
old in her husband's house, reaching the age of one hundred
five years; and she made her woman servant free. So she died
in Bethulia, and they buried her in the cave of her husband
Manasseh.

24 And the house of Israel lamented for her seven days. And
before she died, she distributed her goods to all those who
were the nearest kindred of Manasseh her husband and to
those who were the nearest of her kindred.

25 And there was no one who made the children of Israel
afraid again during the days of Judith, nor for a long time
after her death.

ADDITIONS

TO THE BOOK OF ESTHER
or The Rest of the Book of Esther (Chapters 11-16)
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 2nd century B.C.

(The canonicity of these Greek additions has been a subject
of scholarly disagreement practically since their first
appearance in the Greek Septuagint Bible. They argue that
the following chapters were made later than the original
Book of Esther. Therefore, they usully placed in the
Deuterocanon of the Hebrew Bible. An additional six
chapters appear interspersed in Esther in the Septuagint, the
Greek translation of the Bible. This was noted by Jerome in
compiling the Latin Vulgate. Additionally, the Greek text
contains many small changes in the meaning of the main text.
Jerome recognised the former as additions not present in the
Hebrew Text and placed them at the end of his Latin
translation. This placement and numbering system is used in
Catholic Bible translations based primarily on the Vulgate,
such as the Douay—Rheims Bible and the Knox Bible. In
contrast, the 1979 revision of the Vulgate, the Nova Vulgata,
incorporates the additions to Esther directly into the
narrative itself, as do most modern Catholic English
translations based on the original Hebrew and Greek (e.g.,
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, New American
Bible, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition). The
numbering system for the additions differs with each
translation.

These additions include:

¢ an opening prologue that describes a dream had by
Mordecai [in other versions called Mardocheus]

¢ the contents of the decree against the Jews

¢ prayers for God's intervention offered by Mordecai and by
Esther

¢ an expansion of the scene in which Esther appears before
the king, with a mention of God's intervention

¢a copy of the decree in favour of the Jews

¢ a passage in which Mordecai interprets his dream (from
the prologue) in terms of the events that followed

¢ a colophon appended to the end, which reads: "In the
fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus,
who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and his son
Ptolemy brought to Egypt the preceding Letter about Purim,
which they said was authentic and had been translated by
Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, one of the residents of
Jerusalem" (NRSV). It is unclear to which version of Greek
Esther this colophon refers, and who exactly are the figures
mentioned in it.

By the time the Greek version of Esther was written, the
foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Judah was the Macedonians of Alexander the Great, who
defeated the Persian empire about 150 years after the time of
the story of Esther; the Septuagint version noticeably calls
Haman a "Bougaion" [incomprehensible] where the Hebrew
text describes him as an Agagite.

The canonicity of these Greek additions has been a subject
of scholarly disagreement practically since their first
appearance in the Septuagint — Martin Luther, being
perhaps the most vocal Reformation-era critic of the work,
considered even the original Hebrew version to be of very
doubtful value. Luther's complaints against the book carried
past the point of scholarly critique and may reflect Luther's
antisemitism.

The Council of Trent, the summation of the Roman
Catholic Counter-Reformation, reconfirmed the entire book,
both Hebrew text and Greek additions, as canonical. The
Book of Esther is used twice in commonly used sections of the
Catholic Lectionary. In both cases, the text used 1s not only
taken from a Greek addition, the readings also are the prayer
of Mordecai, and nothing of Esther's own words 1s ever used.
The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint version of
Esther, as it does for all of the Old Testament.

In contrast, the additions are included in the Biblical
apocrypha, usually printed in a separate section (if at all) in
Protestant bibles. The additions, called "The rest of the
Book of Esther", are specifically listed in the Thirty-Nine
Articles, Article VI, of the Church of England as non-
canonical.

The following version counts the chapters from 10
[continued] to 24 instead of 11 to 16)

ESTHER CHAPTER 10

[continued]... .

4 In the second year of the reign of Ahasuerus the great, on
the first day of the month of Nisan, Mordecai, the son of Jair,
the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin,
had a dream.

5 He was a Jew, and dwelt in the city of Susa, a great man,
who was a servant in the king's court.

6 He was also one of the captives, which Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon carried from Jerusalem with Jeconiah
king of Judea; and this was his dream:

7 Behold a noise of a tumult, with thunder and earthquakes
and uproar in the land:

8 And behold, two great dragons came forth ready to fight,
and their cry was great.

9 And at their cry all nations were prepared to battle, that
they might fight against the righteous people.

10 And lo, a day of darkness and obscurity, tribulation and
anguish, affliction and great uproar, upon the earth.

11 And the whole righteous nation was troubled, fearing
their own evils, and were ready to perish.

12 Then they cried unto God, and upon their cry, as if from
a little fountain, arose the greatest flood and many
overflowing waters.

13 The light and the sun rose up, and the lowly were
exalted, and devoured the glorious.

14 Now when Mordecai, who had seen this dream, and
what God had determined to do, was awake, he kept this
dream in mind, and until night by all means desired to
understand it.

ESTHER CHAPTER 11

1 And Mordecai took his rest in the court with Gabatha
and Tharra, the two eunuchs of the king, and keepers of the
palace.

2 And he heard their plan, and searched out their purposes,
and learned that they were about to lay hands upon
Ahasuerus the king; and so he testified to the king about
them.

3 Then the king examined the two eunuchs, and after they
had confessed, they were strangled.

4 And the king made a record of these things, and Mordecai
also wrote thereof.

5 So the king commanded, Mordecai to serve in the court,
and for this he rewarded him.

6 However, Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,
was in great honor with the king, and sought to injure
Mordecai and his people because of the two eunuchs of the
king.

ESTHER CHAPTER 12

1 Now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus (this is
Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over
one hundred twenty-seven provinces),

2 that in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the
throne of his kingdom, whose palace was in Susa,

3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his
princes and his servants; and the power of Persia and Media,
the nobles and princes of the provinces, were before him.

4 He displayed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
honor of his excellent majesty for many days, even one
hundred eighty days.

5 When these days were fulfilled, the king made a seven day
feast for all the people who were present in Susa, the palatial
city, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the
king's palace.

6 There were hangings of white, green, and blue material,
fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings
and marble pillars. The couches were of gold and silver, on a
pavement of red, white, yellow, and black marble.

7 They gave them drinks in golden vessels of various kinds,
including royal wine in abundance, according to the bounty
of the king.

8 In accordance with the law, the drinking was not
compulsory; for so the king had instructed all the officials of
his house, that they should do according to every man's
wishes.

9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the
royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was
merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona,
Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcass, the seven eunuchs
who served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,

11 to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal
crown, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she
was beautiful.

12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's
commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very
angry, and his anger burned in him.

13 Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times,
(for it was the king's custom to consult those who knew law
and judgment;

14 and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha,
Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes
of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat first in
the kingdom),

15 "What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law,
because she has not done the bidding of the King Ahasuerus
by the eunuchs?"

16 Memucan answered before the king and the princes,
"Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but
also to all the princes, and to all the people who are in all the
provinces of the King Ahasuerus.

17 For this deed of the queen will become known to all
women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands,
when it is reported, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the
queen to be brought in before him, but she didn't come.'

18 Today, the princesses of Persia and Media who have
heard of the queen's deed will tell all the king's princes. This
will cause much contempt and wrath.

19 If it please the king, let a royal commandment go from
him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and
the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never
again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her
royal estate to another who is better than she.

20 When the king's decree, which he shall make, is
published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the
wives will give their husbands honor, both great and small."

21 This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the
king did according to the word of Memucan:

22 for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every
province according to its writing, and to every people in
their language, that every man should rule his own house,
speaking in the language of his own people.

ESTHER CHAPTER 13

1 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was
pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and
what was decreed against her.

2 Then the king's servants who served him said, "Let
beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

3 Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his
kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful
young virgins to Susa, the palatial city, to the women's house,

to the custody of Hegai the king's eunuch, keeper of the
women. Let cosmetics be given them;

4 and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead
of Vashti." The idea pleased the king, and he did so.

5 There was a certain Jew in Susa, the palatial city, whose
name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the
son of Kish, a Benjamite,

6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the
captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of
Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had
carried away.

7 He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's
daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden
was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were
dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

8 So it happened, when the king's commandment and his
decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered
together to Susa, the palatial city, to the custody of Hegai,
that Esther was taken into the king's house, to the custody of
Hegai, keeper of the women.

9 The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from
him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food,
and the seven choice maidens who were to be given her out of
the king's house. He moved her and her maidens to the best
place in the women's house.

10 Esther had not made known her people or her relatives,
because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not
make it known.

11 Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the
women's house, to find out how Esther did, and what would
become of her.

12 Each young woman's turn came to go in to King
Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so
were the days of their purification accomplished, six months
with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances and
with preparations for beautifying women).

13 The young woman then came to the king in this way:
whatever she desired was given her to go with her out of the
women's house to the king's house.

14 In the evening she went, and on the next day she
returned into the second women's house, to the custody of
Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch, who kept the concubines. She
came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her
and she was called by name.

15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail
the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter,
came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what
Hegai the king's eunuch, the keeper of the women, advised.
Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked at
her.

16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal
house in the tenth month, which is the month Tevet, in the
seventh year of his reign.

17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she
obtained favor and kindness in his sight more than all the

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made
her queen instead of Vashti.

18 Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and
his servants, even Esther's feast; and he proclaimed a holiday
in the provinces, and gave gifts according to the king's
bounty.

19 When the virgins were gathered together the second
time, Mordecai was sitting inside the king's gate.

20 Esther had not yet made known her relatives or her
people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed
Mordecai, as she did when she was brought up by him.

21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting inside the
king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigtha and Teresh,
who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands
on the King Ahasuerus.

22 This matter became known to Mordecai, who informed
Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in
Mordecai's name.

23 When the matter was investigated, and it was found to
be so, they were both hanged on a tree; and it was written in
the Book of the Chronicles in the king's presence.

ESTHER CHAPTER 14

| After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the
son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set
his seat above all the princes who were with him.

2 All the king's servants who were inside the king's gate
bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had
so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn't bow
down or pay him homage.

3 Then the king's servants, who were inside the king's gate,
said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's
commandment?"

4 Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and
he didn't listen to them, that they told Haman, to see
whether Mordecai's reason would stand; for he had told them
that he was a Jew.

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor
pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath.

6 But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai
alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people.
Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people
of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

7 In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the
twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot,
before Haman from day to day, and from month to month,
and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

8 Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There 1s a certain people
scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the
provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than
those of other peoples. They do not keep the king's laws.
Therefore it is not to the king's benefit to allow them to
remain.

9 If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be
destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into

the hands of those who are in charge of the king's business, to
bring it into the king's treasuries."

10 The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to
Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.

11 The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, the
people also, to do with them as it seems good to you."

12 Then the king's scribes were called in on the first month,
on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman
commanded was written to the king's satraps, and to the
governors who were over every province, and to the princes
of every people, to every province according its writing, and
to every people in their language. It was written in the name
of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king's ring.

13 Letters were sent by couriers into all the king's
provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews,
both young and old, little children and women, in one day,
on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the
month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

ESTHER CHAPTER 15

| This is a copy of the letters: "The great king Ahasuerus
writes these things to the princes and governors, who are
under him from India unto Ethiopia in one hundred twenty-
seven provinces.

2 "After I became lord over many nations and had
dominion over the whole world, not lifted up with
presumption of my authority, but carrying myself always
with equity and mildness, I purposed to settle my subjects
continually in a quiet life, and make my kingdom peaceable
and open for passage to the utmost coasts, to renew peace,
which is desired of all men.

3 "Now when I asked my counselors how this might be
brought to pass, Haman, who excelled in wisdom among us
and was approved for his constant good will and steadfast
fidelity and had the honor of the second place in the kingdom,

4 declared to us that in all nations throughout the world
there was scattered a certain malicious people, who had laws
contrary to all nations and continually despised the
commandments of kings, so that the uniting of our kingdoms,
honorably intended by us, cannot go forward.

5 Seeing this, we understand that this people alone is
continually in opposition unto all men, differing in the
strange ways of their laws and bringing about evil to our
state, working all the mischief they can, so that our kingdom
may not be firmly established:

6 "Therefore have we commanded that all those who are
signified in writing to you by Haman, who is ordained over
these affairs and is next unto us, shall all, with their wives
and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their
enemies, without all mercy and pity, by the fourteenth day of
the twelfth month Adar of this present year:

7 Thus may they, who from of old and now also are
malicious, may in one day with violence go into the grave,
and so ever hereafter cause our affairs to be well settled and
without trouble."

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

8 A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in
every province, was published to all the peoples, that they
should be ready against that day.

9 The couriers went forth in haste by the king's
commandment, and the decree was given out in Susa, the
palatial city. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the
city of Susa was perplexed.

ESTHER CHAPTER 16

1 Now when Mordecai found out all that was done,
Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes
and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and
bitterly.

2 He came even before the king's gate, for no one is allowed
inside the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

3 In every province, wherever the king's commandment and
his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews
with fasting and weeping and wailing; and many lay in
sackcloth and ashes.

4 Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this,
and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to
Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he did not accept it.

5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs,
whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him
to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was and why it was.

6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square
which was before the king's gate.

7 Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him and
the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay
to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

8 He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree
that was given out in Susa to destroy them, to show it to
Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to
the king, to make supplication to him and to make request
before him, for her people.

9 Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai:

10 "'Remember,' he says, 'the days of your humiliation,
when I nurtured you in my hand, because Haman, who is
second only to the king, is against us to the death.

11 And you, invoke the Lord and persuade the king for us
and free us from death."

12 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message
for Mordecai:

13 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's
provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman,
comes to the king into the inner court without being called,
there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those
to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter that he
may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these
thirty days."

14 They told Esther's words to Mordecai.

15 Then Mordecai asked them to return answer to Esther:
"Don't think to yourself that you will escape in the king's
house any more than all the Jews.

16 For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance
will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your

father's house will perish. Who knows if you haven't come to
the kingdom for such a time as this?"

17 Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai:

18 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in
Susa and fast for me: neither eat nor drink three days, night
or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I
will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish,
I perish."

19 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that
Esther had commanded him.

20 Then Mordecai thought upon all the works of the Lord
and made his prayer unto him, saying,

21 "0 Lord, Lord, the King Almighty, the whole world is
in your power and if you have appointed to save Israel, then
no man can contradict you:

22 For you have made heaven and earth and all the
wondrous things under the heavens.

23 You are Lord of all things; there is no man who can
withstand you, for you are the Lord.

24 You know all things and you know, Lord, that it was
neither in contempt nor pride nor for any desire of glory that
I did not bow down to proud Haman.

25 For I would have been content, with good will for the
salvation of Israel, to kiss the soles of his feet.

26 But I did not, so that I might not prefer the glory of man
above the glory of God: neither will I worship any but thee,
O God; neither will I do so in pride.

27 And now, O Lord God and King, spare thy people, for
their eyes are upon us to bring us to naught; yes, they desire
to destroy the inheritance which has been yours from the
beginning.

28 Despise not the portion which you have delivered out of
Egypt for your own self.

29 Hear my prayer and be merciful to your inheritance:
turn our sorrow into joy, so that we may live, O Lord, and
praise thy name; and destroy not the mouths of those who
praise thee, O Lord."

30 All Israel, in the same way, cried out most earnestly to
the Lord, because their death was before their eyes.

ESTHER CHAPTER 17

1 Queen Esther also was in fear of death and resorted to the
Lord.

2 And she put away her glorious apparel, and put on the
garments of anguish and mourning; and instead of precious
ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung; and she
humbled her body greatly, and all the aspects of her beauty
she covered with her torn hair.

3 And she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, saying, "O my
Lord, you alone are our King. Help me, a desolate woman,
who has no helper but you,

4 for my danger is close at hand.

5 From my youth I have heard, in the tribe of my family,
how you, O Lord, took Israel from among all peoples, and
our fathers from all their predecessors, for a perpetual

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

inheritance, and you have performed whatsoever you
promised them.

6 And now we have sinned before you; therefore you have
given us into the hands of our enemies,

7 because we worshiped their gods. O Lord, you are
righteous!

8 "Nevertheless, it does not satisfy them that we are in
bitter captivity, but they have struck a deal with their idols.

9 They will abolish the purpose that you with your mouth
have ordained, and destroy your inheritance, and silence the
mouth of those who praise you, and quench the glory of your
house and of your altar,

10 and open the mouths of the heathen to bring forth the
praises of the idols, to magnify a fleshly king for ever.

11 "O Lord, don't give your scepter to those who are
nothing, and let them not laugh at our fall; but turn their
schemes upon themselves, and make an example of him who
began this against us.

12 Remember, O Lord, make yourself known in the time of
our affliction and give me boldness, O King of the nations
and Lord of all power.

13 Give me eloquent speech in my mouth before the king;
turn his heart to hate him that fights against us, so that there
may be an end of him and of all that are likeminded to him.

14 But deliver us with your hand and help me, for I am
desolate and have no other help but you.

15 "You know all things, O Lord; you know that I hate the
glory of the unrighteous and abhor the bed of the
uncircumcised and of all the heathen.

16 You know my necessity, for I abhor the sign of my high
estate, which is upon my head in the days when I show myself,
and that I abhor it as a menstruous rag, and that I wear it
not when J am in private by myself.

17 You know that your handmaid has not eaten at Haman's
table, and that I have not greatly esteemed the king's feast,
nor drunk the wine of the drink offerings.

18 Neither has your handmaid had any joy, since the day
that I was brought here to the present, except in you, O Lord
God of Abraham.

19 O mighty God above all, hear the voice of the forlorn
and deliver us out of the hands of the mischievous and deliver
me out of my fear."

ESTHER CHAPTER 18

1 And on the third day, when she ended her prayers, she put
away her mourning garments and put on her glorious
apparel.

2 And being gloriously adorned, after she called upon God,
who knows all and saves all, she took two maids with her;

3 and on the one, she leaned, carrying herself daintily,

4 and the other followed, bearing up her train.

5 She was ruddy through the perfection of her beauty, and
her countenance was cheerful and very amiable, but her heart
was in anguish out of fear.

6 Then, having passed through all the doors, she stood
before the king, who sat upon his royal throne and was

clothed with all his robes of majesty, all glittering with gold
and precious stones; and he was very dreadful.

7 Then, lifting up his countenance which shined with
majesty, he looked very fiercely upon her; and the queen fell
down and was pale and fainted and bowed herself upon the
head of the maid who went before her.

8 Then God changed the spirit of the king into mildness,
who in a fright leaped from his throne and took her in his
arms, till she came to herself again, and comforted her with
loving words and said to her,

9 "Esther, what is the matter? I am your brother, be of
good cheer.

10 You shall not die, though our commandment be general.
Come near."

11 And so he held up his golden scepter, and laid it upon
her neck,

12 and embraced her, and said, "Speak to me."

13 Then she said to him, "I saw you, my lord, as an angel of
God, and my heart was troubled for fear of your majesty.

14 For you are wonderful, lord, and your countenance is
full of grace."

15 And as she was speaking, she fell down out of faintness.

16 Then the king was troubled and all his servants
comforted her. [Alternate text from the Hebrew, verses 17-1]

17 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her
royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king's
house, next to the king's house. The king sat on his royal
throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.

18 When the king saw Esther the queen, standing in the
court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out
to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther
came near, and touched the top of the scepter.

19 Then the king asked her, "What would you like, Queen
Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to
half of the kingdom."

20 Esther said, "If it seems good to the king, let the king
and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared
for him."

21 Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that it
may be done as Esther has said." So the king and Haman
came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

22 The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, "What is
your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request?
Even to half of the kingdom it shall be performed."

23 Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and my
request is this.

24 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it
please the king to grant my petition and to perform my
request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I
will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has
said."

25 Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart.
But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he
didn't stand up or move for him, he was filled with wrath
against Mordecai.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home.
There he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife.

27 Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the
multitude of his children, all the things in which the king
had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the
princes and servants of the king.

28 Haman also said, "Yes, Esther the queen let no man
come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared
but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together
with the king.

29 Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai
the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

30 Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let
a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak
to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in
merrily with the king to the banquet." This pleased Haman,
so he had the gallows made.

ESTHER CHAPTER 19

1 On that night, the king couldn't sleep. He commanded the
book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they
were read to the king.

2 It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigtha
and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who were doorkeepers,
who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus.

3 The king said, "What honor and dignity has been
bestowed on Mordecai for this?" Then the king's servants
who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him."

4 The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had
come into the outer court of the king's house, to speak to the
king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had
prepared for him.

5 The king's servants said to him, "Behold, Haman stands
in the court." The king said, "Let him come in."

6 So Haman came in. The king said to him, "What shall be
done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" Now
Haman said in his heart, "Who would the king delight to
honor more than myself?"

7 Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king
delights to honor,

8 let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear,
and the horse which the king rides on, and the royal crown
which is set upon his head.

9 Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of
one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the
man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have
him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim
before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king
delights to honor!"

10 Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry and take the
clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for
Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing
fail of all that you have spoken."

11 Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and
arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square,

and proclaimed before him, "Thus shall it be done to the man
whom the king delights to honor!"

12 Mordecai came back to the king's gate, but Haman
hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.

13 Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends
everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and
Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you
have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail
against him, but you will surely fall before him."

14 While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs
came and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther
had prepared.

ESTHER CHAPTER 20

1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the
queen.

2 The king said again to Esther, on the second day at the
banquet of wine, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It
shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to half of
the kingdom it shall be performed."

3 Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favor in
your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be
given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be
slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondservants
and bondmaids, I would have held my peace, although the
adversary could not have compensated for the king's loss."

5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, "Who is
he and where is he, who dared presume in his heart to do so?"

6 Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy, even this
wicked Haman!" Then Haman was afraid before the king and
the queen.

7 The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and
went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make
request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there
was evil determined against him by the king.

8 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the
place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the
couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even
assault the queen in front of me in the house?" As the word
went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs who were with the
king said, "Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which
Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king,
is standing at Haman's house." The king said, "Hang him on
it!"

10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath was pacified.

ESTHER CHAPTER 21

1 On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman,
the Jews' enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before
the king; for Esther had revealed what he was to her.

2 The king took off his ring, which he had taken from
Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over
the house of Haman.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at
his feet and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of
Haman the Agagite, and his plan that he had devised against
the Jews.

4 Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So
Esther arose and stood before the king.

5 She said, "If it pleases the king and if I have found favor
in his sight, and if it seems right to the king and I am
pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters
devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,
which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's
provinces.

6 For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to
my people? How can IJ endure to see the destruction of my
relatives?"

7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to
Mordecai the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of
Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he
laid his hand on the Jews.

8 Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's
name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which
is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring
may not be reversed by any man."

9 Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the
third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month;
and it was written according to all that Mordecai
commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the
governors and princes of the provinces which are from India
to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every
province according to its writing, and to every people in
their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their
language.

10 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it
with the king's ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback,
riding on royal horses that were bread from swift steeds.

11 In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in
every city to gather themselves together, and to defend their
life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power
of the people and province that would assault them, their
little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,

12 on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month
Adar:

ESTHER CHAPTER 22

| "The great king Ahasuerus to the princes and governors
of the one hundred twenty seven provinces from India to
Ethiopia and to all our faithful subjects, greeting.

2 "Many, the more often they are honored with the great
bounty of their gracious princes, the more proud they
become,

3 and they endeavor to hurt, not only our subjects, but also,
being unable to bear abundance, take it in hand to practice
against those that do them good.

4 And they take, not only thankfulness away from among
men, but also, lifted up with the glorious words of lewd
persons who were never good, they think to escape the justice
of God, who sees all things and hates evil.

5 "Oftentimes also, the pleasing words of those who are
trusted to manage their friends’ affairs, have caused many
who are in authority to be partakers of innocent blood and
have enwrapped them in remediless calamities--

6 thus beguiling with the falsehood and deceit of their lewd
disposition, the innocence and goodness of princes.

7 "Now you may see this, as we have declared, not so much
by ancient histories, but also if you search what has been
wickedly done of late, through the pestilent behavior of
those who are unworthily placed in authority.

8 And we must take care for the time to come, that our
kingdom may be quiet and peaceable for all men,

9 both by changing our purposes and by always judging
things which are evident with more equal proceeding.

10 "For Haman, a Macedonian, the son of Hammedatha,
being indeed a stranger from the Persian blood, and far
distant from our goodness and as a stranger received of us,

11 had obtained so much of the favor that we show toward
every nation, that he was called our father and was
continually honored above all as the person next to the king.

12 But he, not bearing his great dignity, went about to
deprive us of our kingdom and life,

13 and, by manifold and cunning deceits, sought of us the
destruction also of Mordecai, who saved our life and
continually procured our good, as also of blameless Esther,
partaker of our kingdom, with their whole nation.

14 For by these means he thought, finding us destitute of
friends, to have transferred the kingdom of the Persians to
the Macedonians.

15 "But we find that the Jews, whom this wicked wretch
had delivered to utter destruction, are no evildoers, but live
by most just laws,

16 and that they be children of the most high and most
mighty living God, who has ordered the kingdom both unto
us and unto our progenitors, in the most excellent way.

17 Wherefore, you shall do well not to put in execution the
letters sent to you by Haman the son of Hammedatha,

18 for he, who was the worker of these things, is hanged at
the gates of Susa with all his family: God, who rules all
things, speedily rendering vengeance to him according to his
deserts.

19 "Therefore you shall publish the copy of this letter in all
places that the Jews may freely live after their own laws.

20 And you shall aid them, so that even on the same day,
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar, they may be
avenged on them, who in the time of their affliction would
have set upon them.

21 For Almighty God has turned to joy for them the day
wherein the chosen people would have perished.

22 You shall therefore among your solemn feasts keep it a
high day with all feasting:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

23 that both now and hereafter there may be safety to us
and the well-meaning Persians; but to those who conspire
against us, a memorial of destruction.

24 Therefore, every city and country whatsoever, which
does not do according to these things, shall be destroyed
without mercy with fire and sword and shall be made not
only unacceptable for men, but also most hateful to wild
beasts and fowl for ever."

25 A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out
in every province, was published to all the peoples, so that
the Jews would be ready for that day to avenge themselves on
their enemies.

26 So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out,
hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. The
decree was given out in Susa, the palatial city.

27 Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal
clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold,
and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa
shouted and was glad.

28 The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor.

29 In every province and in every city, wherever the king's
commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness,
joy, a feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of
the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon
them.

ESTHER CHAPTER 23

1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on
the thirteenth day of the month, when the king's
commandment and his decree drew near to being put into
execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to
conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened,
that the Jews conquered those who hated them),

2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities
throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay
hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could
withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the
people.

3 All the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the
governors, and those who did the king's business, helped the
Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house and his fame
went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai
grew greater and greater.

5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the
sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what
they wanted to those who hated them.

6 In Susa, the palatial city, the Jews killed and destroyed
five hundred men.

7 They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

18 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

19 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,

10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew's
enemy, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.

11 On that day, the number of those who were slain in Susa,
the palatial city, was brought before the king.

12 The king said to Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain
and destroyed five hundred men in Susa, the palatial city,
including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done
in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is your petition?
It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall
be done."

13 Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted
to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according
to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on
the gallows."

14 The king commanded this to be done. A decree was
given out in Susa; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together
on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed
three hundred men in Susa; but they did not lay their hand
on the spoil.

16 The other Jews who were in the king's provinces
gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest
from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those
who hated them; but they did not lay their hand on the
plunder.

17 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar;
and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and
made it a day of feasting and gladness.

18 But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on
the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and,
on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested and made it a
day of feasting and gladness.

19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the
unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar
a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of
sending presents of food to one another.

20 Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the
Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus,
both near and far,

21 to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and
fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,

22 as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies,
and the month which was turned for them from sorrow to
gladness and from mourning into a good day; that they
should make them days of feasting and gladness and of
sending presents of food to one another and gifts to the needy.

23 The Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as
Mordecai had written to them;

24 because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite,
the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to
destroy them and had cast "Pur," that is the lot, to consume
them and to destroy them;

25 but when this became known to the king, he commanded
by letters that his wicked plan, which he had devised against
the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his
sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 Therefore they called these days "Purim," from the word
"Pur." Therefore, because of all the words of this letter and
of what they had seen concerning this matter and of what had
come to them,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 the Jews established, and imposed on themselves and on
their descendants and on all those who joined themselves to
them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these
two days according to what was written and according to its
appointed time every year;

28 and that these days should be remembered and kept
throughout every generation, every family, every province,
and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fall
from among the Jews, nor the memory of them perish from
their seed.

29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and
Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this
second letter of Purim.

30 He sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred
twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with
words of peace and truth,

31 to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times,
as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and
as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants,
in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

32 The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of
Purim; and it was written in the book.

ESTHER CHAPTER 24

1 King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the
islands of the sea.

2 All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full
account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king
promoted him, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

3 For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and
great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his
brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace
to all his descendants.

4 Then Mordecai said, "God has done these things.

5 For I remember a dream which I saw concerning these
matters, and nothing thereof has failed.

6 A little fountain became a river, and there was light and
the sun and much water: this river is Esther, whom the king
married and made queen;

7 and the two dragons are myselfand Haman.

8 And the nations were those which were assembled to
destroy the name of the Jews;

9 and my nation is this Israel, who cried to God and were
saved, for the Lord has saved his people, and the Lord has
delivered us from all those evils, and God has wrought signs
and great wonders, which have not been done among the
Gentiles.

10 Therefore he has made two lots, one for the people of
God and another for all the Gentiles.

11 And these two lots came at the hour and time and day of
judgment, before God among all nations.

12 So God remembered his people and justified his
inheritance.

13 Therefore, those days shall be given to them in the
month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same

month, with an assembly and joy and with gladness before
God, according to the generations for ever among his
people."

14 In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and
Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite,
and Ptolemeus his son, brought this letter of Purim, which
they said was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of
Ptolemeus, who was in Jerusalem, had translated it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

Sopa é ENED:

WISDOM OF SOLOMON
The Book of Wisdom
Translation: King James Version, 1611
Estimated Range of Dating: Ist century B.C.

(The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a
Jewish work written in Greek and most likely composed in
Alexandria, Egypt, in the late Ist century BC or early Ist
century AD. The central theme of the work 1s "Wisdom"
itself, appearing under two principal aspects. In its relation
to man, Wisdom 1s the perfection of knowledge of the
righteous as a gift from God showing itself in action. In
direct relation to God, Wisdom is with God from all eternity.
It 1s one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books comprising
the Septuagint, the others being Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Song of Solomon), Job, and
Sirach. It is included in the canon of Deuterocanonical books
by the Roman Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox
Church. Most Protestants consider it part of the Apocrypha.

The author's prime literary source was the Septuagint, in
particular the Wisdom literature and the Book of Isaiah, and
he was familiar with late Jewish works as the Book of Enoch
and with Greek philosophical literature. It is uncertain
whether the book has a single author or comes from a school
of writers, but recent scholarship has favoured regarding it
as a unified work. In either case its blend of Greek and Jewish
features suggests a learned Hellenistic background, and
despite the address to the "rulers of the world" the actual
audience was probably members of the author's own
community who were tempted to give up their Jewishness in
the face of the temptations of Greek culture and the hostile
conditions facing Jews in the Greek world.

The book 1s addressed to the rulers of the earth, urging
them to love righteousness and seek wisdom; the wicked
think that all 1s chance and that they should enjoy each day,
but they are deluded. In the second section Solomon (not
explicitly named, but strongly implied) tells of his search for
wisdom.

The Wisdom of Solomon can be linked to several forms of
ancient literature, both Jewish and non-Jewish, but it clearly
belongs with biblical Wisdom books such as the Book of Job,
one of only five such books among ancient Jewish literature.
In terms of classical genre it has been identified as an
encomium and with the Greek genre of the "exhortatory
discourse", by which a teacher attempts to persuade others to
a certain course of action.

Structure and content

The structure can be divided into three sections:
1. Book of Eschatology

¢ exhortation to justice

¢ speech of the impious, contrasts of the wicked and the just

* exhortation to wisdom

2. Book of Wisdom

¢ Solomon's speech concerning wisdom, wealth, power and
prayer

3. Book of History

¢ introduction, followed by diptychs of plagues

¢ digression on God's power and mercy

¢ digression on false worship and further plagues

¢ recapitulation and concluding doxology.

Melito of Sardis in the 2nd century AD, Augustine (c. 397
AD) and Pope Innocent I (405 AD) considered Wisdom of
Solomon as part of the Old Testament. Athanasius writes
that the Book of Wisdom along with three other
deuterocanonical books, while not being part of the Canon,
"were appointed by the Fathers to be read". Epiphanius of
Salamis (c. 385 AD) mentions that the Wisdom of Solomon
was of disputed canonicity. According to the monk Rufinus
of Aquileia (c. 400 AD) the Book of Wisdom was not called a
canonical but ecclesiastical book.)

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER

1 Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth: think
of the Lord with a good (heart,) and in simplicity of heart
seek him.

2 For he will be found of them that tempt him not; and
sheweth himself unto such as do not distrust him.

3 For froward thoughts separate from God: and his power,
when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.

4 For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter; nor
dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.

5 For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and
remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and
will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.

6 For wisdom is a loving spirit; and will not acquit a
blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins, and a
true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

7 For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: and that
which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.

8 Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be
hid: neither shall vengeance, when it punisheth, pass by him.

9 For inquisition shall be made into the counsels of the
ungodly: and the sound of his words shall come unto the
Lord for the manifestation of his wicked deeds.

10 For the ear of jealousy heareth all things: and the noise
of murmurings is not hid.

11 Therefore beware of murmuring, which is unprofitable;
and refrain your tongue from backbiting: for there is no
word so secret, that shall go for nought: and the mouth that
belieth slayeth the soul.

12 Seek not death in the error of your life: and pull not
upon yourselves destruction with the works of your hands.

13 For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the
destruction of the living.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 For he created all things, that they might have their
being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and
there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of
death upon the earth:

15 (For righteousness is immortal:)

16 But ungodly men with their works and words called it
to them: for when they thought to have it their friend, they
consumed to nought, and made a covenant with it, because
they are worthy to take part with it.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 2

| For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not
aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a
man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to
have returned from the grave.

2 For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be
hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our
nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our
heart:

3 Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into
ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,

4 And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man
shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass
away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist,
that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome
with the heat thereof.

5 For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and
after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so
that no man cometh again.

6 Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are
present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.

7 Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and
let no flower of the spring pass by us:

8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be
withered:

9 Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness:
let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is
our portion, and our lot is this.

10 Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare
the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.

11 Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is
feeble is found to be nothing worth.

12 Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he
is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he
upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to
our infamy the transgressings of our education.

13 He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he
calleth himself the child of the Lord.

14 He was made to reprove our thoughts.

15 He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not
like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.

16 We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth
from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of
the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his
father.

17 Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what
shall happen in the end of him.

18 For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him,
and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

19 Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that
we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

20 Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his
own saying he shall be respected.

21 Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for
their own wickedness hath blinded them.

22 As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither
hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a
reward for blameless souls.

23 For God created man to be immortal, and made him to
be an image of his own eternity.

24 Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into
the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 3

1 But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and
there shall no torment touch them.

2 In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their
departure is taken for misery,

3 And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they
are in peace.

4 For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is
their hope full of immortality.

5 And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly
rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for
himself.

6 As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received
them as a burnt offering.

7 And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and
run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.

8 They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the
people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

9 They that put their trust in him shall understand the
truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for
grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

10 But the ungodly shall be punished according to their
own imaginations, which have neglected the righteous, and
forsaken the Lord.

11 For whoso despiseth wisdom and nurture, he is
miserable, and their hope is vain, their labours unfruitful,
and their works unprofitable:

12 Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked:

13 Their offspring is cursed. Wherefore blessed is the
barren that is undefiled, which hath not known the sinful bed:
she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls.

14 And blessed is the eunuch, which with his hands hath
wrought no iniquity, nor imagined wicked things against
God: for unto him shall be given the special gift of faith, and
an inheritance in the temple of the Lord more acceptable to
his mind.

15 For glorious is the fruit of good labours: and the root of
wisdom shall never fall away.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 As for the children of adulterers, they shall not come to
their perfection, and the seed of an unrighteous bed shall be
rooted out.

17 For though they live long, yet shall they be nothing
regarded: and their last age shall be without honour.

18 Or, if they die quickly, they have no hope, neither
comfort in the day of trial.

19 For horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 4

1 Better it is to have no children, and to have virtue: for the
memorial thereof is immortal: because it is known with God,
and with men.

2 When it is present, men take example at it; and when it is
gone, they desire it: it weareth a crown, and triumpheth for
ever, having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled
rewards.

3 But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive,
nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast
foundation.

4 For though they flourish in branches for a time; yet
standing not last, they shall be shaken with the wind, and
through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.

5 The imperfect branches shall be broken off, their fruit
unprofitable, not ripe to eat, yea, meet for nothing.

6 For children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses of
wickedness against their parents in their trial.

7 But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet
shall he be in rest.

8 For honourable age is not that which standeth in length
of time, nor that is measured by number of years.

9 But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted
life is old age.

10 He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living
among sinners he was translated.

11 Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness
should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.

12 For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things
that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth
undermine the simple mind.

13 He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long
time:

14 For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to
take him away from among the wicked.

15 This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid
they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with
his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

16 Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemn the
ungodly which are living; and youth that is soon perfected
the many years and old age of the unrighteous.

17 For they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not
understand what God in his counsel hath decreed of him, and
to what end the Lord hath set him in safety.

18 They shall see him, and despise him; but God shall laugh
them to scorn: and they shall hereafter be a vile carcase, and a
reproach among the dead for evermore.

19 For he shall rend them, and cast them down headlong,
that they shall be speechless; and he shall shake them from
the foundation; and they shall be utterly laid waste, and be in
sorrow; and their memorial shall perish.

20 And when they cast up the accounts of their sins, they
shall come with fear: and their own iniquities shall convince
them to their face.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 5

1 Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness
before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no
account of his labours.

2 When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear,
and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far
beyond all that they looked for.

3 And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit
shall say within themselves, This was he, whom we had
sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach:

4 We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be
without honour:

5 How is he numbered among the children of God, and his
lot is among the saints!

6 Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the
light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun of
righteousness rose not upon us.

7 We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and
destruction: yea, we have gone through deserts, where there
lay no way: but as for the way of the Lord, we have not
known it.

8 What hath pride profited us? or what good hath riches
with our vaunting brought us?

9 All those things are passed away like a shadow, and as a
post that hasted by;

10 And as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water,
which when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found,
neither the pathway of the keel in the waves;

11 Or as when a bird hath flown through the air, there is no
token of her way to be found, but the light air being beaten
with the stroke of her wings and parted with the violent
noise and motion of them, is passed through, and therein
afterwards no sign where she went is to be found;

12 Or like as when an arrow is shot at a mark, it parteth the
air, which immediately cometh together again, so that a man
cannot know where it went through:

13 Even so we in like manner, as soon as we were born,
began to draw to our end, and had no sign of virtue to shew;
but were consumed in our own wickedness.

14 For the hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown
away with the wind; like a thin froth that is driven away with
the storm; like as the smoke which is dispersed here and there
with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a
guest that tarrieth but a day.

15 But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is
with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High.

16 Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a
beautiful crown from the Lord's hand: for with his right

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect
them.

17 He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour,
and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his
enemies.

18 He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true
judgement instead of an helmet.

19 He shall take holiness for an invincible shield.

20 His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the
world shall fight with him against the unwise.

21 Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad;
and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly
to the mark.

22 And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a
stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them,
and the floods shall cruelly drown them.

23 Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like
a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste
the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones
of the mighty.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 6

1 Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that
be judges of the ends of the earth.

2 Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the
multitude of nations.

3 For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from
the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your
counsels.

4 Because, being ministers of his kingdom, ye have not
judged aright, nor kept the law, nor walked after the counsel
of God;

5 Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you: for a sharp
judgement shall be to them that be in high places.

6 For mercy will soon pardon the meanest: but mighty men
shall be mightily tormented.

7 For he which is Lord over all shall fear no man's person,
neither shall he stand in awe of any man's greatness: for he
hath made the small and great, and careth for all alike.

8 But a sore trial shall come upon the mighty.

9 Unto you therefore, O kings, do I speak, that ye may
learn wisdom, and not fall away.

10 For they that keep holiness holily shall be judged holy:
and they that have learned such things shall find what to
answer.

11 Wherefore set your affection upon my words; desire
them, and ye shall be instructed.

12 Wisdom is glorious, and never fadeth away: yea, she is
easily seen of them that love her, and found of such as seek
her.

13 She preventeth them that desire her, in making herself
first known unto them.

14 Whoso seeketh her early shall have no great travail: for
he shall find her sitting at his doors.

15 To think therefore upon her is perfection of wisdom:
and whoso watcheth for her shall quickly be without care.

16 For she goeth about seeking such as are worthy of her,
sheweth herself favourably unto them in the ways, and
meeteth them in every thought.

17 For the very true beginning of her is the desire of
discipline; and the care of discipline is love;

18 And love is the keeping of her laws; and the giving heed
unto her laws is the assurance of incorruption;

19 And incorruption maketh us near unto God:

20 Therefore the desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom.

21 If your delight be then in thrones and sceptres, O ye
kings of the people, honour wisdom, that ye may reign for
evermore.

22 As for wisdom, what she is, and how she came up, I will
tell you, and will not hide mysteries from you: but will seek
her out from the beginning of her nativity, and bring the
knowledge of her into light, and will not pass over the truth.

23 Neither will I go with consuming envy; for such a man
shall have no fellowship with wisdom.

24 But the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world:
and a wise king is the upholding of the people.

25 Receive therefore instruction through my words, and it
shall do you good.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 7

1 I myself also am a mortal man, like to all, and the
offspring of him that was first made of the earth,

2 And in my mother's womb was fashioned to be flesh in the
time of ten months, being compacted in blood, of the seed of
man, and the pleasure that came with sleep.

3 And when I was born, I drew in the common air, and fell
upon the earth, which is of like nature, and the first voice
which I uttered was crying, as all others do.

4] was nursed in swaddling clothes, and that with cares.

5 For there is no king that had any other beginning of
birth.

6 For all men have one entrance into life, and the like going
out.

7 Wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given me: I
called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.

8 I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed
riches nothing in comparison of her.

9 Neither compared I unto her any precious stone, because
all gold in respect of her is as a little sand, and silver shall be
counted as clay before her.

10 I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have
her instead of light: for the light that cometh from her never
goeth out.

11 All good things together came to me with her, and
innumerable riches in her hands.

12 And I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom goeth before
them: and I knew not that she was the mother of them.

13 I learned diligently, and do communicate her liberally: I
do not hide her riches.

14 For she is a treasure unto men that never faileth: which
they that use become the friends of God, being commended
for the gifts that come from learning.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 God hath granted me to speak as I would, and to
conceive as is meet for the things that are given me: because it
is he that leadeth unto wisdom, and directeth the wise.

16 For in his hand are both we and our words; all wisdom
also, and knowledge of workmanship.

17 For he hath given me certain knowledge of the things
that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the
operation of the elements:

18 The beginning, ending, and midst of the times: the
alterations of the turning of the sun, and the change of
seasons:

19 The circuits of years, and the positions of stars:

20 The natures of living creatures, and the furies of wild
beasts: the violence of winds, and the reasonings of men: the
diversities of plants and the virtues of roots:

21 And all such things as are either secret or manifest, them
I know.

22 For wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught
me: for in her is an understanding spirit holy, one only,
manifold, subtil, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to
hurt, loving the thing that is good quick, which cannot be
letted, ready to do good,

23 Kind to man, steadfast, sure, free from care, having all
power, overseeing all things, and going through all
understanding, pure, and most subtil, spirits.

24 For wisdom is more moving than any motion: she
passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her
pureness.

25 For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure
influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore
can no defiled thing fall into her.

26 For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the
unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his
goodness.

27 And being but one, she can do all things: and remaining
in herself, she maketh all things new: and in all ages entering
into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and
prophets.

28 For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with
wisdom.

29 For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the
order of stars: being compared with the light, she is found
before it.

30 For after this cometh night: but vice shall not prevail
against wisdom.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 8

1 Wisdom reacheth from one end to another mightily: and
sweetly doth she order all things.

2 T loved her, and sought her out from my youth, I desired
to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.

3 In that she is conversant with God, she magnifieth her
nobility: yea, the Lord of all things himself loved her.

4 For she is privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God,
and a lover of his works.

5 If riches be a possession to be desired in this life; what is
richer than wisdom, that worketh all things?

6 And if prudence work; who of all that are is a more
cunning workman than she?

7 And if a man love righteousness her labours are virtues:
for she teacheth temperance and prudence, justice and
fortitude: which are such things, as men can have nothing
more profitable in their life.

8 If a man desire much experience, she knoweth things of
old, and conjectureth aright what is to come: she knoweth
the subtilties of speeches, and can expound dark sentences:
she foreseeth signs and wonders, and the events of seasons
and times.

9 Therefore I purposed to take her to me to live with me,
knowing that she would be a counsellor of good things, and
acomfort in cares and grief.

10 For her sake I shall have estimation among the
multitude, and honour with the elders, though I be young.

11 I shall be found of a quick conceit in judgement, and
shall be admired in the sight of great men.

12 When I hold my tongue, they shall bide my leisure, and
when I speak, they shall give good ear unto me: if J talk much,
they shall lay their hands upon their mouth.

13 Moreover by the means of her I shall obtain immortality,
and leave behind me an everlasting memorial to them that
come after me.

14 I shall set the people in order, and the nations shall be
subject unto me.

15 Horrible tyrants shall be afraid, when they do but hear
of me; I shall be found good among the multitude, and
valiant in war.

16 After I am come into mine house, I will repose myself
with her: for her conversation hath no bitterness; and to live
with her hath no sorrow, but mirth and joy.

17 Now when I considered these things in myself, and
pondered them in my heart, how that to be allied unto
wisdom is immortality;

18 And great pleasure it is to have her friendship; and in
the works of her hands are infinite riches; and in the exercise
of conference with her, prudence; and in talking with her, a
good report; I went about seeking how to take her to me.

19 For I was a witty child, and had a good spirit.

20 Yea rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled.

21 Nevertheless, when I perceived that I could not
otherwise obtain her, except God gave her me; and that was a
point of wisdom also to know whose gift she was; I prayed
unto the Lord, and besought him, and with my whole heart I
said,

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 9

1 O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made
all things with thy word,

2 And ordained man through thy wisdom, that he should
have dominion over the creatures which thou hast made,

3 And order the world according to equity and
righteousness, and execute judgement with an upright heart:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne; and reject me
not from among thy children:

5 For I thy servant and son of thine handmaid am a feeble
person, and of a short time, and too young for the
understanding of judgement and laws.

6 For though a man be never so perfect among the children
of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he shall be
nothing regarded.

7 Thou hast chosen me to be a king of thy people, and a
judge of thy sons and daughters:

8 Thou hast commanded me to build a temple upon thy
holy mount, and an altar in the city wherein thou dwellest, a
resemblance of the holy tabernacle, which thou hast prepared
from the beginning.

9 And wisdom was with thee: which knoweth thy works,
and was present when thou madest the world, and knew what
was acceptable in thy sight, and right in thy commandments.

10 O send her out of thy holy heavens, and from the throne
of thy glory, that being present she may labour with me, that
I may know what is pleasing unto thee.

11 For she knoweth and understandeth all things, and she
shall lead me soberly in my doings, and preserve me in her
power.

12 So shall my works be acceptable, and then shall I judge
thy people righteously, and be worthy to sit in my father's
seat.

13 For what man is he that can know the counsel of God?
or who can think what the will of the Lord is?

14 For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our
devices are but uncertain.

15 For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and
the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth
upon many things.

16 And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon
earth, and with labour do we find the things that are before
us: but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out?

17 And thy counsel who hath known, except thou give
wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above?

18 For so the ways of them which lived on the earth were
reformed, and men were taught the things that are pleasing
unto thee, and were saved through wisdom.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 10

1 She preserved the first formed father of the world, that
was created alone, and brought him out of his fall,

2 And gave him power to rule all things.

3 But when the unrighteous went away from her in his
anger, he perished also in the fury wherewith he murdered
his brother.

4 For whose cause the earth being drowned with the flood,
wisdom again preserved it, and directed the course of the
righteous in a piece of wood of small value.

5 Moreover, the nations in their wicked conspiracy being
confounded, she found out the righteous, and preserved him
blameless unto God, and kept him strong against his tender
compassion toward his son.

6 When the ungodly perished, she delivered the righteous
man, who fled from the fire which fell down upon the five
cities.

7 Of whose wickedness even to this day the waste land that
smoketh is a testimony, and plants bearing fruit that never
come to ripeness: and a standing pillar of salt is a monument
of an unbelieving soul.

8 For regarding not wisdom, they gat not only this hurt,
that they knew not the things which were good; but also left
behind them to the world a memorial of their foolishness: so
that in the things wherein they offended they could not so
much as be hid.

9 But wisdom delivered from pain those that attended upon
her.

10 When the righteous fled from his brother's wrath she
guided him in right paths, shewed him the kingdom of God,
and gave him knowledge of holy things, made him rich in his
travels, and multiplied the fruit of his labours.

11 In the covetousness of such as oppressed him she stood
by him, and made him rich.

12 She defended him from his enemies, and kept him safe
from those that lay in wait, and in a sore conflict she gave
him the victory; that he might know that goodness is
stronger than all.

13 When the righteous was sold, she forsook him not, but
delivered him from sin: she went down with him into the pit,

14 And left him not in bonds, till she brought him the
sceptre of the kingdom, and power against those that
oppressed him: as for them that had accused him, she shewed
them to be liars, and gave him perpetual glory.

15 She delivered the righteous people and blameless seed
from the nation that oppressed them.

16 She entered into the soul of the servant of the Lord, and
withstood dreadful kings in wonders and signs;

17 Rendered to the righteous a reward of their labours,
guided them in a marvellous way, and was unto them for a
cover by day, and a light of stars in the night season;

18 Brought them through the Red sea, and led them
through much water:

19 But she drowned their enemies, and cast them up out of
the bottom of the deep.

20 Therefore the righteous spoiled the ungodly, and
praised thy holy name, O Lord, and magnified with one
accord thine hand, that fought for them.

21 For wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, and made
the tongues of them that cannot speak eloquent.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 11

1 She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet.

2 They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited,
and pitched tents in places where there lay no way.

3 They stood against their enemies, and were avenged of
their adversaries.

4 When they were thirsty, they called upon thee, and water
was given them out of the flinty rock, and their thirst was
quenched out of the hard stone.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

5 For by what things their enemies were punished, by the
same they in their need were benefited.

6 For instead of a perpetual running river troubled with
foul blood,

7 For a manifest reproof of that commandment, whereby
the infants were slain, thou gavest unto them abundance of
water by a means which they hoped not for:

8 Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished
their adversaries.

9 For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised,
they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and
tormented, thirsting in another manner than the just.

10 For these thou didst admonish and try, as a father: but
the other, as a severe king, thou didst condemn and punish.

11 Whether they were absent or present, they were vexed
alike.

12 For a double grief came upon them, and a groaning for
the remembrance of things past.

13 For when they heard by their own punishments the
other to be benefited, they had some feeling of the Lord.

14 For whom they respected with scorn, when he was long
before thrown out at the casting forth of the infants, him in
the end, when they saw what came to pass, they admired.

15 But for the foolish devices of their wickedness,
wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of
reason, and vile beasts, thou didst send a multitude of
unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance;

16 That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth,
by the same also shall he be punished.

17 For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter
without form, wanted not means to send among them a
multitude of bears or fierce lions,

18 Or unknown wild beasts, full of rage, newly created,
breathing out either a fiery vapour, or filthy scents of
scattered smoke, or shooting horrible sparkles out of their
eyes:

19 Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once,
but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them.

20 Yea, and without these might they have fallen down
with one blast, being persecuted of vengeance, and scattered
abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou hast
ordered all things in measure and number and weight.

21 For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when
thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm?

22 For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the
balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down
upon the earth.

23 But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all
things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should
amend.

24 For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest
nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have
made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.

25 And how could any thing have endured, if it had not
been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?

26 But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou
lover of souls.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 12

1 For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.

2 Therefore chastenest thou them by little and little that
offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance
wherein they have offended, that leaving their wickedness
they may believe on thee, O Lord.

3 For it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our fathers
both those old inhabitants of thy holy land,

4 Whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of
witchcrafts, and wicked sacrifices;

5 And also those merciless murderers of children, and
devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood,

6 With their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous
crew, and the parents, that killed with their own hands souls
destitute of help:

7 That the land, which thou esteemedst above all other,
might receive a worthy colony of God's children.

8 Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst
send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by
little and little.

9 Not that thou wast unable to bring the ungodly under the
hand of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at once
with cruel beasts, or with one rough word:

10 But executing thy judgements upon them by little and
little, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being
ignorant that they were a naughty generation, and that their
malice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would
never be changed.

11 For it was a cursed seed from the beginning; neither
didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those
things wherein they sinned.

12 For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall
withstand thy judgement? or who shall accuse thee for the
nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to
stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?

13 For neither is there any God but thou that careth for all,
to whom thou mightest shew that thy judgement is not
unright.

14 Neither shall king or tyrant be able to set his face
against thee for any whom thou hast punished.

15 Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou
orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable
with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be
punished.

16 For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and
because thou art the Lord of all, it maketh thee to be
gracious unto all.

17 For when men will not believe that thou art of a full
power, thou shewest thy strength, and among them that
know it thou makest their boldness manifest.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

18 But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and
orderest us with great favour: for thou mayest use power
when thou wilt.

19 But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the
just man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be
of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.

20 For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and
the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them
time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their
malice:

21 With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine
own sons, unto whose fathers thou hast sworn, and made
covenants of good promises?

22 Therefore, whereas thou dost chasten us, thou scourgest
our enemies a thousand times more, to the intent that, when
we judge, we should carefully think of thy goodness, and
when we ourselves are judged, we should look for mercy.

23 Wherefore, whereas men have lived dissolutely and
unrighteously, thou hast tormented them with their own
abominations.

24 For they went astray very far in the ways of error, and
held them for gods, which even among the beasts of their
enemies were despised, being deceived, as children of no
understanding.

25 Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of
reason, thou didst send a judgement to mock them.

26 But they that would not be reformed by that correction,
wherein he dallied with them, shall feel a judgement worthy
of God.

27 For, look, for what things they grudged, when they
were punished, that is, for them whom they thought to be
gods; now being punished in them, when they saw it, they
acknowledged him to be the true God, whom before they
denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon
them.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 13

1 Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of
God, and could not out of the good things that are seen
know him that is: neither by considering the works did they
acknowledge the workmaster;

2 But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the
circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of
heaven, to be the gods which govern the world.

3 With whose beauty if they being delighted took them to
be gods; let them know how much better the Lord of them is:
for the first author of beauty hath created them.

4 But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let
them understand by them, how much mightier he is that
made them.

5 For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures
proportionably the maker of them is seen.

6 But yet for this they are the less to be blamed: for they
peradventure err, seeking God, and desirous to find him.

7 For being conversant in his works they search him
diligently, and believe their sight: because the things are
beautiful that are seen.

8 Howbeit neither are they to be pardoned.

9 For if they were able to know so much, that they could
aim at the world; how did they not sooner find out the Lord
thereof?

10 But miserable are they, and in dead things is their hope,
who call them gods, which are the works of men's hands,
gold and silver, to shew art in, and resemblances of beasts, or
astone good for nothing, the work ofan ancient hand.

11 Now a carpenter that felleth timber, after he hath sawn
down a tree meet for the purpose, and taken off all the bark
skilfully round about, and hath wrought it handsomely, and
made a vessel thereof fit for the service of man's life;

12 And after spending the refuse of his work to dress his
meat, hath filled himself;

13 And taking the very refuse among those which served to
no use, being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, hath
carved it diligently, when he had nothing else to do, and
formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it
to the image of a man;

14 Or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with
vermilion, and with paint colouring it red, and covering
every spot therein;

15 And when he had made a convenient room for it, set it in
a wall, and made it fast with iron:

16 For he provided for it that it might not fall, knowing
that it was unable to help itself; for it is an image, and hath
need of help:

17 Then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and
children, and is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no
life.

18 For health he calleth upon that which is weak: for life
prayeth to that which is dead; for aid humbly beseecheth that
which hath least means to help: and for a good journey he
asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward:

19 And for gaining and getting, and for good success of his
hands, asketh ability to do of him, that is most unable to do
any thing.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 14

1 Again, one preparing himself to sail, and about to pass
through the raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more
rotten than the vessel that carrieth him.

2 For verily desire of gain devised that, and the workman
built it by his skill.

3 But thy providence, O Father, governeth it: for thou hast
made a way in the sea, and a safe path in the waves;

4 Shewing that thou canst save from all danger: yea,
though a man went to sea without art.

5 Nevertheless thou wouldest not that the works of thy
wisdom should be idle, and therefore do men commit their
lives to a small piece of wood, and passing the rough sea in a
weak vessel are saved.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

6 For in the old time also, when the proud giants perished,
the hope of the world governed by thy hand escaped in a
weak vessel, and left to all ages a seed of generation.

7 For blessed is the wood whereby righteousness cometh.

8 But that which is made with hands is cursed, as well it, as
he that made it: he, because he made it; and it, because, being
corruptible, it was called god.

9 For the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike
hateful unto God.

10 For that which is made shall be punished together with
him that made it.

11 Therefore even upon the idols of the Gentiles shall there
be a visitation: because in the creature of God they are
become an abomination, and stumblingblocks to the souls of
men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.

12 For the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual
fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.

13 For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall
they be for ever.

14 For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world,
and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.

15 For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he
hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now
honoured him as a god, which was then a dead man, and
delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and
sacrifices.

16 Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong
was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the
commandments of kings.

17 Whom men could not honour in presence, because they
dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far,
and made an express image of a king whom they honoured,
to the end that by this their forwardness they might flatter
him that was absent, as if he were present.

18 Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set
forward the ignorant to more superstition.

19 For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority,
forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.

20 And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work,
took him now for a god, which a little before was but
honoured.

21 And this was an occasion to deceive the world: for men,
serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones
and stocks the incommunicable name.

22 Moreover this was not enough for them, that they erred
in the knowledge of God; but whereas they lived in the great
war of ignorance, those so great plagues called they peace.

23 For whilst they slew their children in sacrifices, or used
secret ceremonies, or made revellings of strange rites;

24 They kept neither lives nor marriages any longer
undefiled: but either one slew another traiterously, or
grieved him by adultery.

25 So that there reigned in all men without exception blood,
manslaughter, theft, and dissimulation, corruption,
unfaithfulness, tumults, perjury,

26 Disquieting of good men, forgetfulness of good turns,
defiling of souls, changing of kind, disorder in marriages,
adultery, and shameless uncleanness.

27 For the worshipping of idols not to be named is the
beginning, the cause, and the end, ofall evil.

28 For either they are mad when they be merry, or
prophesy lies, or live unjustly, or else lightly forswear
themselves.

29 For insomuch as their trust is in idols, which have no life;
though they swear falsely, yet they look not to be hurt.

30 Howbeit for both causes shall they be justly punished:
both because they thought not well of God, giving heed unto
idols, and also unjustly swore in deceit, despising holiness.

31 For it is not the power of them by whom they swear: but
it is the just vengeance of sinners, that punisheth always the
offence of the ungodly.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTERI5

1 But thou, O God, art gracious and true, longsuffering,
and in mercy ordering all things,

2 For if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy power: but we
will not sin, knowing that we are counted thine.

3 For to know thee is perfect righteousness: yea, to know
thy power is the root of immortality.

4 For neither did the mischievous invention of men deceive
us, nor an image spotted with divers colours, the painter's
fruitless labour;

5 The sight whereof enticeth fools to lust after it, and so
they desire the form of a dead image, that hath no breath.

6 Both they that make them, they that desire them, and
they that worship them, are lovers of evil things, and are
worthy to have such things to trust upon.

7 For the potter, tempering soft earth, fashioneth every
vessel with much labour for our service: yea, of the same clay
he maketh both the vessels that serve for clean uses, and
likewise also all such as serve to the contrary: but what is the
use of either sort, the potter himself is the judge.

8 And employing his labours lewdly, he maketh a vain god
of the same clay, even he which a little before was made of
earth himself, and within a little while after returneth to the
same, out when his life which was lent him shall be demanded.

9 Notwithstanding his care is, not that he shall have much
labour, nor that his life is short: but striveth to excel
goldsmiths and silversmiths, and endeavoureth to do like the
workers in brass, and counteth it his glory to make
counterfeit things.

10 His heart is ashes, his hope is more vile than earth, and
his life of less value than clay:

11 Forasmuch as he knew not his Maker, and him that
inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living
spirit.

12 But they counted our life a pastime, and our time here a
market for gain: for, say they, we must be getting every way,
though it be by evil means.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

13 For this man, that of earthly matter maketh brittle
vessels and graven images, knoweth himself to offend above
all others.

14 And all the enemies of thy people, that hold them in
subjection, are most foolish, and are more miserable than
very babes.

15 For they counted all the idols of the heathen to be gods:
which neither have the use of eyes to see, nor noses to draw
breath, nor ears to hear, nor fingers of hands to handle; and
as for their feet, they are slow to go.

16 For man made them, and he that borrowed his own
spirit fashioned them: but no man can make a god like unto
himself.

17 For being mortal, he worketh a dead thing with wicked
hands: for he himself is better than the things which he
worshippeth: whereas he lived once, but they never.

18 Yea, they worshipped those beasts also that are most
hateful: for being compared together, some are worse than
others.

19 Neither are they beautiful, so much as to be desired in
respect of beasts: but they went without the praise of God
and his blessing.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 16

1 Therefore by the like were they punished worthily, and by
the multitude of beasts tormented.

2 Instead of which punishment, dealing graciously with
thine own people, thou preparedst for them meat of a strange
taste, even quails to stir up their appetite:

3 To the end that they, desiring food, might for the ugly
sight of the beasts sent among them lothe even that, which
they must needs desire; but these, suffering penury for a short
space, might be made partakers of a strange taste.

4 For it was requisite, that upon them exercising tyranny
should come penury, which they could not avoid: but to
these it should only be shewed how their enemies were
tormented.

5 For when the horrible fierceness of beasts came upon
these, and they perished with the stings of crooked serpents,
thy wrath endured not for ever:

6 But they were troubled for a small season, that they might
be admonished, having a sign of salvation, to put them in
remembrance of the commandment of thy law.

7 For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the
thing that he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all.

8 And in this thou madest thine enemies confess, that it is
thou who deliverest from all evil:

9 For them the bitings of grasshoppers and flies killed,
neither was there found any remedy for their life: for they
were worthy to be punished by such.

10 But thy sons not the very teeth of venomous dragons
overcame: for thy mercy was ever by them, and healed them.

11 For they were pricked, that they should remember thy
words; and were quickly saved, that not falling into deep

forgetfulness, they might be continually mindful of thy
goodness.

12 For it was neither herb, nor mollifying plaister, that
restored them to health: but thy word, O Lord, which
healeth all things.

13 For thou hast power of life and death: thou leadest to
the gates of hell, and bringest up again.

14 A man indeed killeth through his malice: and the spirit,
when it is gone forth, returneth not; neither the soul received
up cometh again.

15 But it is not possible to escape thine hand.

16 For the ungodly, that denied to know thee, were
scourged by the strength of thine arm: with strange rains,
hails, and showers, were they persecuted, that they could not
avoid, and through fire were they consumed.

17 For, which is most to be wondered at, the fire had more
force in the water, that quencheth all things: for the world
fighteth for the righteous.

18 For sometime the flame was mitigated, that it might not
burn up the beasts that were sent against the ungodly; but
themselves might see and perceive that they were persecuted
with the judgement of God.

19 And at another time it burneth even in the midst of
water above the power of fire, that it might destroy the fruits
of an unjust land.

20 Instead whereof thou feddest thine own people with
angels' food, and didst send them from heaven bread
prepared without their labour, able to content every man's
delight, and agreeing to every taste.

21 For thy sustenance declared thy sweetness unto thy
children, and serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered
itself to every man's liking.

22 But snow and ice endured the fire, and melted not, that
they might know that fire burning in the hail, and sparkling
in the rain, did destroy the fruits of the enemies.

23 But this again did even forget his own strength, that the
righteous might be nourished.

24 For the creature that serveth thee, who art the Maker
increaseth his strength against the unrighteous for their
punishment, and abateth his strength for the benefit of such
as put their trust in thee.

25 Therefore even then was it altered into all fashions, and
was obedient to thy grace, that nourisheth all things,
according to the desire of them that had need:

26 That thy children, O Lord, whom thou lovest, might
know, that it is not the growing of fruits that nourisheth
man: but that it is thy word, which preserveth them that put
their trust in thee.

27 For that which was not destroyed of the fire, being
warmed with a little sunbeam, soon melted away:

28 That it might be known, that we must prevent the sun to
give thee thanks, and at the dayspring pray unto thee.

29 For the hope of the unthankful shall melt away as the
winter's hoar frost, and shall run away as unprofitable water.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTERI7

| For great are thy judgements, and cannot be expressed:
therefore unnurtured souls have erred.

2 For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy
nation; they being shut up in their houses, the prisoners of
darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay
there exiled from the eternal providence.

3 For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they
were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being
horribly astonished, and troubled with strange apparitions.

4 For neither might the corner that held them keep them
from fear: but noises as of waters falling down sounded about
them, and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy
countenances.

5 No power of the fire might give them light: neither could
the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible
night.

6 Only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself,
very dreadful: for being much terrified, they thought the
things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw
not.

7 As for the illusions of art magick, they were put down,
and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.

8 For they, that promised to drive away terrors and
troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear,
worthy to be laughed at.

9 For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being
scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,

10 They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which
could of no side be avoided.

11 For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very
timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always
forecasteth grievous things.

12 For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours
which reason offereth.

13 And the expectation from within, being less, counteth
the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the
torment.

14 But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was
indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the
bottoms of inevitable hell,

15 Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and
partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear,
and not looked for, came upon them.

16 So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept,
shut up in a prison without iron bars,

17 For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a
labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that
necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all
bound with one chain of darkness.

18 Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise
of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of
water running violently,

19 Or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running
that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice

of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the
hollow mountains; these things made them to swoon for fear.
20 For the whole world shined with clear light, and none
were hindered in their labour:
21 Over them only was spread an heavy night, an image of
that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet
were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 18

1 Nevertheless thy saints had a very great light, whose voice
they hearing, and not seeing their shape, because they also
had not suffered the same things, they counted them happy.

2 But for that they did not hurt them now, of whom they
had been wronged before, they thanked them, and besought
them pardon for that they had been enemies.

3 Instead whereof thou gavest them a burning pillar of fire,
both to be a guide of the unknown journey, and an harmless
sun to entertain them honourably.

4 For they were worthy to be deprived of light and
imprisoned in darkness, who had kept thy sons shut up, by
whom the uncorrupt light of the law was to be given unto the
world.

5 And when they had determined to slay the babes of the
saints, one child being cast forth, and saved, to reprove them,
thou tookest away the multitude of their children, and
destroyedst them altogether in a mighty water.

6 Of that night were our fathers certified afore, that
assuredly knowing unto what oaths they had given credence,
they might afterwards be of good cheer.

7 So of thy people was accepted both the salvation of the
righteous, and destruction of the enemies.

8 For wherewith thou didst punish our adversaries, by the
same thou didst glorify us, whom thou hadst called.

9 For the righteous children of good men did sacrifice
secretly, and with one consent made a holy law, that the
saints should be like partakers of the same good and evil, the
fathers now singing out the songs of praise.

10 But on the other side there sounded an ill according cry
of the enemies, and a lamentable noise was carried abroad for
children that were bewailed.

11 The master and the servant were punished after one
manner; and like as the king, so suffered the common person.

12 So they all together had innumerable dead with one
kind of death; neither were the living sufficient to bury them:
for in one moment the noblest offspring of them was
destroyed.

13 For whereas they would not believe any thing by reason
of the enchantments; upon the destruction of the firstborn,
they acknowledged this people to be the sons of God.

14 For while all things were in quiet silence, and that night
was in the midst of her swift course,

15 Thine Almighty word leaped down from heaven out of
thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into the midst of a
land of destruction,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

16 And brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp
sword, and standing up filled all things with death; and it
touched the heaven, but it stood upon the earth.

17 Then suddenly visions of horrible dreams troubled them
sore, and terrors came upon them unlooked for.

18 And one thrown here, and another there, half dead,
shewed the cause of his death.

19 For the dreams that troubled them did foreshew this,
lest they should perish, and not know why they were afflicted.

20 Yea, the tasting of death touched the righteous also, and
there was a destruction of the multitude in the wilderness:
but the wrath endured not long.

21 For then the blameless man made haste, and stood forth
to defend them; and bringing the shield of his proper
ministry, even prayer, and the propitiation of incense, set
himself against the wrath, and so brought the calamity to an
end, declaring that he was thy servant.

22 So he overcame the destroyer, not with strength of body,
nor force of arms, but with a word subdued him that
punished, alleging the oaths and covenants made with the
fathers.

23 For when the dead were now fallen down by heaps one
upon another, standing between, he stayed the wrath, and
parted the way to the living.

24 For in the long garment was the whole world, and in the
four rows of the stones was the glory of the fathers graven,
and thy Majesty upon the diadem of his head.

25 Unto these the destroyer gave place, and was afraid of
them: for it was enough that they only tasted of the wrath.

WISDOM OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 19

1 As for the ungodly, wrath came upon them without mercy
unto the end: for he knew before what they would do;

2 How that having given them leave to depart, and sent
them hastily away, they would repent and pursue them.

3 For whilst they were yet mourning and making
lamentation at the graves of the dead, they added another
foolish device, and pursued them as fugitives, whom they had
intreated to be gone.

4 For the destiny, whereof they were worthy, drew them
unto this end, and made them forget the things that had
already happened, that they might fulfil the punishment
which was wanting to their torments:

5 And that thy people might pass a wonderful way: but they
might find a strange death.

6 For the whole creature in his proper kind was fashioned
again anew, serving the peculiar commandments that were
given unto them, that thy children might be kept without
hurt:

7 As namely, a cloud shadowing the camp; and where water
stood before, dry land appeared; and out of the Red sea a
way without impediment; and out of the violent stream a
green field:

8 Wherethrough all the people went that were defended
with thy hand, seeing thy marvellous strange wonders.

9 For they went at large like horses, and leaped like lambs,
praising thee, O Lord, who hadst delivered them.

10 For they were yet mindful of the things that were done
while they sojourned in the strange land, how the ground
brought forth flies instead of cattle, and how the river cast
up a multitude of frogs instead of fishes.

11 But afterwards they saw a new generation of fowls, when,
being led with their appetite, they asked delicate meats.

12 For quails came up unto them from the sea for their
contentment.

13 And punishments came upon the sinners not without
former signs by the force of thunders: for they suffered justly
according to their own wickedness, insomuch as they used a
more hard and hateful behaviour toward strangers.

14 For the Sodomites did not receive those, whom they
knew not when they came: but these brought friends into
bondage, that had well deserved of them.

15 And not only so, but peradventure some respect shall be
had of those, because they used strangers not friendly:

16 But these very grievously afflicted them, whom they had
received with feastings, and were already made partakers of
the same laws with them.

17 Therefore even with blindness were these stricken, as
those were at the doors of the righteous man: when, being
compassed about with horrible great darkness, every one
sought the passage of his own doors.

18 For the elements were changed in themselves by a kind
of harmony, like as in a psaltery notes change the name of the
tune, and yet are always sounds; which may well be perceived
by the sight of the things that have been done.

19 For earthly things were turned into watery, and the
things, that before swam in the water, now went upon the
ground.

20 The fire had power in the water, forgetting his own
virtue: and the water forgat his own quenching nature.

21 On the other side, the flames wasted not the flesh of the
corruptible living things, though they walked therein;
neither melted they the icy kind of heavenly meat that was of
nature apt to melt.

22 For in all things, O Lord, thou didst magnify thy people,
and glorify them, neither didst thou lightly regard them: but
didst assist them in every time and place.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

ECCLESIASTICUS

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH
Hokhmat Yoshua ben Sira / The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach
Sefer ben Sira / The Book of ben Sirach
Mishley ben Sira / Proverbs of ben Sirach
Sophia Iesou Hyiou Sirakh
The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach
Author: Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira
Douay-Rheims Version, American Edition, 1899
Estimated Range of Dating: 200 - 175 B.C.

(This work has many names. The common title
Ecclesiasticus, means "belonging to the Church" or "used in
the Church." The title was bestowed on certain books, which,
though they had not been admitted into the Canon, were
recognised as suitable for use in public teaching. The original
Hebrew title was probably Hokhmat Yeshua ben Sira, the
Wisdom of ben Sira. In the Latin Bible and in Greek
manuscripts it is known as Sophia Iesou hyiou Sirach (the
Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach). Written in Hebrew
about 200-175 BC, it was translated into Greek by the
author's grandson in Egypt. A Syriac translation also was
made. Portions (about three-fifths) of the Hebrew text were
found in medieval copies in a synagogue of Cairo and a part
of the book in a fragment of a scroll from Massada in
Palestine (written c. 75 BC). Small Hebrew fragments also
were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; one of them, the
Psalms scroll, contains a large part of a poem about wisdom
that 1s a part of the appendix (chapter 51) and that was not
written by the author. The Proverbs of Ben-Sira are often
quoted in rabbinic literature. Due to its ethic contents, it is
one of the most valuable books of the entire Bible.

The book 1s written in the poetical style of the wisdom
books of the Old Testament (e.g., Proverbs, Job) and deals
with the themes of practical and theoretical morality. The
religious and moral position of the author 1s conservative—
he does not believe in the afterlife, but he reflects the
contemporary religious positions. He identifies wisdom, the
origin of which 1s divine, with “the Law which Moses
commanded,” an idea that became important for later
Judaism. He also reflects contemporary debates about
freedom of will and determinism, and, though realistic in his
basic opinions, he sometimes expresses eschatological hopes
of salvation for his people. His piety is ethical, though
lacking in asceticism; and he invites his readers to enjoy life,
which 1s short (in this point some Greek influence 1s palpable,
but it is not very deep). At the end of the book the author
praises, in chronological order, “the fathers of old,” from
the beginning of history to his contemporary, the high priest
Simon, whose appearance in the Temple is poetically
described. After some verses comes the colophon with the

author's name—the last chapter being an appendix not
composed by the author.

Joshua ben Sirach, in Greek texts called "Jesus the son of
Sirach of Jerusalem", was a Jewish scribe who originally
came from Jerusalem but may have authored the work in
Alexandria, Egypt ca. 200-175 BC, where he is thought to
have established a school. Ben Sirach is unique among all Old
Testament and Apocryphal writers in that he signed his work.
His work has in content and style some similarities with Old-
Egyptian works such as The Teaching of Kagemna, Egypt c.
2613-2589 BC; The Teachings of Ptah-Hotep, Egypt c.
2500-2345 BC; and particularly with The Instructions of
Shuruppak, Sumer c. 2600-2550 BC. In antiquity, these
works were very popular for educational purposes. Ben Sira
might have found some copies in the Library of Alexandria
and then re-designed them for Hebrew schools.

The Prologue, attributed to Ben Sira’s grandson and dated
to 132 BC, is generally considered the earliest witness to a
canon of the books of the prophets. Thus the date of the text,
has been the subject of intense scrutiny by biblical scholars.

Joshua ben Sirach's grandson was in Egypt, translating and
editing after the usurping Hasmonean line had definitively
ousted Simon's heirs in long struggles and was finally in
control of the High Priesthood in Jerusalem. Comparing the
Hebrew and Greek versions shows that he altered the prayer
for Simon and broadened its application ("may He entrust to
us lus mercy"), in order to avoid closing a work praising
God's covenanted faithfulness on an unanswered prayer.

In Egypt, the book was translated into Greek by the
author's unnamed grandson, who added a prologue. This
prologue is generally considered the earliest witness to a
canon of the books of the prophets, and thus the date of the
text is the subject of intense scrutiny. The book itself is the
largest wisdom book from antiquity to have survived.

The Greek translator states in his preface that he was the
grandson of the author, and that he came to Egypt in the
thirty-eighth year of the reign of "Euergetes". This epithet
was borne by only two of the Ptolemies. Of these, Ptolemy IIT
Euergetes reigned only twenty-five years (247-222 BC) and
thus Ptolemy VII Euergetes must be intended; he ascended
the throne in the year 170 BC, together with his brother
Ptolemy VI Philometor, but he soon became sole ruler of
Cyrene, and from 146 to 117 BC held sway over all Egypt.
He dated his reign from the year in which he received the
crown (1.e., from 170 BC). The translator must therefore
have gone to Egypt in 132 BC.

The translation into Greek 1s believed to have been done
after 117 BC. In Egypt, it was translated into Greek by the
author's unnamed grandson, who added a prologue. This
prologue is generally considered the earliest witness to a
canon of the books of the prophets, and thus the date of the
text 1s the subject of intense scrutiny. The book itself ts the
largest wisdom book from antiquity to have survived.

Manuscripts: The work of Sirach is presently known
through various versions, which scholars still struggle to
disentangle. The Greek version of Sirach 1s found in many

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IN BASIC ENGLISH

codices of the Septuagint. All traces of the Hebrew original
were lost up to 1896, when Mrs. Agnes Lewis found in the
Cairo Geniza* a fragment, copied in the 11th and 12th
centuries AD, from Palestine containing chapters 39:15-
40:18. [* A geniza Is a synagogue storage room for damaged
manuscripts.] This discovery led to further investigation, and
many other fragments have been brought to light, largely
owing to the efforts of Mr. Solomon Schechter. These
fragments contain the bulk of the book, though several
chapters are still missing. Although none of these
manuscripts 1s complete, together they provide the text for
about two-thirds of the Wisdom of Sirach.

In the 1950s and 1960s three copies of portions of Sirach
were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The largest scroll
was discovered at Masada, the Jewish fortress destroyed in 73
AD. The earliest of these scrolls (2Q18) has been dated to the
second part of the Ist century BC, approximately 150 years
after Sirach was first composed. These early Hebrew texts are
in substantial agreement with the Hebrew texts discovered in
Cairo, although there are numerous minor textual variants.
With these findings, scholars are now more confident that
the Cairo texts are reliable witnesses to the Hebrew original.

Language and alternative titles: The "Book of ben Sirach"
(Sefer ben Sira) was originally written in Hebrew, and was
also known in Hebrew as the "Proverbs of ben Sirach"
(Misley ben Sira) or the "Wisdom of ben Sirach" (Hokhmat
ben Sira). The book was not accepted into the Hebrew Bible
and the original Hebrew text was not preserved in the Jewish
canon. However, various original Hebrew versions have since
been recovered, including fragments recovered within the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah, the latter of which
includes fragments from six separate manuscripts.

The Greek translation was accepted in the Septuagint
under the (abbreviated) name of the author: Sirakh. Some
Greek manuscripts give as the title the "Wisdom of Iesous
Son of Sitakh" or in short the "Wisdom of Sirakh". The
older Latin versions were based on the Septuagint, and
simply transliterated the Greek title in Latin letters: Sirach.
In the Vulgate the book 1s called Liber Iesu filtt Sirach
(Book of Joshua Son of Sirach").

The Greek Church Fathers also called it the "All-Virtuous
Wisdom", while the Latin Church Fathers, beginning with
Cyprian, termed it Ecclestasticus because it was frequently
read in churches, leading the early Latin Fathers to call it
liber ecclesiasticus (Latin and Latinised Greek for "church
book"). Similarly, the Nova Vulgata and many modern
English translations of the Apocrypha use the title
Ecclesiasticus, literally "of the Church" because of its
frequent use in Christian teaching and worship.

The Babylonian Talmud occasionally cites Ben-Sira
(Sanhedrin 100b; Hagigah 13a, Baba Bathra 98b, etc.), but
even so, it only paraphrases his citations, without quoting
from him verbatim. This 1s shown by comparing fragmented
texts of the original Hebrew "Book of Wisdom"
(Ecclesiasticus) discovered in Qumran with the same quotes
as given in the Babylonian Talmud.

Structure and Contents: As with other wisdom books, there
is no easily recognizable structure in Sirach; in many parts it
is difficult to discover a logical progression of thought or to
discern the principles of arrangement. However, a series of
six poems about the search for and attainment of wisdom
(1:1-10, 4:11-19; 6:18-37; 14:20-15:10; 24:1-33; and
38:24—39:11) divide the book into something resembling
chapters, although the divisions are not thematically based.
The exceptions are the first two chapters, whose reflections
on wisdom and fear of God provide the theological
framework for what follows, and the last nine chapters,
which function as a sort of climax, first in an extended pratse
of God's glory as manifested through creation (42:15—43:33)
and second in the celebration of the heroes of ancient Israel's
history dating back to before the Great Flood through
contemporary times (see previous section).

Despite the lack of structure, there are certain themes
running through the Book that reappear at various points.
The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha identifies ten major
recurring topics:

1. The Creation (16:24—124, 18:1—14; 33:7-15, 39: 12-35;
and 42:15—43:33),

2. Death (11:26—28; 22:11—12; 38:16—23; and 41:1—13);

3. Friendship (6:5-17; 9:10-16: 19:13-17; 22:19-26:
216-21; and 36:23—315);

4. Happiness (25:1—11; 30:14—25; and 40:1—30);

5. Honour and shame (4:20-6:4; 10:19-11:6; and 41:14—
42:8);

6. Money matters (3:30-4:10; 11:7-28; 13:1—14:19;
29;1—28; and 31:1—11);

7. Sin (1-17; 15:11-20; 16:1-132, 18:30-19:3; 21:1-10;
22:27-23:27, and 26:28-28:7);

8. Social justice (4:1—10; 34:21-27; and 35:14—26);

9. Speech (5:6,9-15; 18:15-29; 19:4-17; 20:1-31; 23:7-
15; 24-7; 211-15; and 28:8—26); and

10. Women (9:1—9; 23:22-27; 25:13-26:27, 36:26-31;
and 42:9-14),

Sirach is accepted as part of the Canon by Catholics,
Eastern Orthodox, and most of Oriental Orthodoxy.
Anglican tradition considers Sirach (which was published
with other Greek Jewish books in a separate section of the
King James Bible) among the apocryphal or
deuterocanonical books, and read them "for example of life
and instruction of manners; but yet [do] not apply them to
establish any doctrine." The Lutheran Churches take a
similar position. It was cited in some writings in early
Christianity.)

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 1

1 Prologue. The knowledge of many and great things hath
been shewn us by the law, and the prophets, and others that
have followed them: for which things Israel is to be
commended for doctrine and wisdom, because not only they
that speak must needs be skillful, but strangers also, both
speaking and writing, may by their means become most

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learned. My grandfather Jesus, after he had much given
himself to a diligent reading of the law, and the prophets,
and other books, that were delivered to us from our fathers,
had a mind also to write something himself, pertaining to
doctrine and wisdom: that such as are desirous to learn, and
are made knowing in these things, may be more and more
attentive in mind, and be strengthened to live according to
the law. I entreat you therefore to come with benevolence,
and to read with attention, and to pardon us for those things
wherein we may seem, while we follow the image of wisdom,
to come short in the composition of words; for the Hebrew
words have not the same force in them when translated into
another tongue. And not only these, but the law also itself,
and the prophets, and the rest of the books, have no small
difference, when they are spoken in their own language. For
in the eight and thirtieth year coming into Egypt, when
Ptolemy Evergetes was king, and continuing there a long
time, I found there books left, of no small nor contemptible
learning. Therefore I thought it good, and necessary for me
to bestow some diligence and labour to interpret this book;
and with much watching and study in some space of time, I
brought the book to an end, and set it forth for the service of
them that are willing to apply their mind, and to learn how
they ought to conduct themselves, who purpose to lead their
life according to the law of the Lord. All wisdom is from the
Lord God, and hath been always with him, and is before all
time.

2 Who hath numbered the sand of the sea, and the drops of
rain, and the days of the world? Who hath measured the
height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth
of the abyss?

3 Who hath searched out the wisdom of God that goeth
before all things?

4 Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the
understanding of prudence from everlasting.

5 The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom, and
her ways are everlasting commandments.

6 To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed, and who
hath known her wise counsels?

7 To whom hath the discipline of wisdom been revealed and
made manifest? and who hath understood the multiplicity of
her steps?

8 There is one most high Creator Almighty, and a powerful
king, and greatly to be feared, who sitteth upon his throne,
and is the God of dominion.

9 He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and
numbered her, and measured her.

10 And he poured her out upon all his works, and upon all
flesh according to his gift, and hath given her to them that
love him.

11 The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness,
and a crown of joy.

12 The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall
give joy, and gladness, and length of days.

13 With him that feareth the Lord, it shall go well in the
latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed.

14 The love of God is honourable wisdom.

15 And they to whom she shall shew herself love her by the
sight, and by the knowledge of her great works.

16 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and
was created with the faithful in the womb, it walketh with
chosen women, and is known with the just and faithful.

17 The fear of the Lord is the religiousness of knowledge.

18 Religiousness shall keep and justify the heart, it shall
give joy and gladness.

19 It shall go well with him that feareth the Lord, and in
the days of his end he shall be blessed.

20 To fear God is the fulness of wisdom, and fulness is from
the fruits thereof.

21 She shall fill all her house with her increase, and the
storehouses with her treasures.

22 The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom, filling up
peace and the fruit of salvation:

23 And it hath seen, and numbered her: but both are the
gifts of God.

24 Wisdom shall distribute knowledge, and understanding
of prudence: and exalteth the glory of them that hold her.

25 The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord: and the branches
thereof are longlived.

26 In the treasures of wisdom is understanding, and
religiousness of knowledge: but to sinners wisdom is an
abomination.

27 The fear of the Lord driveth out sin:

28 For he that is without fear, cannot be justified: for the
wrath of his high spirits is his ruin.

29 A patient man shall bear for a time, and afterwards joy
shall be restored to him.

30 A good understanding will hide his words for a time,
and the lips of many shall declare his wisdom.

31 In the treasures of wisdom is the signification of
discipline:

32 But the worship of God is an abomination to a sinner.

33 Son, if thou desire wisdom, keep justice, and God will
give her to thee.

34 For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and discipline: and
that which is agreeable to him,

35 Is faith, and meekness: and he will fill up his treasures.

36 Be not incredulous to the fear of the Lord: and come not
to him with a double heart.

37 Be not a hypocrite in the sight of men, and let not thy
lips be a stumblingblock to thee.

38 Watch over them, lest thou fall, and bring dishonour
upon thy soul,

39 And God discover thy secrets, and cast thee down in the
midst of the congregation.

40 Because thou camest to the Lord wickedly, and thy heart
is full of guile and deceit.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 2
1 Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in
justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.

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2 Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive
the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time
of clouds.

3 Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and
endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end.

4 Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy
sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.

5 For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable
men in the furnace of humiliation.

6 Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way,
and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.

7 Ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: and go not
aside from him, lest ye fall.

8 Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall
not be made void.

9 Ye that fear the Lord, hope in him: and mercy shall come
to you for your delight.

10 Ye that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be
enlightened.

11 My children behold the generations of men: and know ye
that no one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been
confounded.

12 For who hath continued in his commandment, and hath
been forsaken? or who hath called upon him, and he despised
him?

13 For God is compassionate and merciful, and will forgive
sins in the day of tribulation: and he is a protector to all that
seek him in truth.

14 Woe to them that are of a double heart and to wicked
lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that
goeth on the earth two ways.

15 Woe to them that are fainthearted, who believe not God:

and therefore they shall not be protected by him.

16 Woe to them that have lost patience, and that have
forsaken the right ways, and have gone aside into crooked
ways.

17 And what will they do, when the Lord shall begin to
examine?

18 They that fear the Lord, will not be incredulous to his
word: and they that love him, will keep his way.

19 They that fear the Lord, will seek after the things that
are well pleasing to him: and they that love him, shall be
filled with his law.

20 They that fear the Lord, will prepare their hearts, and in
his sight will sanctify their souls.

21 They that fear the Lord, keep his Commandments, and
will have patience even until his visitation,

22 Saying: If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands
of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.

23 For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with
him.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 3
1 The sons of wisdom are the church of the just: and their
generation, obedience and love.

2 Children, hear the judgment of your father, and so do
that you may be saved.

3 For God hath made the father honourable to the children:
and seeking the judgment of the mothers, hath confirmed it
upon the children.

4 He that loveth God, shall obtain pardon for his sins by
prayer, and shall refrain himself from them, and shall be
heard in the prayer of days.

5 And he that honoureth his mother is as one that layeth up
a treasure.

6 He that honoureth his father shall have joy in his own
children, and in the day of his prayer he shall be heard.

7 He that honoureth his father shall enjoy a long life: and
he that obeyeth the father, shall be a comfort to his mother.

8 He that feareth the Lord, honoureth his parents, and will
serve them as his masters that brought him into the world.

9 Honour thy father, in work and word, and all patience,

10 That a blessing may come upon thee from him, and his
blessing may remain in the latter end.

11 The father's blessing establisheth the houses of the
children: but the mother's curse rooteth up the foundation.

12 Glory not in the dishonour of thy father: for his shame is
no glory to thee.

13 For the glory of a man is from the honour of his father,
and a father without honour is the disgrace of the son.

14 Son, support the old age of thy father, and grieve him
not in his life;

15 And if his understanding fail, have patience with him,
and despise him not when thou art in thy strength: for the
relieving of the father shall not be forgotten.

16 For good shall be repaid to thee for the sin of thy
mother.

17 And in justice thou shalt be built up, and in the day of
affliction thou shalt be remembered: and thy sins shall melt
away as the ice in the fair warm weather.

18 Of what an evil fame is he that forsaketh his father: and
he is cursed of God that angereth his mother.

19 My son, do thy works in meekness, and thou shalt be
beloved above the glory of men.

20 The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all
things, and thou shalt find grace before God:

21 For great is the power of God alone, and he is honoured
by the humble.

22 Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and
search not into things above thy ability: but the things that
God hath commanded thee, think on them always, and in
many of his works be not curious.

23 For it is not necessary for thee to see with thy eyes those
things that are hid.

24 In unnecessary matters be not over curious, and in many
of his works thou shalt not be inquisitive.

25 For many things are shewn to thee above the
understanding of men.

26 And the suspicion of them hath deceived many, and hath
detained their minds in vanity.

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27 A hard heart shall fear evil at the last: and he that loveth
danger shall perish in it.

28 A heart that goeth two ways shall not have success, and
the perverse of heart shall be scandalized therein.

29 A wicked heart shall be laden with sorrows, and the
sinner will add sin to sin.

30 The congregation of the proud shall not be healed: for
the plant of wickedness shall take root in them, and it shall
not be perceived.

31 The heart of the wise is understood in wisdom, and a
good ear will hear wisdom with all desire.

32 A wise heart, and which hath understanding, will
abstain from sins, and in the works of justice shall have
success.

33 Water quencheth a flaming fire, and alms resisteth sins:

34 And God provideth for him that sheweth favour: he
remembereth him afterwards, and in the time of his fall he
shall find a sure stay.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 4

1 Son, defraud not the poor of alms, and turn not away thy
eyes from the poor.

2 Despise not the hungry soul: and provoke not the poor in
his want.

3 Afflict not the heart of the needy, and defer not to give to
him that is in distress.

4 Reject not the petition of the afflicted: and turn not away
thy face from the needy.

5 Turn not away thy eyes from the poor for fear of anger:
and leave not to them that ask of thee to curse thee behind
thy back.

6 For the prayer of him that curseth thee in the bitterness of
his soul, shall be heard, for he that made him will hear him.

7 Make thyself affable to the congregation of the poor, and
humble thy soul to the ancient, and bow thy head to a great
man.

8 Bow down thy ear cheerfully to the poor, and pay what
thou owest, and answer him peaceable words with mildness.

9 Deliver him that suffereth wrong out of the hand of the
proud: and be not fainthearted in thy soul.

10 In judging be merciful to the fatherless as a father, and
as a husband to their mother.

11 And thou shalt be as the obedient son of the most High,
and he will have mercy on thee more than a mother.

12 Wisdom inspireth life into her children, and protecteth
them that seek after her, and will go before them in the way
of justice.

13 And he that loveth her, loveth life: and they that watch
for her, shall embrace her sweetness.

14 They that hold her fast, shall inherit life: and
whithersoever she entereth, God will give a blessing.

15 They that serve her, shall be servants to the holy one:
and God loveth them that love her.

16 He that hearkeneth to her, shall judge nations: and he
that looketh upon her, shall remain secure.

17 Ifhe trust to her, he shall inherit her, and his generation
shall be in assurance.

18 For she walketh with him in temptation, and at the first
she chooseth him.

19 She will bring upon him fear and dread and trial: and
she will scourge him with the affliction of her discipline, till
she try him by her laws, and trust his soul.

20 Then she will strengthen him, and make a straight way
to him, and give him joy,

21 And will disclose her secrets to him, and will heap upon
him treasures of knowledge and understanding of justice.

22 But if he go astray, she will forsake him, and deliver him
into the hands of his enemy.

23 Son, observe the time, and fly from evil.

24 For thy soul be not ashamed to say the truth.

25 For there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a
shame that bringeth glory and grace.

26 Accept no person against thy own person, nor against
thy soul a lie.

27 Reverence not thy neighbour in his fall:

28 And refrain not to speak in the time of salvation. Hide
not thy wisdom in her beauty.

29 For by the tongue wisdom is discerned: and
understanding, and knowledge, and learning by the word of
the wise, and steadfastness in the works of justice.

30 In nowise speak against the truth, but be ashamed of the
lie of thy ignorance.

31 Be not ashamed to confess thy sins, but submit not
thyself to every man for sin.

32 Resist not against the face of the mighty, and do not
strive against the stream of the river.

33 Strive for justice for thy soul, and even unto death fight
for justice, and God will overthrow thy enemies for thee.

34 Be not hasty in thy tongue: and slack and remiss in thy
works.

35 Be not as a lion in thy house, terrifying them of thy
household, and oppressing them that are under thee.

36 Let not thy hand be stretched out to receive, and shut
when thou shouldst give.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 5

1 Set not thy heart upon unjust possessions, and say not: I
have enough to live on: for it shall be of no service in the time
of vengeance and darkness.

2 Follow not in thy strength the desires of thy heart:

3 And say not: How mighty am I? and who shall bring me
under for my deeds? for God will surely take revenge.

4 Say not: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?
for the most High is a patient rewarder.

5 Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin
upon sin:

6 And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have
mercy on the multitude of my sins.

7 For mercy and wrath quickly come from him, and his
wrath looketh upon sinners.

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8 Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not
from day to day.

9 For his wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of
vengeance he will destroy thee.

10 Be not anxious for goods unjustly gotten: for they shall
not profit thee in the day of calamity and revenge.

11 Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way:

for so is every sinner proved by a double tongue.

12 Be steadfast in the way of the Lord, and in the truth of
thy judgment, and in knowledge, and let the word of peace
and justice keep with thee.

13 Be meek to hear the word, that thou mayst understand:
and return a true answer with wisdom.

14 If thou have understanding, answer thy neighbour: but
if not, let thy hand be upon thy mouth, lest thou be surprised
in an unskillful word, and be confounded.

15 Honour and glory is in the word of the wise, but the
tongue of the fool is his ruin.

16 Be not called a whisperer, and be not taken in thy
tongue, and confounded.

17 For confusion and repentance is upon a thief, and an evil
mark of disgrace upon the double tongued, but to the
whisperer hatred, and enmity, and reproach.

18 Justify alike the small and the great.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 6

1 Instead of a friend become not an enemy to thy neighbour:

for an evil man shall inherit reproach and shame, so shall
every sinner that is envious and double tongued.

2 Extol not thyself in the thoughts of thy soul like a bull:
lest thy strength be quashed by folly,

3 And it eat up thy leaves, and destroy thy fruit: and thou
be left as a dry tree in the wilderness.

4 For a wicked soul shall destroy him that hath it, and
maketh him to be a joy to his enemies, and shall lead him into
the lot of the wicked.

5 A sweet word multiplieth friends, and appeaseth enemies,
and a gracious tongue in a good man aboundeth.

6 Be in peace with many, but let one of a thousand be thy
counsellor.

7 If thou wouldst get a friend, try him before thou takest
him, and do not credit him easily.

8 For there is a friend for his own occasion, and he will not
abide in the day of thy trouble.

9 And there is a friend that turneth to enmity; and there is a
friend that will disclose hatred and strife and reproaches.

10 And there is a friend a companion at the table, and he
will not abide in the day of distress.

11 A friend if he continue steadfast, shall be to thee as
thyself, and shall act with confidence among them of thy
household.

12 If he humble himself before thee, and hide himself from
thy face, thou shalt have unanimous friendship for good.

13 Separate thyself from thy enemies, and take heed of thy
friends.

14 A faithful friend is a strong defence: and he that hath
found him, hath found a treasure.

15 Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend, and no
weight of gold and silver is able to countervail the goodness
of his fidelity.

16 A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality:
and they that fear the Lord, shall find him.

17 He that feareth God, shall likewise have good friendship:
because according to him shall his friend be.

18 My son, from thy youth up receive instruction, and even
to thy grey hairs thou shalt find wisdom.

19 Come to her as one that plougheth, and soweth, and
wait for her good fruits:

20 For in working about her thou shalt labour a little, and
shalt quickly eat of her fruits.

21 How very unpleasant is wisdom to the unlearned, and
the unwise will not continue with her.

22 She shall be to them as a mighty stone of trial, and they
will cast her from them before it be long.

23 For the wisdom of doctrine is according to her name,
and she is not manifest unto many, but with them to whom
she is known, she continueth even to the sight of God.

24 Give ear, my son, and take wise counsel, and cast not
away my advice.

25 Put thy feet into her fetters, and thy neck into her chains:

26 Bow down thy shoulder, and bear her, and be not
grieved with her bands.

27 Come to her with all thy mind, and keep her ways with
all thy power.

28 Search for her, and she shall be made known to thee, and
when thou hast gotten her, let her not go:

29 For in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her, and she
shall be turned to thy joy.

30 Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and a
firm foundation, and her chain a robe of glory:

31 For in her is the beauty of life, and her bands are a
healthful binding.

32 Thou shalt put her on as a robe of glory, and thou shalt
set her upon thee as a crown of joy.

33 My son, if thou wilt attend to me, thou shalt learn: and
if thou wilt apply thy mind, thou shalt be wise.

34 If thou wilt incline thy ear, thou shalt receive
instruction: and if thou love to hear, thou shalt be wise.

35 Stand in the multitude of ancients that are wise, and join
thyself from thy heart to their wisdom, that thou mayst hear
every discourse of God, and the sayings of praise may not
escape thee.

36 And if thou see a man of understanding, go to him early
in the morning, and let thy foot wear the steps of his doors.

37 Let thy thoughts be upon the precepts of God, and
meditate continually on his commandments: and he will give
thee a heart, and the desire of wisdom shall be given to thee.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 7
1 Do no evils, and no evils shall lay hold of thee.
2 Depart from the unjust, and evils shall depart from thee.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 My son, sow not evils in the furrows of injustice, and thou
shalt not reap them sevenfold.

4 Seek not of the Lord a pre-eminence, nor of the king the
seat of honour.

5 Justify not thyself before God, for he knoweth the heart:
and desire not to appear wise before the king.

6 Seek not to be made a judge, unless thou have strength
enough to extirpate iniquities: lest thou fear the person of
the powerful, and lay a stumblingblock for thy integrity.

7 Offend not against the multitude of a city, neither cast
thyself'in upon the people,

8 Nor bind sin to sin: for even in one thou shalt not be
unpunished.

9 Be not fainthearted in thy mind:

10 Neglect not to pray, and to give alms.

11 Say not: God will have respect to the multitude of my
gifts, and when I offer to the most high God, he will accept
my offerings.

12 Laugh no man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul: for
there is one that humbleth and exalteth, God who seeth all.

13 Devise not a lie against thy brother: neither do the like
against thy friend.

14 Be not willing to make any manner of lie: for the custom
thereof is not good.

15 Be not full of words in a multitude of ancients, and
repeat not the word in thy prayer.

16 Hate not laborious works, nor husbandry ordained by
the most High.

17 Number not thyself among the multitude of the
disorderly.

18 Remember wrath, for it will not tarry long.

19 Humble thy spirit very much: for the vengeance on the
flesh of the ungodly is fire and worms.

20 Do not transgress against thy friend deferring money,
nor despise thy dear brother for the sake of gold.

21 Depart not from a wise and good wife, whom thou hast
gotten in the fear of the Lord: for the grace of her modesty is
above gold.

22 Hurt not the servant that worketh faithfully, nor the
hired man that giveth thee his life.

23 Let a wise servant be dear to thee as thy own soul,
defraud him not of liberty, nor leave him needy.

24 Hast thou cattle? have an eye to them: and if they be for
thy profit, keep them with thee.

25 Hast thou children? instruct them, and bow down their
neck from their childhood.

26 Hast thou daughters? have a care of their body, and
shew not thy countenance gay towards them.

27 Marry thy daughter well, and thou shalt do a great
work, and give her to a wise man.

28 If thou hast a wife according to thy soul, cast her not off:
and to her that is hateful, trust not thyself. With thy whole
heart,

29 Honour thy father, and forget not the groanings of thy
mother:

30 Remember that thou hadst not been born but through
them: and make a return to them as they have done for thee.

31 With all thy soul fear the Lord, and reverence his priests.

32 With all thy strength love him that made thee: and
forsake not his ministers.

33 Honour God with all thy soul, and give honour to the
priests, and purify thyself with thy arms.

34 Give them their portion, as it is commanded thee, of the
firstfruits and of purifications: and for thy negligences purify
thyself with a few.

35 Offer to the Lord the gift of thy shoulders, and the
sacrifice of sanctification, and the firstfruits of the holy
things:

36 And stretch out thy hand to the poor, that thy expiation
and thy blessing may be perfected.

37 A gift hath grace in the sight of all the living, and
restrain not grace from the dead.

38 Be not wanting in comforting them that weep, and walk
with them that mourn.

39 Be not slow to visit the sick: for by these things thou
shalt be confirmed in love.

40 In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt
never sin.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 8

1 Strive not with a powerful man, lest thou fall into his
hands.

2 Contend not with a rich man, lest he bring an action
against thee.

3 For gold and silver hath destroyed many, and hath
reached even to the heart of kings, and perverted them.

4 Strive not with a man that is full of tongue, and heap not
wood upon his fire.

5 Communicate not with an ignorant man, lest he speak ill
of thy family.

6 Despise not a man that turneth away from sin, nor
reproach him therewith: remember that we are all worthy of
reproof.

7 Despise not a man in his old age; for we also shall become
old.

8 Rejoice not at the death of thy enemy; knowing that we
all die, and are not willing that others should rejoice at our
death.

9 Despise not the discourse of them that are ancient and
wise, but acquaint thyself with their proverbs.

10 For of them thou shalt learn wisdom, and instruction of
understanding, and to serve great men without blame.

11 Let not the discourse of the ancients escape thee, for they
have learned of their fathers:

12 For of them thou shalt learn understanding, and to give
an answer in time of need.

13 Kindle not the coals of sinners by rebuking them, lest
thou be burnt with the flame of the fire of their sins.

14 Stand not against the face of an injurious person, lest he
sit as a spy to entrap thee in thy words.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 Lend not to a man that is mightier than thyself: and if
thou lendest, count it as lost.

16 Be not surety above thy power: and if thou be surety,
think as if thou wert to pay it.

17 Judge not against a judge: for he judgeth according to
that which is just.

18 Go not on the way with a bold man, lest he burden thee
with his evils: for he goeth according to his own will, and
thou shalt perish together with his folly.

19 Quarrel not with a passionate man, and go not into the
desert with a bold man: for blood is as nothing in his sight,
and where there is no help he will overthrow thee.

20 Advise not with fools, for they cannot love but such
things as please them.

21 Before a stranger do no matter of counsel: for thou
knowest not what he will bring forth.

22 Open not thy heart to every man: lest he repay thee with
an evil turn, and speak reproachfully to thee.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 9

1 Be not jealous over the wife of thy bosom, lest she shew in
thy regard the malice of a wicked lesson.

2 Give not the power of thy soul to a woman, lest she enter
upon thy strength, and thou be confounded.

3 Look not upon a woman that hath a mind for many: lest
thou fall into her snares.

4 Use not much the company of her that is a dancer, and
hearken not to her, lest thou perish by the force of her
charms.

5 Gaze not upon a maiden, lest her beauty be a
stumblingblock to thee.

6 Give not thy soul to harlots in any point: lest thou
destroy thyself and thy inheritance.

7 Look not round about thee in the ways of the city, nor
wander up and down in the streets thereof.

8 Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze
not about upon another's beauty.

9 For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and
hereby lust is enkindled as a fire.

10 Every woman that is a harlot, shall be trodden upon as
dung in the way.

11 Many by admiring the beauty of another man's wife,
have become reprobate, for her conversation burneth as fire.

12 Sit not at all with another man's wife, nor repose upon
the bed with her:

13 And strive not with her over wine, lest thy heart decline
towards her, and by thy blood thou fall into destruction.

14 Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like to
him.

15 A new friend is as new wine: it shall grow old, and thou
shalt drink it with pleasure.

16 Envy not the glory and riches of a sinner: for thou
knowest not what his ruin shall be.

17 Be not pleased with the wrong done by the unjust,
knowing that even to hell the wicked shall not please.

18 Keep thee far from the man that hath power to kill, so
thou shalt not suspect the fear of death.

19 And if thou come to him, commit no fault, lest he take
away thy life.

20 Know it to be a communication with death: for thou art
going in the midst of snares, and walking upon the arms of
them that are grieved:

21 According to thy power beware of thy neighbour, and
treat with the wise and prudent.

22 Let just men be thy guests, and let thy glory be in the
fear of God.

23 And let the thought of God be in thy mind, and all thy
discourse on the commandments of the Highest.

24 Works shall be praised for the hand of the artificers, and
the prince of the people for the wisdom of his speech, but the
word of the ancients for the sense.

25 A man full of tongue is terrible in his city, and he that is
rash in his word shall be hateful.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 10

1 A wise judge shall judge his people, and the government
of a prudent man shall be steady.

2 As the judge of the people is himself, so also are his
ministers: and what manner of man the ruler of a city is, such
also are they that dwell therein.

3 An unwise king shall be the ruin of his people: and cities
shall be inhabited through the prudence of the rulers.

4 The power of the earth is in the hand of God, and in his
time he will raise up a profitable ruler over it.

5 The prosperity of man is in the hand of God, and upon
the person of the scribe he shall lay his honour.

6 Remember not any injury done thee by thy neighbour,
and do thou nothing by deeds of injury.

7 Pride is hateful before God and men: and all iniquity of
nations is execrable.

8 A kingdom is translated from one people to another,
because of injustices, and wrongs, and injuries, and divers
deceits.

9 But nothing is more wicked than the covetous man. Why
is earth and ashes proud?

10 There is not a more wicked thing than to love money:
for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale: because while
he liveth he hath cast away his bowels.

11 All power is of short life. A long sickness is troublesome
to the physician.

12 The physician cutteth off a short sickness: so also a king
is to day, and to morrow he shall die.

13 For when a man shall die, he shall inherit serpents, and
beasts, and worms.

14 The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall off from
God:

15 Because his heart is departed from him that made him:
for pride is the beginning of all sin: he that holdeth it, shall
be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end.

16 Therefore hath the Lord disgraced the assemblies of the
wicked, and hath utterly destroyed them.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 God hath overturned the thrones of proud princes, and
hath set up the meek in their stead.

18 God hath made the roots of proud nations to wither,
and hath planted the humble of these nations.

19 The Lord hath overthrown the lands of the Gentiles,
and hath destroyed them even to the foundation.

20 He hath made some of them to wither away, and hath
destroyed them, and hath made the memory of them to cease
from the earth.

21 God hath abolished the memory of the proud, and hath
preserved the memory of them that are humble in mind.

22 Pride was not made for men: nor wrath for the race of
women.

23 That seed of men shall be honoured, which feareth God:
but that seed shall be dishonoured, which transgresseth the
commandments of the Lord.

24 In the midst of brethren their chief is honourable: so
shall they that fear the Lord, be in his eyes.

25 The fear of God is the glory of the rich, and of the
honourable, and of the poor:

26 Despise not a just man that is poor, and do not magnify
a sinful man that is rich.

27 The great man, and the judge, and the mighty is in
honour: and there is none greater than he that feareth God.

28 They that are free shall serve a servant that is wise: and a
man that is prudent and well instructed will not murmur
when he is reproved; and he that is ignorant, shall not be
honoured.

29 Extol not thyself in doing thy work, and linger not in
the time of distress:

30 Better is he that laboureth, and aboundeth in all things,
than he that boasteth himself and wanteth bread.

31 My son, keep thy soul in meekness, and give it honour
according to its desert.

32 Who will justify him that sinneth against his own soul?
and who will honour him that dishonoureth his own soul?

33 The poor man is glorified by his discipline and fear: and
there is a man that is honoured for his wealth.

34 But he that is glorified in poverty, how much more in
wealth? and he that is glorified in wealth, let him fear
poverty.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 11

1 The wisdom of the humble shall exalt his head, and shall
make him sit in the midst of great men.

2 Praise not a man for his beauty, neither despise a man for
his look.

3 The bee is small among flying things, but her fruit hath
the chiefest sweetness.

4 Glory not in apparel at any time, and be not exalted in
the day of thy honour: for the works of the Highest only are
wonderful, and his works are glorious, and secret, and
hidden.

5 Many tyrants have sat on the throne, and he whom no
man would think on, hath worn the crown.

6 Many mighty men have been greatly brought down, and
the glorious have been delivered into the hand of others.

7 Before thou inquire, blame no man: and when thou hast
inquired, reprove justly.

8 Before thou hear, answer not a word: and interrupt not
others in the midst of their discourse.

9 Strive not in a matter which doth not concern thee, and
sit not in judgment with sinners.

10 My son, meddle not with many matters: and if thou be
rich, thou shalt not be free from sin: for if thou pursue after
thou shalt not overtake: and if thou run before thou shalt
not escape.

11 There is an ungodly man that laboureth, and maketh
haste, and is in sorrow, and is so much the more in want.

12 Again, there is an inactive man that wanteth help, is
very weak in ability, and full of poverty:

13 Yet the eye of God hath looked upon him for good, and
hath lifted him up from his low estate, and hath exalted his
head: and many have wondered at him, and have glorified
God.

14 Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches,
are from God.

15 Wisdom and discipline, and the knowledge of the law
are with God. Love and the ways of good things are with him.

16 Error and darkness are created with sinners: and they
that glory in evil things, grow old in evil.

17 The gift of God abideth with the just, and his
advancement shall have success for ever.

18 There is one that is enriched by living sparingly, and this
is the portion of his reward.

19 In that he saith: I have found me rest, and now I will eat
of my goods alone:

20 And he knoweth not what time shall pass, and that
death approacheth, and that he must leave all to others, and
shall die.

21 Be steadfast in thy covenant, and be conversant therein,
and grow old in the work of thy commandments.

22 Abide not in the works of sinners. But trust in God, and
stay in thy place.

23 For it is easy in the eyes of God on a sudden to make the
poor man rich.

24 The blessing of God maketh haste to reward the just,
and in a swift hour his blessing beareth fruit.

25 Say not: What need I, and what good shall I have by this?

26 Say not: I am sufficient for myself: and what shall I be
made worse by this?

27 In the day of good things be not unmindful of evils: and
in the day of evils be not unmindful of good things:

28 For it is easy before God in the day of death to reward
every one according to his ways.

29 The affliction of an hour maketh one forget great
delights, and in the end of a man is the disclosing of his
works.

30 Praise not any man before death, for a man is known by
his children.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

31 Bring not every man into thy house: for many are the
snares of the deceitful.

32 For as corrupted bowels send forth stinking breath, and
as the partridge is brought into the cage, and as the roe into
the snare: so also is the heart of the proud, and as a spy that
looketh on the fall of his neighbour.

33 For he lieth in wait and turneth good into evil, and on
the elect he will lay a blot.

34 Of one spark cometh a great fire, and of one deceitful
man much blood: and a sinful man lieth in wait for blood.

35 Take heed to thyself of a mischievous man, for he
worketh evils: lest he bring upon thee reproach for ever.

36 Receive a stranger in, and he shall overthrow thee with a
whirlwind, and shall turn thee out of thy own.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 12

1 If thou do good, know to whom thou dost it, and there
shall be much thanks for thy good deeds.

2 Do good to the just, and thou shalt find great recompense:
and if not of him, assuredly of the Lord.

3 For there is no good for him that is always occupied in
evil, and that giveth no alms: for the Highest hateth sinners,
and hath mercy on the penitent.

4 Give to the merciful and uphold not the sinner: God will
repay vengeance to the ungodly and to sinners, and keep
them against the day of vengeance.

5 Give to the good, and receive not a sinner.

6 Do good to the humble, and give not to the ungodly:
hold back thy bread, and give it not to him, lest thereby he
overmaster thee.

7 For thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good
thou shalt have done to him: for the Highest also hateth
sinners, and will repay vengeance to the ungodly.

8 A friend shall not be known in prosperity, and an enemy
shall not be hidden in adversity.

9 In the prosperity of a man, his enemies are grieved: and a
friend is known in his adversity.

10 Never trust thy enemy: for as a brass pot his wickedness
rusteth:

11 Though he humble himself and go crouching, yet take
good heed and beware of him.

12 Set him not by thee, neither let him sit on thy right hand,
lest he turn into thy place, and seek to take thy seat: and at
the last thou acknowledge my words, and be pricked with my
sayings.

13 Who will pity an enchanter struck by a serpent, or any
that come near wild beasts? so is it with him that keepeth
company with a wicked man, and is involved in his sins.

14 For an hour he will abide with thee: but if thou begin to
decline, he will not endure it.

15 An enemy speaketh sweetly with his lips, but in his heart
he lieth in wait, to throw thee into a pit.

16 An enemy weepeth with his eyes: but if he find an
opportunity he will not be satisfied with blood:

17 And if evils come upon thee, thou shalt find him there
first.

18 An enemy hath tears in his eyes, and while he pretendeth
to help thee, will undermine thy feet.

19 He will shake his head, and clap his hands, and whisper
much, and change his countenance.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 13

1 He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it: and he
that hath fellowship with the proud, shall put on pride.

2 He shall take a burden upon him that hath fellowship
with one more honourable than himself. And have no
fellowship with one that is richer than thyself.

3 What agreement shall the earthen pot have with the kettle?
for if they knock one against the other, it shall be broken.

4 The rich man hath done wrong, and yet he will fume: but
the poor is wronged and must hold his peace.

5 If thou give, he will make use of thee: and if thou have
nothing, he will forsake thee.

6 If thou have any thing, he will live with thee, and will
make thee bare, and he will not be sorry for thee.

7 If he have need of thee he will deceive thee, and smiling
upon thee will put thee in hope; he will speak thee fair, and
will say: What wantest thou?

8 And he will shame thee by his meats, till he have drawn
thee dry twice or thrice, and at last he will laugh at thee: and
afterward when he seeth thee, he will forsake thee, and shake
his head at thee.

9 Humble thyself to God, and wait for his hands.

10 Beware that thou be not deceived Into folly, and be
humbled.

11 Be not lowly in thy wisdom, lest being humbled thou be
deceived into folly.

12 If thou be invited by one that is mightier, withdraw
thyself: for so he will invite thee the more.

13 Be not troublesome to him, lest thou be put back: and
keep not far from him, lest thou be forgotten.

14 Affect not to speak with him as an equal: and believe not
his many words: for by much talk he will sift thee, and
smiling will examine thee concerning thy secrets.

15 His cruel mind will lay up thy words: and he will not
spare to do thee hurt, and to cast thee into prison.

16 Take heed to thyself, and attend diligently to what thou
hearest: for thou walkest in danger of thy ruin.

17 When thou hearest those things, see as it were in sleep,
and thou shalt awake.

18 Love God all thy life, and call upon him for thy
salvation.

19 Every beast loveth its like: so also every man him that is
nearest to himself.

20 All flesh shall consort with the like to itself, and every
man shall associate himself to his like.

21 If the wolf shall at any time have fellowship with the
lamb, so the sinner with the just.

22 What fellowship hath a holy man with a dog, or what
part hath the rich with the poor?

23 The wild ass is the lion's prey in the desert: so also the
poor are devoured by the rich.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 And as humility is an abomination to the proud: so also
the rich man abhorreth the poor.

25 When a rich man is shaken, he is kept up by his friends:
but when a poor man is fallen down, he is thrust away even
by his acquaintance.

26 When a rich man hath been deceived, he hath many
helpers: he hath spoken proud things, and they have justified
him.

27 The poor man was deceived, and he is rebuked also: he
hath spoken wisely, and could have no place.

28 The rich man spoke, and all held their peace, and what
he said they extol even to the clouds.

29 The poor man spoke, and they say: Who is this? and if he
stumble, they will overthrow him.

30 Riches are good to him that hath no sin in his conscience:

and poverty is very wicked in the mouth of the ungodly.

31 The heart of a man changeth his countenance, either for
good, or for evil.

32 The token of a good heart, and a good countenance thou
shalt hardly find, and with labour.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 14

1 Blessed is the man that hath not slipped by a word out of
his mouth, and is not pricked with the remorse of sin.

2 Happy is he that hath had no sadness of his mind, and
who is not fallen from his hope.

3 Riches are not comely for a covetous man and a niggard,
and what should an envious man do with gold?

4 He that gathereth together by wronging his own soul,
gathereth for others, and another will squander away his
goods in rioting.

5 He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good? and
he shall not take pleasure in his goods.

6 There is none worse than he that envieth himself, and this
is the reward of his wickedness:

7 And if he do good, he doth it ignorantly, and unwillingly:

and at the last he discovereth his wickedness.

8 The eye of the envious is wicked: and he turneth away his
face, and despiseth his own soul.

9 The eye of the covetous man is insatiable in his portion of
iniquity: he will not be satisfied till he consume his own soul,
drying it up.

10 An evil eye is towards evil things: and he shall not have
his fill of bread, but shall be needy and pensive at his own
table.

11 My son, if thou have any thing, do good to thyself, and
offer to God worthy offerings.

12 Remember that death is not slow, and that the covenant
of hell hath been shewn to thee: for the covenant of this
world shall surely die.

13 Do good to thy friend before thou die, and according to
thy ability, stretching out thy hand give to the poor.

14 Defraud not thyself of the good day, and let not the part
of a good gift overpass thee.

15 Shalt thou not leave to others to divide by lot thy
sorrows and labours?

16 Give and take, and justify thy soul.

17 Before thy death work justice: for in hell there is no
finding food.

18 All flesh shall fade as grass, and as the leaf that springeth
out on a green tree.

19 Some grow, and some fall off: so is the generation of
flesh and blood, one cometh to an end, and another is born.

20 Every work that is corruptible shall fail in the end: and
the worker thereof shall go with it.

21 And every excellent work shall be justified: and the
worker thereof shall be honoured therein.

22 Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom, and
that shall meditate in his justice, and in his mind shall think
of the all seeing eye of God.

23 He that considereth her ways in his heart, and hath
understanding in her secrets, who goeth after her as one that
traceth, and stayeth in her ways:

24 He who looketh in at her windows, and hearkeneth at
her door:

25 He that lodgeth near her house, and fastening a pin in
her walls shall set up his tent nigh unto her, where good
things shall rest in his lodging for ever.

26 He shall set his children under her shelter, and shall
lodge under her branches:

27 He shall be protected under her covering from the heat,
and shall rest in her glory.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 15

1 He that feareth God, will do good: and he that possesseth
justice, shall lay hold on her,

2 And she will meet him as an honourable mother, and will
receive him as a wife married of a virgin.

3 With the bread of life and understanding, she shall feed
him, and give him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink:
and she shall be made strong in him, and he shall not be
moved:

4 And she shall hold him fast, and he shall not be
confounded: and she shall exalt him among his neighbours.

5 And in the midst of the church she shall open his mouth,
and shall fill him with the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, and shall clothe him with a robe of glory.

6 She shall heap upon him a treasure of joy and gladness,
and shall cause him to inherit an everlasting name.

7 But foolish men shall not obtain her, and wise men shall
meet her, foolish men shall not see her: for she is far from
pride and deceit.

8 Lying men shall not be mindful of her: but men that speak
truth shall be found with her, and shall advance, even till
they come to the sight of God.

9 Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner:

10 For wisdom came forth from God: for praise shall be
with the wisdom of God, and shall abound in a faithful
mouth, and the sovereign Lord will give praise unto it.

11 Say not: It is through God, that she is not with me: for
do not thou the things that he hateth.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 Say not: He hath caused me to err: for he hath no need of
wicked men.

13 The Lord hateth all abomination of error, and they that
fear him shall not love it.

14 God made man from the beginning, and left him in the
hand of his own counsel.

15 He added his commandments and precepts.

16 If thou wilt keep the commandments and perform
acceptable fidelity for ever, they shall preserve thee.

17 He hath set water and fire before thee: stretch forth thy
hand to which thou wilt.

18 Before man is life and death, good and evil, that which
he shall choose shall be given him:

19 For the wisdom of God is great, and he is strong in
power, seeing all men without ceasing.

20 The eyes of the Lord are towards them that fear him,
and he knoweth all the work of man.

21 He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, and he
hath given no man license to sin:

22 For he desireth not a multitude of faithless and
unprofitable children.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 16

1 Rejoice not in ungodly children, if they be multiplied:
neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with
them.

2 Trust not to their life, and respect not their labours.

3 For better is one that feareth God, than a thousand
ungodly children.

4 And it is better to die without children, than to leave
ungodly children.

5 By one that is wise a country shall be inhabited, the tribe
of the ungodly shall become desolate.

6 Many such things hath my eyes seen, and greater things
than these my ear hath heard.

7 In the congregation of sinners a fire shall be kindled, and
in an unbelieving nation wrath shall dame out.

8 The ancient giants did not obtain pardon for their sins,
who were destroyed trusting to their own strength:

9 And he spared not the place where Lot sojourned, but
abhorred them for the pride of their word.

10 He had not pity on them, destroying the whole nation
that extolled themselves in their sins.

11 So did he with the six hundred thousand footmen, who
were gathered together in the hardness of their heart: and if
one had been stiffnecked, it is a wonder if he had escaped
unpunished:

12 For mercy and wrath are with him. He is mighty to
forgive, and to pour out indignation:

13 According as his mercy is, so his correction judgeth a
man according to his works.

14 The sinner shall not escape in his rapines, and the
patience of him that sheweth mercy shall not be put off.

15 All mercy shall make a place for every man according to
the merit of his works, and according to the wisdom of his
sojournment.

16 Say not: I shall be hidden from God. and who shall
remember me from on high?

17 In such a multitude I shall not be known: for what is my
soul in such an immense creation?

18 Behold the heaven, and the heavens of heavens, the deep,
and all the earth, and the things that are in them, shall be
moved in his sight,

19 The mountains also, and the hills, and the foundations
of the earth: when God shall look upon them, they shall be
shaken with trembling.

20 And in all these things the heart is senseless: and every
heart is understood by him:

21 And his ways who shall understand, and the storm,
which no eye of man see?

22 For many of his works are hidden: hut the works of his
justice who shall declare? or who shall endure? for the
testament is far from some, and the examination of all is in
the end.

23 He that wanteth understanding thinketh vain things:
and the foolish, and erring man, thinketh foolish things.

24 Hearken to me, my son, and learn the discipline of
understanding, and attend to my words in thy heart.

25 And I will shew forth good doctrine in equity, and will
seek to declare wisdom: and attend to my words in thy heart,
whilst with equity of spirit I tell thee the virtues that God
hath put upon his works from the beginning, and I shew
forth in truth his knowledge.

26 The works of God are done in judgment from the
beginning, and from the making of them he distinguished
their parts, and their beginnings in their generations.

27 He beautified their works for ever, they have neither
hungered, nor laboured, and they have not ceased from their
works.

28 Nor shall any of them straiten his neighbour at any time.

29 Be not thou incredulous to his word.

30 After this God looked upon the earth, and filled it with
his goods.

31 The soul of every living thing hath shewn forth before
the face thereof, and into it they return again.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 17

1 God created man of the earth, and made him after his own
image.

2 And he turned him into it again, and clothed him with
strength according to himself.

3 He gave him the number of his days and time, and gave
him power over all things that are upon the earth.

4 He put the fear of him upon all flesh, and he had
dominion over beasts and fowls.

5 He created of him a helpmate like to himself: he gave them
counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, and ears, and a heart to
devise: and he filled them with the knowledge of
understanding.

6 He created in them the science of the spirit, he filled their
heart with wisdom, and shewed them both good and evil.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

7 He set his eye upon their hearts to shew them the
greatness of his works:

8 That they might praise the name which he hath sanctified:
and glory in his wondrous acts, that they might declare the
glorious things of his works.

9 Moreover he gave them instructions, and the law of life
for an inheritance.

10 He made an everlasting covenant with them, and he
shewed them his justice and judgments.

11 And their eye saw the majesty of his glory. and their ears
heard his glorious voice, and he said to them: Beware of all
iniquity.

12 And he gave to every one of them commandment
concerning his neighbour.

13 Their ways are always before him, they are not hidden
from his eyes.

14 Over every nation he set a ruler.

15 And Israel was made the manifest portion of God.

16 And all their works are as the sun in the sight of God:
and his eyes are continually upon their ways.

17 Their covenants were not hid by their iniquity, and all
their iniquities are in the sight of God.

18 The alms of a man is as a signet with him, and shall
preserve the grace of a man as the apple of the eye:

19 And afterward he shall rise up, and shall render them
their reward, to every one upon their own head, and shall
turn them down into the bowels of the earth.

20 But to the penitent he hath given the way of justice, and
he hath strengthened them that were fainting in patience,
and hath appointed to them the lot of truth.

21 Turn to the Lord, and forsake thy sins:

22 Make thy prayer before the face of the Lord, and offend
less.

23 Return to the Lord, and turn away from thy injustice,
and greatly hate abomination.

24 And know the justices and judgments of God, and stand
firm in the lot set before thee, and in prayer to the most high
God.

25 Go to the side of the holy age, with them that live and
give praise to God.

26 Tarry not in the error of the ungodly, give glory before
death. Praise perisheth from the dead as nothing.

27 Give thanks whilst thou art living, whilst thou art alive
and in health thou shalt give thanks, and shalt praise God,
and shalt glory in his mercies.

28 How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness
to them that turn to him!

29 For all things cannot be in men, because the son of man
is not immortal, and they are delighted with the vanity of
evil.

30 What is brighter than the sun; yet it shall be eclipsed. Or
what is more wicked than that which flesh and blood hath
invented? and this shall be reproved.

31 He beholdeth the power of the height of heaven: and all
men are earth and ashes.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 18

1 He that liveth for ever created all things together. God
only shall be justified, and he remaineth an invincible king
for ever.

2 Who is able to declare his works?

3 For who shall search out his glorious acts?

4 And who shall shew forth the power of his majesty? or
who shall be able to declare his mercy?

5 Nothing may be taken away, nor added, neither is it
possible to find out the glorious works of God:

6 When a man hath done, then shall he begin: and when he
leaveth off, he shall be at a loss.

7 What is man, and what is his grace? and what is his good,
or what is his evil?

8 The number of the days of men at the most are a hundred
years: as a drop of water of the sea are they esteemed: and as a
pebble of the sand, so are a few years compared to eternity.

9 Therefore God is patient in them, and poureth forth his
mercy upon them.

10 He hath seen the presumption of their heart that it is
wicked, and hath known their end that it is evil.

11 Therefore hath he filled up his mercy in their favour, and
hath shewn them the way of justice.

12 The compassion of man is toward his neighbour: but the
mercy of God is upon all flesh.

13 He hath mercy, and teacheth, and correcteth, as a
shepherd doth his flock.

14 He hath mercy on him that receiveth the discipline of
mercy, and that maketh haste in his judgments.

15 My son, in thy good deeds, make no complaint, and
when thou givest any thing, add not grief by an evil word.

16 Shall not the dew assuage the heat? so also the good
word is better than the gift.

17 Lo, is not a word better than a gift? but both are with a
justified man.

18 A fool will upbraid bitterly: and a gift of one ill taught
consumeth the eyes.

19 Before judgment prepare thee justice, and learn before
thou speak.

20 Before sickness take a medicine, and before judgment
examine thyself, and thou shalt find mercy in the sight of
God.

21 Humble thyself before thou art sick, and in the time of
sickness shew thy conversation.

22 Let nothing hinder thee from praying always, and be
not afraid to be justified even to death: for the reward of God
continueth for ever.

23 Before prayer prepare thy soul: and be not as a man that
tempteth God.

24 Remember the wrath that shall be at the last day, and
the time of repaying when he shall turn away his face.

25 Remember poverty is the time of abundance, and the
necessities of poverty in the day of riches.

26 From the morning until the evening the time shall be
changed, and all these are swift in the eyes of God.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

27 A wise man will fear in every thing, and in the days of
sins will beware of sloth.

28 Every man of understanding knoweth wisdom, and will
give praise to him that findeth her.

29 They that were of good understanding in words, have
also done wisely themselves: and have understood truth and
justice, and have poured forth proverbs and judgments.

30 Go not after thy lusts, but turn away from thy own will.

31 If thou give to thy soul her desires, she will make thee a
joy to thy enemies.

32 Take no pleasure in riotous assemblies, be they ever so
small: for their concertation is continual.

33 Make not thyself poor by borrowing to contribute to
feasts when thou hast nothing in thy purse: for thou shalt be
an enemy to thy own life.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 19

1 A workman that is a drunkard shall not be rich: and he
that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and little.

2 Wine and women make wise men fall off, and shall rebuke
the prudent.

3 And he that joineth himself to harlots, will be wicked.
Rottenness and worms shall inherit him, and he shall be
lifted up for a greater example, and his soul shall be taken
away out of the number.

4 He that is hasty to give credit, is light of heart, and shall
be lessened: and he that sinneth against his own soul, shall be
despised.

5 He that rejoiceth in iniquity, shall be censured, and he
that hateth chastisement, shall have less life: and he that
hateth babbling, extinguisheth evil.

6 He that sinneth against his own soul, shall repent: and he
that is delighted with wickedness, shall be condemned.

7 Rehearse not again a wicked and harsh word, and thou
shalt not fare the worse.

8 Tell not thy mind to friend or foe: and if there be a sin
with thee, disclose it not.

9 For he will hearken to thee, and will watch thee, and as it
were defending thy sin he will hate thee, and so will he be
with thee always.

10 Hast thou heard a word against thy neighbour? let it die
within thee, trusting that it will not burst thee.

11 At the hearing of a word the fool is in travail, as a
woman groaning. in the bringing forth a child.

12 As an arrow that sticketh in a man's thigh: so is a word
in the heart of a fool.

13 Reprove a friend, lest he may not have understood, and
say: I did it not: or ifhe did it, that he may do it no more.

14 Reprove thy neighbour, for it may be he hath not said it:
and if he hath said it, that he may not say it again.

15 Admonish thy friend: for there is often a fault
committed.

16 And believe not every word. There is one, that slippeth
with the tongue, but not from his heart.

17 For who is there that hath not offended with his tongue?
Admonish thy neighbour before thou threaten him.

18 And give place to the fear of the most High: for the fear
of God is all wisdom, and therein is to fear God, and the
disposition of the law is in all wisdom.

19 But the learning of wickedness is not wisdom: and the
device of sinners is not prudence.

20 There is a subtle wickedness, and the same is detestable:
and there is a man that is foolish, wanting in wisdom.

21 Better is a man that hath less wisdom, and wanteth
understanding, with the fear of God, than he that aboundeth
in understanding, and transgresseth the law of the most High.

22 There is an exquisite subtilty, and the same is unjust.

23 And there is one that uttereth an exact word telling the
truth. There is one that humbleth himself wickedly, and his
interior is full of deceit:

24 And there is one that submitteth himself exceedingly
with a great lowliness: and there is one that casteth down his
countenance, and maketh as if he did not see that which is
unknown:

25 And if he be hindered from sinning for want of power, if
he shall find opportunity to do evil, he will do it.

26 A man is known by his look, and a wise man, when thou
meetest him, is known by his countenance.

27 The attire of the body, and the laughter of the teeth, and
the gait of the man, shew what he is.

28 There is a lying rebuke in the anger of an injurious man:
and there is a judgment that is not allowed to be good: and
there is one that holdeth his peace, he is wise.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 20

1 How much better is it to reprove, than to be angry, and
not to hinder him that confesseth in prayer.

2 The lust of an eunuch shall devour a young maiden:

3 So is he that by violence executeth unjust judgment.

4 How good is it, when thou art reproved, to shew
repentance! for so thou shalt escape wilful sin.

5 There is one that holdeth his peace, that is found wise:
and there is another that is hateful, that is bold in speech.

6 There is one that holdeth his peace, because he knoweth
not what to say: and there is another that holdeth his peace,
knowing the proper time.

7 A wise man will hold his peace till he see opportunity: but
ababbler, and a fool, will regard no time.

8 He that useth many words shall hurt his own soul: and he
that taketh authority to himself unjustly shall be hated.

9 There is success in evil things to a man without discipline,
and there is a finding that turneth to loss.

10 There is a gift that is not profitable: and there is a gift,
the recompense of which is double.

11 There is an abasement because of glory: and there is one
that shall lift up his head from a low estate.

12 There is that buyeth much for a small price, and
restoreth the same sevenfold.

13 A man wise in words shall make himself beloved: but the
graces of fools shall be poured out.

14 The gift of the fool shall do thee no good: for his eyes are
sevenfold.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

15 He will give a few things, and upbraid much: and the
opening of his mouth is the kindling of a fire.

16 To day a man lendeth, and to morrow he asketh it again:
such a man as this is hateful.

17 A fool shall have no friend, and there shall be no thanks
for his good deeds.

18 For they that eat his bread, are of a false tongue. How
often, and how many will laugh him to scorn!

19 For he doth not distribute with right understanding
that which was to be had: in like manner also that which was
not to be had.

20 The slipping ofa false tongue is as one that falleth on the
pavement: so the fall of the wicked shall come speedily.

21 A man without grace is as a vain fable, it shall be
continually in the mouth of the unwise.

22 A parable coming out, of a fool's mouth shall be rejected:

for he doth not speak it in due season.

23 There is that is hindered from sinning through want,
and in his rest he shall be pricked.

24 There is that will destroy his own soul through
shamefacedness, and by occasion of an unwise person he will
destroy it: and by respect of person he will destroy himself.

25 There is that for bashfulness promiseth to his friend, and
maketh him his enemy for nothing.

26 A lie is a foul blot in a man, and yet it will be
continually in the mouth of men without discipline.

27 A thief is better than a man that is always lying: but
both of them shall inherit destruction.

28 The manners of lying men are without honour: and their
confusion is with them without ceasing.

29 A wise man shall advance himself with his words, and a
prudent man shall please the great ones.

30 He that tilleth his land shall make a high heap of corn:
and he that worketh justice shall be exalted: and he that
pleaseth great men shall escape iniquity.

31 Presents and gifts blind the eyes of judges, and make
them dumb in the mouth, so that they cannot correct.

32 Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is not seen: what
profit is there in them both?

33 Better is he that hideth his folly, than the man that
hideth his wisdom.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 21

1 My son, hast thou sinned? do so no more: but for thy
former sins also pray that they may be forgiven thee.

2 Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent: for if thou
comest near them, they will take hold of thee.

3 The teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, killing the souls
of men.

4 All iniquity is like a two-edged sword, there is no remedy
for the wound thereof.

5 Injuries and wrongs will waste riches: and the house that
is very rich shall be brought to nothing by pride: so the
substance of the proud shall be rooted out.

6 The prayer out of the mouth of the poor shall reach the
ears of God, and judgment shall come for him speedily.

7 He that hateth to be reproved walketh in the trace of a
sinner: and he that feareth God will turn to his own heart.

8 He that is mighty by a bold tongue is known afar off, but
a wise man knoweth to slip by him.

9 He that buildeth his house at other men's charges, is as he
that gathereth himself stones to build in the winter.

10 The congregation of sinners is like tow heaped together,
and the end of them is a flame of fire.

11 The way of sinners is made plain with stones, and in
their end is hell, and darkness, and pains.

12 He that keepeth justice shall get the understanding
thereof.

13 The perfection of the fear of God is wisdom and
understanding.

14 He that is not wise in good, will not be taught.

15 But there is a wisdom that aboundeth in evil: and there
is no understanding where there is bitterness.

16 The knowledge of a wise man shall abound like a flood,
and his counsel continueth like a fountain of life.

17 The heart of a fool is like a broken vessel, and no
wisdom at all shall it hold.

18 A man of sense will praise every wise word he shall hear,
and will apply it to himself: the luxurious man hath heard it,
and it shall displease him, and he will cast it behind his back.

19 The talking of a fool is like a burden in the way: but in
the lips of the wise, grace shall be found.

20 The mouth of the prudent is sought after in the church,
and they will think upon his words in their hearts.

21 As a house that is destroyed, so is wisdom to a fool: and
the knowledge of the unwise is as words without sense.

22 Doctrine to a fool is as fetters on the feet, and like
manacles on the right hand.

23 A fool lifteth up his voice in laughter: but a wise man
will scarce laugh low to himself.

24 Learning to the prudent is as an ornament of gold, and
like a bracelet upon his right arm.

25 The foot of a fool is soon in his neighbour's house: but a
man of experience will be abashed at the person of the mighty.

26 A fool will peep through the window into the house: but
he that is well taught will stand without.

27 It is the folly of a man to hearken at the door: and a wise
man will be grieved with the disgrace.

28 The lips of the unwise will be telling foolish things but
the words of the wise shall be weighed in a balance.

29 The heart of fools is in their mouth: and the mouth of
wise men is in their heart.

30 While the ungodly curseth the devil, he curseth his own
soul.

31 The talebearer shall defile his own soul, and shall be
hated by all: and he that shall abide with him shall be hateful:
the silent and wise man shall be honoured.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 22

| The sluggard is pelted with a dirty stone, and all men will
speak of his disgrace.

2 The sluggard is pelted with the dung of oxen: and every
one that toucheth him will shake his hands.

3 A son ill taught is the confusion of the father: and a
foolish daughter shall be to his loss.

4 A wise daughter shall bring an inheritance to her husband:
but she that confoundeth, becometh a disgrace to her father.

5 She that is bold shameth both her father and husband,
and will not be inferior to the ungodly: and shall be
disgraced by them both.

6 A tale out of time is like music in mourning: but the
stripes and instruction of wisdom are never out of time.

7 He that teacheth a fool, is like one that glueth a potsherd
together.

8 He that telleth a word to him that heareth not, is like one
that waketh a man out of a deep sleep.

9 He speaketh with one that is asleep, who uttereth wisdom
to a fool: and in the end of the discourse he saith: Who is this?

10 Weep for the dead, for his light hath failed: and weep for
the fool, for his understanding faileth.

11 Weep but a little for the dead, for he is at rest.

12 For the wicked life of a wicked fool is worse than death.

13 The mourning for the dead is seven days: but for a fool
and an ungodly man all the days of their life.

14 Talk not much with a fool, and go not with him that
hath no sense.

15 Keep thyself from him, that thou mayst not have trouble,
and thou shalt not be defiled with his sin.

16 Turn away from him, and thou shalt find rest, and shalt
not be wearied out with his folly.

17 What is heavier than lead? and what other name hath he
but fool?

18 Sand and salt, and a mass of iron is easier to bear, than a
man without sense, that is both foolish and wicked.

19 A frame of wood bound together in the foundation of a
building, shall not be loosed: so neither shall the heart that is
established by advised counsel.

20 The thought of him that is wise at all times, shall not be
depraved by fear.

21 As pales set in high places, and plasterings made without
cost, will not stand against the face of the wind:

22 So also a fearful heart in the imagination of a fool shall
not resist against the violence of fear.

23 As a fearful heart in the thought of a fool at all times
will not fear, so neither shall he that continueth always in the
commandments of God.

24 He that pricketh the eye, bringeth out tears: and he that
pricketh the heart, bringeth forth resentment.

25 He that flingeth a stone at birds, shall drive them away:
so he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship.

26 Although thou hast drawn a sword at a friend, despair
not: for there may be a returning. To a friend,

27 If thou hast opened a sad mouth, fear not, for there may
be a reconciliation: except upbraiding, and reproach, and

pride, and disclosing of secrets, or a treacherous wound: for
in all these cases a friend will flee away.

28 Keep fidelity with a friend in his poverty, that in his
prosperity also thou mayst rejoice.

29 In the time of his trouble continue faithful to him, that
thou mayst also be heir with him in his inheritance.

30 As the vapour of a chimney, and the smoke of the fire
goeth up before the fire: so also injurious words, and
reproaches, and threats, before blood.

31 I will not be ashamed to salute a friend, neither will I
hide myself from his face: and if any evil happen to me by him,
I will bear it.

32 But every one that shall hear it, will beware of him.

33 Who will set a guard before my mouth, and a sure seal
upon my lips, that I fall not by them, and that my tongue
destroy me not?

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 23

1 O Lord, father, and sovereign ruler of my life, leave me
not to their counsel: nor suffer me to fall by them.

2 Who will set scourges over my thoughts, and the
discipline of wisdom over my heart, that they spare me not in
their ignorances, and that their sins may not appear:

3 Lest my ignorance increase, and my offences be multiplied,
and my sins abound, and I fall before my adversaries, and my
enemy rejoice over me?

40 Lord, father, and God of my life, leave me not to their
devices.

5 Give me not haughtiness of my eyes, and turn away from
me all coveting.

6 Take from me the greediness of the belly, and let not the
lusts of the flesh take hold of me, and give me not over to a
shameless and foolish mind.

7 Hear, O ye children, the discipline of the mouth: and he
that will keep it shall not perish by his lips, nor be brought
to fall into most wicked works.

8 A sinner is caught in his own vanity, and the proud and
the evil speakers shall fall thereby.

9 Let not thy mouth be accustomed to swearing: for in it
there are many falls.

10 And let not the naming of God be usual in thy mouth,
and meddle not with the names of saints, for thou shalt not
escape free from them.

11 For as a slave daily put to the question, is never without
a blue mark: so every one that sweareth, and nameth, shall
not be wholly pure from sin.

12 A man that sweareth much, shall be filled with iniquity,
and a scourge shall not depart from his house.

13 And if he make it void, his sin shall be upon him: and if
he dissemble it, he offendeth double:

14 And if he swear in vain, he shall not be justified: for his
house shall be filled with his punishment.

15 There is also another speech opposite to death, let it not
be found in the inheritance of Jacob.

16 For from the merciful all these things shall be taken
away, and they shall not wallow in sins.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Let not thy mouth be accustomed to indiscreet speech:
for therein is the word of sin.

18 Remember thy father and thy mother, for thou sittest is
the midst of great men:

19 Lest God forget thee in their sight, and thou, by thy
daily custom, be infatuated and suffer reproach: and wish
that thou hadst not been born, and curse the day of thy
nativity.

20 The man that is accustomed to opprobrious words, will
never be corrected all the days of his life.

21 Two sorts of men multiply sins, and the third bringeth
wrath and destruction.

22 A hot soul is a burning fire, it will never be quenched,
till it devour some thing.

23 And a man that is wicked in the mouth of his flesh, will
not leave off till he hath kindled a fire.

24 To a man that is a fornicator all bread is sweet, he will
not be weary of sinning unto the end.

25 Every man that passeth beyond his own bed, despising
his own soul, and saying: Who seeth me?

26 Darkness compasseth me about, and the walls cover me,
and no man seeth me: whom do I fear? the most High will not
remember my sins.

27 And he understandeth not that his eye seeth all things,
for such a man's fear driveth from him the fear of God, and
the eyes of men fearing him:

28 And he knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are far
brighter than the sun, beholding round about all the ways of
men, and the bottom of the deep, and looking into the hearts
of men, into the most hidden parts.

29 For all things were known to the Lord God, before they
were created: so also after they were perfected he beholdeth
all things.

30 This man shall be punished in the streets of the city, and
he shall be chased as a colt: and where he suspected not, he
shall be taken.

31 And he shall be in disgrace with all men, because he
understood not the fear of the Lord.

32 So every woman also that leaveth her husband, and
bringeth in an heir by another:

33 For first she hath been unfaithful to the law of the most
High: and secondly, she hath offended against her husband:
thirdly, she hath fornicated in adultery, and hath gotten her
children of another man.

34 This woman shall be brought into the assembly, and
inquisition shall be made of her children.

35 Her children shall not take root, and her branches shall
bring forth no fruit.

36 She shall leave her memory to be cursed, and her infamy
shall not be blotted out.

37 And they that remain shall know. that there is nothing
better than the fear of God: and that there is nothing sweeter
than to have regard to the commandments of the Lord.

38 It is great glory to follow the Lord for length of days
shall be received from him.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 24

1 Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured
in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,

2 And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most
High, and shall glorify herself'in the sight of his power,

3 And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted,
and shall be admired in the holy assembly.

4 And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and
among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying:

5 I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn
before all creatures:

6 I made that in the heavens there should rise light that
never faileth, and as a cloud I covered all the earth:

7 1 dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar
of acloud.

8 I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and have
penetrated into the bottom of the deep, and have walked in
the waves of the sea,

9 And have stood in all the earth: and in every people,

10 And in every nation I have had the chief rule:

11 And by my power I have trodden under my feet the
hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest,
and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.

12 Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to
me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle,

13 And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy
inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect.

14 From the beginning, and before the world, was I created,
and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the
holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.

15 And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city
likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem.

16 And I took root in an honourable people, and in the
portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the
full assembly of saints.

17 I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress
tree on mount Sion.

18 I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose
plant in Jericho:

19 As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by
the water in the streets, was I exalted.

20 I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon. and aromatical balm:
I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh:

21 And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum,
and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my
odour is as the purest balm.

22 I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree,
and my branches are of honour and grace.

23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and
my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.

24 I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of
knowledge, and of holy hope.

25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all
hope of life and of virtue.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with
my fruits.

27 For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance
above honey and the honeycomb.

28 My memory is unto everlasting generations.

29 They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink
me, shall yet thirst.

30 He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and
they that work by me, shall not sin.

31 They that explain me shall have life everlasting.

32 All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of
the most High, and the knowledge of truth.

33 Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and
an inheritance to the house of Jacob, and the promises to
Israel.

34 He appointed to David his servant to raise up of him a

most mighty king, and sitting on the throne of glory for ever.

35 Who filleth up wisdom as the Phison, and as the Tigris
in the days of the new fruits.

36 Who maketh understanding to abound as the Euphrates,
who multiplieth it as the Jordan in the time of harvest.

37 Who sendeth knowledge as the light, and riseth up as
Gehon in the time of the vintage.

38 Who first hath perfect knowledge of her, and a weaker
shall not search her out.

39 For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her
counsels more deep than the great ocean.

40 I, wisdom, have poured out rivers.

A] I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a

channel of a river. and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise.

42 I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water
abundantly the fruits of my meadow.

43 And behold my brook became a great river, and my river
came near to a sea:

44 For I make doctrine to shine forth to all as the morning
light, and I will declare it afar off.

45 I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and
will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in
the Lord.

46 I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it
to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease to instruct their
offspring even to the holy age.

47 See ye that I have not laboured for myself only, but for
all that seek out the truth.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 25

1 With three things my spirit is pleased, which are
approved before God and men:

2 The concord of brethren, and the love of neighbours, and
man and wife that agree well together.

3 Three sorts my soul hateth, and I am greatly grieved at
their life:

4 A poor man that is proud: a rich man that is a liar: an old
man that is a fool, and doting.

5 The things that thou hast not gathered in thy youth, how
shalt thou find them in thy old age?

6 O how comely is judgment for a grey head, and for
ancients to know counsel!

70 how comely is wisdom for the aged, and understanding
and counsel to men of honour!

8 Much experience is the crown of old men, and the fear of
God is their glory.

9 Nine things that are not to be imagined by the heart have
I magnified, and the tenth I will utter to men with my tongue.

10 A man that hath joy of his children: and he that liveth
and seeth the fall of his enemies.

11 Blessed is he. that dwelleth with a wise woman, and that
hath not slipped with his tongue, and that hath not served
such as are unworthy of him.

12 Blessed is he that findeth a true friend, and that
declareth justice to an ear that heareth.

13 How great is he that findeth wisdom and knowledge!
but there is none above him that feareth the Lord.

14 The fear of God hath set itself above all things:

15 Blessed is the man, to whom it is given to have the fear
of God: he that holdeth it, to whom shall he be likened?

16 The fear of God is the beginning of his love: and the
beginning of faith is to be fast joined unto it.

17 The sadness of the heart is every plague: and the
wickedness of a woman is all evil.

18 And a man will choose any plague, but the plague of the
heart:

19 And any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman:

20 And any affliction, but the affliction from them that
hate him:

21 And any revenge, but the revenge of enemies.

22 There is no head worse than the head ofa serpent:

23 And there is no anger above the anger of a woman. It
will be more agreeable to abide with a lion and a dragon,
than to dwell with a wicked woman.

24 The wickedness of a woman changeth her face: and she
darkeneth her countenance as a bear: and sheweth it like
sackcloth. In the midst of her neighbours,

25 Her husband groaned, and hearing he sighed a little.

26 All malice is short to the malice of a woman, let the lot
of sinners fall upon her.

27 As the climbing of a sandy way is to the feet of the aged,
so is a wife full of tongue to a quiet man.

28 Look not upon a woman's beauty, and desire not a
woman for beauty.

29 A woman's anger, and impudence, and confusion is great.

30 A woman, if she have superiority, is contrary to her
husband.

31 A wicked woman abateth the courage, and maketh a
heavy countenance, and a wounded heart.

32 Feeble hands, and disjointed knees, a woman that doth
not make her husband happy.

33 From the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her
we all die.

34 Give no issue to thy water, no, not a little: nor to a
wicked woman liberty to gad abroad.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 If she walk not at thy hand, she will confound thee in the
sight of thy enemies.

36 Cut her off from thy flesh, lest she always abuse thee.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 26

1 Happy is the husband of a good wife: for the number of
his years is double.

2 A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband: and shall fulfill
the years of his life in peace.

3 A good wife is a good portion, she shall be given in the
portion of them that fear God, to a man for his good deeds.

4 Rich or poor, if his heart is good, his countenance shall be
cheerful at all times.

5 Of three things my heart hath been afraid, and at the
fourth my face hath trembled:

6 The accusation of a city, and the gathering together of
the people:

7 Anda false calumny, all are more grievous than death.

8 A jealous woman is the grief and mourning of the heart.

9 With a jealous woman is a scourge of the tongue which
communicateth with all.

10 As a yoke of oxen that is moved to and fro, so also is a
wicked woman: he that hath hold of her, is as he that taketh
hold ofa scorpion.

11 A drunken woman is a great wrath: and her reproach
and shame shall not be hid.

12 The fornication of a woman shall be known by the
haughtiness of her eyes, and by her eyelids.

13 On a daughter that turneth not away herself, set a strict
watch: lest finding an opportunity she abuse herself.

14 Take heed of the impudence of her eyes, and wonder not
if she slight thee.

15 She will open her mouth as a thirsty traveller to the
fountain, and will drink of every water near her, and will sit
down by every hedge, and open her quiver against every
arrow, until she fail.

16 The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband,
and shall fat his bones.

17 Her discipline is the gift of God.

18 Such is a wise and silent woman, and there is nothing so
much worth as a well instructed soul.

19 A holy and shamefaced woman is grace upon grace.

20 And no price is worthy ofa continent soul.

21 As the sun when it riseth to the world in the high places
of God, so is the beauty of a good wife for the ornament of
her house.

22 As the lamp shining upon the holy candlestick, so is the
beauty of the face in a ripe age.

23 As golden pillars upon bases of silver, so are the firm feet
upon the soles of a steady woman.

24 As everlasting foundations upon a solid rock, so the
commandments of God In the heart of a holy woman.

25 At two things my heart is grieved, and the third
bringeth anger upon me:

26 A man of was fainting through poverty: and a man of
sense despised:

27 And he that passeth over from justice to sin, God hath
prepared such an one for the sword.

28 Two sorts of callings have appeared to me hard and
dangerous: a merchant is hardly free from negligence: and a
huckster shall not be justified from the sins of the lips.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 27

1 Through poverty many have sinned: and he that seeketh
to be enriched, turneth away his eye.

2 As a stake sticketh fast in the midst of the joining of
stones, so also in the midst of selling and buying, sin shall
stick fast.

3 Sin shall be destroyed with the sinner.

4 Unless thou hold thyself diligently in the fear of the Lord,
thy house shall quickly be overthrown.

5 As when one sifteth with a sieve, the dust will remain: so
will the perplexity of a man in his thoughts.

6 The furnace trieth the potter's vessels, and the trial of
affliction just men.

7 Be the dressing of a tree sheweth the fruit thereof, so a
word out of the thought of the heart of man.

8 Praise not a man before he speaketh, for this is the trial of
men.

9 If thou followest justice, thou shalt obtain her: and shalt
put her on as a long robe of honour, and thou shalt dwell
with her: and she shall protect thee for ever, and in the day of
acknowledgment thou shalt find a strong foundation.

10 Birds resort unto their like: so truth will return to them
that practise her.

11 The lion always lieth in wait for prey: so do sins for
them that work iniquities.

12 A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun: but a fool
is changed as the moon.

13 In the midst of the unwise keep in the word till its time:
but be continually among men that think.

14 The discourse of sinners is hateful, and their laughter is
at the pleasures of sin.

15 The speech that sweareth much shall make the hair of the
head stand upright: and its irreverence shall make one stop
his ears.

16 Is the quarrels of the proud is the shedding of blood: and
their cursing is a grievous hearing.

17 He that discloseth the secret of a friend loseth his credit,
and shall never find a friend to his mind.

18 Love thy neighbour, and be joined to him with fidelity.

19 But if thou discover his secrets, follow no more after him.

20 For as a man that destroyeth his friend, so also is he that
destroyeth the friendship of his neighbour.

21 And as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, so hast
thou let thy neighbour go, and thou shalt not get him again.

22 Follow after him no more, for he is gone afar off, he is
fled, as a roe escaped out of the snare: because his soul is
wounded.

23 Thou canst no more bind him up. And of a curse there is
reconciliation:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

24 But to disclose the secrets of a friend, leaveth no hope to
an unhappy soul.

25 He that winketh with the eye forgeth wicked things, and
no man will cast him off:

26 In the sight of thy eyes he will sweeten his mouth, and
will admire thy words: but at the last he will writhe his
mouth, and on thy words he will lay a stumblingblock.

27 I have hated many things, but not like him, and the
Lord will hate him.

28 If one cast a stone on high, it will fall upon his own head:

and the deceitful stroke will wound the deceitful.

29 He that diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and he that
setteth a stone for his neighbour, shall stumble upon it: and
he that layeth a snare for another, shall perish in it.

30 A mischievous counsel shall be rolled back upon the
author, and he shall not know from whence it cometh to him.

31 Mockery and reproach are of the proud, and vengeance
as a lion shall lie in wait for him.

32 They shall perish in a snare that are delighted with the
fall of the just: and sorrow shall consume them before they
die.

33 Anger and fury are both of them abominable, and the
sinful man shall be subject to them.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 28

1 He that seeketh to revenge himself, shall find vengeance
from the Lord, and he will surely keep his sins in
remembrance.

2 Forgive thy neighbour if he hath hurl thee: and then shall
thy sins be forgiven to thee when thou prayest.

3 Man to man reserveth anger, and doth he seek remedy of
God?

4 He hath no mercy on a man like himself, and doth he
entreat for his own sins?

5 He that is but flesh, nourisheth anger, and doth he ask
forgiveness of God? who shall obtain pardon for his sins?

6 Remember thy last things, and let enmity cease:

7 For corruption and death hang over in his
commandments.

8 Remember the fear of God, and be not angry with thy
neighbour.

9 Remember the covenant of the most High, and overlook
the ignorance of thy neighbour.

10 Refrain from strife, and thou shalt diminish thy sins:

11 For a passionate man kindleth strife, and a sinful man
will trouble his friends, and bring in debate in the midst of
them that are at peace.

12 For as the wood of the forest is, so the fire burneth: and
as a man's strength is, so shall his anger be, and according to
his riches he shall increase his anger.

13 A hasty contention kindleth a fire: and a hasty quarrel
sheddeth blood: and a tongue that beareth witness bringeth
death.

14 If thou blow the spark, it shall burn as a fire: and if thou
spit upon it, it shall be quenched: both come out of the
mouth.

15 The whisperer and the double tongued is accursed: for
he hath troubled many that were at peace.

16 The tongue of a third person hath disquieted many, and
scattered them from nation to nation.

17 It hath destroyed the strong cities of the rich, and hath
overthrown the houses of great men.

18 It hath cut in pieces the forces of people, and undone
strong nations.

19 The tongue of a third person hath cast out valiant
women, and deprived them of their labours.

20 He that hearkeneth to it, shall never have rest, neither
shall he have a friend in whom he may repose.

21 The stroke of a whip maketh a blue mark: but the stroke
of the tongue will break the bones.

22 Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not so
many as have perished by their own tongue.

23 Blessed is he that is defended from a wicked tongue, that
hath not passed into the wrath thereof, and that hath not
drawn the yoke thereof, and hath not been bound in its bands.

24 For its yoke is a yoke of iron: and its bands are bands of
brass.

25 The death thereof is a most evil death: and hell is
preferable to it.

26 Its continuance shall not be for a long time, but it shall
possess the ways of the unjust: and the just shall not be burnt
with its flame.

27 They that forsake God shall fall into it, and it shall burn
in them, and shall not be quenched, and it shall be sent upon
them as a lion, and as a leopard it shall tear them.

28 Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue,
and make doors and bars to thy mouth.

29 Melt down thy gold and silver, and make a balance for
thy words, and a just bridle for thy mouth:

30 And take heed lest thou slip with thy tongue, and fall in
the sight of thy enemies who lie in wait for thee, and thy fall
be incurable unto death.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 29

1 He that sheweth mercy, lendeth to his neighbour: and he
that is stronger in hand, keepeth the commandments.

2 Lend to thy neighbour in the time of his need, and pay
thou thy neighbour again in due time.

3 Reap thy word, and deal faithfully with him: and thou
shalt always find that which is necessary for thee.

4 Many have looked upon a thing lent as a thing found, and
have given trouble to them that helped them.

5 Till they receive, they kiss the hands of the lender, and in
promises they humble their voice:

6 But when they should repay, they will ask time, and will
return tedious and murmuring words, and will complain of
the time:

7 And if he be able to pay, he will stand off, he will scarce
pay one half, and will count it as if he had found it:

8 But if not, he will defraud him of his money, and he shall
get him for an enemy without cause:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 And he will pay him with reproaches and curses, and
instead of honour and good turn will repay him injuries.

10 Many have refused to lend, not out of wickedness, but
they were afraid to be defrauded without cause.

11 But yet towards the poor be thou more hearty, and delay
not to shew him mercy.

12 Help the poor because of the commandment: and send
him not away empty handed because of his poverty.

13 Lose thy money for thy brother and thy friend: and hide
it not under a stone to be lost.

14 Place thy treasure in the commandments of the most
High, and it shall bring thee more profit than gold.

15 Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it shall obtain
help for thee against all evil.

16 Better than the shield of the mighty, and better than the
spear:

17 It shall fight for thee against thy enemy.

18 A good man is surety for his neighbour: and he that
hath lost shame, will leave him to himself.

19 Forget not the kindness of thy surety: for he hath given
his life for thee.

20 The sinner and the unclean fleeth from his surety.

21 A sinner attributeth to himself the goods of his surety:
and he that is of an unthankful mind will leave him that
delivered him.

22 A man is surety for his neighbour: and when he hath lost
all shame, he shall forsake him.

23 Evil suretyship hath undone many of good estate, and
hath tossed them as a wave of the sea.

24 It hath made powerful men to go from place to place
round about, and they have wandered in strange countries.

25 A sinner that transgresseth the commandment of the
Lord, shall fall into an evil suretyship: and he that
undertaketh many things, shall fall into judgment.

26 Recover thy neighbour according to thy power, and
take heed to thyself that thou fall not.

27 The chief thing for man's life is water and bread, and
clothing, and a house to cover shame.

28 Better is the poor man's fare under a roof of boards,
than sumptuous cheer abroad in another man's house.

29 Be contented with little instead of much, and thou shalt
not hear the reproach of going abroad.

30 It is a miserable life to go as a guest from house to house:
for where a man is a stranger, he shall not deal confidently,
nor open his mouth.

31 He shall entertain and feed, and give drink to the
unthankful, and moreover he shall hear bitter words.

32 Go, stranger, and furnish the table, and give others to
eat what thou hast in thy hand.

33 Give place to the honourable presence of my friends: for
I want my house, my brother being to be lodged with me.

34 These things are grievous to a man of understanding: the
upbraiding of houseroom, and the reproaching of the lender.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 30

1 He that loveth his son, frequently chastiseth him, that he
may rejoice in his latter end, and not grope after the doors of
his neighbours.

2 He that instructeth his son shall be praised in him, and
shall glory in him in the midst of them of his household.

3 He that teacheth his son, maketh his enemy jealous, and in
the midst of his friends he shall glory in him.

4 His father is dead, and he is as if he were not dead: for he
hath left one behind him that is like himself.

5 While he lived he saw and rejoiced in him: and when he
died he was not sorrowful, neither was he confounded before
his enemies.

6 For he left behind him a defender of his house against his
enemies, and one that will requite kindness to his friends.

7 For the souls of his sons he shall bind up his wounds, and
at every cry his bowels shall be troubled.

8 A horse not broken becometh stubborn, and a child left
to himself will become headstrong.

9 Give thy son his way, and he shall make thee afraid: play
with him, and he shall make thee sorrowful.

10 Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow, and at the
last thy teeth be set on edge.

11 Give him not liberty in his youth, and wink not at his
devices.

12 Bow down his neck while he is young, and beat his sides
while he is a child, lest he grow stubborn, and regard thee
not, and so be a sorrow of heart to thee.

13 Instruct thy son, and labour about him, lest his lewd
behaviour be an offence to thee.

14 Better is a poor man who is sound, and strong of
constitution, than a rich man who is weak and afflicted with
evils.

15 Health of the soul in holiness of justice, is better then all
gold and silver: and a sound body, than immense revenues.

16 There is no riches above the riches of the health of the
body: and there is no pleasure above the joy of the heart.

17 Better is death than a bitter life: and everlasting rest,
than continual sickness.

18 Good things that are hidden in a mouth that is shut, are
as masses of meat set about a grave.

19 What good shall an offering do to an idol? for it can
neither eat, nor smell:

20 So is he that is persecuted by the Lord, bearing the
reward of his iniquity:

21 He seeth with his eyes, and groaneth, as an eunuch
embracing a virgin, and sighing.

22 Give not up thy soul to sadness, and afflict not thyself in
thy own counsel.

23 The joyfulness of the heart, is the life of a man, and a
never failing treasure of holiness: and the joy of a man is
length of life.

24 Have pity on thy own soul, pleasing God, and contain
thyself: gather up thy heart in his holiness: and drive away
sadness far from thee.

25 For sadness hath killed many, and there is no profit in it.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 Envy and anger shorten a man's days, and pensiveness
will bring old age before the time.

27 A Cheerful and good heart is always feasting: for his
banquets are prepared with diligence.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 31

1 Watching for riches consumeth the flesh, and the thought
thereof driveth away sleep.

2 The thinking beforehand turneth away the understanding,
and a grievous sickness maketh the soul sober.

3 The rich man hath laboured in gathering riches together,
and when he resteth he shall be filled with his goods.

4 The poor man hath laboured in his low way of life, and in
the end he is still poor.

5 He that loveth gold, shall not be justified: and he that
followeth after corruption, shall be filled with it.

6 Many have been brought to fall for gold, and the beauty
thereof hath been their ruin.

7 Gold is a stumblingblock to them that sacrifice to it: woe
to them that eagerly follow after it, and every fool shall
perish by it.

8 Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and
that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor
in treasures.

9 Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done
wonderful things in his life.

10 Who hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall
have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and
hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not
done them:

11 Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all
the church of the saints shall declare his alms.

12 Art thou set at a great table? be not the first to open thy
mouth upon it.

13 Say not: There are many things which are upon it.

14 Remember that a wicked eye is evil.

15 What is created more wicked than an eye? therefore shall
it weep over all the face when it shall see.

16 Stretch not out thy hand first, lest being disgraced with
envy thou be put to confusion.

17 Be not hasty ina feast.

18 Judge of the disposition of thy neighbour by thyself.

19 Use as a frugal man the things that are set before thee:
lest if thou eatest much, thou be hated.

20 Leave off first, for manners’ sake: and exceed not, lest
thou offend.

21 And if thou sittest among many, reach not thy hand out
first of all: and be not the first to ask for drink.

22 How sufficient is a little wine for a man well taught, and
in sleeping thou shalt not be uneasy with it, and thou shalt
feel no pain.

23 Watching, and choler, and gripes, are with an
intemperate man:

24 Sound and wholesome sleep with a moderate man: he
shall sleep till morning, and his soul shall be delighted with
him.

25 And if thou hast been forced to eat much, arise, go out,
and vomit: and it shall refresh thee, and thou shalt not bring
sickness upon thy body.

26 Hear me, my son, and despise me not: and in the end
thou shalt find my words.

27 In all thy works be quick, and no infirmity shall come to
thee.

28 The lips of many shall bless him that is liberal of his
bread, and the testimony of his truth is faithful.

29 Against him that is niggardly of his bread, the city will
murmur, and the testimony of his niggardliness is true.

30 Challenge not them that love wine: for wine hath
destroyed very many.

31 Fire trieth hard iron: so wine drunk to excess shall
rebuke the hearts of the proud.

32 Wine taken with sobriety is equal life to men: if thou
drink it moderately, thou shalt be sober.

33 What is his life, who is diminished with wine?

34 What taketh away life? death.

35 Wine was created from the beginning to make men
joyful, and not to make them drunk.

36 Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and
the heart.

37 Sober drinking 1s health to soul and body.

38 Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels; and wrath,
and many ruins.

39 Wine drunken with excess is bitterness of the soul.

40 The heat of drunkenness is the stumblingblock of the
fool, lessening strength and causing wounds.

41 Rebuke not thy neighbour in a banquet of wine: and
despise him not in his mirth.

42 Speak not to him words of reproach: and press him not
in demanding again.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 32

1 Have they made thee ruler? be not lifted up: be among
them as one of them.

2 Have care of them, and so sit down, and when thou hast
acquitted thyself of all thy charge, take thy place:

3 That thou mayst rejoice for them, and receive a crown as
an ornament of grace, and get the honour of the
contribution.

4 Speak, thou that art elder: for it becometh thee,

5 To speak the first word with care knowledge, and hinder
not music.

6 Where there is no hearing, pour out words, and be not
lifted up out season with thy wisdom.

7 A concert of music in a banquet wine is as a carbuncle set
in gold.

8 As a signet of an emerald in a work of gold: so is the
melody of music with pleasant and moderate wine.

9 Hear in silence, and for thy reverence good grace shall
come to thee.

10 Young man, scarcely speak in thy own cause.

11 If thou be asked twice, let thy answer be short.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

12 In many things be as if thou wert ignorant, and hear in
silence and withal seeking.

13 In the company of great men bake not upon thee: and
when the ancients are present, speak not much.

14 Before a storm goeth lightning: and _ before
shamefacedness goeth favour: and for thy reverence good
grace shall come to thee.

15 And at the time of rising be not slack: but be first to run
home to thy house, and there withdraw thyself, and there
take thy pastime.

16 And do what thou hast a mind, but not in sin or proud
speech.

17 And for all these things bless the Lord, that made thee,
and that replenisheth thee with all his good things.

18 He that feareth the Lord, will receive his discipline: and
they that will seek him early, shall find a blessing.

19 He that seeketh the law, shall be filled with it: and he
that dealeth deceitfully, shall meet with a stumblingblock
therein.

20 They that fear the Lord, shall find just judgment, and
shall kindle justice as a light.

21 A sinful man will flee reproof, and will find an excuse
according to his will.

22 A man of counsel will not neglect understanding, a
strange and proud man will not dread fear:

23 Even after he hath done with fear without counsel, he
shall be controlled by the things of his own seeking.

24 My son, do thou nothing without counsel, and thou
shalt not repent when thou hast done.

25 Go not in the way of ruin, and thou shalt not stumble
against the stones; trust not thyself to a rugged may, lest
thou set a stumblingblock to thy soul.

26 And beware of thy own children, and take heed of them
of thy household.

27 In every work of thine regard thy soul in faith: for this is
the keeping of the commandments.

28 He that believeth God, taketh heed to the
commandments: and he that trusteth in him, shall fare never
the worse.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 33

1 No evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in
temptation God will keep him, and deliver him from evils.

2 A wise man hateth not the commandments and justices,
and he shall not be dashed in pieces as a ship in a storm.

3 A man of understanding is faithful to the law of God, and
the law is faithful to him.

4 He that cleareth up a question, shall prepare what to say,
and so having prayed he shall be heard, and shall keep
discipline, and then he shall answer.

5 The heart of a fool is as a wheel ofa cart: and his thoughts
are like a rolling axletree.

6 A friend that is a mocker, is like a stallion horse: he
neigheth under every one that sitteth upon him.

7 Why doth one day excel another, and one light another,
and one year another year, when all come of the sun?

8 By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished,
the sun being made, and keeping his commandment.

9 And he ordered the seasons, and holidays of them, and in
them they celebrated festivals at an hour.

10 Some of them God made high and great days, and some
of them he put in the number of ordinary days. And all men
are from the ground, and out of the earth, from whence
Adam was created.

11 With much knowledge the Lord hath divided them and
diversified their ways.

12 Some of them hath he blessed, and exalted: and some of
them hath he sanctified, and set near himself: and some of
them hath he cursed and brought low, and turned them from
their station.

13 As the potter's clay is in his hand, to fashion and order it:

14 All his ways are according to his ordering: so man is in
the hand of him that made him, and he will render to him
according to his judgment.

15 Good is set against evil, and life against death: so also is
the sinner against a just man. And so look upon all the works
of the most High. Two and two, and one against another.

16 And I awaked last of all, and as one that gathereth after
the grapegatherers.

17 In the blessing of God I also have hoped: and as one that
gathereth grapes, have I filled the winepress.

18 See that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all
that seek discipline.

19 Hear me, ye great men, and all ye people, and hearken
with your ears, ye rulers of the church.

20 Give not to son or wife, brother or friend, power over
thee while thou livest; and give not thy estate to another, lest
then repent, and thou entreat for the same.

21 As long as thou livest, and hast breath in thee, let no
man change thee.

22 For it is better that thy children should ask of thee, than
that thou look toward the hands of thy children.

23 In all thy works keep the pre-eminence.

24 Let no stain sully thy glory. In the time when thou shalt
end the days of thy life, and in the time of thy decease,
distribute thy inheritance.

25 Fodder, and a wand, and a burden are for an ass: bread,
and correction, and work for a slave.

26 He worketh under correction, and seeketh to rest: let his
hands be idle, and he seeketh liberty.

27 The yoke and the thong bend a stiff neck, and continual
labours bow a slave.

28 Torture and fetters are for a malicious slave: send him to
work, that he be not idle:

29 For idleness hath taught much evil.

30 Set him to work: for so it is fit for him. And if he be not
obedient, bring him down with fetters, but be not excessive
towards any one: and do no grievous thing without
judgment.

31 If thou have a faithful servant, let him be to thee as thy
own soul: treat him as a brother: because in the blood of thy
soul thou hast gotten him.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

32 If thou hurt him unjustly, he will run away:
33 And if he rise up and depart, thou knowest not whom to
ask, and in what way to seek him.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 34

1 The hopes ofa man that is void of understanding are vain
and deceitful: and dreams lift up fools.

2 The man that giveth heed to lying visions, is like to him
that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind.

3 The vision of dreams is the resemblance of one thing to
another: as when a man's likeness is before the face of a man.

4 What can be made clean by the unclean? and what truth
can come from that which is false?

5 Deceitful divinations and lying omens and the dreams of
evildoers, are vanity:

6 And the heart fancieth as that of a woman in travail:
except it be a vision sent forth from the most High, set no thy
heart upon them.

7 For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that
put their trust in them.

8 The word of the law shall be fulfilled without a lie, and
wisdom shall be made plain in the mouth of the faithful.

9 What doth he know, that hath not been tried? A man that
hath much experience, shall think of many things: and he
that hath learned many things, shall shew forth
understanding.

10 He that hath no experience, knoweth little: and he that
hath been experienced in many things, multiplieth prudence.

11 He that hath not been tried, what manner of things doth
he know? he that hath been surprised, shall abound with
subtlety.

12 [have seen many things by travelling, and many customs
of things.

13 Sometimes I have been in danger of death for these
things, and I have been delivered by the grace of God.

14 The spirit of those that fear God; is sought after, and by
his regard shall be blessed.

15 For their hope is on him that saveth them, and the eyes
of God are upon them that love him.

16 He that feareth the Lord shall tremble at nothing, and
shall not be afraid for he is his hope.

17 The soul of him that feareth the Lord is blessed.

18 To whom doth he look, and who in his strength?

19 The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, he is
their powerful protector, and strong stay, a defence from the
heat, and a cover from the sun at noon,

20 A preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling;
he raiseth up the soul, and enlighteneth the eyes, and giveth
health, and life, and blessing.

21 The offering of him that sacrificeth of a thing
wrongfully gotten, is stained, and the mockeries of the unjust
are not acceptable.

22 The Lord is only for them that wait upon him in the way
of truth and justice.

23 The most High approveth not the gifts of the wicked:
neither hath he respect to the oblations of the unjust, nor
will he be pacified for sins by the multitude of their sacrifices.

24 He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor, is as
one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.

25 The bread of the needy, is the life of the poor: he that
defraudeth them thereof, is a man of blood.

26 He that taketh away the bread gotten by sweat, is like
him that killeth his neighbour.

27 He that sheddeth blood, and he that defraudeth the
labourer of his hire, are brothers.

28 When one buildeth up, and another pulleth down: what
profit have they but the labour?

29 When one prayeth, and another curseth: whose voice
will God hear?

30 He that washeth himself after touching the dead, if he
toucheth him again, what doth his washing avail?

31 So a man that fasteth for his sins, and doth the same
again, what doth his humbling himself profit him? who will
hear his prayer?

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 35

1 He that keepeth the law, multiplieth offerings.

2 It is a wholesome sacrifice to take heed to the
commandments, and to depart from all iniquity.

3 And to depart from injustice, is to offer a propitiatory
sacrifice for injustices, and a begging of pardon for sins.

4 He shall return thanks, that offereth fine flour: and he
that doth mercy, offereth sacrifice.

5 To depart from iniquity is that which pleaseth the Lord,
and to depart from injustice, is an entreaty for sins.

6 Thou shalt not appear empty in the sight of the Lord.

7 For all these things are to be done because of the
commandment of God.

8 The oblation of the just maketh the altar fat, and is an
odour of sweetness in the sight of the most High.

9 The sacrifice of the just is acceptable, and the Lord will
not forget the memorial thereof.

10 Give glory to God with a good heart: and diminish not
the firstfruits of thy hands.

11 In every gift shew a cheerful countenance, and sanctify
thy tithes with joy.

12 Give to the most High according to what he hath given
to thee, and with a good eye do according to the ability of
thy hands:

13 For the Lord maketh recompense, and will give thee
seven times as much.

14 Do not offer wicked gifts, for such he will not receive.

15 And look not upon an unjust sacrifice, for the Lord is
judge, and there is not with him respect of person.

16 The Lord will not accept any person against a poor man,
and he will hear the prayer of him that is wronged.

17 He will not despise the prayers of the fatherless; nor the
widow, when she poureth out her complaint.

18 Do not the widow's tears run down the cheek, and her
cry against him that causeth them to fall?

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 For from the cheek they go up even to heaven, and the
Lord that heareth will not be delighted with them.

20 He that adoreth God with joy, shall be accepted, and his
prayer shall approach even to the clouds.

21 The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce
the clouds: and till it come nigh he will not be comforted:
and he will not depart till the most High behold.

22 And the Lord will not be slack, but will judge for the
just, and will do judgment: and the Almighty will not have
patience with them, that he may crush their back:

23 And he will repay vengeance to the Gentiles, till he have
taken away the multitude of the proud, and broken the
sceptres of the unjust,

24 Till he have rendered to men according to their deeds:
and according to the works of Adam, and according to his
presumption,

25 Till he have judged the cause of his people, and he shall
delight the just with his mercy.

26 The mercy of God is beautiful in the time of affliction, as
a cloud of rain in the time of drought.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 36

1 Have mercy upon us, O God of all, and behold us, and
shew us the light of thy mercies:

2 And send thy fear upon the nations, that have not sought
after thee: that they may know that there is no God beside
thee, and that they may shew forth thy wonders.

3 Lift up thy hand over the strange nations, that they may
see thy power.

4 For as thou hast been sanctified in us in their sight, so
thou shalt be magnified among them in our presence,

5 That they may know thee, as we also have known thee,
that there is no God beside thee, O Lord.

6 Renew thy signs, and work new miracles.

7 Glorify thy hand, and thy right arm.

8 Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath.

9 Take away the adversary, and crush the enemy.

10 Hasten the time, and remember the end, that they may
declare thy wonderful works.

11 Let him that escapeth be consumed by the rage of the fire:

and let them perish that oppress thy people.

12 Crush the head of the princes of the enemies that say:
There is no other beside us.

13 Gather together all the tribes of Jacob: that they may
know that there is no God besides thee, and may declare thy
great works: and thou shalt inherit them as from the
beginning.

14 Have mercy on thy people, upon whom thy name is
invoked: and upon Israel, whom thou hast raised up to be thy
firstborn.

15 Have mercy on Jerusalem, the city which thou hast
sanctified, the city of thy rest.

16 Fill Sion with thy unspeakable words, and thy people
with thy glory.

17 Give testimony to them that are thy creatures from the
beginning, and raise up the prophecies which the former
prophets spoke in thy name.

18 Reward them that patiently wait for thee, that thy
prophets may be found faithful: and hear the prayers of thy
servants,

19 According to the blessing of Aaron over thy people, and
direct us into the way of justice, and let all know that dwell
upon the earth, that thou art God the beholder of all ages.

20 The belly will devour all meat, yet one is better than
another.

21 The palate tasteth venison and the wise heart false
speeches.

22 A perverse heart will cause grief, and a man of
experience will resist it.

23 A woman will receive every man: yet one daughter is
better than another.

24 The beauty of a woman cheereth the countenance of her
husband, and a man desireth nothing more.

25 If she have a tongue that can cure, and likewise mitigate
and shew mercy: her husband is not like other men.

26 He that possesseth a good wife, beginneth a possession:
she is a help like to himself, and a pillar of rest.

27 Where there is no hedge, the possession shall be spoiled:
and where there is no wife, he mourneth that is in want.

28 Who will trust him that hath no rest, and that lodgeth
wheresoever the night taketh him, as a robber well appointed,
that skippeth from city to city.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 37

1 Every friend will say: I also am his friend: but there is a
friend, that is only a friend in name. Is not this a grief even to
death?

2 But a companion and a friend shall be turned to an enemy.

3 O wicked presumption, whence camest thou to cover the
earth with thy malice, and deceitfulness?

4 There is a companion who rejoiceth with his friend in his
joys, but in the time of trouble, he will be against him.

5 There is a companion who condoleth with his friend for
his belly's sake, and he will take up a shield against enemy.

6 Forget not thy friend in thy mind, and be not unmindful
of him in thy riches.

7 Consult not with him that layeth a snare for thee, and
hide thy counsel from them that envy thee.

8 Every counsellor giveth out counsel, but there is one that
is a counsellor for himself.

9 Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he
hath: for he will devise to his own mind:

10 Lest he thrust a stake into the ground, and say to thee:

11 Thy way is good; and then stand on the other side to see
what shall befall thee.

12 Treat not with a man without religion concerning
holiness, nor with an unjust man concerning justice, nor
with a woman touching her of whom she is jealous, nor with
a coward concerning war, nor with a merchant about traffic,

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

nor with a buyer of selling, nor with an envious man of
giving thanks,

13 Nor with the ungodly of piety, nor with the dishonest of
honesty, nor with the held labourer of every work,

14 Nor with him that worketh by the year of the finishing
of the year, nor with an idle servant of much business: give
no heed to these in any matter of counsel.

15 But be continually with a holy man, whomsoever thou
shalt know to observe the fear of God,

16 Whose soul is according to thy own soul: and who, when
thou shalt stumble in the dark, will be sorry for thee.

17 And establish within thyself a heart of good counsel: for
there is no other thing of more worth to thee than it.

18 The soul of a holy man discovereth sometimes true
things, more than seven watchmen that sit in a high piece to
watch.

19 But above all these things pray to the most High, that he
may direct thy way in truth.

20 In all thy works let the true word go before thee, and
steady counsel before every action.

21 A wicked word shall change the beast: out of which four
manner of things arise, good and evil, life and death: and the
tongue is continually the ruler of them. There is a man that is
subtle and a teacher of many, and yet is unprofitable to his
own soul.

22 A skillful man hath taught many, and is sweet to his own
soul.

23 He that speaketh sophistically, is hateful: he shall be
destitute of every thing.

24 Grace is not given him from the Lord: for he is deprived
of all wisdom.

25 There is a wise man that is wise to his own soul: and the
fruit of his understanding is commendable.

26 A wise man instructeth his own people, and the fruits of
his understanding are faithful.

27 A wise man shall be filled with blessings, and they that
see shall praise him.

28 The life of a man is in the number of his days: but the
days of Israel are innumerable.

29 A wise man shall inherit honour among his people, and
his name shall live for ever.

30 My son, prove thy soul in thy life: and if it be wicked,
give it no power:

31 For all things are not expedient for all, and every kind
pleaseth not every soul.

32 Be not greedy in any feasting, and pour not out thyself
upon any meat:

33 For in many meats there will be sickness, and greediness
will turn to choler.

34 By surfeiting many have perished: but he that is
temperate, shall prolong life.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 38
1 Honour the physician for the need thou hast of him: for
the most High hath created him.

2 For all healing is from God, and he shall receive gifts of
the king.

3 The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the
sight of great men he shall be praised.

4 The most High hath created medicines out of the earth,
and a wise man will not abhor them.

5 Was not bitter water made sweet with wood?

6 The virtue of these things is come to the knowledge of
men, and the meet High hath given knowledge to men, that
he may be honoured in his wonders.

7 By these he shall cure and shall allay their pains, and of
these the apothecary shall make sweet confections, and shall
make up ointments of health, and of his works there shall be
no end.

8 For the peace of God is over all the face of the earth.

9 My son, in thy sickness neglect not thyself, but pray to the
Lord, and he shall heal thee.

10 Turn away from sin and order thy hands aright, and
cleanse thy heart from all offence.

11 Give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour, and
make a fat offering, and then give place to the physician.

12 For the Lord created him: and let him not depart from
thee, for his works are necessary.

13 For there is a time when thou must fall into their hands:

14 And they shall beseech the Lord, that he would prosper
what they give for ease and remedy, for their conversation.

15 He that sinneth in the sight of his Maker, shall fall into
the hands of the physician.

16 My son, shed tears over the dead, and begin to lament as
if thou hadst suffered some great harm, and according to
judgment cover his body, and neglect not his burial.

17 And for fear of being ill spoken of weep bitterly for a,
day, and then comfort thyself in thy sadness.

18 And make mourning for him according to his merit for a
day, or two, for fear of detraction.

19 For of sadness cometh death, and it overwhelmeth the
strength, and the sorrow of the heart boweth down the neck.

20 In withdrawing aside sorrow remaineth: and the
substance of the poor is according to his heart.

21 Give not up thy heart to sadness, but drive it from thee:
and remember the latter end.

22 Forget it not: for there is no returning, and thou shalt
do him no good, and shalt hurt thyself.

23 Remember my judgment: for also shall be so: yesterday
for me, and to day for thee.

24 When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance rest, and
comfort him in the departing of his spirit.

25 The wisdom of a scribe cometh by his time of leisure: and
he that is less in action, shall receive wisdom.

26 With what wisdom shall he be furnished that holdeth the
plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth the oxen
therewith, and is occupied in their labours, and his whole
talk is about the offspring of bulls?

27 He shall give his mind to turn up furrows, and his care is
to give the kine fodder.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

28 So every craftsman and workmaster that laboureth
night and day, he who maketh graven seals, and by his
continual diligence varieth the figure: he shall give his mind
to the resemblance of the picture, and by his watching shall
finish the work.

29 So doth the smith sitting by the anvil and considering
the iron work. The vapour of the fire wasteth his flesh, and
he fighteth with the heat of the furnace.

30 The noise of the hammer is always in his ears, and his eye
is upon the pattern of the vessel he maketh.

31 He setteth his mind to finish his work, and his watching
to polish them, to perfection.

32 So doth the potter sitting at his work, turning the wheel
about with his feet, who is always carefully set to his work,
and maketh all his work by number:

33 He fashioneth the clay with his arm, and boweth down
his strength before his feet:

34 He shall give his mind to finish the glazing, and his
watching to make clean the furnace.

35 All these trust to their hands, and every one is wise in his
own art.

36 Without these a city is not built.

37 And they shall not dwell, nor walk about therein, and
they shall not go up into the assembly.

38 Upon the judges’ seat they shall not sit, and the
ordinance of judgment they shall not understand, neither
shall they declare discipline and judgment, and they shall not
be found where parables are spoken:

39 But they shall strengthen the state of the world, and
their prayer shall be in the work of their craft, applying their
soul, and searching in the law of the most High.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 39

1 The wise men will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients,
and will be occupied in the prophets.

2 He will keep the sayings of renowned men, and will enter
withal into the subtilties of parables.

3 He will search out the hidden meanings of proverbs, and
will be conversant in the secrets of parables.

4 He shall serve among great men, and: appear before the
governor.

5 He shall pass into strange countries: for he shall try good
and evil among men.

6 He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that
made him, and he will pray in the sight of the most High.

7 He will open his mouth in prayer, and will make
supplication for his sins.

8 For if it shall please the great Lord, he will fill him with
the spirit of understanding:

9 And he will pour forth the words of his wisdom as
showers, and in his prayer he will confess to the Lord.

10 And he shall direct his counsel, and his knowledge, and
in his secrets shall he meditate.

11 He shall shew forth the discipline he hath learned, and
shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord.

12 Many shall praise his wisdom, and it shall never be
forgotten.

13 The memory of him shall not depart away, and his name
shall be in request from generation to generation.

14 Nations shall declare his wisdom, and the church shall
shew forth his praise.

15 If he continue, he shall leave a name above a thousand:
and if he rest, it shall be to his advantage.

16 I will yet meditate that I may declare: for I am filled as
with a holy transport.

17 By a voice he saith: Hear me, ye divine offspring, and
bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters.

18 Give ye a sweet odour as frankincense.

19 Send forth flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and
bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and
bless the Lord in his works.

20 Magnify his name, and give glory to him with the voice
of your lips, and with the canticles of your mouths, and with
harps, and in praising him, you shall say in this manner:

21 All the works of the Lord are exceeding good.

22 At his word the waters stood as a heap: and at the words
of his mouth the receptacles of waters:

23 For at his commandment favour is shewn, and there is
no diminishing of his salvation.

24 The works of all flesh are before him, and there is
nothing hid from his eyes.

25 He seeth from eternity to eternity, and there is nothing
wonderful before him.

26 There is no saying: What is this, or what is that? for all
things shall be sought in their time.

27 His blessing hath overflowed like a river.

28 And as a flood hath watered the earth; so shall his wrath
inherit the nations, that have not sought after him:

29 Even as he turned the waters into a dry land, and the
earth was made dry: and his ways were made plain for their
journey: so to sinners they are stumblingblocks in his wrath.

30 Good things were created for the good from the
beginning, so for the wicked, good and evil things.

31 The principal things necessary for the life of men, are
water, fire, and iron, salt, milk, and bread of flour, and
honey, and the cluster of the grape, and oil, and clothing.

32 All these things shall be for good to the holy, so to the
sinners and the ungodly they shall be turned into evil.

33 There are spirits that are created for vengeance, and in
their fury they lay on grievous torments.

34 In the time of destruction they shall pour out their force:
and they shall appease the wrath of him that made them.

35 Fire, hail, famine, and death, all these were created for
vengeance.

36 The teeth of beasts, and scorpions, and serpents, and the
sword taking vengeance upon the ungodly unto destruction.

37 In his commandments they shall feast, and they shall be
ready upon earth when need is, and when their time is come
they shall not transgress his word.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

38 Therefore from the beginning I was resolved, and I have
meditated, and thought on these things and left them in
writing.

39 All the works of the Lord are good, and he will furnish
every work in due time.

40 It is not to be said: This is worse than that: for all shall
be well approved in their time.

41 Now therefore with the whole heart and mouth praise ye
him, and bless the name of the Lord.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 40

1 Great labour is created for all men, and a heavy yoke is
upon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming out
of their mother's womb, until the day of their burial into the
mother ofall.

2 Their thoughts, and fears of the heart, their imagination
of things to come, and the day of their end:

3 From him that sitteth on a glorious throne, unto him
that is humbled in earth and ashes:

4 From him that weareth purple, and beareth the crown,
even to him that is covered with rough linen: wrath, envy,
trouble, unquietness, and the fear of death, continual anger,
and strife,

5 And in the time of rest upon his bed, the sleep of the night
changeth his knowledge.

6 A little and as nothing is his rest, and afterward in sleep,
as in the day of keeping watch.

7 He is troubled in the vision of his heart, as if he had
escaped in the day of battle. In the time of his safety he rose
up, and wondereth that there is no fear:

8 Such things happen to all flesh, from man even to beast,
and upon sinners are sevenfold mere.

9 Moreover, death, and bloodshed, strife, and sword,
oppressions, famine, and affliction, and scourges:

10 All these things are created for the wicked, and for their
sakes came the flood.

11 All things that are of the earth, shall return to the earth
again, and all waters shall return to the sea.

12 All bribery, and injustice shall blotted out, and fidelity
shall stand for ever.

13 The riches of the unjust shall be dried up like a river,
and shall pass sway a noise like a great thunder in rain.

14 While he openeth his hands he shall rejoice: but
transgressors shall pine away in the end.

15 The offspring of the ungodly shall not bring forth many
branches, and make a noise as unclean roots upon the top of
arock.

16 The weed growing over every water, and at the bank of
the river, shall be pulled up before all grass.

17 Grace is like a paradise in blessings, and mercy
remaineth for ever.

18 The life of a labourer that is content with what he hath,
shall be sweet, and in it thou shalt find a treasure.

19 Children, and the building of a city shall establish a
name, but a blameless wife shall be counted above them both.

20 Wine and music rejoice the heart, but the love of wisdom
is above them both.

21 The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a
pleasant tongue is above them both.

22 Thy eye desireth favour and beauty, but more than these
green sown fields.

23 A friend and companion meeting together in season, but
above them both is a wife with her husband.

24 Brethren are a help in the time of trouble, but mercy
shall deliver more than they.

25 Gold and silver make the feet stand sure: but wise
counsel is above them both.

26 Riches and strength lift up the heart: but above these is
the fear of the Lord.

27 There is no want in the fear of the Lord, and it needeth
not to seek for help.

28 The fear of the Lord is like a paradise of blessing, and
they have covered it above all glory.

29 My son, in thy lifetime be not indigent: for it is better to
die than to want.

30 The life of him that looketh toward another man's table
is not to be counted a life: for he feedeth his soul with
another man's meat.

31 But a man, well instructed and taught, will look to
himself.

32 Begging will be sweet in the mouth of the unwise, but in
his belly there shall burn a fire.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 41

1 O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man
that hath peace in his possessions!

2 Toa man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in
all things, and that is yet able to take meat!

3 O death, thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in
need, and to him whose strength faileth:

4 Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all
things, and to the distrustful that loseth patience!

5 Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things
have been before thee, and what shall come after thee: this
sentence is from the Lord upon all flesh.

6 And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of
the most High? Whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand
years.

7 For among the dead there is no accusing of life.

8 The children of sinners become children of abominations,
and they that converse near the houses of the ungodly.

9 The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and
with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach.

10 The children will complain of an ungodly father,
because for his sake they are in reproach.

11 Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of
the most high Lord.

12 And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction:
and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion.

13 All things that are of the earth, shall return into the
earth: so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

14 The mourning of men is about their body, but the name
of the ungodly shall be blotted out.

15 Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with
thee, more than a thousand treasures precious and great.

16 A good life hath its number of days: but a good name
shall continue for ever.

17 My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is
hid, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in
them both?

18 Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that
hideth his wisdom.

19 Wherefore have a shame of these things I am now going
to speak of.

20 For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all
things do not please all men in opinion.

21 Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and
of a lie before a governor and a man in power:

22 Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity
before a congregation and a people:

23 Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in
regard to the place where thou dwellest,

24 Of theft, and of the truth of God, and the covenant: of
leaning with thy elbow over meat, and of deceit in giving and
taking:

25 Of silence before them that salute thee: of looking upon
a harlot: and of turning away thy face from thy kinsman.

26 Turn not sway thy face from thy neighbour, and of
taking away a portion and not restoring.

27 Gaze not upon another man's wife, and be not
inquisitive after his handmaid, and approach not her bed.

28 Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and
after thou hast given, upbraid not.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 42

1 Repeat not the word which thou hast heard, and disclose
not the thing that is secret; so shalt thou be truly without
confusion, and shall find favour before all men: be not
ashamed of any of these things, and accept no person to sin
thereby:

2 Of the law of the most High, and of his covenant, and of
judgment to justify the ungodly:

3 Of the affair of companions and travellers, and of the gift
of the inheritance of friends:

4 Of exactness of balance and weights, of getting much or
little:

5 Of the corruption of buying, and of merchants, and of
much correction of children, and to make the side of a wicked
slave to bleed.

6 Sure keeping is good over a wicked wife.

7 Where there are many hands, shut up, and deliver all
things in number, and weight: and put all in writing that
thou givest out or receivest in.

8 Be not ashamed to inform the unwise and foolish, and the
aged, that are judged I by young men: and thou shalt be well
instructed in all things, and well approved in the sight of all
men living.

9 The father waketh for the daughter when no man
knoweth, and the care for her taketh away his sleep, when she
is young, lest she pass away the flower of her age, and when
she is married, lest she should be hateful:

10 In her virginity, lest she should be corrupted, and be
found with child in her father's house: and having a husband,
lest she should misbehave herself, or at the least become
barren.

11 Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter: lest at any
time she make thee become a laughingstock to thy enemies,
and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people,
and she make thee ashamed before all the multitude.

12 Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among
women.

13 For from garments cometh a moth, and from a woman
the iniquity of a man.

14 For better is the iniquity of a man, than a woman doing
a good turn, and a woman bringing shame and reproach.

15 I will now remember the works of the Lord, and I will
declare the things I have seen. By the words of the Lord are
his works.

16 The sun giving light hath looked upon all things, and
full of the glory of the Lord is his work.

17 Hath not the Lord made the saints to declare all his
wonderful works, which the Lord Almighty hath firmly
settled to be established for his glory?

18 He hath searched out the deep, and the heart of men: and
considered their crafty devices.

19 For the Lord knoweth all knowledge, and hath beheld
the signs of the world, he declareth the things that are past,
and the things that are to come, and revealeth the traces of
hidden things.

20 No thought escapeth him, and no word can hide itself
from him.

21 He hath beautified the glorious works of his wisdom:
and he Is from eternity to eternity, and to him nothing may
be added,

22 Nor can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any
counsellor.

23 O how desirable are all his works, and what we can
know is but as a spark!

24 All these things live, and remain for ever, and for every
use all things obey him.

25 All things are double, one against another, and he hath
made nothing defective.

26 He hath established the good things of every one. And
who shall be filled with beholding his glory?

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 43

| The firmament on high is his beauty, the beauty of heaven
with its glorious shew.

2 The sun when he appeareth shewing forth at his rising, an
admirable instrument, the work of the most High.

3 At noon he burneth the earth, and who can abide his
burning heat? As one keeping a furnace in the works of heat:

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

4 The sun three times as much, burneth the mountains,
breathing out fiery vapours, and shining with his beams, he
blindeth the eyes.

5 Great is the Lord that made him, and at his words he hath
hastened his course.

6 And the moon in all in her season, is for a declaration of
times and a sign of the world.

7 From the moon is the sign of the festival day, a light that
decreaseth in her perfection.

8 The month is called after her name, increasing
wonderfully in her perfection.

9 Being an instrument of the armies on high, shining
gloriously in the Armament of heaven.

10 The glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven; the Lord
enlighteneth the world on high.

11 By the words of the holy one they shall stand in
judgment, and shall never fail in their watches.

12 Look upon the rainbow, and bless him that made it: it is
very beautiful in its brightness.

13 It encompasseth the heaven about with the circle of its
glory, the hands of the most High have displayed it.

14 By his commandment he maketh the snow to fall apace,
and sendeth forth swiftly the lightnings of his judgment.

15 Through this are the treasures opened, and the clouds fly
out like birds.

16 By his greatness he hath fixed the clouds, and the
hailstones are broken.

17 At his sight shall the mountains be shaken, and at his
will the south wind shall blow.

18 The noise of his thunder shall strike the earth, so doth
the northern storm, and the whirlwind:

19 And as the birds lighting upon the earth, he scattereth
snow, and the falling thereof, is as the coming down of
locusts.

20 The eye admireth at the beauty of the whiteness thereof,
and the heart is astonished at the shower thereof.

21 He shall pour frost as salt upon the earth: and when it
freezeth, it shall become like the tops of thistles.

22 The cold north wind bloweth, and the water is
congealed into crystal; upon every gathering together of
waters it shall rest, and shall clothe the waters as a
breastplate.

23 And it shall devour the mountains, and burn the
wilderness, and consume all that is green as with fire.

24 A present remedy of all is the speedy coming of a cloud,
and a dew that meeteth it, by the heat that cometh, shall
overpower it.

25 At his word the wind is still, and with his thought he
appeaseth the deep, and the Lord hath planted islands
therein.

26 Let them that sail on the sea, tell the dangers thereof:
and when we hear with our ears, we shall admire.

27 There are great and wonderful works: a variety of beasts,
and of all living things, and the monstrous creatures of
whales.

28 Through him is established the end of their journey, and
by his word all things are regulated.

29 We shall say much, and yet shall want words: but the
sum of our words 1s, He is all.

30 What shall we be able to do to glorify him? for the
Almighty himself is above all his works.

31 The Lord is terrible, and exceeding great, and his power
is admirable.

32 Glorify the Lord as much as ever you can, for he will yet
far exceed, and his magnificence is wonderful.

33 Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he
is above all praise.

34 When you exalt him put forth all your strength, and be
not weary: for you can never go far enough.

35 Who shall see him, and declare him? and who shall
magnify him as he is from the beginning?

36 There are many things hidden from us that are greater
than these: for we have seen but a few of his works.

37 But the Lord hath made all things, and to the godly he
hath given wisdom.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 44

1 Let us now praise men of renown, and our fathers in their
generation.

2 The Lord hath wrought great glory through his
magnificence from the beginning.

3 Such as have borne rule in their dominions, men of great
power, and endued with their wisdom, shewing forth in the
prophets the dignity of prophets,

4 And ruling over the present people, and by the strength of
wisdom instructing the people in most holy words.

5 Such as by their skill sought out musical tunes, and
published canticles of the scriptures.

6 Rich men in virtue, studying beautifulness: living at peace
in their houses.

7 All these have gained glory in their generations, and were
praised in their days.

8 They that were born of them have left a name behind them,
that their praises might be related:

9 And there are some, of whom there is no memorial: who
are perished, as if they had never been: and are become as if
they had never been born, and their children with them.

10 But these were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have
not failed:

11 Good things continue with their seed,

12 Their posterity are a holy inheritance, and their seed
hath stood in the covenants.

13 And their children for their sakes remain for ever: their
seed and their glory shall not be forsaken.

14 Their bodies are buried in peace, and their name liveth
unto generation and generation.

15 Let the people shew forth their wisdom, and the church
declare their praise.

16 Henoch pleased God, and was translated into paradise,
that he may give repentance to the nations.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

17 Noe was found perfect, just, and in the time of wrath he
was made a reconciliation.

18 Therefore was there a remnant left to the earth, when
the flood came.

19 The covenants of the world were made with him, that all
flesh should no more be destroyed with the flood.

20 Abraham was the great father of a multitude of nations,
and there was not found the like to him in glory, who kept
the law of the most High, and was in covenant with him.

21 In his flesh he established the covenant, and in
temptation he was found faithful.

22 Therefore by an oath he gave him glory in his posterity,
that he should increase as the dust of the earth,

23 And that he would exalt his seed as the stars, and they
should inherit from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends
of the earth.

24 And he did in like manner with Isaac for the sake of
Abraham his father.

25 The Lord gave him the blessing of all nations, and
confirmed his covenant upon the head of Jacob.

26 He acknowledged him in his blessings, and gave him an
inheritance, and divided him his portion in twelve tribes.

27 And he preserved for him men of mercy, that found
grace in the eyes of all flesh.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 45

1 Moses was beloved of God, and men: whose memory is in
benediction.

2 He made him like the saints in glory, and magnified him
in the fear of his enemies, and with his words he made
prodigies to cease.

3 He glorified him in the sight of kings, and gave him
commandments in the sight of his people, and shewed him his
glory.

4 He sanctified him in his faith, and meekness, and chose
him out of all flesh.

5 For he heard him, and his voice, and brought him into a
cloud.

6 And he gave him commandments before his face, and a
law of life and instruction, that he might teach Jacob his
covenant, and Israel his judgments.

7 He exalted Aaron his brother, and like to himself of the
tribe of Levi:

8 He made an everlasting covenant with him, and gave him
the priesthood of the nation, and made him blessed in glory,

9 And he girded him about with a glorious girdle, and
clothed him with a robe of glory, and crowned him with
majestic attire.

10 He put upon him a garment to the feet, and breeches,
and as ephod, and he compassed him with many little bells of
gold all round about,

11 That as he went there might be a sound, and a noise
made that might be heard in the temple, for a memorial to
the children of his people.

12 He gave him a holy robe of gold, and blue, and purple, a
woven work of a wise man, endued with judgment and truth:

13 Of twisted scarlet the work of an artist, with precious
stones cut and set in gold, and graven by the work of a
lapidary for a memorial, according to the number of the
tribes of Israel.

14 And a crown of gold upon his mitre wherein was
engraved Holiness, an ornament of honour: a work of power,
and delightful to the eyes for its beauty.

15 Before him there were none so beautiful, even from the
beginning.

16 No stranger was ever clothed with them, but only his
children alone, and his grandchildren for ever.

17 His sacrifices were consumed with fire every day.

18 Moses filled his hands and anointed him with holy oil.

19 This was made to him for an everlasting testament, and
to his seed as the days of heaven, to execute the office of the
priesthood, and to have praise, and to glorify his people in
his name.

20 He chose him out of all men living, to offer sacrifice to
God, incense, and a good savour, for a memorial to make
reconciliation for his people:

21 And he gave him power in his commandments, in the
covenants of his judgments, that he should teach Jacob his
testimonies, and give light to Israel in his law.

22 And strangers stood up against him, and through envy
the men that were with Dathan and Abiron, compassed him
about in the wilderness, and the congregation of Core in
their wrath.

23 The Lord God saw and it pleased him not, and they were
consumed in his wrathful indignation.

24 He wrought wonders upon them, and consumed them
with a flame of fire.

25 And he added glory to Aaron, and gave him an
inheritance, and divided unto him the firstfruits of the
increase of the earth.

26 He prepared them bread in the first place unto fulness:
for the sacrifices also of the Lord they shall eat, which he
gave to him, and to his seed.

27 But he shall not inherit among the people in the land,
and he hath no portion among the people: for he himself is
his portion and inheritance.

28 Phinees the son of Eleazar is the third in glory, by
imitating him in the fear of the Lord:

29 And he stood up in the shameful fall of the people: in the
goodness and readiness of his soul he appeased God for Israel.

30 Therefore he made to him a covenant of peace, to be the
prince of the sanctuary, and of his people, that the dignity of
priesthood should be to him and to his seed for ever.

31 And a covenant to David the king, the son of Jesse of the
tribe of Juda, an inheritance to him and to his seed, that he
might give wisdom into our heart to judge his people in
justice, that their good things might not be abolished, and he
made their glory in their nation everlasting.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 46

1 Valiant in war was Jesus the son of Nave, who was
successor of Moses among the prophets, who was great
according to his name,

2 Very great for the saving the elect of God, to overthrow
the enemies that rose up against them, that he might get the
inheritance for Israel.

3 How great glory did he gain when he lifted up his hands,
and stretched out swords against the cities?

4 Who before him hath so resisted? for the Lord himself
brought the enemies.

5 Was not the sun stopped in his anger, and one day made
as two?

6 He called upon the most high Sovereign when the enemies
assaulted him on every side, and the great and holy God
heard him by hailstones of exceeding great force.

7 He made a violent assault against the nation of his
enemies, and in the descent he destroyed the adversaries.

8 That the nations might know his power, that it is not easy
to fight against God. And he followed the mighty one:

9 And in the days of Moses he did a work of mercy, he and
Caleb the son of Jephone, in standing against the enemy, and
withholding the people from sins, and appeasing the wicked
murmuring.

10 And they two being appointed, were delivered out of the
danger from among the number of six hundred thousand men
on foot, to bring them into their inheritance, into the land
that floweth with milk and honey.

11 And the Lord gave strength also to Caleb, and his
strength continued even to his old age, so that he went up to
the high places of the land, and his seed obtained it for an
inheritance:

12 That all the children of Israel might see, that it is good
to obey the holy God.

13 Then all the judges, every one by name, whose heart was
not corrupted: who turned not away from the Lord,

14 That their memory might be blessed, and their bones
spring up out of their place,

15 And their name continue for ever, the glory of the holy
men remaining unto their children.

16 Samuel the prophet of the Lord, the beloved of the Lord
his God, established a new government, and anointed princes
over his people.

17 By the law of the Lord he judged the congregation, and
the God of Jacob beheld, and by his fidelity he was proved a
prophet.

18 And he was known to be faithful in his words, because he
saw the God of light:

19 And called upon the name of the Lord Almighty, in
fighting against the enemies who beset him on every side,
when he offered a lamb without blemish.

20 And the Lord thundered from heaven, and with a great
noise made his voice to be heard.

21 And he crushed the princes of the Tyrians, and all the
lords of the Philistines:

22 And before the time of the end of his life in the world, he
protested before the Lord, and his anointed: money, or any
thing else, even to a shoe, he had not taken of any man, and
no man did accuse him.

23 And after this he slept, and he made known to the king,
and shewed him the end of his life, and he lifted up his voice
from the earth in prophecy to blot out the wickedness of the
nation.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 47

1 Then Nathan the prophet arose in the days of David.

2 And as the fat taken away from the flesh, so was David
chosen from among the children of Israel.

3 He played with lions as with lambs: and with bears he did
in like manner as with the lambs of the flock, in his youth.

4 Did not he kill the giant, and take away reproach from
his people?

5 In lifting up his hand, with the stone in the sling he beat
down the boasting of Goliath:

6 For he called upon the Lord the Almighty, and he gave
strength in his right hand, to take away the mighty warrior,
and to set up the horn of his nation.

7 So in ten thousand did he glorify him, and praised him in
the blessings of the Lord, in offering to him a crown of glory:

8 For he destroyed the enemies on every side, and
extirpated the Philistines the adversaries unto this day: he
broke their horn for ever.

9 In all his works he gave thanks to the holy one, and to the
most High, with words of glory.

10 With his whole heart he praised the Lord, and loved
God that made him: and he gave him power against his
enemies:

11 And he set singers before the altar, and by their voices he
made sweet melody.

12 And to the festivals he added beauty, and set in order the
solemn times even to the end of his life, that they should
praise the holy name of the Lord, and magnify the holiness of
God in the morning.

13 The Lord took away his sins, and exalted his horn for
ever: and he gave him a covenant of the kingdom, and a
throne of glory in Israel.

14 After him arose up a wise son, and for his sake he cast
down all the power of the enemies.

15 Solomon reigned in days of peace, and God brought all
his enemies under him, that he might build a house in his
name, and prepare a sanctuary for ever: O how wise wast
thou in thy youth!

16 And thou wast filled as a river with wisdom, and thy
soul covered the earth.

17 And thou didst multiply riddles in parables: thy name
went abroad to the islands far off, and thou wast beloved in
thy peace.

18 The countries wondered at thee for thy canticles, and
proverbs, and parables, and interpretations,

19 And at the name of the Lord God, whose surname is,
God of Israel.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

20 Thou didst gather gold as copper, and didst multiply
silver as lead,

21 And thou didst bow thyself to women: and by thy body
thou wast brought under subjection.

22 Thou hast stained thy glory, and defiled thy seed so as to
bring wrath upon thy children, and to have thy folly kindled,

23 That thou shouldst make the kingdom to be divided,
and out of Ephraim a rebellious kingdom to rule.

24 But God will not leave off his mercy, and he will not
destroy, nor abolish his own works, neither will he out up by
the roots the offspring of his elect: and he will not utterly
take away the seed of him that loveth the Lord.

25 Wherefore he gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David of
the same stock.

26 And Solomon had an end with his fathers.

27 And he left behind him of his seed, the folly of the nation,

28 Even Roboam that had little wisdom, who turned away
the people through his counsel:

29 And Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who caused Israel to sin,
and shewed Ephraim the way of sin, and their sins were
multiplied exceedingly.

30 They removed them far away from their land.

31 And they sought out all iniquities, till vengeance came
upon them, and put an end to all their sins.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 48

1 And Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire, and his word
burnt like a torch.

2 He brought a famine upon them, and they that provoked
him in their envy, were reduced to a small number, for they
could not endure the commandments of the Lord.

3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and he
brought down fire from heaven thrice.

4 Thus was Elias magnified in his wondrous works. And
who can glory like to thee?

5 Who raisedst up a dead man from below, from the lot of
death, by the word of the Lord God.

6 Who broughtest down kings to destruction, and brokest
easily their power in pieces, and the glorious from their bed.

7 Who heardest judgment in Sina, and in Horeb the
judgments of vengeance.

8 Who anointedst kings to penance, and madest prophets
successors after thee.

9 Who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of
fiery horses.

10 Who art registered in the judgments of times to appease
the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to
the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob.

11 Blessed are they that saw thee, and were honoured with
thy friendship.

12 For we live only in our life, but after death our name
shall not be such.

13 Elias was indeed covered with the whirlwind, and his
spirit was filled up in Eliseus: in his days he feared not the
prince, and no man was more powerful than he.

14 No word could overcome him, and after death his body
prophesied.

15 In his life he did great wonders, and is death he wrought
miracles.

16 For all this the people repented not, neither did they
depart from their sins till they were cast out of their land,
and were scattered through all the earth.

17 And there was left but a small people, and a prince in the
house of David.

18 Some of these did that which pleased God: but others
committed many sins.

19 Ezechias fortified his city, and brought in water into the
midst thereof, and he digged a rock with iron, and made a
well for water.

20 In his days Sennacherib came up, and sent Rabsaces, and
lifted up his hand against them, and he stretched out his hand
against Sion, and became proud through his power.

21 Then their hearts and hands trembled, and they were in
pain as women in travail.

22 And they called upon the Lord who is merciful, and
spreading their hands, they lifted them up to heaven: and the
holy Lord God quickly heard their voice.

23 He was not mindful of their sins, neither did he deliver
them up to their enemies, but he purified them by the hand of
Isaias, the holy prophet.

24 He overthrew the army of the Assyrians, and the angel of
the Lord destroyed them.

25 For Ezechias did that which pleased God, and walked
valiantly in the way of David his father, which Isaias, the
great prophet, and faithful in the sight of God, had
commanded him.

26 In his days the sun went backward, and he lengthened
the king's life.

27 With a great spirit he saw the things that are to come to
pass at last, and comforted the mourners in Sion.

28 He shewed what should come to pass for ever, and secret
things before they came.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 49

1 The memory of Josias is like the composition of a sweet
smell made by the art of a perfumer:

2 His remembrance shall be sweet as honey in every mouth,
and as music at a banquet of wine.

3 He was directed by God unto the repentance of the nation,
and he took away the abominations of wickedness.

4 And he directed his heart towards the Lord, and in the
days of sinners he strengthened godliness.

5 Except David, and Ezechias, and Josias, all committed sin.

6 For the kings of Juda forsook the law of the most High,
and despised the fear of God.

7So they gave their kingdom to others, and their glory to a
strange nation.

8 They burnt the chosen city of holiness, and made the
streets thereof desolate according to the prediction of
Jeremias.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

9 For they treated him evil, who was consecrated a prophet
from his mother's womb, to overthrow, and pluck up, and
destroy, and to build again, and renew.

10 It was Ezechiel that saw the glorious vision, which was
shewn him upon the chariot of cherubims.

11 For he made mention of the enemies under the figure of
rain, and of doing good to them that shewed right ways.

12 And may the bones of the twelve prophets spring up out
of their place: for they strengthened Jacob, and redeemed
themselves by strong faith.

13 How shall we magnify Zorobabel? for he was as a signet
on the right hand;

14 In like manner Jesus the son of Josedec? who in their
days built the house, and set up a holy temple to the Lord,
prepared for everlasting glory.

15 And let Nehemias be a long time remembered, who
raised up for us our walls that were cast down, and set up the
gates and the bars, who rebuilt our houses.

16 No man was born upon earth like Henoch: for he also
was taken up from the earth.

17 Nor as Joseph, who was a man born prince of his
brethren, the support of his family, the ruler of his brethren,
the stay of the people:

18 And his bones were visited, and after death they
prophesied.

19 Seth and Sem obtained glory among men: and above
every soul Adam in the beginning.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 50

1 Simon the high priest, the son of Onias, who in his life
propped up the house, and in his days fortified the temple.

2 By him also the height of the temple was founded, the
double building and the high walls of the temple.

3 In his days the wells of water flowed out, and they were
filled as the sea above measure.

4 He took care of his nation, and delivered it from
destruction.

5 He prevailed to enlarge the city, and obtained glory in his
conversation with the people: and enlarged the entrance of
the house and the court.

6 He shone in his days as the morning star in the midst of a
cloud, and as the moon at the full.

7 And as the sun when it shineth, so did he shine in the
temple of God.

8 And as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds, and
as the flower of roses in the days of the spring, and as the
lilies that are on the brink of the water, and as the sweet
smelling frankincense in the time of summer.

9 As a bright fire, and frankincense burning in the fire.

10 As a massy vessel of gold, adorned with every precious
stone.

11 As an olive tree budding forth, and a cypress tree
rearing itself on high, when he put on the robe of glory, and
was clothed with the perfection of power.

12 When he went up to the holy altar, he honoured the
vesture of holiness.

13 And when he took the portions out of the hands of the
priests, he himself stood by the altar. And about him was the
ring of his brethren: and as the cedar planted in mount
Libanus,

14 And as branches of palm trees, they stood round about
him, and all the sons of Aaron in their glory.

15 And the oblation of the Lord was in their hands, before
all the congregation of Israel: and finishing his service, on
the altar, to honour the offering of the most high Ring,

16 He stretched forth his hand to make a libation, and
offered of the blood of the grape.

17 He poured out at the foot of the altar a divine odour to
the most high Prince.

18 Then the sons of Aaron shouted, they sounded with
beaten trumpets, and made a great noise to be heard for a
remembrance before God.

19 Then all the people together made haste, and fell down
to the earth upon their faces, to adore the Lord their God,
and to pray to the Almighty God the most High.

20 And the singers lifted up their voices. and in the great
house the sound of sweet melody was increased.

21 And the people in prayer besought the Lord the most
High, until the worship of the Lord was perfected, and they
had finished their office.

22 Then coming down, he lifted up his hands over all the
congregation of the children of Israel, to give glory to God
with his lips, and to glory in his name:

23 And he repeated his prayer, willing to shew the power of
God.

24 And now pray ye to the God of all, who hath done great
things in all the earth, who hath increased our days from our
mother's womb, and hath done with us according to his
mercy.

25 May he grant us joyfulness of heart, and that there be
peace in our days in Israel for ever:

26 That Israel may believe that the mercy of God is with us,
to deliver us in his days.

27 There are two nations which my soul abhorreth: and the
third is no nation, which IJ hate:

28 They that sit on mount Seir, and the Philistines, and the
foolish people that dwell in Sichem.

29 Jesus the son of Sirach, of Jerusalem, hath written in this
book the doctrine of wisdom and instruction, who renewed
wisdom from his heart.

30 Blessed is he that is conversant in these good things: and
he that layeth them up in his heart, shall be wise always.

31 For if he do them, he shall be strong to do all things:
because the light of God guideth his steps.

WISDOM OF JESUS BEN SIRACH CHAPTER 51

1 A prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach. I will give glory to
thee, O Lord, O King, and I will praise thee, O God my
Saviour.

21 will give glory to thy name: for thou hast been a helper
and protector to me.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

3 And hast preserved my body from destruction, from the
snare of an unjust tongue, and from the lips of them that
forge lies, and in the sight of them that stood by, thou hast
been my helper.

4 And thou hast delivered me, according to the multitude
of the mercy of thy name, from them that did roar, prepared
to devour.

5 Out of the hands of them that sought my life, and from
the gates of afflictions, which compassed me about:

6 From the oppression of the flame which surrounded me,
and in the midst of the fire I was not burnt.

7 From the depth of the belly of hell, and from an unclean
tongue, and from lying words, from an unjust king, and
from a slanderous tongue:

8 My soul shall praise the Lord even to death.

9 And my life was drawing near to hell beneath.

10 They compassed me on every side, and there was no one
that would help me. I looked for the succour of men, and
there was none.

11 Tremembered thy mercy, O Lord, and thy works, which
are from the beginning of the world.

12 How thou deliverest them that wait for thee, O Lord,
and savest them out of the hands of the nations.

13 Thou hast exalted my dwelling place upon the earth and
Ihave prayed for death to pass away.

14 I called upon the Lord, the father of my Lord, that he
would not leave me in the day of my trouble, and in the time
of the proud without help.

15 I will praise thy name continually, and will praise it
with thanksgiving, and my prayer was heard.

16 And thou hast saved me from destruction, and hast
delivered me from the evil time.

17 Therefore I will give thanks, and praise thee, and bless
the name of the Lord.

18 When I was yet young, before I wandered about, I
sought for wisdom openly in my prayer.

19 I prayed for her before the temple, and unto the very end
I will seek after her, and she flourished as a grape soon ripe.

20 My heart delighted in her, my foot walked in the right
way, from my youth up I sought after her.

21 I bowed down my ear a little, and received her.

22 I found much wisdom in myself, and I profited much
therein.

23 To him that giveth me wisdom, will I give glory.

24 For I have determined to follow her: I have had a zeal
for good, and shall not be confounded.

25 My soul hath wrestled for her, and in doing it I have
been confirmed.

26 I stretched forth my hands on high, and I bewailed my
ignorance of her.

27 I directed my soul to her, and in knowledge I found her.

28 I possessed my heart with her from the beginning:
therefore I shall not be forsaken.

29 My entrails were troubled in seeking her: therefore shall
I possess a good possession.

30 The Lord hath given me a tongue for my reward: and
with it I will praise him.

31 Draw near to me, ye unlearned, and gather yourselves
together into the house of discipline.

32 Why are ye slow? and what do you say of these things?
your souls are exceeding thirsty.

33 I have opened my mouth, and have spoken: buy her for
yourselves without silver,

34 And submit your neck to the yoke, and let your soul
receive discipline: for she is near at hand to be found.

35 Behold with your eyes how IJ have laboured a little, and
have found much rest to myself.

36 Receive ye discipline as a great sum of money, and
possess abundance of gold by her.

37 Let your soul rejoice in his mercy, and you shall not be
confounded in his praise.

38 Work your work before the time, and he will give you
your reward in his time.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PRAYER OF SOLOMON
Addition to Sirach (chapter 52)
Author: Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira
Source: The Grand Bible, p.423)
Translation: Biblia Catolica
Estimated Range of Dating: 200 - 175 B.C.

PRAYER OF SOLOMON

SIRACH CHAPTER 52

1. I will give thanks to thee, O Lord and King, and will
praise thee as God my Savior. I give thanks to thy name,

2. for thou hast been my protector and helper and hast
delivered my body from destruction and from the snare of a
slanderous tongue, from lips that utter lies. Before those who
stood by thou wast my helper,

3. and didst deliver me, in the greatness of thy mercy and of
thy name, from the gnashings of teeth about to devour me,
from the hand of those who sought my life, from the many
afflictions that I endured,

4. from choking fire on every side and from the midst of fire
which I did not kindle,

5. from the depths of the belly of Hades, from an unclean
tongue and lying words --

6. the slander of an unrighteous tongue to the king. My
soul drew near to death, and my life was very near to Hades
beneath.

7. They surrounded me on every side, and there was no one
to help me; I looked for the assistance of men, and there was
none.

8. Then I remembered thy mercy, O Lord, and thy work
from of old, that thou dost deliver those who wait for thee
and dost save them from the hand of their enemies.

9. And I sent up my supplication from the earth, and prayed
for deliverance from death.

10. I appealed to the Lord, the Father of my lord, not to
forsake me in the days of affliction, at the time when there is
no help against the proud.

11. I will praise thy name continually, and will sing praise
with thanksgiving. My prayer was heard,

12. for thou didst save me from destruction and rescue me
from an evil plight. Therefore I will give thanks to thee and
praise thee, and I will bless the name of the Lord.

13. While I was still young, before I went on my travels, I
sought wisdom openly in my prayer.

14. Before the temple I asked for her, and I will search for
her to the last.

15. From blossom to ripening grape my heart delighted in
her; my foot entered upon the straight path; from my youth I
followed her steps.

16. I inclined my ear a little and received her, and I found
for myself much instruction.

17. Imade progress therein; to him who gives wisdom I will
give glory.

18. For I resolved to live according to wisdom, and I was
zealous for the good; and I shall never be put to shame.

19. My soul grappled with wisdom, and in my conduct I
was strict; I spread out my hands to the heavens, and
lamented my ignorance of her.

20. I directed my soul to her, and through purification I
found her. I gained understanding with her from the first,
therefore I will not be forsaken.

21. My heart was stirred to seek her, therefore I have
gained a good possession.

22. The Lord gave me a tongue as my reward, and I will
praise him with it.

23. Draw near to me, you who are untaught, and lodge in
my school.

24. Why do you say you are lacking in these things, and
why are your souls very thirsty?

25. I opened my mouth and said, Get these things for
yourselves without money.

26. Put your neck under the yoke, and let your souls receive
instruction; it is to be found close by.

27. See with your eyes that I have labored little and found
myself much rest.

28. Get instruction with a large sum of silver, and you will
gain by it much gold.

29. May your soul rejoice in his mercy, and may you not be
put to shame when you praise him.

30. Do your work before the appointed time, and in God's
time he will give you your reward."

Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

THE BOOK OF BARUCH

THE SON OF NERIAS
or The Book of Baruch or 1 Baruch
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 200-100 B.C.

(The Book of Baruch, or 1 Baruch, 1s a deuterocanonical
book of the Bible in some Christian traditions. In Judaism
and most forms of Protestant Christianity, it 1s considered
not to be part of the Bible. It is named after Baruch ben
Neriah, Jeremiah's well-known scribe, who is mentioned at
Baruch 1:1, and has been presumed to be the author of the
whole work. The book 1s a reflection of a late Jewish writer
on the circumstances of Jewish exiles from Babylon, with
meditations on the theology and history of Israel, discussions
of wisdom, and a direct address to residents of Jerusalem and
the Diaspora. Some scholars propose that it was written
during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees.

The earliest known manuscripts of Baruch are in Greek.
Some linguistic features of the first parts of Baruch (1:1-3:8)
have been proposed as indicating a translation from a
Semitic language.

Although not in the Hebrew Bible, it 1s found in the
Septuagint, in the Eritrean / Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, and
also in Theodotion'’s Greek version. Jerome excluded both
the Book of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah from the
Vulgate Bible, but both works were introduced into Latin
Vulgate bibles sporadically from the 9th century onwards;
and were incorporated into the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate
edition. In the Vulgate it is grouped with the prophetical
books which also include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations,
Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets. In the
Vulgate, the King James Bible Apocrypha, and many other
versions, the Letter of Jeremiah is appended to the end of the
Book of Baruch as a sixth chapter; in the Septuagint and
Orthodox Bibles chapter 6 is usually counted as a separate
book, called the Letter or Epistle of Jeremiah.

Manuscripts: Both the Book of Baruch and the Letter of
Jeremiah are separate books in the great pandect Greek
Bibles, Codex Vaticanus (4th century) and Codex
Alexandrinus (5th century), where they are found in the
order Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, Letter of Jeremiah.
In the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) Lamentations follows
directly after Jeremiah and Baruch 1s not found; but a lacuna
after Lamentations prevents a definitive assessment of
Whether Baruch may have been included elsewhere in this
manuscript. Neither of the two surviving early Latin pandect
Bibles (Codex Amiatinus (7th century) and Leon palimpsest
(7th century) includes either the Book of Baruch or the
Letter of Jeremiah; the earliest Latin witnesses to the text
being the Codex Cavensis (9th century) and the Theodulfian

Bibles (9th century). Baruch 1s also witnessed in some early
Coptic (Bohatric and Sahidic) and Syriac manuscripts, but 1s
not found in Coptic or Syriac lectionaries.

Book of Baruch and Book of Jeremiah: The evident
variation among early Christian divines as to whether a
particular reading 1s to be cited from 'Baruch' or ‘Jeremiah' ts
generally regarded as relating to the very different texts of
the Book of Jeremiah that are found respectively in
manuscripts of the Greek and Hebrew Bibles. The version of
Jeremiah in the Greek Septuagint texts (Vaticanus,
Alexandrinus) 1s a seventh shorter than that in the Hebrew
Masoretic Text or the Latin Vulgate; and the ordering of the
chapters 1s very different, with sections from the middle of
the book in the Septuagint version (the Oracles against the
Nations) found at the end of the book in the Masoretic text
and Vulgate. As Hebrew fragments have been found in the
Dead Sea Scrolls corresponding to both the Septuagint and
Masoretic orders, it is commonly accepted that the two
versions derive from two distinct Hebrew traditions, and
that the Septuagint form of the text is likely the older.
Benedictine scholar Pierre-Maurice Bogaert suggests that, if
the Book of Baruch is appended to the Septuagint version of
Jeremiah, it follows on as a plausible continuation of the
Septuagint narrative (Chapter 51: 31-35 in the Septuagint,
corresponding to the truncated Chapter 45 in the Masoretic
text). A similar conclusion 1s proposed by Emanuel Tov, who
notes characteristics of a consistent redactional revision of
the Septuagint text of Jeremiah from Chapter 29 onwards
(correcting readings towards the Hebrew), a revision that is
then carried over into the Greek text of Baruch 1:1 to 3:8,
suggesting that these once formed a continuous text. Bogaert
consequently proposes that the gathering of sections from the
end of Septuagint Jeremiah into a distinct book of 'Baruch'
was an innovation of Christian biblical practice in the Greek
church from around the 3rd century onwards; but that the
version of Jeremiah in the Old Latin Bible preceded this
practice, and hence did not designate the Book of Baruch as a
distinct work of scripture, but included its text within the
Book of Jeremiah. The text of Old Latin Jeremiah nowhere
survives in sufficient form for this speculation to be
confirmed.

Baruch 1:1—14 gives a narrative account of an occasion
when Baruch ben Neritah reads the book of ‘these words'
before the Israelites in Babylon, and then sends that book
(together with collected funds) to be read in Jerusalem.
Where the Book of Baruch 1s considered to be a distinct work
of scripture, it 1s commonly identified as the book that
Baruch reads; and hence Baruch himself has traditionally
been credited as the author of the whole work. However, the
syntactical form of Baruch chapter I has been held rather to
imply that 'these words' correspond to a preceding text —
which might then be identified with Lamentations or with
the Book of Jeremiah; in which case comparison may be made
with a corresponding notice of Baruch writing down reading
the prophecies of Jeremiah, recorded at Jeremiah chapter 36.
These considerations underlie an alternative tradition (found

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for instance in Augustine) in which all four works (Book of
Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, Letter of Jeremiah) are
credited to Jeremiah himself as author.

Critical scholarship is, however, united in rejecting either
Baruch or Jeremiah as author of the Book of Baruch, or in
dating the work in the period of its purported context; the
Babylonian Exile. Rather they have seen clear thematic and
linguistic parallels with later works; the Book of Dantel and
the Book of Sirach. Many scholars have noted that the
restoration of worship in the Jerusalem Temple following its
pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes could provide a
counterpart historical context in which the narrative of
Baruch may equally be considered to apply; and consequently
a date in the period 200-100 BC has been proposed.

The Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, Bohatric and
Ethiopic versions of Baruch are all translated directly from
the Greek; the text of which survives in Vaticanus and
Alexandrinus, and 1s highly consistent. Jerome (5th century)
states that no Hebrew text was in existence, and Origen (3rd
century) appears to know of no Hebrew text in the
preparation of the text of Baruch in the Hexapla Old
Testament. Nevertheless, there are a number of readings in
the earlier sections of Baruch (1:1 to 3:8) where an
anomalous reading in the Greek appears to imply a
mistranslation of a Hebrew or Aramaic source; as at chapter
3:4, where ‘hear now the prayers of the dead of Israel’ is
assumed to be a mistranslation of, ‘hear now the prayers of
the men of Israel’. Since the 19th century, critical scholars
have assumed a Semitic original for these earlier parts of the
book, and a number of studies, such as that of Tov, have
sought to retrovert from the Greek to a plausible Hebrew
source text. Whereas in the Revised Standard Version (1957)
of Bible, the English text of Baruch consistently follows the
Greek in these readings; in the New Revised Standard
Version (1989) these readings are adjusted to conform with a
conjectural reconstruction of a supposed Hebrew original.

Nevertheless, some more recent studies of Baruch, such as
those by Adams and Bogaert, take the Greek text to be the
original. Adams maintains that most of the text of Baruch
depends on that of other books of the Bible; and indeed it has
been characterised by Tov as a "mosaic of Biblical passages"
especially in these early sections. Consequently, variations
from the literal Hebrew text could have found their way
directly into a dependent Greek version, without having to
presume a Semitic intermediary stage. Moreover, Adams
takes issue with the presupposition behind conjectural
retroversions to conform to a supposed Hebrew text; that the
author of Baruch understood the principle of literal
translation, and aspired to follow that principle; and yet
lamentably failed to do so.

Contents and Structure

¢ 1:1—-14 Introduction: "And these are the words...which
Baruch... wrote in Babylonia.... And when they heard it they
wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord."

¢ 1:15-2:10 Confession of sins: "[T]he Lord hath watched
over us for evil, and hath brought it upon us: for the Lord 1s
Just in all his works.... And we have not hearkened to his
voice"...

¢ 2:11-3:8 Prayer for mercy: "[FJor the dead that are in
hell, whose spirit 1s taken away from their bowels, shall not
give glory and justice to the Lord..." (cf. Psalms 6:6/5)

¢ 3:9-4:14 A paean for Wisdom: "Where are the princes of
the nations,... that hoard up silver and gold, wherein men
trust?... They are cut off, and are gone down to hell,..."

¢ 4:5-5:9 Baruch's Poem of Consolation: messages for
those in captivity, for the "neighbours of Zion", and for
Jerusalem: "You have been sold to the Gentiles, not for your
destruction: but because you provoked God to wrath...
[Flor the sins of my children, he [the Eternal] hath brought a
nation upon them from afar...who have neither reverenced
the ancient, nor pitied children..." "Let no one gloat over me
[Jerusalem], a widow, bereft of many, for the sins of my
children I am left desolate, for they turned from the law of
God". "Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy
that 1s coming to you from Goa".

¢ Chapter 6: see Letter of Jeremiah

Canonicity: In the Greek East, Athanasius (367 AD), Cyril
of Jerusalem (c. 350 AD), and Epiphantus of Salamis (c. 385
AD)[24] listed the Book of Baruch as canonical. Athanasius
states "Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle";
the other Fathers offer similar formulations. In the Latin
West Pope Innocent I (405 AD) identifies the sixteen
prophets (four major, plus 12 minor) as canonical, but does
not specifically mention Baruch as associated with Jeremiah.
Later, Augustine of Hippo (C. 397 AD) would confirm in his
book On Christian Doctrine (Book II, Chapter 8) the
canonicity of the book of Jeremiah without reference to
Baruch; but in his work The City of God 18:33 he discusses
the text of Baruch 3: 36—38, noting that this 1s are variously
cited to Baruch and to Jeremiah; his preference being for the
latter. In the decrees of the Council of Florence (1442) and
the Council of Trent (1546), "Jeremias with Baruch" is
stated as canonical. The Letter of Jeremiah 1s not specified,
being included as the sixth chapter of Baruch in late medieval
Vulgate bibles.)

1 BARUCH CHAPTER |

1 These are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of
Neriah, the son of Maasiah, the son of Zedekiah, the son of
Hasadiah, the son of Hilkiah, wrote in Babylon,

2 in the fifth year, and on the seventh day of the month,
since the time when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burnt
it with fire.

3 Baruch read the words of this book in the hearing of
Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and to the ears
of all the people who came to hear the book,

4 and in the hearing of the nobles, and of the king's sons,
and in the hearing of the elders, and of all the people, from

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the lowest to the highest, even of all those who dwelt at
Babylon by the river Sud;

5 whereupon they wept, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.

6 They also made a collection of money according to each
man's ability,

7 and they sent it to Jerusalem to Joachim the high priest,
the son of Hilkiah, son of Salom, and to the priests, and to
all the people who were with him at Jerusalem,

8 at the same time when he received the vessels of the house
of the Lord, which had been carried out of the Temple, to
return them into the land of Judah, in the tenth day of the
month Sivan, namely, silver vessels, which Zedekiah, the son
of Josiah king of Judah, had made.

9 After that, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried
away Jeconiah and the princes and the captives and the
mighty men and the people of the land, from Jerusalem and
brought them to Babylon.

10 And they said, "Behold, we have sent you money to buy
you burnt offerings and sin offerings and incense, and to
prepare you cereal offerings, to offer upon the altar of the
Lord our God,

11 and to pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, that their
days on earth may be as the days of heaven.

12 And the Lord will give us strength and lighten our eyes,
and we shall live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and
we shall serve them for many days and find favor in their
sight.

13 Pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned
against the Lord our God; and until this day the fury of the
Lord and his wrath has not turned from us.

14 And you shall read this book, which we have sent to you,
to make confession in the house of the Lord on the feasts and
solemn days.

15 "And you shall say, 'To the Lord our God belongs
righteousness, but to us, confusion of face, as has happened
this day, unto those of Judah and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem.

16 And to our kings and our princes and our priests and
our prophets and our fathers, you shall say:

17 'For we have sinned before the Lord,

18 and disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the
Lord our God to walk in the commandments which he gave
us openly.

19 Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out
of the land of Egypt, until this present day, we have been
disobedient to the Lord our God and we have been negligent
in not hearing his voice.

20 Therefore the evils clung to us and also the curse, which
the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he
brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give us a land
that flows with milk and honey, as is clear on this day.

21 Nevertheless we have not heeded the voice of the Lord
our God, according to all the words of the prophets, whom
he sent to us,

22 but every man followed the imagination of his own
wicked heart, to serve strange gods and to do evil in the sight
of the Lord our God.

1 BARUCH CHAPTER 2

1 "Therefore the Lord has made good his word, which he
pronounced against us and against our judges who judged
Israel and against our kings and our princes and against the
men of Israel and Judah,

2 to bring upon us great plagues, such as never happened
under the whole heaven, yet came to pass in Jerusalem,
according to the things which were written in the law of
Moses,

3 so that a man would eat the flesh of his own son and the
flesh of his own daughter.

4 Moreover, he has delivered them to be in subjection to all
the kingdoms which surround us, to be as a reproach and a
desolation among all the surrounding peoples, where the
Lord has scattered them.

5 Thus we were cast down and not exalted because we
sinned against the Lord our God and have not been obedient
to his voice.

6 To the Lord our God belongs righteousness, but to us
and to our fathers open shame, as is clear on this day.

7 For all these plagues have come upon us, which the Lord
has pronounced against us,

8 yet have we not prayed before the Lord, so that we might
turn, each one from the imaginations of his wicked heart.

9 Therefore the Lord watched over us for evil and the Lord
has brought it upon us; for the Lord is righteous in all his
works which he has commanded us.

10 Yet we have not hearkened to his voice to walk in the
commandments of the Lord which he has set before us.

11 "'And now, O Lord God of Israel, who has brought your
people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and high
arm, and with signs and wonders and great power, and has
become renown, as is clear on this day:

12 O Lord our God, we have sinned, we have been ungodly,
we have acted unrighteously, in all your ordinances.

13 Let your wrath turn from us, for we are but a few left
among the heathen where you have scattered us.

14 Hear our prayers, O Lord, and our petitions, and deliver
us for your own sake, and give us favor in the sight of those
who have led us away,

15 so that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our
God, because Israel and his posterity is called by your name.

16 O Lord, look down from your holy house and consider
us; bow down your ear, O Lord, to hear us.

17 Open your eyes and behold, for the dead who are in the
graves, whose souls are taken from their bodies, will give to
the Lord neither praise nor righteousness;

18 but the soul which is greatly vexed, which goes stooping
and feeble, and the eyes which fail, and the hungry soul, will
give you praise and righteousness, O Lord.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

19 Therefore we do not make our humble supplication
before you, O Lord our God, for the righteousness of our
fathers and our kings.

20 "'For you have sent out your wrath and indignation
upon us, as you have spoken by your servants the prophets,
saying,

21 "Thus says the Lord, 'Bow down your shoulders to serve
the king of Babylon; so shall you remain in the land which I
gave to your fathers.

22 But if you will not hear the voice of the Lord, to serve
the king of Babylon,

23 I will cause to cease, out of the cites of Judah and from
without Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of joy,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and
the whole land shall be desolate of inhabitants."

24 But we would not heed your voice to serve the king of
Babylon; therefore you have made good the words that you
spoke by your servants the prophets, namely, that the bones
of our kings and the bones of our fathers should be taken out
of their place.

25 And, lo, they are cast out to the heat of the day and to
the frost of the night, and they died in great miseries by
famine, by sword, and by pestilence,

26 and the house which is called by your name you have laid
waste, as is clear on this day, because of the wickedness of the
house of Israel and the house of Judah.

27 O Lord our God, you have dealt with us according to all
your goodness and all your great mercy,

28 just as you spoke by your servant Moses in the day when
you commanded him to write the law before the children of
Israel, saying,

29 "If you will not hear my voice, surely this very great
multitude shall be turned into a small number among the
nations where I will scatter them.

30 For I knew that they would not hear me, because they
are a stiff-necked people, but, in the land of their captivity,
they shall remember themselves,

31 and shall know that I am the Lord their God, for I will
give them a heart, and ears to hear,

32 and they shall praise me in the land of their captivity and
think upon my name,

33 and repent from their stiff neck and from their wicked
deeds; for they shall remember the way of their fathers, who
sinned before the Lord.

34 And I will bring them again into the land which I
promised with an oath to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and they shall be lords of it; and I will increase them
and they shall not be diminished.

35 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them to be
their God and they shall be my people; and I will no longer
drive my people of Israel out of the land which I have given
them."

| BARUCH CHAPTER 3
1 'O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish,
the troubled spirit, cries to you.

2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy because you are merciful,
and have pity upon us because we have sinned before you.

3 For you endure for ever and we perish utterly.

4 O Lord Almighty, you God of Israel, hear now the
prayers of the dead Israelites and their children, who have
sinned before you and not heeded the voice of you, their God,
and as a result these plagues cling to us.

5 Remember not the iniquities of our forefathers, but think
upon your power and your name now at this time.

6 For you are the Lord our God, and you, O Lord, will we
praise.

7 And for this reason you have put your fear into our hearts,
to the intent that we should call upon your name and praise
you in our captivity, for we have called to mind all the
iniquity of our forefathers who sinned before you.

8 Behold, we are still this day in our captivity, where you
have scattered us as a reproach and a curse, and to be subject
to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers
who departed from the Lord our God.

9 "Hear, Israel, the commandments of life; listen, to
understand wisdom.

10 How has it happened, Israel, that you are in your
enemies’ land, that you have grown old in a strange country,
that you are defiled with the dead,

11 that you are counted with those who go down into the
grave?

12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.

13 For if you had walked in the way of God, you would
have dwelled in peace for ever.

14 Learn, where is wisdom, where is strength, where is
understanding, so that you may know also where is length of
days and life, where is the light of the eyes and peace.

15 Who has found out her place? Or who has come into her
treasures?

16 What has become of the princes of the heathen and such
as ruled the beasts upon the earth,

17 those who had their pastime with the fowls of the air and
those who hoarded up silver and gold, wherein men trust,
and made no end of their acquiring?

18 For those who wrought in silver, and who were so
careful, and whose works are unsearchable,

19 they have vanished and gone down to the grave, and
others have come up in their places.

20 Young men have seen light and dwelt upon the earth,
but the way of knowledge they have not known,

21 nor understood the paths of it, nor laid hold of it; their
children were far off from that way.

22 It has not been heard of in Canaan, neither has it been
seen in Teman.

23 The Hagarenes, who seek wisdom on the earth, the
merchants of Meran and Teman, the authors of fables and
seekers of understanding; none of these have known the way
of wisdom or remembered her paths.

24 O Israel, how great is the house of God? And how large
is the place of his possession?

25 It is great and has no end! It is high and immeasurable!

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

26 There were the giants, famous from the beginning, who
were of such great stature and of such expertise in war.

27 The Lord did not choose these, neither did he give them
the way of knowledge,

28 but they were destroyed because they had no wisdom,
and they perished through their own foolishness.

29 Who has gone up into heaven, and obtained her, and
brought her down from the clouds?

30 Who has gone over the sea, and found her, and will
bring her for pure gold?

31 No man knows her way, nor understands her path.

32 But he who knows all things knows her and has found
her with his understanding: he who prepared the earth
forevermore, who has filled it with four-footed beasts,

33 he who sends forth light and it goes, who calls it again
and it obeys him with fear.

34 The stars shine in their watches and rejoice. When he
calls them, they say, "Here we are!" And so with cheerfulness
they show light to him who made them.

35 This is our God, and no other shall stand in comparison
with him.

36 He has founded all the way of knowledge, and has given
it to Jacob his servant and Israel his beloved.

37 Afterward, he revealed himself upon the earth, and
conversed with men.

1 BARUCH CHAPTER 4

1 "This is the book of the commandments of God and the
law that endures for ever. All those who keep it shall come to
life, but such as leave it shall die.

2 Turn you, O Jacob, and take hold of it; walk in the
presence of its light so that you may be illuminated.

3 Give not your honor to another, nor the things which are
beneficial for you to a strange nation.

4 O Israel, happy are we, for the things which are pleasing
to God are made known to us.

5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel.

6 You were sold to the nations, not for destruction, but
because you moved God to wrath; thus you were delivered to
the enemies.

7 For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to
devils and not to God.

8 "You have forgotten the everlasting God, who brought
you up, and you have grieved Jerusalem, who nursed you.

9 For when she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, she
said, "Hearken, O you who dwell around Zion. God has
brought upon me great mourning.

10 For I saw the captivity of my sons and daughters, which
the Everlasting brought upon them.

11 With joy I nourished them, but sent them away with
weeping and mourning.

12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow and forsaken of
many; for by the sins of my children, I am left desolate,
because they departed from the law of God.

13 They knew not his statutes, nor walked in the ways of his
commandments, nor trod in the paths of discipline in his
righteousness.

14 Let those who dwell around Zion approach and
remember the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the
Everlasting has brought upon them.

15 For he has brought a nation upon them from afar, a
shameless nation and of a strange language, who neither
reverenced old man, nor pitied child.

16 These have carried away the dear beloved children of the
widow, and left her who was alone desolate without
daughters.

17 But how can I help you?

18 For he who brought these plagues upon you will deliver
you from the hands of your enemies.

19 Go your way, O my children, go your way, for I am left
desolate.

20 I have put off the clothing of peace and put upon me the
sackcloth of my prayer; I will cry to the Everlasting in my
days.

21 Be of good cheer, O my children, cry to the Lord, and he
will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemies.

22 For my hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you;
and joy has come to me from the Holy One, because of the
mercy which shall soon come to you from the Everlasting our
Savior.

23 For I sent you out with mourning and weeping, but God
will give you to me again with joy and gladness for ever.

24 Just as now the neighbors of Zion have seen your
captivity, so shall they soon see your salvation from our God,
which shall come upon you with the great glory and
brightness of the Everlasting.

25 My children, suffer patiently the wrath which has come
upon you from God, for your enemy has persecuted you, but
shortly you shall see his destruction and shall tread upon his
neck.

26 My delicate ones have gone rough ways and were taken
away as a flock caught by the enemies.

27 Be of good comfort, O my children, and cry to God, for
you shall be remembered by him who brought these things
upon you.

28 For as it was your mind to go astray from God, so then,
being returned, seek him ten times more.

29 For he who has brought these plagues upon you shall
bring you everlasting joy with your salvation."

30 "'Take a good heart, O Jerusalem, for he who gave you
that name will comfort you.

31 Miserable are those who afflicted you and rejoiced at
your fall.

32 Miserable are the cities which your children served;
miserable is she who received your sons.

33 For, just as she rejoiced at your ruin and was glad of
your fall, so shall she be grieved for her own desolation.

34 For I will take away the rejoicing of her great multitude,
and her pride shall be turned into mourning.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 For fire shall come upon her from the Everlasting, long
to endure, and she shall be inhabited by devils for a great
time.

36 O Jerusalem, look about you toward the east and behold
the joy that comes to you from God.

37 Lo, your sons approach, whom you sent away, they
come gathered together from the east to the west by the word
of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God."

1 BARUCH CHAPTER 5

1 "Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of mourning and
affliction, and put on the wholesomeness of the glory that
comes from God for ever.

2 Cast around you a double garment of the righteousness
which comes from God, and set a diadem on your head of the
glory of the Everlasting.

3 For God will reveal your brightness to every country
under heaven.

4 For your name shall be called by God for ever: "The peace
of righteousness" and "The glory of God's worship."

5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high and look about
toward the east and behold your children, gathered from the
west to the east by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the
remembrance of God.

6 For they departed from you on foot and were led away by
their enemies, but God brings them to you exalted with glory,
as children of the kingdom.

7 For God has appointed that every high hill and
embankment of long duration shall be cast down, and the
valleys filled up, to make the ground level so that Israel may
go safely in the glory of God,

8 moreover, even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree
shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.

9 For God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory
with the mercy and righteousness which comes from him."

EPISTLE OF JEREMIAH
Letter of Jeremiah
or Addition to | Baruch (Chapter 6)
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 500-150 B.C.

(The Letter of Jeremiah, also known as the Epistle of
Jeremiah, is a deuterocanonical book of the Old Testament;
this letter purports to have been written by Jeremiah to the
Jews who were about to be carried away as captives to
Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. It 1s included in Roman
Catholic Bibles as the final chapter of the Book of Baruch. It
1s also included in Orthodox Bibles as a separate book.

According to the text of the letter, the author 1s the biblical
prophet Jeremiah. The biblical Book of Jeremiah itself
contains the words of a letter sent by Jeremiah "from
Jerusalem" to the "captives" in Babylon (Jeremiah 29: 1—23).
The Letter of Jeremiah portrays itself as a similar piece of
correspondence.

Letter of Jeremiah 1 (KJV): "A copy of an epistle, which
Jeremy sent unto them which were to be led captives into
Babylon by the king of the Babylomians, to certify them, as it
was commanded by God."

Jeremiah 29:1 (KJV): "Now these are the words of the
letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the
residue of the elders which were carried away captives ... and
to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away
captive trom Jerusalem to Babylon."

The date of this work is uncertain. Most scholars agree that
it 1s dependent on certain biblical passages, notably Isa 44:9—
20, 46:5—7, and thus can be no earlier than 540 BC. Since a
fragment (7Q2) was identified among the scrolls in Qumran
Cave 7, it can be no later than 100 BC. Further support for
this time may be found in a possible reference to the letter in
2 Maccabees 2:1-3.

Although the "letter" 1s included as a discrete unit in the
Septuagint, there 1s no evidence of it ever having been
canonical in the Masoretic tradition. The earliest evidence we
have of the question of its canonicity arising in Christian
tradition is in the work of Origen of Alexandria, as reported
by Eusebius in his Church History. Origen listed
Lamentations and the Letter of Jeremiah as one unit with the
Book of Jeremiah proper, among "the canonical books as the
Hebrews have handed them down," though scholars agree
that this was surely a slip. Epiphanius of Salamis in his
Panarion writes that Jews had in their books the
deuterocanonical Epistle of Jeremiah and Baruch, both
combined with Jeremiah and Lamentations in only one book.

The epistle was included as chapter 6 of the Book of Baruch
in the Old Testament of the Vulgate. The King James
Version follows the same practice, while placing Baruch in
the Apocrypha section as does Luther's Bible. In the
Ethiopian Orthodox canon, it forms part of the "Rest of
Jeremiah", along with 4 Baruch (also known as the
Paraleipomena of Jeremiah).

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

The epistle is one of four deuterocanonical books found
among the Dead Sea scrolls (see Tanakh at Qumran). (The
other three are Psalm 151, Sirach, and Tobit.) The portion
of the epistle discovered at Qumran was written in Greek.
This does not preclude the possibility of the text being based
on a prior Hebrew or Aramaic text. However, the only text
available to us has dozens of linguistic features available in
Greek, but not in Hebrew; this shows that the Greek text is
more than a minimalist translation.

The work was written with a serious practical purpose: to
instruct the Jews not to worship the gods of the Babylonians,
but to worship only the Lord. The letter is actually a
warning against idols and idolatry.)

EPISTLE OF JEREMIAH

BARUCH CHAPTER 6

1 A copy of a letter, which Jeremiah sent to those who were
to be led as captives into Babylon by the king of the
Babylonians, to testify to them, as it was commanded him by
God.

2 "Because of the sins which you have committed before
God, you shall be led away as captives into Babylon by
Nebuchadnezzar king of the Babylonians.

3 So, when you come to Babylon, you shall remain there
many years and for a long season, namely, seven generations;
and after that I will bring you peaceably away from there.

4 Now you will see in Babylon gods of silver and of gold
and of wood, borne upon shoulders, which cause the nations
to fear.

5 Beware, therefore, that you in no way become like these
strangers, nor associate with them, when you see the
multitude before them and behind them, worshipping them.

6 But you, say in your hearts, 'O Lord, we must worship
you.

7 For my angel is with you, and I myself am caring for your
souls.

8 As for their tongue, it is polished by the workman, and
they themselves are gilded and overlain with silver; yet they
are only false and cannot speak.

9 And taking gold, as if for a virgin who loves to put herself
on display, they make crowns for the heads of their gods.

10 Sometimes also the priests steal gold and silver from
their gods and bestow it upon themselves.

11 Yes, they will give from it to the common harlots; and
they cover them, gods of silver and gods of gold and wood,
with garments as if they were men.

12 Yet these gods cannot save themselves from rust and
moth, though they be covered with purple attire.

13 They wipe their faces because of the dust of the temple,
when there is much upon them.

14 And he, who cannot put to death one that offends him,
holds a scepter as though he were a judge of the country.

15 He has also in his right hand a dagger and an ax, but he
cannot deliver himself from war and thieves.

16 Since they are known not to be gods, therefore fear them
not.

17 For, just as a vessel which a man uses is worth nothing
when it is broken, so also it is with their gods; when they are
set up in the temple, their eyes are full of dust through the
feet of those who enter.

18 And, just as the doors are made secure on every side of
him who offends the king, as one committed to suffer death,
so also do the priests secure their temples with doors, with
locks and bars, lest their gods be spoiled by robbers.

19 They light candles for them, yes, more than for
themselves, though they cannot see a single one.

20 They are like one of the beams of the temple, yet they say
their hearts are gnawed upon by things creeping out of the
earth; and when they and their clothes are eaten, they feel
nothing.

21 Their faces are blacked by the smoke which comes out of
the temple.

22 Upon their bodies and heads sit bats, swallows, and
birds, and the cats also.

23 By this you may know that they are no gods, therefore
fear them not.

24 Notwithstanding the gold which is around them to
make them beautiful, and except that they wipe off the rust,
they will not shine, because not even when they were molten
did they feel it.

25 These things wherein there is no breath are bought for a
most high price.

26 Having no feet, they are borne upon shoulders, and in
this way they declare to men that they are worth nothing.

27 "Even those who serve them are ashamed, for if they fall
to the ground at any time, they cannot rise up again of
themselves; neither, if one sets them upright, can they move
of themselves; neither, if they are bowed down, can they
make themselves straight; yet they set gifts before them as
before dead men.

28 As for the things which are sacrificed to them, their
priests sell and abuse; in the same way their wives store up
part of it in salt; but to the poor and powerless they give
none of it.

29 Menstruous women and women in childbed eat their
sacrifices; by these things you may know that they are no
gods; fear them not.

30 For how can they be called gods? Is it because women set
meat before the gods of silver, gold, and wood,

31 and the priests sit in their temples, having their clothes
torn, and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing upon
their heads?

32 They roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the
feast when one is dead.

33 The priests also take off their garments, and clothe their
wives and children.

34 "Whether one does evil or good to them, they are not
able to repay it; neither can they set up a king or put him
down.

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

35 In the same way, they can neither give riches nor money;
though a man might make a vow to them and not keep it,
they will not require it.

36 They can save no man from death, nor deliver the weak
from the mighty.

37 They cannot restore a blind man to his sight, nor help
any man in his distress.

38 They can show no mercy to the widow, nor do good to
the fatherless.

39 Their gods of wood, which are overlaid with gold and
silver, are like the stones which are hewn out of the mountain;
those who worship them shall be confounded.

40 Why then would a man think and say that they are gods,
when even the Chaldeans themselves dishonor them?

41 Who, if they saw someone mute and unable to speak,
would bring him and entreat Bel, so that he may speak, as if
he were able to understand.

42 Yet they cannot understand this themselves, and so leave
them, for they have no knowledge.

43 The women also, sitting in the ways with cords around
themselves, burn bran for perfume; but if any of them, drawn
by someone who passes by, should lie with him, she
reproaches her peer, because she was not thought as worthy
as herself, nor her cord broken.

44 Whatsoever is done among them is false; so then, how
can it be thought or said that they are gods?

45 "'They are made by carpenters and goldsmiths; they can
be nothing other than what the workmen will have them be.

46 And they themselves who made them can never continue
long; why then would the things which are made by them be
gods?

47 For they left lies and reproaches for those who would
succeed them.

48 For when any war or plague comes upon them, the
priests consult among themselves, as to where they may be
hidden with them.

49 Why then cannot men perceive that they are no gods,
who can neither save themselves from war, nor from plague?

50 For, seeing they are only wood, overlaid with silver and
gold, it shall be known hereafter that they are false;

51 and it shall manifestly appear to all nations and kings
that they are no gods, but are the works of men's hands, and
that there is no work of God in them.

52 Who then will not know that they are no gods?

53 For they can neither set up a king in the land, nor give
rain to men.

54 They can neither judge their own case, nor redress a
wrong; they are unable because they are like crows, between
heaven and earth.

55 When it happens that fire falls upon the house of gods of
wood, overlaid with gold or silver, their priests will flee
away and escape; but they themselves shall be burned asunder
like beams.

56 Moreover they cannot withstand any king or enemies; so
how then can it be thought or said that they are gods?

57 Neither are those gods of wood, overlain with silver or
gold, able to escape from thieves or robbers.

58 Whose gold and silver and garments wherewith they are
clothed, those who are strong take it, and go away with all;
neither are they able to help themselves.

59 "'Therefore it is better to be a king who displays his
power, or else a profitable vessel in a house, which the owner
shall have use of, than such false gods, or to be a door in an
house, to keep such things therein, than such false gods, or a
pillar of wood in a palace, than such false gods.

60 For sun, moon, and stars, being bright and sent to
perform their duties, are obedient.

61 In the same way, the lightning, when it breaks forth, is
easy to be seen; and in the same way the wind blows in every
country.

62 And when God commands the clouds to go over the
whole world, they do as they are directed.

63 And the fire, sent from above to consume hills and
woods, does as it is commanded; but these are like them
neither in appearance nor in power.

64 Therefore, it is neither to be supposed nor said that they
are gods, since they are able neither to judge cases, nor to do
good to men.

65 Knowing therefore that they are no gods, do not fear
them,

66 for they can neither curse nor bless kings;

67 neither can they show signs in the heavens among the
heathen, nor shine as the sun, nor give light as the moon.

68 The beasts are better than they, for they can get under a
cover and help themselves.

69 It is then by no means manifest to us that they are gods,
therefore do not fear them.

70 For as a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers keeps
nothing, so are their gods of wood, overlain with silver and
gold.

71 And likewise their gods of wood, overlain with silver
and gold, are like a white thorn in an orchard, which every
bird sits upon; and also like a dead body, which is cast into
the dark.

72 And you shall know them to be no gods by the bright
purple that rots upon them, and they themselves afterward
shall be eaten and shall be a reproach in the country.

73 Better, therefore, is the just man who has no idols, for he
shall be far from reproach.""

— THE HOLY BIBLE —
IN BASIC ENGLISH

PRAYER OF AZARIAH
The Prayer of Azariah and
Song of the Three Holy Children (Daniel 24ff)
Translation: World English Bible, 2000
Estimated Range of Dating: 2nd or Ist century B.C.

(The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Holy
Children, abbreviated Pr Azar, 1s a passage which appears
after Dantel 23 in some translations of the Bible, including
the ancient Greek Septuagint translation. It 1s accepted as
canonical scripture by Roman Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox Christians, but rejected by Protestants. (Catholics
and Orthodox refer to books in their canons that are rejected
by Protestants as "deuterocanonical" and refer to texts
accepted by Protestants as "protocanonical"; but for
Catholics and Orthodox, both sets are equally authoritative.)
Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of
England has it listed as non-canonical (but still, with the
other Apocryphal texts, "the Church doth read for example
of life and instruction of manners", and the Anglican Church
uses it liturgically). The passage 1s omitted from most
Protestant Bibles as an apocryphal addition.

The origins of these writings are obscure. Whether the
accounts were originally composed in Hebrew (or Aramaic)
or in Greek 1s uncertain, although many modern scholar
conclude on the basis of textual evidence that there was
probably an original Semitic edition. The date of
composition of these documents is also uncertain, although
many scholars favor a date either in the second or first
century BC.

The Prayer and accompanying Song are not found in the
Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Book of Daniel, nor are they
cited in any extant early Jewish writings. However, the
passage does appear in certain ancient translations, notably
the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. At the end of the 19th
century, Moses Gaster identified what appears to be an
Aramaic original of the song and another, Bel and Draco,
also missing from the canonical book of Daniel. The Aramaic
text is part of a collection of ancient Jewish

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Full text of "THE HOLY BIBLE, In Basic English, Tr. By S. H. Hooke, 1949, With Apocrypha, Lord Henfield Edition 2024"

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